Peace on earth

How do you change a society's consciousness about race?  That was the topic of conversation around our dinner table last night.

My kids offered various methods for changing the dominant social perception of young black men like Laquan MacDonald, who was shot 16 times in the back as he walked away from Chicago police officers.  The police officer who shot him said that he feared for his life.  Why is a young black man perceived as a threat?  To put the question a different way, why aren't all young white men who look like Dylan Roof suspected of being mass murderers capable of killing nine people at a prayer meeting?

I don't have any easy solutions to this problem and no one that I know is offering one.  But it's obvious that American society needs to put in whatever effort is needed to work on the problem.  I commend my fellow Covenant pastors, including Michelle Dodson, Shaun Robinson and Phil Jackson, who addressed over 200 people this past Monday on a rainy night in Chicago to call for justice and understanding.  (You can read about the prayer rally here).

Advent is about social justice.  Virtually all of the prophecies regarding the Messiah look forward to a just society where wrongs are righted.  Mary's song, the Magnificat that we said together this past Sunday, says that God "lifts up the humble" and "fills the hungry with good things."  Jesus declared to a packed synagogue that his mission was "to proclaim good news to the poor... to proclaim freedom for the prisoners... to set the oppressed free" (Luke 4:18).

Advent candles and calendars are appropriate for this season, but can draw too much attention to themselves rather than helping us to glimpse the greater glory of the Kingdom of God that Jesus brings.  He is the Prince of Peace, not merely for me as an individual, but for this world.  "Shalom" means that all relationships are made right again, including between leaders and the governed.  Let's declare ever more boldly and insistently, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace."