"So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God."
-New Living Translation
How important interpersonal reconciliation is to the Lord! In our country, decades of colorblindness left a portion of our population simmering in silence. The burden of reconciliation now falls on us white people. Someone has something against us. We have done the offending. We must do the work to reconcile. Do you see the order of this verse? Reconciliation first, and sacrifice to God second. It is that important. How do we reconcile? First, we listen.
If you are new to the conversation, know that listening to these stories is uncomfortable. I don't like to hear that someone's story contradicts my worldview. I don't like to hear that people like me are the bad guys. I don't like to feel the weight of sin that goes back generations without reckoning.
And that's the point. Entering someone else's world, by definition, means leaving my comfort. Come to these books and movies and podcasts willing to learn, to be uncomfortable, and to honor the brothers and sisters who let us into their reality. I am telling you on the front end, it's going to hurt. But I'm also telling you this is the place in the world where I see Christ the most.
Earlier in the week, I wanted to pray about the murders and protests and then be at peace, but the peace wouldn't come. The Beatitudes reminded me that the godly response in the absence of justice and comfort is to be disturbed. Mourning, hungering, and thirsting do not feel good, so the Lord told us in advance that He would meet us there. Through this part of Matthew 5, I came around to peace in not being at peace.
"God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth.
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they will be satisfied."
-New Living Translation
There are many more articulate and more invested writers than me speaking out for racial justice, and their words are all over social media. All I aim to do here is be a friend on the journey. If you want to care, but all the voices yelling from every direction are paralyzing, let me offer a place you can start. Maybe you'll read one of these suggestions, and that will lead you to something else. That's all this is meant to be: options, not requirements. One person may be drawn to a book, someone else to a movie, and another to a podcast. Don't feel like you have to do it all, especially at once. But do do something, the burden for reconciliation is on us.
Online Community
Be the Bridge: a Christian Facebook group where people of color are honest and white people are actively listening
Podcasts
Truth's Table: Three Christian black women talking about race issues (46 episodes)
Vince Bantu on church history (1 episode)
Movies
Just Mercy (took my four year old out of the room for one scene) This one is streaming for free in the month of June!
Harriet (too intense for my four year old, but the other kids watched it)
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (PBS miniseries)
Books
The Warmth of Other Suns (This one is an easy place to start because it reads like a story!)
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