Bearing Witness to a Better Way

With the tragic shooting at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in South Carolina, we find ourselves once again facing the looming specter of violence, hatred, racism, and the place of the church in the world.

I say once again, because we have been here before.  Every one of those issues keeps rearing its head.  I don’t always understand why – there are times when we seem to have moved forward from the issues of violence, hatred, and racism.  There are times when the church seems to be making great progress in making a difference in the world.  And then there are times where all of that is called into question.

Several years ago, the Batman movie “The Dark Knight” hit theaters.  It had within it perhaps one of the finest portrayals of the Joker ever to have been seen.  Heath Ledger played the part amazingly well (worth watching just for his performance, by the way).   More to the point, though, he brought the character to life and made him more than just a caricature of a comic book villain.  Certainly I have to credit the writers for creating the character the way they did for the movie, but Ledger truly ‘caught’ the idea.

It is the idea that I find so captivating.  What does the Joker do?  Of course he is a bad guy, a villain, a terrorist.  He embodies evil.  Sounds black and white enough.  But the difficulty with understanding evil is that it is amorphous.  The Joker is evil, yes.  But what makes his evil so insidious is that he creates situations in which the hero – in this case Batman – must decide what boundaries must be crossed to stop him.  In essence, the Joker is a great villain because to stop him, he often makes the hero become a villain, or at least cross those ethical boundaries to prevent terrible things from taking place.

Batman’s dilemma is that he knows the Joker needs to be stopped.  But is he willing to go too far to accomplish that goal? 

It is, in many ways, the dilemma faced by the church.  In the ever present face of evil, encapsulated clearly in this most recent shooting, how does the church bear witness to Good News? 

As I watched the towers collapse on 9/11, I was standing in a college cafeteria.  I turned to the chaplain of that school and asked, “How do we bear witness to the love of God in the face of this?”  His answer was a good one.  “I don’t know, but we have to figure it out and quickly.” 

Sunday I heard an interviewee on the news make the statement regarding the worship service that took place at Emmanuel AME, “People thought there were going to be riots and people spilling into the streets, but that didn’t happen.  That doesn’t happen here.”

If by “here” he meant South Carolina, then that might not be entirely true.  If by “here” he meant the church, then praise God.  The church is losing its place in society as a witness for a better way.  Part of that comes from our inability to be a good witness over the last 20 or so years.  Part of that is that society doesn’t see relevance for the church.  Part of that is because we have used our voice not for peace but to further division. 

But if a church still echoing from the gunshots that took the life of nine members can come together and worship God, sing together, weep together, and bear witness to the true power of the Good News and the message that even in the midst of such atrocity the kingdom of God is still at hand, then there still is light to be found.  The church does not have to give in to hate and in so doing it can face all that stands before it.  

We still have good news.  We have it on an unlimited supply.  Our task is to make sure that we continue to offer it, proclaim it, and live in such a way that we do not become that which we seek to overcome. 

I believe it can be done because I believe that the truth of the Kingdom of God will always have more power than that which would seek to destroy it. 

In that belief, I am confident that Emmanuel AME will continue to bear witness to the faith in amazing and tremendous ways.  It is my hope that all of us, AME, UMC, RCC, whatever else will seek to be as strong in our faith and proclaim that there is a better way and that the Kingdom of God remains at hand.