Toward Hope and Healing
Dear friends,
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has shocked our community, our nation, and our world. It has led to deep soul-searching about the very nature of our society: the role and accountability of law enforcement in protecting us and upholding our rights and personal dignity as citizens; the discrepancies in economic and social status of our fellow Americans; and the need to provide a more just and equitable way of life for all. This is a time when every one of us must look at our lives, our values, and our assumptions about others in the light of our professed Christian faith, to seek a deeper understanding of our common humanity, and to bring hope and healing to our world.
When a lawyer asked Jesus about what He thought was the greatest, most important commandment of the Jewish Law, Jesus replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength”, and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. In Luke’s account, Jesus went to explain the meaning of the word “neighbor” by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. In this parable, when a Jewish man was robbed, beaten, and left for dead on a road, neither a Temple Priest nor a Levite did anything to help him. But a Samaritan – a member of a group held in contempt by Jews for their perceived ethnic/racial inferiority and religious impurity – that Samaritan was moved with pity, washed the man’s wounds, took him to an inn, gave the innkeeper 2 days’wages to provide food and care, and promised to pay for any additional expenses that this man’s care might cost.
In conclusion, Jesus asked the lawyer which of these three – the Priest, the Lawyer, or the Samaritan – fulfilled the commandment to love one’s neighbor. The lawyer replied: “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus replied: “Go, and do likewise.”
There are no easy answers or quick fixes to the problems that George Floyd’s death has revealed, but we as individual Christians can resolve to do our part to help bring mutual understanding, healing, and hope to our world. Every day, we have countless opportunities to consider whether our thoughts, our words, and our actions conform to Jesus’ call to love God with our entire being, and to see our neighbors – especially those with whom we differ – as made in God’s image, and worthy of dignity and respect. We can choose to follow the example of Jesus and bring truth, light, and love; or we can remain in the darkness of sin, hatred, and division. May we choose the way of Jesus Christ our Lord.
— Rev. John Peters, Rector