Justice + Mercy | What Color is God? Week 3

When you hear the word “justice”, the idea of mercy doesn’t usually follow. After all, those two are polar opposites, right? Surprisingly enough, God says that they’re more related than we think. Join us this week as Chuck Mingo and Brian Stevenson teach us what it takes to walk humbly.

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    – We know that perspective matters.
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    See what we see often depends a lot on where we stand,
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    but there's actually another factor
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    that doesn't get talked about nearly as much,
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    it's motivation, desire, like what we want to see happen.
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    – And that matters a lot, especially
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    for the topic that we're going
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    to talk about today, which is justice.
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    At Crossroads, we want to see justice, love,
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    and mercy, happiness, Kyle has his shirt on
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    for the third week in a row.
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    – I did. I did wash it. – Very important.
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    – I did finally wash it.
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    – The Bible tells us just that in Micah 6:8, it says:
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    – You know, all of us want justice in our lives.
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    But what does justice actually look like?
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    Like how do we decide that an outcome really is just?
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    – And the headlines this week,
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    we're asking ourselves that question more and more.
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    And that's a question that no matter
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    where you stand on the line, you want to know.
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    And it's complicated.
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    There are mixed emotions around
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    what's happening right now,
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    what's happening with justice, can be served?
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    Is it served? What does it even mean?
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    – Exactly, and it's actually exactly
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    what Chuck's going to talk about today,
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    how our view of justice
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    might be quite a bit different than God's.
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    – Hey, welcome to week three of What Color is God?
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    Today we're going to get into a thorny subject:
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    doing justice.
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    And remember, I'm the pastor you like,
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    so let's hang in there together today.
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    But it's hard, it is hard to make sense
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    of all the crazy things that are happening
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    in our world today.
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    Is there bias in our society?
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    Is there bias in my own heart?
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    All of these questions can get thorny
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    and can get challenging,
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    but God has an answer for them.
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    And in this series, we're trying to unpack those answers.
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    So the first week of this series, Brian laid out the what.
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    Last week I talked about the how.
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    And today we're going to talk about doing justice.
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    Now last week, I invited you to join us
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    for a reading experience through the Book of Micah.
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    I hope you did your homework. If you didn't,
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    I guess since you're watching the video,
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    you could pause and do it now.
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    But either way,
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    I hope you did get a chance to take that in.
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    And the verse that we're really looking at today
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    is Micah 6:8, which says this:
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    Now, we've got to understand how do we
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    apply that verse to our time today,
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    because those words were written
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    thousands of years ago.
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    And that's what we're going to look at today
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    by breaking it down into its three parts.
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    We're going to talk about what does it mean to do justice?
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    What about this idea of loving kindness,
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    or some say love mercy?
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    And how do we walk humbly with God?
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    Now, maybe one place we can start
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    in terms of agreement is I think
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    we can all agree racism is unjust.
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    And yet maybe you don't know that
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    some sociologists would say there are levels to racism.
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    Racism shows up at a basic level
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    in terms of internalized racism.
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    So whether that is the internal thoughts
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    and biases and prejudices that we have,
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    and all of us have them,
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    for people who look different than us
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    or from different racial or ethnic groups,
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    or maybe it's the ways in which
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    the racism we experience externally
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    impacts how we view ourselves.
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    That could be part of internalized racism,
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    but that's kind of a base level.
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    And above that is interpersonal racism.
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    And again, this is the stuff that
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    we probably would agree to as well.
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    Like, hey, the words we shouldn't say to each other,
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    the words we shouldn't call each other.
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    Those kinds of things are at an interpersonal level.
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    It's one person discriminating against another person.
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    And yet the sociologist would say there's
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    a level in which racism can be institutional.
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    And when I think institution, I think about a building.
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    So it's like, hey, is there racism
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    playing out in the building that's called the school
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    or education or is it playing out
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    in the building that's called the jail
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    or the criminal justice system?
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    Is it playing out in the building
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    that is the hospital or the health care system?
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    Those are ways that institutional racism
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    could play out.
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    And then finally, there's this idea
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    of structural racism, that there's a collection
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    of institutions that together could have practices
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    that are, again, happening because
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    of internalized and interpersonal and institutional
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    that are affecting society as a whole.
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    One example for this is, honestly,
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    what voting look like in our country before 1964 and 1965
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    where there was a structural racism applied
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    to our voting system where if you were black,
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    African-American, a person of color,
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    you didn't have the right to vote
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    or you had to jump through all of these
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    unjust, injust hoops to vote and have your vote count.
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    So we see this in different systems and structures.
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    Now, let me just say this.
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    I'm not assuming that you believe
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    that there is a such thing
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    as institutional or structural racism.
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    However, I do want to propose today that
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    the Bible actually has something to say about that.
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    So that's what we're going to dig into a bit in our time.
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    But I also want you to know
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    why I'm talking about those things,
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    because as a church, we have committed ourselves
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    to addressing structural injustices
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    in a variety of different ways.
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    I mean, let me give you some examples.
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    We didn't just say we think people shouldn't be in poverty
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    and therefore we should love our neighbor.
