I just got back from a meeting with fellow pastors at Christ Memorial. We talked Covid response and racial reconciliation. One of our leaders was an African American pastor named Gerard Bolling from Bethlehem Lutheran in North St. Louis. He helped us talk through these issues. The pastors in attendance are united against racism but we don’t know how to proceed. Together we professed that the Spirit moves his people to love. God calls pastors to encourage justice and mercy. It will be through the Gospel that we change hearts and minds.
I, like you, are worried about our country and our city. There is so much injustice, hate, violence and pain. It can be overwhelming. But remember that this has always been the case. The Biblical world was more chaotic and unjust. Yet God was active, saving his people and his creation according to his plan. I keep thinking about the reformation. As a church we wholeheartedly support what God did through Martin Luther. Yet that good work was tainted by people who co-opted the reformers. People took the Lutheran message of freedom in Christ and justified violent rebellion. Citizens died and property was destroyed. Martin Luther was devastated. Yet, we have experienced the grace and blessing that has comes through God’s work in that time and place. The Spirit cannot be stopped. Good done in Jesus' name endures.
Jesus came to bring a new kingdom where the old stereotypes are no more. There is neither slave nor free, Greek nor Jew, male nor female, millennial nor Boomer, Lutheran nor non-Lutheran, black nor white. We all are under the Grace of God found in Christ Jesus. There isn’t a lot of hope in the news but we shouldn’t expect to find it there. The only source of hope and love is through Jesus’ resurrection. Nothing over the last few months has changed that truth. So we work against racism with the power of the Good News.
