The Peace of Jerusalem

           

            There was a story on television this week in a program called Code Black about a group of young people who all took poison and wound up at a Los Angeles hospital emergency room refusing treatment because their leader had told them that if they all died they would go to a place called Elysium where all was peace and joy and they could forget about their troubles.  That reminded me of that terrible story in the seventies about a place called Jonestown in Guyana where all of the inhabitants drank a poisoned Kool-Aid and died because Jim Jones, their charismatic leader had told them the same thing, that death would take them to a magical place where all was well.

            Finding heaven on earth is what we all would love.  In these troubled political times, it is especially attractive to think that maybe our God has a plan to get us to that heavenly kingdom.  Well, there is such a plan.  It has been in place for all of eternity and it is detailed in the lessons this morning.  

            This is the first Sunday in Advent.  You may be more familiar with it being the beginning of the race toward Christmas, or the Sunday following a great Thanksgiving dinner.  It is also certainly all of those things, things that we have created in our economy and in our culture.  But the importance of the season of Advent can easily be lost in all of the commercial concentration that leads to Christmas.

            All of our lessons today speak of the coming of the Kingdom of God.  There is no certainty to when this will come, but we are told again that we need to be ready because at some point the Son of God will return and come to judge the living and the dead.  That isn’t something that we need to fear, but it is something that we always need to keep in mind.  God is ultimately in charge of what goes on in this world.  It may not look like that much of the time; events seem to go on in their own dynamic. We may think that we are in charge, that we make all of the decisions, but in the end, our God is the judge of that.  That is what our lessons are trying to help us to understand. 

            Jerusalem is a metaphor for the perfect Kingdom.  It is a part of our readings in that we yearn for a perfect place where goodness is the perfect norm and all that we have learned about what God has proposed for the human race resides.  It is certainly only a metaphor.  If you have been to Jerusalem, you are certainly aware of the fact that it is an incredibly divided place. Palestinians are separated from Israelis.  There is East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians live and West Jerusalem which is the home of most Israelis.  The Israeli government is always trying to encourage Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.  In The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Christian religions fight with each other.  The Greek Orthodox Church claims the tomb; the Armenian Church inhabits the lower level and the poor Roman Catholics are off to one side. The Episcopal Church has no place here, nor do any of the protestant bodies. Among the churches that are in this great place, there have even been fights in the street on important religious occasions.  In some ways, this holy church is a symbol of the many divisions that there are in Christianity.  

            There is much more in that city.  Israeli soldiers patrol the old city and frequently engage and accuse Arabs.  The Temple Mount, where the last Jewish temple used to be is where the Islamic Dome of the Rock points its golden dome skyward and the Al-Aksah Mosque resides.  Outside of the mount, the Western Wall is the remnant of the old temple where prayers are constantly said by the Jewish majority and notes are left in the spaces in the wall.  Again, Israeli soldiers patrol this area to keep out those who are undesirable. 

            Many years ago, when Rosie and I visited Jerusalem, at one point a group of taxi drivers got into a fight about who was going to transport the group that we were in.  One of them got a club out of his trunk and went after one of the others.  Jerusalem was not a peaceful place, as we experienced it; nor has it been over the centuries.  This city has been often ruled by Muslims.  The crusaders under Richard I took it over and strife and division has been one of the constants in this place over the years.  Nonetheless, we are urged in our psalm today to Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; may they prosper who love you.  Peace be within your walls and quietness within your towers. 

            Those are beautiful sentiments but they are not only for a peaceful city.  This is a prayer for a world where tumult and disaster are no more and the wholeness of God’s creation exists in truth and wholeness.  That is certainly what we desire. 

            We ought not to be surprised that turmoil is a part of the life of that great city.  It is a part of every place in this world.  It is a part of our own lives.  We watched our presidential campaign devolve into terrible accusations and awful language.  Now that it is over, we wonder what is coming next.  Much of the conflict is out in the open and will have to be resolved somehow.  What do we do about racism and homophobia, or the abuse of women?  These are important issues that we need to talk about and to resolve.  We have no idea what our President-elect will do when he takes office.  We can’t let fear dominate our thoughts.  What I pray for every day is that the fear that haunts our hearts will be turned to faith and we all will recognize who it is who is in charge of this world.  That is the ultimate issue that we need to face if we are going to ever have peace.  

