The Meyer Minute

The Meyer Minute for June 4, 2020

When we think about sin, we usually think about words or actions that break God’s commandments. For example, looting breaks the Seventh Commandment, “You shall not steal.” Such actions are classified as “sins of commission.”

There are also “sins of omission,” times we don’t do something we should. So Martin Luther’s explanation to the Seventh Commandment says, “We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions or get them in any dishonest way (i.e. sins of commission) but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income (i.e. sins of omission).” “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17).

Let’s go now from “those looters” to ourselves, from the Seventh Commandment to the Fifth Commandment. Keep George Floyd in mind. “You shall not murder. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body (i.e. sins of commission) but help and support him in every physical need (i.e. sins of omission).” When it comes to race relations, I assume that you and I have not committed outward sins of commission, but are we committing sins of omission?

How many people of color are your Facebook friends? I have very few. That means that while we’re keeping up with what “our own kind of people” are doing, we are not being sensitive and informed about our other neighbors, people of color. Is this a sin of omission? I think so. Like the priest and Levite in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, we are passing by on the other side of the road absorbed with our self-chosen pursuits and friends on social media (Luke 10:25-37).

Michelle Saahene calls our attention to a video of two black men arrested in Starbucks in 2018. “The reason the Starbucks video went viral was because a white woman had shared it, and her social media was very white. She didn’t have that many friends of color. So, all these white people were seeing this video of racial discrimination that they normally wouldn’t otherwise see… So many people that live segregated lives, but still go to Starbucks, started saying, ‘I can’t believe this is actually going on. I can’t believe this is happening.’ And people of color were asking, ‘Where have you been? You know, it’s in our timelines every single day.’” (Christian Capatides, CBS News).

Something to think about…

The Meyer Minute for June 2, 2020

One commentator, I apologize I can’t recall her name, tweeted insightfully that 2020 is like 1974, 1918 and 1929, and 1968 all rolled into one year. In 1974 America faced a constitutional crisis with the resignation of President Richard Nixon. In 1918 Americans died from the Spanish flu and in 1929 the economy crashed. And in 1968 riots scared America. Remember the Democratic national convention in Chicago? All those terrible experiences are being played out in their own ways in 2020.

A co-worked shared this observation, that we often deflect our attention from the basic problem of injustice in society by focusing upon the lawlessness of rioters. Here’s how it goes. “What was done to George Floyd was terrible but that does not justify the violence.” True but those are two different problems. Shifting our attention and words to the rioting deflects from somber reflection upon the underlying failure of Americans to fully live up to the words of the Declaration of Independence “that all men are created equal.” After the Civil War ended slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed: “Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The long series of African Americans killed by police shows that “we the people” have a fundamental problem to address at the deepest level of our life together.

So what do we do, we who follow the One who associated with outcasts and despised, who teaches us in the parable of the Good Samaritan that all people are our neighbors, and who says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:13)? When we go to church, many of us confess to God, “We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” What neighbors do we think of, those on our street, those who look like us, those who are our socio-economic peers? I’m guessing most of us harbor some racial prejudice in the dark recesses of our hearts, since “every intention of the thoughts of his (mankind’s) heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Martin Luther wrote that we church people are simul iustus et peccator, both saint and sinner at the same time. The Gospel is that Jesus, the Suffering Servant, invites us to repentance for our deepest feelings, pronounces forgiveness, and then enable