This week, I’ve taken a timeout from social media in posting about myself in order to amplify Black Indigenous People of Color voices. In doing so, I’ve been given the opportunity to reflect, put effort toward action, and listen, with emphasis on the latter. I wasn’t sure how to go about writing a blog post this week as I didn’t want to shift focus onto myself in even the slightest way, so going forward, this blog post is going to be a bit different in that it will read much like an article. This way, the emphasis of attention can be placed on those whose voices truly depend on it. Two individuals I had the pleasure of learning from this week each gave an Instagram Live that was so compelling and full of wisdom that I felt it needed to be shared with my small audience here. My prayer is that you will open your heart to receiving their message provided below.

The first live talk involved Dr. Derwin L. Gray, founding and lead pastor at Transformation Church and former NFL defensive back for the Indianapolis Colts. Discussing the injustice surrounding what happened to George Floyd and the church’s response, Gray said the gospel and the good news should bring about justice.

“To love your neighbor as yourself means to say, ‘I care about what hurts you’,” he said. “I expect the unbelieving world to behave a certain way, but brothers and sisters in Christ have to have each other’s backs. Jesus came to preach to the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed. There is a sense of joy and purpose with God when we have solidarity with the hurting and the marginalized.”

The second live talk I listened to came from Danielle Coke, social media strategist and social justice advocate. Coke started a set of three live talks on Monday, the first of which was titled “Upward: The Sin of Silence and God’s Heart for Justice”. She began the first talk, knowing that her audience to these sessions were predominantly white, by opening with three statements:

1. You are loved and you are worthy.
2. Perfection is not a prerequisite to participation.
3. Awareness is helpful, but action is transformational.

In addressing the sin of silence and God’s heart for justice, Coke pointed to four Bible verses including Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed…”and Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

“We see God’s heart and attitude toward justice and oppression, and we see what we are called to do,” Coke said.

Moving on to a slide titled, “Sin of Omission and Sin of Commission”, Coke defined the sin of commission as the actions we take, words we say, and thoughts we think.

“So, racist actions and words we recognize and call it by what it is — a sin,” she said. “But we fail to recognize the sin of omission — the result of not fulfilling God’s requirement of us that we’ve read in scripture.”

Coke went on to provide examples of the sin of omission including not pursuing justice, not correcting the oppressor, not speaking up, and not loving your neighbor as yourself.

“Scripture says to know what is right and to not do it is a sin,” she said.

That scripture she’s referencing can be found in James 4:17 “Therefore, to Him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Coke then brought up the parable of the good Samaritan found in Luke 10:30-37.

Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

“The Samaritan didn’t stop at feeling bad,” Coke said. “A lot of us have compassion, but we must not stop at just feeling bad. The Samaritan got actively involved and came back the next day. It’s a continuing journey. We don’t pass by. Only (the Samaritan) who went the extra mile, who had compassion and acted upon it was regarded as a neighbor by Jesus. (Jesus) said, ‘You go and do likewise.’ He wasn’t asking. It wasn’t a suggestion.”

Gray also echoed this sentiment of Christians getting actively involved in his talk by stating that proximity breeds intimacy.

“When you see the other, it changes things,” he said. “People with loving hearts need to say, ‘Enough is enough.’”

In his statement released today, Joel Muddamalle, Director of Theology and Ministry Products at Proverbs 31 Ministries, pointed to Zechariah 7:9-12 as evidence that Christians shouldn’t, as the Priest and Levite did, pass by on injustice.

“When horrific acts of racism and social injustice occur, as believers, we must respond,” he said. “In this moment, there are many of our black brothers and sisters that are terrified. Instead of jumping to questions of the situation, we need to jump to kindness and mercy.”

Muddamalle said it may be easier to meet in the middle, but the Lord never met us in the middle.

“He never withheld His mercy until we met Him halfway,” he said. “He went the entire way for us.”

In knowing this, Muddamalle said we have the ability to shift our perspective to what the Lord has done for us, allowing us to be active in our response to go the whole way in helping our brothers and sisters in Christ.

“Friend, we cannot be passive in our expression of mercy or compassion,” he said. “We must be active, searching for opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We do this by checking the condition of our hearts (Zechariah 7:9-12).”

Coke’s last slide encouraged repentance and recommitment as the response from Christians going forward. In order for this to be truly transformational, she said we must acknowledge our past inaction and past behavior.

“When we ask God to change our heart, it goes beyond behavioral adjustment and performative (social media) posts,” she said. “As God changes our hearts, we are turned in a new direction and it becomes a lifestyle.”

“I don’t want you to feel guilty for being white,” she continued. “I want you to feel convicted for being silent. Conviction brings you to repentance and repentance brings about real change. As the church, that’s what we’re being called to here and now.”

Coke said this repentance should be in the spirit of recommitment that makes this a journey and not a fleeting response.

For those that didn’t know what to pray, Coke provided “a beautiful first step in going to God in repentance & recommitment,” by introducing the bridge in the song “Hosanna” by Hillsong.

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours

Everything I am for your Kingdom’s cause

As Gray said in his live, let’s not shy away from gospeling the controversial things. Jesus didn’t and we know that based on scripture. We don’t have to ask ourselves “What would Jesus do” in this situation because the Bible clearly answers that question for us. We know that He would be compassionate, He would listen, He would stand up for what is right, He wouldn’t stay silent for fear of backlash. He would love first.

1 John 3:16-18 “¹⁶ By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷ But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Galatians 6:2 “Bear Ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:32 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

James 1:22-25 “²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

James 2:17 “¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”