Dear Friends,

               When I heard of the town hall meeting about 10 days ago where a woman who pushed to ask questions that weren’t comfortable for the Republican elected leader hosting the town hall was grabbed, zip tied, and hauled out, I felt shock and horror. The men who grabbed and removed her weren’t identified as security, she hadn’t broken the law, she was just pushing for answers. That could have been me. That could have been a lot of us.

               My question to myself about the town hall meeting was “What would you have done, Kimberly?” Would I have stood up and asked those men who they were? Would I have called them out on the way they were treating her? Would I have asked what their cause was for imprisoning her, even if just to haul her out? Would I have asked whether or not her behavior would have been labeled disruptive if she had been a man? Would I have taken her questions and asked them myself? Would I have even stood up and said, “This is wrong!”?

               These are questions we all need to ask ourselves. We need to know just what we are prepared to do when we see the law being broken in front of us. It will happen more often, and it will happen in our community. We all know the way bullies work. They isolate their victims, they act with authority and strength, and they bargain on fear making the rest of us sit back and do nothing. I experienced this often in middle school and high school. At times I was bullied. I also listened to hate coming from some of my teachers – the Bible teacher who taught fiercely against a religion with a student of that religion sitting in the classroom. (His parents withdrew him, which was exactly right to do.) The administrators who expelled a girl who was pregnant without investigating or expelling the boy who had contributed to her condition. The teaching against homosexuality, against the science behind evolution, and more. When one of my classmates committed suicide in his early twenties, I realized that he was probably gay, and that our school had deeply contributed to his problems. I felt the grief of having done nothing to help him, and even worse, not realizing that I just succumbed to what they said without standing up against it.

               I want these messages to do two things – to give you hope in this time and to help you take on skills and determination that will help you actively resist right where you are. The story broke last week of a couple originally from the Middle East who are living legally in the country awaiting (for 8 years) the final decision on their citizenship status. They own their own food business, provide meals for the poor regularly, and have four children, one or two still minors, but were taken into custody by ICE. They have done nothing wrong… in fact have followed all of the steps of the legal immigration process for years. If we were truly denying their petition, was that the way to tell them? What would you have done if you were standing in that restaurant when ICE arrived?

               What does the Bible say about fear? Luke 12:4-6 says bluntly, “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.  But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”

               I John 4:18-21 talks about rejecting fear and choosing love, which means loving all people. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.  Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.  And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”     

               And perhaps most directly for us today is the realization that many of the religious leaders did believe that Jesus was the Son of God, their Messiah, but failed to stand up. John 12:42-43: “Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue;  for they loved human praise more than praise from God.”

               Until we’re in a situation we cannot know what we will do. We can prepare, however, in all aspects of our being to consider what we’re capable of, what God calls us to, and how we might respond in various situations, so that we’re ready when the time comes. For it will come. We will have to decide how much our witness as Christians means to us.

               Trim your wicks, buy extra oil, stay awake – for we will need to be as prepared for our moment as the bridesmaids for the groom in Matthew 25. (If you haven’t cracked the Bible to read this passage yet, after my many times of referencing it, NOW IS THE TIME!)

 

                                                            In faithful love and service,

                                                            Pastor Kimberly