July 8, 2016
My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This morning while I was having my morning tea, I gave considerable reflection to the tragic events that have been occurring so frequently lately. We have witnessed violent acts – including killings around the world and even in our own nation.
After celebrating 240 years of our independence as a nation, we still are not at peace with one another. My heart was heavy, distressed, and pained.
I was also thinking about the five jurisdictional conferences that are meeting to elect 15 new episcopal leaders to join the Council of Bishops as they lead The United Methodist Church during such a time as this.
As I was reflecting upon all of this, an email appeared from a clergy colleague, with whose words I agree; I would like to share part of her email with you:
"Earlier this week we as a nation watched on virtual loop the tragic and unjust death of two Black men: Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile. With every shot that pierced their bodies, we as a nation stood complicit. We have failed to confront the insidious structures of racism that pump fear, prejudice, and deadly discrimination through the hearts, minds, and bodies of police officers ... a constant racist stream of distorted thinking that makes officers react with lethal force when boys are playing with toy guns or wearing hoodies; when women are driving their cars, and men are selling cigarettes or CDs, or simply reaching for their wallet. This morning that fear increased exponentially in light of the coordinated attack by [one or more gunmen]. As dawn unfurls and the nation awakes, we can be sure that the communal conversation will be laced with vitriolic rhetoric aimed at demonizing Black Lives Matter, specifically, and all black and brown people, more generally. We will once again hear the twisted fear-based refrain of the 'war on cops.' We will once again hear the race-baiting warnings of an impending 'race war.' We will once again lose sight of racism as our target and again aim our weapons of hatred at one another ... Each of us in The United Methodist Church has, at our baptism, vowed to 'to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.'"
As I reflected on these true and prophetic words of my colleague, the words of Prophet Amos, as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in "THE MESSAGE,” came to me:
I can't stand your religious meetings.
I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice – oceans of it.
I want fairness – rivers of it.
That's what
I want. That's all I want.
(Amos 5: 21-24)
Friends, my fellow baptized Christians, in the midst of pain and crying for justice, I am also aware that there are great numbers of law enforcement leaders who are faithful and just. A good number of them worship with us and offer leadership in our churches and communities – for which we are grateful! It is sad that when one does wrong, thousands of others get blamed also.
May I request each and every one of us to be in deep, deep prayer for our nation and our world, recalling our own baptismal covenant “to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.”
May we pray for our jurisdictional conferences so that the world does not hear only about how many ballots it took to elect our bishops, but that we strove for oceans of justice and rivers of fairness through our statements and through our actions when we gather.
As we pray, may we also write letters to our civic and elected leaders that they may be increasingly motivated to protect the innocent children of God who come in all colors, so that the freedom we celebrate each July applies to everyone; so we can all live freely in our nation and world without fearing our accent, our ethnicity, or the color of our skin will deny us our right to fairness and freedom.
May we also pray for the victims’ families, for all law enforcement agents, and for civic and religious leaders as they try their best to bring healing, justice, and peace.
Your fellow Christian, pilgrim, U.S. citizen, and brother in Christ,
In Christ's love,
Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar
