The Flames of Baltimore (A Call to Reconciliation)

The Flames of Baltimore (A Call to Reconciliation) April 28, 2015

Tonight, my hometown, Baltimore, Maryland, is on fire. Literally. Stores are burning to the ground. Cars11188164_10153257784165011_1707287598993507588_n are engulfed in flames in the street. But there are also many other kinds of fires burning in Baltimore tonight. There are flames of rage in the hearts of many who live in the margins of the city that have continually been subjected to discrimination and harm at the hands of those who have been commissioned to protect them. The flames of passion and grief has risen in the hearts of many lifelong residents of the city, who watch with great anguish as the city that they know and love erupts with violent riots. There are many other fires raging in Baltimore tonight, fires that won’t be extinguished anytime soon.

Tonight, in the streets of Baltimore, the ancient human struggle is magnified. It’s not a black and white struggle between good and evil, right in wrong. No, the human struggle is much more complex than that. It’s a struggle that rages on in the midst of each one of our hearts. A struggle that arises out of pain and helplessness intermingled with ego and power. It’s a struggle that divides well-intentioned citizens seeking justice for a beloved member of their community against well-intentioned police officers seeking to protect them. It’s a struggle in the hearts of the rioters who turn violent, who know that what they are doing cannot solve any of the real problems, but feel so unheard and so powerless that violence seems to be the only way they can make get their voices heard.

This convoluted struggle is what lies at the heart of all injustice and strife. It is what divides nations against nations and people against people. In the midst of this struggle, there is a temptation to “take a side”. To declare one group of people innocent and the other wicked. But it is never that simple. The struggle is always more complex. There is always more to the story than we could ever imagine. In the midst of such turmoil, there is only one way to move towards justice and peace. And that is the way of self-sacrifice. The way of service. The way of humility. The way to bring peace in the midst of these complex struggles is to sacrifice our right to be right and to sit down, look each other in the eye, and hear each others story.

In Baltimore, there is so much more to the story tonight. The police have become, to many in the city, a symbol of oppression and violence. The rioters have become to many others, a band of “thugs” as Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake said earlier today at a press conference. But it’s not that simple. It’s never that easy. The smoke the rises from the city tonight is a symptom of a deep injustice and the cry of an unheard people. The police officers that lay in the hospital tonight, severely injured by rioters, their injuries are a result of a deep distrust and demonization of authority figures in Baltimore. But it’s not that clean cut. The police aren’t evil. Nor are the protestors. We’re all human. We all wrestle deeply with prejudice and pride that far too often leads us to act in ways that are contrary to the values that we hold to.

What Baltimore needs tonight is to begin real, honest conversations. We need police officers and government officials to hear the deep, pain-filled cries of the people of Baltimore who are so tired of being treated as less than human. So tired of seeing their young men gunned down in the streets without cause. So tired of living in fear and trepidation. We also need the citizens of this great city to stop the violence and be willing to face their oppressors, seeing them as fellow humans, many of whom are trying to use their power and privilege to help the oppressed and marginalized in the community. And everyone together, then, will be empowered to confront the real face of injustice in our city.

I don’t mean to sound overly naive or to over simplify the complexity of what is happening in my city tonight. But for far too long, we have talked past each other. We have flexed our power at each other. We have demonized one another. And it gets us nowhere. The violence of the marginalized gets us nowhere. The violence of those in power gets us nowhere. In the wise words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.” The more we continue to resort to demonization and violence, the more injustice will be birthed in our city. Violence only begets violence. Hate only begets hate. Dr. King goes on to say; “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

These words tonight are not new. They’re ancient words, spoken by Jesus thousands of years ago. But their power and truth are as true now as they ever have been. If we are to see these riots cease. If we are to see an end to the unjust murder of young African-American men. Then we need to stop looking past each other and start staring each other straight in the eyes. We need to stop shouting past each other and start speaking to each other. We need to begin to listen. To seek to understand our other. As my friend and mentor Dr. David Anderson says, “Comprehension begins with conversation.”

It is my prayer that as the flames begin to whither in the streets of Baltimore tonight, a new flame would be ignited in the hearts of my city. The flame of love. The flame of peace. The flame that floods the dark city with light and exposes injustice wherever it lies. The flame that draws neighbor and enemy together and causes us to see each other as human. It is my prayer that those of us who look on from a distance would not be drawn into the divisions that the media seeks to promote, but would pray for wisdom and humility to hear the deep fear and trauma that emanates from the heart of the rioter and police officer both. And insodoing, may we be compelled to enter into conversation with our enemies, hearing their stories and allowing them to be humanized before our eyes. Because when we pull ourselves out of the polarization and demonization, we open ourselves up to hear that still small voice of God that hums so faintly beneath it all, beckoning us to reconciliation and a new creation, where injustice will forever be vanquished and love will forever reign supreme.

Today, would you join me in praying for Baltimore? May our prayer be not merely for justice to be done, but for true, lasting, reconciliation to occur between the police and marginalized, the Caucasians and African Americans, those in power and the powerless. May our prayers be not only for the violence to cease, but for true, enduring peace to prevail in a city that has been so divided for so long. May our prayers be that the Spirit of God would move in such a powerful way in this city that the Baltimore would shine as a beacon of light to rest of our nation and world. May we pray for the family of Freddie Gray, that they would see justice and find healing from their immense pain. May we pray for the police, that they would find a renewed commitment to protection and service of all people, regardless of their race. And may we love to prevail and righteousness to flow freely in the midst of this dark night, bringing healing to us all.

Amen.


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