15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. – Romans 12:15
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. – I Corinthians 12:12-14
Last week in Sunday School, our class talked about the violent deaths of black civilians and police officers over the past couple of weeks and what, if anything, our response as Christians should be.
Almost immediately, we ran into a very specific impasse: we have had and will have a very difficult time relating to something that is so outside our socio-economic bubble. Our class is made up of mid-30s, fairly affluent, educated, white couples. While we have our political or even theological disagreements, we are much more like each other than we are not. The deaths in Baton Rouge, St. Anthony, and Dallas are beyond our ken. While we know that the best thing for us to do would be to listen to someone whose experience is not ours–to hear a cop or a minority speak about their experiences and vulnerabilities–we didn’t have that option in our class on this particular Sunday. Continue reading “Rejoice and Weep”