            The peace of Jerusalem is certainly what we all need.  We need it in our lives and we need it in our communities.  We need to work toward that every day.  As these days go on and as what will happen begins to become clear continue your prayers, continue your compassion for one another.  That is where heaven truly resides, no matter what else happens.

What Do We Do Now?

            Now that the election is over, the news media is full of all kinds of predictions about what is coming next.  Some of these predictions are worrisome; that there will be deportations and wars, or that bigotry will become a theme.  I want to dismiss most of this because I know first of all that nobody really knows how things will play out and also, that no matter how things go in this country our God is still in charge.  That may not always be very obvious, but I know that it is true.
  

             We have had many moments in this nation when we have been in trouble.  It isn’t hard to look back on history and find places where we could have done things better, or when we could have avoided painful situations.  Certainly the sixties and the time of the Civil Rights movement was a time like this.  We got through it and we got through it by way of good people who cared for each other.  I remember when Martin Luther King was being excoriated for his beliefs and hounded by the FBI.  Now he is the subject of a marvelous monument on the Mall in the nation’s capital because we recognized the value that he created for this nation; how he led his followers in the freedom rides and the march from Selma to Birmingham across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  I have always loved that symbolic march because Edmund Pettus was a Confederate general and also the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.  That Martin Luther King monument is a beautiful tribute not only to Dr. King, but to the great numbers of people who defeated bigotry and segregation and set us on the right path again.

             The other thing that happens when we look back on our history is that we become aware that we are not the only force that makes things happen.  Quietly, sometimes very subtly our God is always in charge of our destiny.

             This is Christ the King Sunday;  a time to honor and to recall the incredible work that our Lord did in this world.  It is strange that the Gospel for this day centers on the crucifixion. Our Lord Jesus lived his whole life in the Middle East, preaching to and healing the people who lived there.  He was loved and sought after but eventually arrested by the ruling powers, tried and crucified. The point of this Gospel is that even at the moment of his crucifixion and the end of his mortal life, Jesus was not done with his ministry.   We hear how on the cross he prays to God to forgive those who were crucifying him because they didn’t know what they were doing.  Then one of the thieves who was being crucified with him told him that if he was the messiah to save himself and them.  He was immediately rebuked by the other thief who said that they deserved what they were getting, but that Jesus had done nothing wrong.  He asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his Kingdom.  Jesus replied to him: today you will be with me in paradise.  Jesus ministry of forgiveness continued right up until his death.

             We may face a rocky road ahead.  Nobody really knows what will happen.  I do know that whatever it is that will come our way, we have the advantage of a God whose love reaches all of us.  God’s caring and forgiveness is stronger than any other force that may come from or at us.  I am confident that this nation and its people will be all right and that we will continue to be a great force in this world. 

             Our response to God’s call to us is extremely important.  We are called to love our neighbors as persons like ourselves.  This means for me to watch out for bigotry and bullying around me and call it out when I see it. We are responsible for one another in this world and listening to and following our Lord is very important to our welfare and the welfare of those around us. 

             This parish has for me always been an example of a place that has excellent relationships with the community.  The taking care of the Boys and Girls Club for lunch on Wednesdays and getting dinners to the people at the Honus Wagner apartments tells the world what we believe in this place.

             In our own lives, it is important that we live up to our calling as disciples of Christ.  He and his teaching is the method that we have for saving this world.  He was crucified for our sake, but even then his work wasn’t done.  On Easter morning, Jesus rose from the dead to show us that resurrection is what we can all look forward to.  That is the time when the issues of this world will matter no more and we will all be a peace with our God and with each other.  As the Lord’s Prayer says, we will see that God’s Kingdom will come on earth as it is in Heaven.  Even in death, as the hymn says, Jesus calls us over the tumult of this life’s wild restless sea.  As St. Julian of Norwich said so eloquently, all will be well, all will be very, very well.  She lived in a time of tumult and oppression.  She was always under threat; but she knew how much she was loved by her God.  We can also be certain of that and it can fill our hearts when the world seems to be at odds with all that we know.

             That is the message that we have for this world and we teach it by the way that we live our lives. Put your worries to rest and know that God’s infinite love reaches over all.

Our Election

            I’ve got to tell you that I have been devastated by this election.  I don’t know how it is all going to work out.  There wasn’t much by way of substance to the campaign; we don’t know what our President-elect will do; only what he will get rid of.  The entire congress in is the hands of his party and I am afraid that the Supreme Court will get more and more conservative, flying in the face of the direction of the country over the past number of years.  It is a time to worry. but I don’t like worry.  I need to find something positive to hold on to, to give some hope for the future.  I feel like the people of Judah who were taken captive by the Babylonians.  They were asked by their captors to” sing them some of the songs of Zion”.  Their answer was: How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?  That is Psalm 137 and is an eloquent testimony to how it feels to be lost and afraid. 

