I have been silent throughout the Ferguson ordeal.
Truthfully,
as I have been trying to process it all, I could come up with no words to
express all of the feelings that I had: tremendous sadness for the loss of a
young Black man who should have had much potential, uncertainty about so many
never-to-be-answered questions, lingering doubts about whether justice could
ever have been served, and great disappointment and heartbreak that, in the
aftermath, a community had been left in ashes and devastation, with livelihoods
threatened.
Two
things drew me from my voicelessness.
The
first was hearing someone (well, not just any someone, but a scholar of
scriptures…) comment that God is frequently absent and that the Bible was
filled with examples of God’s absence.
The
second was seeing two extraordinarily bright and talented young male cousins on
Thanksgiving Day – two amazing young Black boys who need to have amazing
futures in this world.
Had
the man who spoke of God’s absence not been a scholar of the scriptures, I
might not have given his comment much thought. But he is, and his comment left
me to do some honest reflection. I wondered just how many other people truly have
come to believe, in the face of inexplicable heartbreak and disappointment,
that God must be absent, uncaring and uninvolved in our struggles.
Surely
Moses’ people must have wondered if God were absent as they spent 400 years
laboring under Pharaoh’s oppression and violence – and while Egypt thrived as a
result of their labor. Yet, God heard their cries, and raised up Moses to
deliver them from their bondage. God was not absent.
Surely
Hagar must have thought that God was absent when she and her son, Ishmael, were
abandoned in the desert to die after they were no longer of any use to Abraham,
Sarah and their young son, Isaac. Yet, God heard her cries, and renewed to her
the promise that a great nation would be made of her son. God was not absent.
Surely
the people called Israel must have thought that God was absent when long after
the prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah, they labored under the
oppression and violence of a Roman Empire that thrived in large part because
of their suffering. Yet, God heard their cries, and sent God’s own Son, in
flesh and blood, to live among them and to give his life for them. God was not
absent.
And
I have no reason to believe that God is absent now… not in Ferguson, Missouri,
not in Memphis, Tennessee, not from black or white, oppressor or oppressed,
poor or rich, tattooed or bow-tied, well-heeled or worn-down.
To
be certain, God’s justice may not look like “our” version of justice; it may
not come in “our” time, or be delivered as we would have it delivered. It may
feel unsatisfactory to us that God loves all of God’s people unconditionally,
when in our hearts we may crave retribution. It may feel unsettling to us to think
that, to God, no human life is less valuable than any other human life.
But
the God who implores us to love one another as we are loved is not absent.
God
is not absent, when the cries of business owners in Ferguson are heard by
compassionate residents who stand shoulder-to-shoulder to protect those businesses
from those who would wreak havoc and destruction.
God
is not absent, when the cries of a Ferguson woman who poured all that she had
into a small bakery that was severely damaged in the looting are heard by generous
people from across the country who give hundreds of thousands of dollars to
help her rebuild.
God
is not absent, when the cries of the manager of Ferguson’s only library are heard by supporters
who generously offer what they can to help, so that the library may continue to be a place
for learning, for community meetings and for resources for children and adults.
And
God will not be absent, in the days, weeks and months to come, as those
who have never before engaged in honest dialogue sit down together to better understand one another’s
perspectives – and to learn how to live
in community with one another in a new way.
I
look in the faces of our two young cousins with hope and expectation, that the
world in which they grow up and live as adults will be an even greater reflection of God’s
abiding presence.
They
are counting on us – all of us who are made in the image and likeness of God –
to remind the world that God is not absent.
