Grasping for Hope

For God alone my soul waits in silence;
     from him comes my salvation.  
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
     my fortress; I shall never be shaken.   Psalm 62:1-2

Back during the 2008 presidential campaign, then candidate Obama made a remark about how people in small town, Midwestern communities had endured the loss of jobs, crumbling economies, and other difficulties for many years. He said that considering their struggles it was no surprise "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them..." I was not a terribly smart political thing to say. Nonetheless, there is a certain element of truth to it. In times of great difficulty, all of us look for something to hold onto.

For those worried about inequality and injustice in America, yesterday was another moment that sent many looking for something to hold onto. Just days before, people were talking about how events in Ferguson would speed up a movement to equip all police with body cameras so that we would have clear answers to questions about what actually happened. Contradictory eyewitnesses wouldn't  confuse grand juries. But yesterday a grand jury decided on a case with crystal clear video. It was also a case where a choke hold prohibited by police department guidelines was employed. And yet there was no indictment.

In such a moment, where do people look for hope? Where do they place their trust? What are people to do when they have no good answer? As a pastor, I must confess that to say, "Trust in God," sounds pretty empty right now, more a salve than a help. Karl Marx's opiate of the masses comes to mind.

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I saw this post on Twitter today. "#ThisMustStop if you attend church, STOP SUPPORTING churches that don't support folks in the street. #blacktruthmatters #BlackLivesMatter" Clearly the author was not interested in any religious platitudes. He was looking for real answers, and he suspected that churches, at least some churches, were part of the problem and of little help.

The opening line of today's morning psalm speaks of God alone as fortress and salvation, God alone as solution. But a lot of bad theology and bad religious advice gets distilled from grabbing a verse here and there out of the Bible. The same Bible says, "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." We are called to embody the one who embodied God, and if you are familiar with Jesus' story, you know that he was most often found among the down and out, the poor and vulnerable, and those the respectable religious folks of his day wanted nothing to do with.

Before today, I had not heard of pastor Andre E. Johnson, the author of the tweet quoted above, but I am following him now. He has reminded me that my faith is more than something to cling to in moments of great difficulty. Perhaps even more importantly, it is a call to be Christ to a world that has never fully embraced his ways. 

"Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison or saying I can't breathe or frightened for your children's lives and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' "