            I can’t imagine a better summary of human history than the Gospel.  It is a perfect description of what humanity has endured over the centuries.  We keep praying for peace and hoping that somehow peace will endure.  Somehow, we seem to contradict what our God hopes for all of us and pursue our own ends. 

            Through this seemingly endless election campaign, we have heard every variety of selfishness.  Narcissism has been often the theme of campaign speeches.  What will happen to our country or what will happen to all of us has been secondary to the hopes and desires of one candidate.  I don’t want to do this anymore.  I want our politicians to care deeply for the welfare of not only the country, but for the welfare of those who are knocked down, abused and left behind.  I think that many of those in that category made their desires known over these past months and I know that they have been heard.  We need care to prevail in our politicians.  Over the last number of years, that hasn’t been the case.  We have had a clogged up congress that has not been able to do much of anything.  They have even refused to hold hearings for a new Supreme Court justice, leading to an eight person court that often ties and can’t give us decisions about important subjects.   What will happen now is unclear.  How will we be governed with a narcissist in the White House and a congress that is in the hands of his political party?  We simply don’t know at this point what is going to happen.

            I have been reading author Ken Follett’s trilogy about the twentieth century. It is an excellent account of the first and second world wars, of the rise of Hitler and the Brown Shirts and then Nazism and how it was defeated and then the rise of Communism in its place.  There was terrible oppression in Europe in all of these times and it took a tremendous amount of effort and capital to get our civilization back to some kind of normality.  I know that prayer and devotion played a large part in the way that all of this was straightened out and I know that going forward after this election will require all of us to be faithful and responsible to the Gospel that our Lord has given us.  Last week’s gospel ended with the words:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Those words are the foundation of a Christian life.  That is the way that we need to behave if we are going to continue to have a faithful community.   I have no political advice for us.  I can only rely on the God who loves us all to show us the way.

            In our Gospel this morning, Jesus talks about the terrible times that are coming.  He talks about persecution, betrayal and even desolation.  He says to his followers: You will be betrayed by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends and they will put some of you to death.  You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance, you will gain your souls. 

            These are not words of comfort from our Lord, but they are words of hope.  Even if the worst happens, God will not abandon us, but will keep us in the care that has been promised to us from the beginning.  Keeping our faith in Jesus Christ is the issue.  Political regimes come and go.  They last for their time, but are not eternal.  Our God’s promises are for the long run, God will be with us no matter what it is that happens and will redeem even the worst occurrences.

            In this time of political uncertainty, we can rely on the promises that our God provides for us.  Never stop your prayers.  They are the antidote to selfishness and bigotry.  If we simply do unto others what we would have them do unto us, we can create a world there bullies have no power and bitterness can be lessened.  The legacy that has been left to us by Jesus’ followers is immense.  They all lost their lives in the course of their work.  Their faith is what has been passed down to us.  In the coming years, our faith is the legacy that we have to give to our children and our followers.  That legacy doesn’t depend on any political message.  It depends on our willingness to give ourselves in the service of others.  God will bless all that we do.

Spiritual Leadership

           

            I can remember how deeply impressed that I was with what Dr. Martin Luther King had to say during the days of the Civil Rights Movement and how distressed we were when he was killed by a lone assassin in Memphis.  I also was lifted by Billy Graham and the way that he helped this country count its blessings and move forward in honor of God.  There were also some television preachers who annoyed me.  I would listen to Jerry Falwell and wonder how he could ever think that he was eligible to be given a pulpit or Pat Robertson who always let us know how far we were from God’s love. Mr. Robertson even told us once that he had re-directed a hurricane from our shores with his profound prayer. in all of this ,I am afraid that we have lost our deep spiritual leaders who could lead us out of the depths into the glory of God.

            I can’t tell you how disappointed that I was when Franklin Graham, Billy’s son, spoke at the memorial service for those killed in the collapse of the twin towers in September, 2001.  He offered a speech that blamed the entire Muslim world for that atrocity.  He lowered rather than lifted my spirit.  I came away from that speech angry and distressed that we seemed to have so little understanding of how it is that God works in this deeply dangerous world.  I’m sorry for this because I think that we need spiritual leadership in this terribly raucous time to lead us back into the place that God would like us to be.  I am not impressed with the statements of bigotry and hate that have been so evident in this political campaign.  I want this country to be respected around the world.  When hatred seems to be the driving force in our political world, I can’t see how the rest of the world can have any respect for us.

