The famous Swiss-Protestant theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968) supposedly once said that a Christian pastor should "preach with the Bible in one hand and the current newspaper in the other." I'm not sure I fully agree with that counsel. (At least I have never preached with a newspaper in my hand!) It seems to me that a pastor who preaches "in light of the news" can easily get so wrapped up in social-political events of the current moment that he or she loses sight of God's own "good news," God's central message of judgment and grace, of Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of sins, a message that is aimed at the individual heart and life. We sometimes refer to that central message as God's words of "law" and "gospel." Through this twofold message, God summons us to repent of our sins and to trust in his promises for the sake of Christ our Savior and Lord.
But that divine message does not come to us in a vacuum. The biblical prophets remind us that God always aims the divine message toward humans in the here and now. Moreover, God is not "disconnected" from social and even political events, at least according to the biblical prophets. "Justice" sure seems to matter to God, at least according to the Holy Scriptures. Then, too, the "repentance" to which God calls us is not merely an abstract idea or a mere private matter. Just as the Old Testament prophets’ call to repent went out to the whole people of ancient Israel, so there are also New Testament calls to repentance that are directed to entire churches. God calls us to repent of all sins, both those that are more personal and individual and those that are more corporate, social, and even political in nature. An aspect of repentance is acknowledging "the heart of darkness" that resides in each of us ("original sin"), confessing our sins, receiving by faith God's mercy and forgiveness, and then seeking to amend one's sinful life.
I was thinking about the specificity of sin when I was reading today's edition of The NW Indiana Times. In it there is a story about the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. Of course the immediate context for the story was the murder of six Asian-American women and two others in Atlanta earlier this week. The larger context, however, goes back to last year when some political leaders frequently referred to the covid virus as "the China virus." This rhetoric helped to inspire some individuals to act aggressively and even violently against Asian people in our midst. Since March 2020, nearly 3,800 "anti-Asian" incidents have been reported to one agency that keeps track of such things. According to the article, nationally women reported hate crimes 2.3 times more than men. Asian-American organizations have been trying to call attention to this problem for many months. There is real fear among our Asian brothers and sisters here in the US. (Some of what I have heard reminds me of what happened to German Americans during the First World War. During that time, when America was at war with Germany, many German Americans, a lot of them Lutherans, experienced "hate crimes" as well. My grandfather once told me that he knew a German-American Lutheran pastor who had been pulled from the pulpit of his congregation in 1917, and was tarred and feathered by locals who thought "he must be a propagandist for the German Kaiser.")
This story about the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans hits close to home. One of my colleagues and friends, whose office is just down the hall from mine, teaches theology at Valpo. She is a very devout Roman Catholic laywoman, who grew up in a mixed Chinese and Dutch-American family. She is an American citizen. In addition, she has earned graduate degrees in theology from Georgetown (Ph.D.) and Yale (M.Div.). Her expertise is in Chinese Christianity as well as East-Asian religions.
I recently learned from her that she herself experienced a hate crime last year in Valparaiso. She was shopping with her newborn daughter at our local Aldi when a group of "boogaloo civil war" guys, as she describes them, came up to her and started spewing hate-filled rhetoric at her and her infant. They were echoing language about the covid virus that they had heard from one of our political leaders at the time. She told me yesterday, "I didn't engage them or try to finish shopping. I just immediately lifted [my daughter] out of the shopping cart and walked straight out the door, and they didn't follow us...." Thankfully, that is the only such incident she has experienced since moving here a few years ago.
What are we to do in view of this sad and disturbing situation of racist hatred in our country and community?
It seems to me that we can begin by asking God to forgive us for the times that we have harbored hate in our own hearts or have acted in hateful ways toward others. None of us is free of that problem. The "old Adam" lurks in each of our hearts. Only the medicine of Christ and the Holy Spirit can address that inborn disease. Second, we can pray that the Lord would not only change our hearts and minds but also the hearts and minds of others who are hell-bent on hating people who are different from themselves. Instead of "scapegoating" others, we can ask the Lord to direct us to the true "Scapegoat," our Lord Jesus Christ, who on the cross has borne away the sins of the world. And we can ask the Holy Spirit to guide our ways, to lead us to discern how best we can help our neighbors in need, and to do what needs to be done. Right now, those neighbors in need are our Asian brothers and sisters. (When one of the Lord's sheep is in trouble, he leaves the 99--whom he also loves [all lives matter!]--and goes after the one who is in most need of help!)
Today's edition of the other paper I read each morning, The New York Times, has a very thoughtful editorial by one of the most important and influential Christians writing and speaking in America today, namely, David Brooks. (A high-point of my week is listening to him on Friday evenings on the PBS NewsHour.) His editorial today speaks to the problem of social injustice and inequality in the US. Brooks doesn't get too theological too often, but this is one of those times when he does, and, if you ask me, he is spot on. It's the kind of article that invites you, the reader, to engage in self-examination and prayer, to seek the change that God wants you to undergo (i.e., "repentance"), and to take steps that reflect that change. It's worth underscoring that such themes fit with the current church season, Lent.
Here's the link to Brooks' article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/
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