How did you answer that question? Was your first response “Black
Lives Matter” or “All Lives Matter”? It is a pretty loaded
question these days. I pondered titling this column “_________
Lives Matter” and asking how you chose to fill in the blank, but I
decided that a blank in a column title might not work too well.
The
term Black Lives Matter has now been part of our culture for 7 years.
It first appeared as a hashtag after George Zimmerman was acquitted
for the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013. Since then it has grown
into a movement both in the US and here in Canada. It has been
controversial for all 7 of those years. But it shouldn’t be.
For
those of us who claim the term Christian phrases like Black Lives
Matter, or Indigenous Lives Matter, or LGBTQ+ Lives Matter should
never be controversial. They should be obvious truths. They should
also force us to ask why someone might think they are controversial.
What are we trying to hide when we teach or preach the controversy?
In
chapter 15 of his gospel Luke shares 3 stories Jesus tells about
things that are lost. In the first Jesus talks about a shepherd who
leaves 99 sheep behind to go and find the one that was lost. “All
lives matter” logic might say this is being foolish. What makes
that one wayward sheep more important than the other 99. That misses
the point. The one sheep is the one that was in danger, so it needed
the attention right now. It is not a competition, it is a statement
of what is needed in a particular moment.
When we
stand up and say that in this moment #BlackLivesMatter we are not
saying anything other than “there is a threat to our siblings whose
skin is darker than others, we should do something about that”.
When we are unable to do that, when we fall prey to the logic of “all
lives matter” we risk being a character from one of those other
stories Jesus tells.
The
third story Jesus tells in Luke 15 is about a man with 2 sons.
Briefly, the youngest one goes away and wastes all his inheritance.
When he comes home his dad throws a party. The older brother is
jealous and can’t see why his wastrel brother needs a party. The
father says “we had to celebrate. Your brother was dead and is now
alive”. The story never says one brother is more important than the
other, it talks about who needs to be raised up at one time or
another. Many of us have traits of the elder brother. Sometimes we
need to get over ourselves to celebrate and support our siblings.
As the
children’s song “Jesus Loves the Little Children” reminds us,
God loves all of God’s children. No matter their race, religion,
sexual identity, gender, level of ability or any other criteria
humans have for dividing us God loves all of God’s children. God
loves us collectively, but God also loves us individually and
specifically. When some of us are threatened for some reason God
calls for people to step in and deal with that threat. As people of
faith we can never be satisfied with simply saying that all lives
matter. We must, if we are faithful, be willing to step in and say
that Black Lives Matter. Another day we might need to raise up
Indigenous Lives, or LGBTQ+ lives, or women’s lives, or disabled
lives. Only if specific lives matter do all lives matter.
The
world is a broken place. As humans we often fail to live into the
fact that we are created in the image of God. God is calling us to be
transformed and to do better. One sign of the broken-ness of the
world is how good we are at dividing people. Let me be plain. We are
not all the same, that is a wonderful gift. But using those
differences to create people with privilege and people without
privilege is sinful and evil. Racism, sexism, ableism, homo- and
trans- phobia, religious bigotry, and all those other ways we find to
say “this group is better than that group” are sinful and evil.
God is
calling us to be better. God is calling us to learn how our
neighbours are threatened. God is calling us to show that specific
lives matter so that indeed we show that all lives matter. God is
calling us to learn where our systems are broken and allow our
systems and ourselves to be transformed. God is creating the Kingdom
in our midst, will we join in the project?
Be
blessed my friends. Stay safe, wash your hands, wear a mask, and
build up your neighbour.