            There is certainly hope.  We have had a series of terrible events in this world that I think have brought out the best in many people.  There have been the terrible floods in the South, particularly Louisiana; the fires in California and the destructive storms in the Midwest that have sometimes spilled over into our area.  In each of these places, lives and homes have been lost and there has been great suffering.  Also, in each of these places there have been heroes who have given their all to try to rescue  and give back lives to people who without their help would have lost everything.  I have been watching these same saints working in the terrible earthquake in Italy to bring small children out of the rubble and to make partly whole what might have  been completely lost..

            Jesus always tried to rescue rather than condemn.  When he came upon need, he did all that he could to give life and health back to those who had lost it.  There is the beautiful story of the woman that he met in Samaria who asked him to heal her daughter.  Jesus at first argued with her telling her that it was not proper to throw the food of the people to the dogs.  The woman replied to him that even the dogs ate the crumbs that fell from the table. Jesus was taught by this encounter and told the woman that her daughter was at that moment healed.  He caused the child of a Roman soldier to be healed and given back her life after all of the people around her knew that she had died.  Jesus even told the thief on the cross beside him on Calvary that this day he would be with him in Paradise.  There is a singular beauty to Jesus’ encounters with people in these ways.  When I read about them, they increase my faith and tell me that my role in this world is to pay attention to what our Lord did and to follow in his way.

            In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the writer tells us to remember to always show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so many have entertained angels unaware, and to remember those in prison as though we were in prison with them; and those who were being tortured as though we were being tortured ourselves.  This is a call for empathy and compassion, two of the great words that Jesus exemplified during his life.  It is exactly what those responders are doing in the floods, fires and destructive weather to help the people around them.

            I can see in all of this why God has created the Church.  We are here to give life and hope to the world not by the things that we say, but primarily by the things that we do.  Working to restore that which has been lost is our mission.  For Dr. King it was civil rights.  He went to prison during that battle.  He eventually lost his life on behalf of the sanitation workers in Memphis who were striking for a better work life.  I wonder what he would think of our political process today.

            Our religious life is the key to all of this.  When we treat each other with love rather than with hate we set the stage for redemption.  Redemption not only for the crises that we and others are facing but also redemption in the eyes of our God for all that we have done and what we have not done.  God bless us on our way.

Religion and Faith

           

            There was a picture on television this week of a little Syrian boy sitting in a chair, covered with blood and debris, just traumatized.  He had been a victim of an air raid in Aleppo that was a part of the incredibly harsh war that is being waged in that country against the rebels and ISIS by us along with the Syrian government and the Russians.  It was a horrible picture that reminded me of the picture of the small child who had drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in the midst of the outflow of Syrian refugees trying to get away from the horrible violence in their country. There was also a story in the paper this week talking about the first responders in Aleppo, who freed the young child in the photograph; how they are targeted themselves when they move in to try to rescue victims who are in collapsed buildings.  Many of them are killed doing this work.  What is notable to me is that these first responders ask no questions before they rescue.  They don’t care what the religion is of the victims.  They are simply aware of the need that is before them..  I also remember the picture taken by the photographer Margaret Bourke-Wright of the dust bowl family in the middle of the depression.  They were in California and they looked hungry and scared in the middle of their own trauma. That picture became a symbol of the depression that the whole country was experiencing.  Those pictures and stories are heartbreaking because we would all like to do something to take care of these people, although from far away, that is usually impossible. 

            Taking care of these people sounds like a small thing, but it isn’t.  I am touched by Jesus’ compassion in the Gospel of Luke when he is in the synagogue on the Sabbath and sees a woman who is all bent over hand can hardly walk.  He doesn’t hesitate.  He goes to her and he says: you are free from your ailment. He laid hands on her and she stood up and began praising God.   The leader of the synagogue was indignant, telling Jesus that there are six days in which to do your work, but not on the Sabbath.  Jesus yelled at him and made a great case for a woman bound by her illness for eighteen long years who ought to be freed from it, perhaps particularly on the Sabbath.  Jesus didn’t care what that woman believed; he simply knew that she needed to be healed.

