Race and Faith

I awakened this morning at about 6:00a.m. I had planned to be up by 6:15, but anticipating the day, I awakened early. This was my first day on the “stream team” and we are beginning at Cityview to slowly go back to services in the building. The service was at 9:00am, and I was to be there at 7:30. So, I had time to make me some coffee and clear the cobwebs from my head, and get to the church on time. As a member of the “stream team” my role at my camera is critical—as you might imagine. When things are critical, you send in a veteran, right? Well, actually, I am the one who operates a “jib” camera which simply means I get to slowly sweep from one place to another. I provide motion. All other cameras are somewhat fixed when the team leader switches to them. This was my premier presentation and I wanted to make sure I had it right. The stream leader came over to me and went over the simple nuts and bolts of what I would be doing. Basically, I was to very slowly move the camera in a certain way at a certain time. I totally understood from a long history of watching folks get used to video. He asked, “Do you understand what I need?” To which I replied, “Sure, you don't want me to give everyone motion sickness and have them throwing up on their couches.” He smiled.

My oldest son, Tim would call this “inappropriate humor” as opposed to “appropriate humor.” Sadly, I am more of an expert in “inappropriate humor” than the other. That is not to say my humor is ever crude, sexual, or rude. Rather it emanates from deep within and sadly I can't help it. It just bubbles up. I would say in my defense that if a conversation with anyone doesn't end with them taking away a notable “Chancellor” ism, I feel I have failed the conversational expectations.

So my “stream team” leader knows my name. When one works on the “team” the worship music is a “wash” because you have someone in your ear during the whole time. However, at the jib camera, you don't have a station to man during the sermon so you can sit down and listen.

I have looked forward to this series since I heard it announced. COVID has blurred my sense of time, but I needed this series. Our pastor will be leading us through a series on race and faith. Frankly, I need this because the older I have become, the more this issue has weighted on my heart. Perhaps it is the feeling there is more I could have done as a faith leader to move our people to a greater compassion and openness to people of color. Perhaps it is the weight of years which tell me nothing will change unless we make it change. Perhaps it is the reality that Christians are both the impediment and the hope of racial progress in this nation. I don't know exactly when it was in the prison that I put it together that black men abandoned the Christian faith for the Muslim faith because it gave expression to their anger and angst. They had been betrayed not by God but by His people.

My travels around the world have not been as extensive as some but more than most but during those travels I have come to understand I have never met a person who Christ did not love or for whom Christ has not died. There were days I walked the prison halls knowing that each person I saw, each life that was being poured out in that prison was someone for whom Christ died. So many were black men, far more than was representative of the culture. So it really struck home to me today when our pastor quoted a black pastor friend of his who told him, “If one of your teens gets arrested for drugs—he will end up in rehab. If one of my teens is arrested for drugs, he will likely go to jail.” And I knew the rest of the story—and from there to prison.

I trust my pastor to follow the Spirit's leading and in these days of strife, demonstrations, and violence, it is really time—past time for the People of God to face this lingering, smoldering, explosive issue of the racial disparity which has dogged this nation from its beginning. The bill has come due, the time is now, we cannot kick this can further down the road. It is time for people of courage to face the incredible profundity of the issues, repent, and move forward to a better future for all.

Wash your hands, wear your mask for others, mind the gap, and be kind.