My City is Burning

  

copyright IndyStar.com

 I live in Indianapolis, Indiana these days. Over the past weekend peaceful protests here, as across the United States, were co-opted by those bent on violence and destruction. Stores were looted, cars burned, and, here in Indy, two people shot and killed. This is terrible news that has many Christian leaders wringing their hands about race relations and how we overcome white privilege and join our black brothers and sisters in the struggle. This seems an overwrought response to a very familiar condition. And I'm not talking about racism.

    My wife and I live in a black neighborhood about 40 blocks north of the center of Indianapolis. I suppose that could be seen as the equivalent of saying, "I have black friends", but I share that to say our neighborhood is not riled up. So far as I know, none of our neighbors have joined in the protest. Yesterday my next door neighbor referred to the "crazy people" who caused the 8 p.m. citywide curfew. Yes, there are some...many, perhaps...in the black community who are very upset about the treatment of blacks by police. Rightly so. I haven't heard any commentators, any pastors, any reasonable human beings saying what happened to George Floyd was right. The actions by those police officers have been universally condemned. However, the incident keeps the conversation about how people of color are treated in our culture top of mind, where it should be. I'm a huge fan of people talking about how to be better to one another, regardless of race, and then doing something about it.

I'm a follower of Jesus. That's what we do. 

    Pray, encourage, strive, advocate, and engage in being better personally and corporately. I believe it can be counterproductive at times like this to beat ourselves up over not being good enough. There will always be opportunities to improve. In Christian speak that's called sanctification. It is daily walking out the process of getting closer to being the person God created you to be. It's something every Christian who takes their relationship with Jesus seriously is eager to be doing. Well, eager may be an overstatement as sanctification is very tough work. But, let's face it, sin is a huge impediment to overcome. Sin is, at it's core, selfishness and selfishness is, in its very nature, a reckless disregard for others. I wholeheartedly embrace calls for better care and concern for others. Linking arms, praying together, speaking with one voice for justice, peace, fairness, equal treatment under the law, and all the things that make the lives of others better, these are all good things. Necessary things. 

    I can't endure, champion, or celebrate sin...in any form. Whether that's a police officer kneeling on a man's neck for eight minutes or looters stacking televisions on a cart and hauling them away before burning a Target to the ground. Deliberately harming others from a place of power or under cover of mob violence are both equally sinful. That is, coming from a place of our human brokenness. As a wise Christian man once taught me, "Hurting people hurt people". The brokenness of sin is a deep, elemental hurt inflicted on the souls of every human being on the planet. Out of this brokenness comes all manner of evil and wickedness. Slander, murder, abuse, slavery, cheating, lying, theft, vulgarity, and the list is seemingly endless.

    It seems disingenuous to me when Christian leaders beat their breasts and cry out in shock at the way people are treated in this world. We, of all people, understand the root cause of all pain in this world. Sin. Sin is the brokenness of humanity present from conception. Sin is selfishness and selfishness always, always wreaks havoc on the world. Power in the hands of selfish people is domination. Money in the hands of selfish people is wantonness. Position in the hands of selfish people is tyranny. The selfish expression of victimhood is looting, burning and destroying. Whether powerful or put upon, when selfishness is your foundation, destruction is the ultimate end. The destruction of others and yourself. Because this is my understanding, I am never shocked or distraught by the brutality that human beings visit on other human beings. This is the condition of the world in which we live. 

    We cannot become numb to man's inhumanity to man and we dare not be overcome by it. No, instead we stand ever more firmly convinced of the truth that sin is real, its effects are malignant, its influence is pervasive, and only through the work of Jesus Christ are we able to escape its grasp. Apart from him we can do nothing but succumb to the siren song of selfishness dragging us down into utter destruction. 

    My city is burning. This is a temporary situation highlighting the permanent condition of a sinful world. Followers of Jesus will rally, joining others in cleaning up and rebuilding. Conversations about justice, fairness, equality, peace, and brotherhood will continue apace. Sin will daily raise its ugly head in places all over the world. People will suffer. People will die. The long, slow march to becoming better will have its victories and its setbacks. And so it goes. This is not apathy on my part, it is what I consider a realistic worldview informed by my Christian faith. As the writer of Ecclesiastes wrote, 

"What has been will be again,

    what has been done will be done again;

    there is nothing new under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 1:9

    Let's not be surprised by what has happened. As it has happened before, so it will happen again. Instead, let us live out our God given purpose to be his hands and feet, his voice, his expression of selfless love in a world wounded by selfishness.