thoughts on the news of the day: churches

hmmm…..

            Yesterday, the white supremacist, Lawrence Russell Brewer, 44 was executed for the brutal slaying of a black man.  The date of the murder was 22 years ago, June 7, 1998.  The victim, James Byrd Jr. was walking along a road outside of Jasper, TX when he was picked up by Brewer and two others.  Byrd was shackled to the back of a pickup truck and yanked to his death with a 24 foot logging chain. 

            I remember visiting with a colleague who was a minister in a church in Jasper, TX at the time.  She talked about how all of the ministers gathered together, black and white, and planned a memorial service.  They were determined not to make it a media event because they wanted to grieve the loss of a neighbor in the privacy of their own churches.

            Churches are one of those institutions that seem to be going by the wayside of progress.  The world is changing and there seems to be no room or need for spiritual community life.  That is, until a heinous crime such as the one committed in Jasper on that fateful summer evening takes place.  Then we need a place to gather, to grieve and to find a way to get along with the rest of our lives.  It seems like nothing other than a consecrated place such as a church will do. 

            Most people want a place to be buried and a place to be married.  The blessing of the event and the people involved in the event needs to come from a place blessed for the celebration or the sadness.  That’s why I believe in church.  That’s why I go to church and that’s why I serve a church.

            hmmm…..