The Messenger

Dear MEC Family,

Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman. Before the lives of these two people intersected tragically on the night of February 26th, none of us had ever heard of either one of them. Before they met that night, Trayvon Martin was just a teenager on the phone with his girlfriend, and George Zimmerman was just a neighborhood watch leader on his way to run an errand. Who could have imagined how everything would change so quickly and so irrevocably?

Who could possibly know that their meeting and what resulted from it would soon be on endless radio shows, news shows, websites, and call-in talk shows dedicated to debating the events of that night? Who would have guessed that thousands would protest, and thousands more would watch, trying to decide which side of the issue to come down upon? Who would have thought that two men whom no one had ever heard of before that night would soon cause some to be arrested and others to face losing their jobs, all in a controversy that would spread around the world? Who could have imagined that the debate around these two would involve even our president, and also countless other national leaders in political, religious, and sociological circles, and that what happened when these two people met might go on to influence the presidential election for the most powerful nation on earth?

I am not bringing this up because I want to wade into the arguments and the debates - far from it. Certainly, there has already been more than enough grandstanding about what happened that night. Rather, I want to confess that I have not known how to feel about the entire issue. On the one hand, I am suspicious of the racial enflaming and political grandstanding that seems to be occurring far too often. On the other hand, if an unarmed boy was indeed shot without sufficient cause, then there needs to be a desire and a determination to see justice done. And the truth in all of this is so hard to find through the rhetoric.

More than anything, however, I wonder about the response that Christians like you and I should have when events like this happen. It is so easy to get caught up in the fervor and the passions that surround us, yet shouldn’t we stand for something greater than which "side" should win? Don't we serve a Savior who died to make estranged enemies one in peace and unity? Isn't our God a God who makes it possible for us who were once far apart to come near, and isn't He Himself our peace (Ephesians 2:11-18)? Didn't Jesus, in dying for our sins on the cross, also die to kill the hostility that divides one group of men from another?

I do not have all the answers to every issue that comes across the news. And I realize, with you, that the call to walk as salt and light in this culture that seems more divided and more hostile than ever is a challenge for each of us. I am convinced, however, that we as Christians hold in the gospel the only message that can bring an end to all of the fighting, the suspicion, and the division. It is found as we go out with the message that Jesus died so that the people of this world, from all tribes, languages, people, and nations, having been divided and torn, may now be washed in the blood of the Lamb, a man who was God, and who died an unjust and violent death, so that we, though we were different, now may be reconciled to God - and to each other.

As your pastor, I have many hopes and many dreams for this church. One thing that I pray for is that we will be a place of healing for those who have been used and abused. But I also pray that we will not keep that healing to ourselves. Instead, we have been commissioned with a "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5). May we not shrink back, even when the times are frightening. As the news gets worse and worse, and as the protests grow, the message we have is needed more and more.

Wanting to find more than what is being said on Fox and CNN,

Pastor Mark