            Again we have the collision of religion and faith.  Jesus is showing the people in that place the beauty of faith, the exercise of what our religion teaches us.  Doing nothing on the Sabbath is an article of religion.  Healing a woman bent over and in misery is an article of faith. Taking care of people in Aleppo in collapsed buildings is an article of faith. This is what our Lord taught us over and over again.  We are here on this earth to take care of what we find around us; to make the world a more habitable place for everyone.  Are there problems?  Of course there are.  Fixing as many of them as we can is our mission.  We aren’t sent by our Lord to make everyone believe the same things.  We are not theology teachers in this world to be sure that everyone has the right religion.  Actually, that sounds silly.  We are more like God’s emergency workers here in a chaotic world to rescue as many people as possible from the effects of the chaos that they have experienced. 

            Every week we come to our churches to worship and to lay our lives at the foot of the altar.  We are painfully aware that our lives are full of things that we wish we hadn’t done.  We ask our God for forgiveness in our confession every week.  That is why we can all approach the altar without fear that we won’t be accepted.  Everyone is invited to this altar to receive the sacrament.  That is why we are here.  I once heard Krister Stendahl, who had been the dean of  Harvard Divinity School tell me that once when he was celebrating the Eucharist at Harvard Chapel, a Sikh had come to the altar rail to receive the sacrament.  A Sikh, he said.  Wasn’t he worried about what he believed?  No, he wasn’t.  He was holding out his hands for the sacrament and I gave it to him, Dr. Stendahl said.  That is the distinction between faith and religion.  We offer the sacrament to anyone who comes because it is our command from our Lord.  What we all believe can come later, when we find ourselves in the presence of our God.  Then we will know.  Right now, we need our faith.

             I have always known that we aren’t the only religion in this world.  Muslims can claim a space, as can Jews, Hindus, Buddhists Sikhs and people of all of the ways that there are in this world of worshipping our God.  Respecting each other’s religion is one of the ways that we have of making this world a better place.  Remember, Jesus was never a Christian.  He was a Jew from the moment that he was born until his death.  Yes, he became the Christ and the basis of what we believe as Christians, but he never negated the other religions that had been created to celebrate the goodness of God.

            Can you imagine anyone saying harsh things about the Dalai Lama, or about Elie Wiesel, who survived the Nazi Concentration camps. Or about Brigham Young or any of the people who created religious communities in our history.  They were all faithful, and they were all flawed, but their work in this life was always to make this world a better place for everyone.  They also, by the way that they lived their lives, had something to teach all of us about the meaning of faith and how it can make a difference in this world.

            Our mission in this world is to make a difference.  When we help one another, we show our love, which is an outgrowth of our faith, and a response to the call of our Lord.

Our Possessions and our Responsiblity to Others

            We lost our little dog Gracie recently.  She had been declining for some time; we took her to the vet several times and gave her the medication that was prescribed.  Last Saturday night, she was unable to move her back legs, she lay on the floor panting, obviously in pain.  We looked at her and knew that we couldn’t simply let her lie there; that we had to do something about it.  We called the veterinarian and took her there.  We held her as they gave her an injection that put her to sleep.  It was a hard thing for us to do, we loved her dearly; but it was necessary.  Suffering is not something that I wanted for that little dog.  We owed her that much.

            Most of us have had moments like that in our lives; times when we have had to let go of those whom we loved.  Generally we have no choice in the matter.  Both Rosie and I have lost our parents and our grandparents and our uncles and aunts.  A dear friend of ours lost his daughter also recently..  Life is beautiful, but it has an end date.  We all know that.  It is necessary to live our lives with that in mind.

            Jesus was asked by a man to tell his brother to share his inheritance with him.  Jesus replied with a statement that said that he should take care and not let his life be ruled by his possessions.  He followed that with a parable about a rich man whose land produced in abundance.  He said:  What shall I do?  I shall pull down my barns and build larger ones so that I can store my crops.  God said to him, you Fool!  This night your life will be required of you.  We need to be very careful.  Our lives are not about our things and the wealth that we have accumulated.  We live our lives in the sight of God, with all of the ways that our God has given us to live.  We are asked to take care of one another; to love each other and our neighbor with the same Love that God has lavished on us.  Our possessions are simply tools to be used in the living of our lives and the exercise of that love.

            When I look around this world, I don’t see much of that being done.  I see great divisions in our political parties; all of them trying to accumulate the wealth that they need to meet their needs.  I hear terrible things coming out of the mouths of these leaders and I worry where their anger will take us.  This nation needs to have deep concern for those who are poor, outcast, without means to take care of themselves.  We can’t simply build bigger barns to store our wealth.  We need to use the great resources that we have been given by our God to take care of God’s people who are in need.

