Deafening Silence

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph." - Haile Selassie I

Today is Good Friday. Good Friday is the day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. We remember how He was brutally beaten, cruelly humiliated, and hung on a cross until He suffocated and died. 

There is something else we should remember about Good Friday, especially now. Jesus was abandoned. He was betrayed by one of His disciples. He was denied by another. And many of the rest just took off, afraid that what happened to Him would also happen to them.

Where were they, when the people were yelling, crucify him! crucify him! Where were they, when He stumbled on His way to Golgotha and someone had to carry the cross the rest of the way? Where were they, when He cried out from the cross that He was thirsty?

Where were they? Why were they silent? They were His closest friends. Yet, they left Him.

Their silence spoke volumes.

I have seen many people asking online on different groups and sites - where is the Church in all this suffering?

Jesus said, feed the hungry, but food is being taken away from poor children with the cuts to the school lunch program and from the elderly with cuts to Meals on Wheels - where is the Church?

Jesus said, give the thirsty something to drink, but environmental controls for clean water have been stripped away, and the increase in oil drilling will pollute more water sources of families - where is the Church?

Jesus said, welcome the stranger, but immigrants are being targeted for being poor and brown and shipped off to death camps - where is the Church?

Jesus said, clothe the naked, but laws are making homelessness and even helping the homeless illegal - where is the Church?

Jesus said, look after the sick, but healthcare protections are being denied and medical research money taken away - where is the Church?

Jesus said, visit those in prison, but instead we are kidnapping people with the legal right to be here and disappearing them off the street to who knows where - where is the Church??

That's not even touching the destruction of our public education programs, our libraries, our national parks and protected land, or the loss of jobs for veterans and federal employees and researchers, or the genocide happening in Gaza and the bombing of Yemen.

Whatever you did not do to the least of these, you did not do for Jesus...

Our silence speaks volumes.

How is anyone anywhere ever supposed to believe in the love of God or want to be a part of the family of God when we show such disregard for the sanctity of human life? 

Now is not the time to be silent. It is not the time to cross our fingers and hope things get better. It is not the time to pray it just doesn't affect us. When one part of the Body suffers, we all suffer. And we are all suffering now.

Elie Wiesel said, "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference." Are you indifferent to the suffering around you? Or are you merely afraid?

I know it's scary to talk about this stuff in church. Especially from up front. It's scary because we might lose congregants. And with them, go tithes. It might make us unpopular. It might lose us friends.

We're also just not used to talking about religion and politics because these topics are so divisive, we were taught not to ever bring them up.

But... pretty soon, it'll be too late. If we don't speak up now... we may never have the chance.

A U.S. congresswoman recently said the quiet part out loud by admitting many in Congress are too afraid to deny Trump or to stop him, because his retaliation is dangerous, and not only politically. When he turns on people for standing up to him, oftentimes his followers target them with death threats and break-ins at their home and other such violence. 

No one is coming to save us.

Trump's largest base of supporters has traditionally been the Church. Therefore, it is up to us to stand and say, no more. We will not stand by and let the least of these suffer.

Or will we?

It gets worse, because some in the Church not only are silent about what it happening but cheer it on and justify it because the White House tells them to. They justify it and wrap it in an American flag with a Bible on top and say it's God's will or God's way. 

Cheering on evil in the name of Jesus. This is the opposite of Biblical morals and values.

Those in the Church who stand behind the destruction happening in our country right now are acting like Judas. 

Earthly power is what Judas wanted. That is why he sold out Jesus. It wasn't greed. It was a thirst for power.

He thought, Jesus is taking too long. He just needs an incentive to get going, to overthrow Rome and make Israel great again. So, he agreed to betray Jesus for 30 silver coins. He thought when they went to arrest Jesus, that Jesus would finally show some Godlike power, destroy them all, and BAM! Here comes the golden age, with Judas as Jesus' right-hand man.

But see, Judas didn’t understand that establishing an earthly kingdom was never Jesus' goal. Jesus had much higher goals than that.

If you can look at the things that are being done to the least of these in our country and think it’s okay, likely you’re trying to force God's hand, to seek earthly power by building a Christian kingdom here on Earth.

But that is not what we were called to do. 

Our calling? To love God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength. To love others - all others - as we love ourselves. To serve others before ourselves, as the last shall be first and the first shall be last. To be transformed by the renewing of our minds and to look more and more like Jesus. 

We don't look much like Jesus right now.

Time to repent, Church. Repent before it’s too late.

This is not about politics. This is not about left or right - it’s about right or wrong (thanks, Cory Booker, for that one).

We cannot be silent any longer.

"The silence of the good people is more dangerous than the brutality of the bad people." - Martin Luther King, Jr

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