Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Bob Dylan

It’s time. It’s time for us to remember who we are and why we are here. I am writing on Tuesday afternoon when the nation just heard the guilty verdict in the trial of the police officer who placed his knee on George Floyd’s throat until Floyd died.

I am not interested in re-litigating the trial.

I am here to say, we cannot live like this. It is not God’s intention. We must move out of melodrama. There are not good people and bad people. There are just sinners who are aware of their need of God to enable them even as flawed people to be instruments of God’s will, and there also are those who are unaware and, therefore, may or may not be helping to bring in God’s reign of peace, justice, and, mercy or instead may be deepening racism.

It’s time to move out of melodrama and take an honest look at who we are as a nation and what we want to be much less who we as Christians are called to be.

It’s time. Time to be honest about our past, our present, and God’s desire for our future.

Remember Jesus’ last words in the Gospel of Matthew? “Go therefore making disciples of all nations….teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” And what did Jesus teach us? “Love God with all your heart soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.”

It's time. It’s not enough to sit in judgment of Derek Chavin or anyone else. We are to “be the change you seek for the world” (Mahatma Ghandi). The question is not simply who is right and who is wrong. The question we face is what are we doing here and now to make a difference? How are we being instruments of the Good News? Do we love our neighbor as ourself?

It’s time. We must start where we are.

First, we must become aware of who we are as a country and who we are as individuals. Take a step in that direction. Become a participant in Sacred Ground; read books that lift the veil of dishonesty about our country’s history.

Second, as we say in AA, “Do a moral inventory”. What’s our history? What is it about our past we don’t want to confront? What about our present ways of avoiding the issue of racism or being complicit?

I grew up in Asheville. We had a maid who left her eleven children to come and cook for us and clean our house. As a child it never dawned on me that something was wrong with this. I never wonder why the five of us lived in a house three times bigger than the one Anna lived in with twelve other people.

Third, we are to be open and intentional about what God is calling us to do and think right now. It’s so convenient to blame Derek Chavin as if he is the cause of everything racist in Minneapolis. He is the instrument of a long story that has been told since our country’s inception.

As the writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote: “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

Yes, we must confess our country’s racism and pray and work to rid ourselves and this country of it.

Yes, we must do something about the never ending deaths of black men and women in our streets and begin by thinking this is more than a police problem. It’s a systemic problem that begins with where people live and what kind of money they make, and if they are allowed to vote.

The truth is we sinners in need of God’s redemption must not make Derek Chavin the scapegoat. He is one person who holds up a mirror of what is wrong in every city of this country. Racism is not over because he is convicted.

Now is the time. The answer is not blowing in the wind. It’s pounding in our hearts and echoing in the voice of our Lord.

It’s time.