A friend and classmate from Seminary posted the following reflection this past spring.  He shares an experience while riding in a car with a colleague, an ELCA Seminarian who is African-American.  His colleague is driving, and is stopped by a Minnesota State Patrol officer. The experience was a tense one for the driver, causing him to respond after it was over to my friend, “Thanks for being in the car with me.”

It is an injustice that people, because of the color of their skin, feel totally unsafe in interactions with law enforcement today. On the one hand, maybe it was a blessing that my friend – who is white – was in the car with him that day. The interaction stayed civil.  Yet, the driver’s comment reflects a bias that automatically assumed the worst in the officer who stopped him that day. The sobering reality is that it’s likely the state patrol officer initially assumed the worst in the driver, an African-American.

To be fair, both attitudes are understandable. Questionable tactics and clear abuses of power by law enforcement officers has African-Americans living in fear every time they encounter a law enforcement officer. On the other side of the coin, there are good law enforcement officers out there who are being stereotyped, and thus hypersensitive to gross misinterpretations of their actions while on the job. However, my greatest sadness, as a Christian, is that both groups likely assume the worst in each other. My sadness is that trust has been so eroded that neither side is willing, much less is interested, in sitting down at the same table, face to face.

My struggle these days is that people – faithful, good people – are spending too much time shouting about whose side God is on, and less about being Ambassadors for Christ in whom God is using to be about the ministry of reconciling ALL people to Godself. Fulfillment of promise in Isaiah and Matthew suggests a God is primarily concerned in being with us. This is good news to the Gentile and the Jew; the vulnerable and the powerful; the liberal and the conservative; the African-American and the law enforcement officer. Of course, in order for that good news to be heard it requires challenging, sobering, and honest conversation and self-reflection – that’s real repentance.  I do believe people can’t get there, however, unless there is a prophetic voice that invites and calls people who assume the worst in each other to sit down together. That voice has to come from the church; it has to come from US.

In 2017, what would it look like for congregations to do work and ministry that gathers people and parties in which trust has been so eroded? What might it mean to proclaim that no matter how broken or angry, no matter how powerful or corrupt, Jesus invites us to his Table just the same? How might the church get folks like my friend’s African-American colleague and law enforcement leaders to sit down and work towards understanding each other and a solution? What would it mean for congregations to be bridges to reconciliation rather than picking sides?

I think what’s at stake in this is our integrity as church. As Lutherans, we claim to be all about God’s unconditional grace and justification. Perhaps in 2017 as we listen to Matthew’s Gospel and this Jesus who is God with all people, we might imagine how that looks in our communities that are very divided along lines of race, class, gender, political, and a whole host of other realities right now.