Protest

I begin my now Tuesday tradition of a blog unsure of what to say and how to navigate the chaos where we find ourselves. Still in the grips of a pandemic, we are now also in the waves of protest following the wake of another grievous and grave injustice against a black man, George Floyd, whose unjust killing has placed his name on every heart. 

We are all so weary, so scared, so tired, so uncertain. How weary and uncertain we are depends on your city and the color of your skin. Oh, this amazing country that is yet burdened, in places hardened, with the scourge of racism. Lord in your mercy.

As we face this racial tension and work through the turmoil together, and only together are we going to work through this, I want to lift up a word that we may overlook. I am writing as a Presbyterian pastor to many members of the St. Andrews-Covenant church family.  Another way to say this is that I am writing as a Protestant to other Protestants. There it is--baked into not only our nomenclature but spiritual DNA--the word: protest. We are who we are, who we trust God wants us to be, only thanks to our ability to protest. Though we hardly invented it (who can protest like Moses, Jeremiah or the Psalmist?) we yet have claimed the act of protesting as the way to preserve our identity as children of God. In 1517, we protested an institution that preyed on the poor and purposely oppressed any challenge to its own authority. Our protest led to a new branch of the church (not necessarily Luther or Calvin’s intention btw) and also reformed the Catholic Church from which it split. In certain, important ways, the Catholic Church is more reformed than the Reformed church (yes we can argue that over a beer when we are able). Throughout history, whenever our ancestors felt power becoming unyielding, authority acting with impunity, justice denied or mercy withheld--we protested. Sometimes it brought forth new denominations. Sometimes it led to battle. Protest helped establish the US of A. 

We cannot condone violence, and certainly one protest is not as good as another. Yet while our nation struggles and our African American brothers and sisters cry out, let's recognize our spiritual relations as well as our fellow protestors. 

Let me conclude this post with a prayer from one of the great protesters- Martin Luther (Martin Luther King Jr was named because of him). 


Lord, misery and misfortune annoy me and oppress me. I long to be rid of them. You have said, Ask and it will be given you. So I come and ask. Amen.