Hasten the Day
| Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be? 2 Peter 3:11a (CEB) I hadn’t planned to march. My Black Lives Matter shirt was in the dirty laundry. But, I was already wearing If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. -Desmond Tutu. What sort of person did I want to be? You must live holy and godly lives, waiting for and hastening the coming day of God. Because of that day, the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. 2 Peter 3:11b-12 (CEB) Turns out, the call to be holy and hasten the coming day of God looks different than I expected, and demands my participation. I tried to stay upwind. I didn’t have a sign. But someone called my name. Turning, I felt poster boards pressed into my hands. Written by children, who fear for their lives in white America. The youngest, recovering from her latest bout with leukemia, was too tired to keep marching. Her mom entrusted me with their words, so she could take them home. So I found myself kneeling shoulder to shoulder with the black community and white protesters of C-U, caught up in the work of the Holy Spirit. Reminding me of Abraham Heschel’s description of joining Martin Luther King, Jr. in the work for justice. “When I marched in Selma,” Rabbi Heschel wrote, “my feet were praying.” Today, people of faith are appalled, alarmed, and angry that “the president teargassed peaceful protesters — all for the sake of a photo op with a Bible outside an unwilling Episcopal church, blasphemously using the Prince of Peace to prop up state violence and white supremacy.” (Faithful America) The Lord is patient, Peter says, wanting all to change their hearts and lives. But the Lord will keep his promise. All the works done on the earth will be exposed, and there will be a new earth, where righteousness is at home. May we be exposed as workers of righteousness, hastening the day of the Lord, bringing in the kingdom of justice and peace. -Renée |