My reflection on Charleston

[image error] Looking for the Light

John 1:5

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

I’m having a hard time reconciling that Bible verse with reality today. I grew up 30 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina where 9 people were murdered in a church prayer meeting last night.

Didn’t darkness win?

How do we now pray in faith for the families of those who seemed to have received no divine protection while they prayed?

Where was the light last night?

I know what to say…that God works all things together for the good…comforts the broken hearted…and has defeated the grave.

But before we rush to the bumper sticker section of our belief system, shouldn’t we acknowledge the magnitude of the darkness?

The horrors of hatred and injustice?

How do I as a white man even begin to assess & internalize the pain & outrage my African American brothers and sisters are experiencing? Any platitude I can offer seems pitiful right about now.

I know the light is greater than the darkness,

but why does it seem like this time, like so many times before, the light showed up too late?

The apostle John claims that Christ’s light shines IN the darkness.

Leonard Cohen famously said that the cracks are how the light gets in.

I know we’ll see the light shining in the days to come.

We’ll see it IN the unity of the Charleston community and THROUGH the resilience of the family of faith.

Hopefully we’ll see it IN and THROUGH the renewed energy toward conversations & changes in our nation that are long overdue.

I know the light is shining & I’m asking God to help me see it.

In fact, I see glimpses of light even as I write this.

I see it in the vigil where the saints are singing On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand…

And through the crowd gathered on the lawn outside the church singing Amazing Grace.

But it takes more than familiar songs to overcome this kind of darkness.

So instead of empty answers to endless questions…

I’m offering a prayer that is also a challenge:

In this moment may our churches be the light we are desperate to see.

The exact expression of this is hard to articulate or predict, and it doesn’t take the pain and anger away, but I’m searching and somehow I’m hopeful.

And I’m looking for the light…within.

“You are the light of the world.”

Matthew 5:14