            I am discouraged by our current political situation.  We can make jokes about Donald Trump’s wild statements or about Hilary Clinton’s baggage; but ultimately we need to decide what is right for the good of this country and beyond that for the good of the world.  We are not the only ones who live here.  There are countless refugees from places where there is great distress; there are many immigrants who have come to our country who want nothing more than to live healthy lives.  I know that God loves all of these people and demands from us that we open our eyes to see the hurt and the devastation around us. 

            It is not necessary that we live lives of fear.  Those who wish us ill are certainly not a majority and with the help of our God can be managed.  We will find ways to do that.  We need to curb the anger that exists among us, pitting people of color against our police, and people of means against those who are poor so that we can all move ahead together.  Whatever we need to do that well is what our government needs to provide.  Shouting damning statements back and forth is certainly not the answer.  It was great to see the police and the black lives matter group gathered in Dallas to mourn the lives of the officers who died and to support each other in their common grief.  That is the way forward.

            We will bury the ashes of our little dog and cry our tears of grief and then we will get on with our lives and try to make those lives of ours count in the greater plan that our God has for this universe.  Let us continue to love and comfort each other and be the angels that God intends us to be for the good of the earth.

Policing and Race

           

            My grandson wants to be a policeman.  He has wanted this for a long time.  He found a course of study in his high school that taught the students how to do police work and he excelled in it.  Since then, he has tried to find jobs as a security guard until the time would come for him to join a real police department.  He is a good kid.  We have always loved him and he shows to me every indication that a career as a police officer would be an excellent choice for him.

            On the sides of police cars all over the country are the words  To Protect and Serve. Those words are an attempt to convey the mission of the police force to the community.  The idea is to be a force that keeps order in our towns and  protects  the citizens  from any threat.  I think that in the last decade or so, this excellent mission has been somewhat compromised by the increase in force given to our police and by the inherent racism that also exists in our society.  This was never intentional.  The increase in force started with the STAT teams who began to arm themselves and to behave as military forces.  They were equipped by surplus defense department equipment.  There is hardly a big city police department that doesn’t have STAT teams and several armored cars or other pieces of large style military equipment.

             The racist streak that permeates all of our society comes with a long history.  We enslaved African Americans from the start in this nation.  Their economic value was seen early in the South as plantations grew up, raised their crops and used slaves as their workers.  The Civil War brought an end to some of the effects of slavery, but the practice continued long after the war and is still with us today.  African Americans serve frequently in lower paying jobs and live in parts of our cities that white people don’t often frequent.  It isn’t hard to find examples of this; every city has its ghettos. 

            This has produced an “us and them” mindset in our culture.  When the Black Lives Matter movement started, many white people didn’t quite understand what was being said.  The counter argument: All Lives Matter was certainly true, but missed the point.  The problem was that African American people felt that they were often targeted by police because of their race.  Ferguson, Missouri was the beginning of an understanding that there was something terribly wrong with the way that police officers were approaching people of color.  The killing of Michael Brown in that community by officer Darren Wilson triggered a protest that was felt all over the country.  Subsequently the white police officer involved in that killing was exonerated, which brought more protests.  This has happened over and over again in our culture.  Whenever there is a police shooting of an African American, there is a protest, followed by an exoneration; recently, this predictable protesting grew into horror after two police killings in two nights in Baton Rouge and in St. Paul provided an excuse for a former army veteran to kill five police officers and to wound a number of others in Dallas, Texas who at that time were supervising a Black Lives Matter protest.  These three horrible events need to be clearly seen as an indictment of all of us for the way that we act toward one another.  We need desperately to find a way to help our police and our citizens of whatever race to get along and to see the “Protect and Serve” words as truly meaningful for everyone in our communities.

            I was impressed by the way that the Pittsburgh Police department accompanied those who were protesting in the streets of this city.  There was no animosity, only a spirit of protection for those involved in the parade and the protest.  That is a model that ought to be held up for all of us in this society as a way for our police departments to act out their mission. Certainly, this is what the Dallas police were trying to do.

            My hope is that my grandson will be able to enter a police department where those words Protect and Serve are deeply meaningful to the members of his team.  They are wonderful words and mean a great deal to our society.  We certainly need protection and we need competent police to serve us with their skills.