173 Seconds

When I wrote tomorrow's sermon, I was unaware of George Floyd. I had no knowledge of his existence. I had no concept that an officer would hear him utter the words, "I can't breathe," before becoming unresponsive for 173 seconds before the officer's knee was removed from his neck.
173 seconds is longer than I normally heat my mug of tea in the microwave as I anxiously await it being ready.
173 seconds is much longer than I am willing to wait for a page on my browser to load.
173 seconds is longer than it takes me to relieve myself and wash my hands well.
173 seconds is much longer than most of us can hold our breaths.
173 seconds is easily long enough to recognize that someone whose neck I have been pinning down is in severe distress, when they have been unresponsive all the while.
It is easy to gauge the impulse behind one's actions in such a context. It is easy to understand what is driving one's decisions. Pinning another with a knee to the neck while they say they can't breathe is a pretty clear statement that one's actions are not being driven by an oath to serve and protect. It is pretty clear they are not following an impulse to create a safe and secure society. It is pretty clear that they are not being directed by the desires of God's Spirit lavished upon us to be about God's mission of reconciliation, love, justice, mercy, and compassion.
173 seconds is longer than most of us are willing to sit in silence to reflect on what God wants of our lives.
173 seconds is way too long to determine that a knee to the neck is not in keeping with the ways of God.
173 seconds is an indictment of a system we want to charge with upholding justice, but which fails to understand that true justice first considers the needs of society's most vulnerable members, making the meeting of their needs the benchmark of the welfare of the whole.
173 seconds is much longer than it should take us to recognize that we have a severe problem in our society that stems from injustice, inequity, greed, and the abuse of power to support that same system rather than address the needs of those is oppresses.
173 seconds is more than enough time to find the determination to speak on behalf of those whose voices we silence with a knee to the neck.
173 seconds to quietly end a life.


— ©Copyright 2020, Christopher B. Harbin

http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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