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    This is maybe if you have a challenge,
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    you might be like, "I don't want to hear
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    about all this big picture stuff.
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    I just want to love my neighbor.
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    If I love my neighbor, it'll all work out in the wash."
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    And I just want to say maybe, but maybe not.
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    And so when it came to CityLink Center,
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    we believed as a church we need to do something
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    to create a structure by which people
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    can experience a freedom from poverty into thriving.
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    We start at 6 after care homes in India
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    because we didn't want to just see a neighbor loved,
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    one girl rescued out of sex slavery.
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    We want to end the practice.
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    So not only do we do that,
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    but we encourage and support.
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    What is it looked like for people to get busted
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    when they're pimps that are having young girls
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    kidnaped and raped for profit?
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    We just announced our 25th anniversary
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    that we're partnering with the Restavek Freedom Foundation,
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    a foundation that is committed to ending
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    the practice of modern day slavery in Haiti,
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    in a country where most of those people
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    have the same race, but there's a difference
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    in status and there are children in slavery.
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    And so as a church, and I love this about our church,
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    we are a church that wants to end systemic injustices
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    in a bunch of different areas.
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    I love that about us. I'm proud of that.
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    And I believe God calls the church to be that way.
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    And so if you read in Micah last week,
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    you saw that, you saw this through line
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    of God challenging the nation of Israel
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    at a national level because of injustice.
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    One of the places that shows up is in Micah 3:9-11,
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    where the prophet says this:
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    Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
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    and rulers of the house of Israel.
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    Again, he's talking to the national leadership
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    when he says: Heads of the House of Jacob
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    and rulers of the House of Israel
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    who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight,
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    who built Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.
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    Its heads give judgment for a bribe,
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    meaning the political leaders are taking bribes.
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    Its priests teach for a price;
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    its prophets practiced divination for money,
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    meaning its pastoral leaders are actually
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    on the take and doing things
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    that aren't necessarily God's voice.
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    But they're doing it to manipulate the people.
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    Yet they lean on the Lord and say,
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    "Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
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    No disaster shall come upon us."
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    And so when you read through the Book of Micah,
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    and so much of the Old Testament,
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    what you find is this: The Bible
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    does not separate personal righteousness
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    from public righteousness.
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    And God calls His church to be
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    a group of people who pursue both,
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    that we should come against
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    the personal injustices that we see
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    or that we participate in.
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    And we should also come against
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    the public injustices that we see around us.
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    You know, the word "justice" in the Old Testament
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    is the word "mispat" in Hebrew.
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    It's a word that shows a 418 times
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    in the Old Testament
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    and it's applied to the widow, to the poor,
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    to those who are immigrants, to the foreigner,
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    to those who are the fatherless.
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    It's applied multiple times to the people of God.
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    And we're called to do justice,
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    to seek justice or to keep justice.
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    And God himself even defines Himself with these terms.
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    Psalm 89:14 says: justice and righteousness
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    flow from the throne of God.
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    God says this is a character trait of who I am.
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    And this is shows up in a bunch of different scriptures.
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    In fact, there's a slide there,
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    if you want to just do some more digging.
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    Just take a note of that
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    and read those scriptures when you have a chance.
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    But let me also say this.
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    Jesus himself supports this same view
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    of justice in the New Testament,
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    specifically in the Gospels.
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    Matthew 23:23 is Jesus having an encounter,
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    really having a corrective encounter
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    with those who are leaders of the day.
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    And again, these are the political and civic
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    and religious leaders of the day.
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    And Jesus says this to them in Matthew 23, he says:
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    Do you hear the echo to Micah 6:8 there?
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    So even Jesus is saying there is a place for us
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    to very much care about our private righteousness.
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    And there's also a place for us to hear
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    God's call for us to care about
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    public righteousness and public justice as well.
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    So God uses intense language when
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    He's talking about injustice
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    because he cares about it deeply.
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    And having said that, we're not experts at Crossroads.
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    We're trying to wrestle through
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    what does this mean for us as a church to live this out?
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    And so we want to lean into people who are experts.
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    And so that's why I love that Brian Tome,
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    our senior pastor, got a chance to go to Alabama
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    and spend some time with a guy who is living this out,
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    who is an expert.
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    His name is Bryan Stevenson.
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    You may have heard of him, but this interview
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    that Brian and him do together is so powerful
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    we couldn't not share it with you.
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    So we're going be sharing pieces of it
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    all throughout our time right now.
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    Let's start with the first part.
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    – You know, at Crossroads we talk about
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    changing the world, and it's very rarely
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    that I actually get to be with somebody
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    who right now is changing the world
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    in ways that are being understood by the masses.
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    It's an honor to be here in Montgomery, Alabama,
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    with, I'd like to say a new friend,
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    but I couldn't say it just in 10 minutes.
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    But Bryan Stevenson. – Thank you.
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    – This is really, really, really an honor.
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    Most of us or many of us may not know you or your story.
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    Just tell us about who you are. What's your story?
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    – Sure.
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    My name is Bryan Stevenson. I'm a lawyer.
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    And over the last 35 years, I've represented
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    the poor, the accused, the condemned on death row.
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    I fought for children prosecuted as adults,
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    the wrongly convicted, the unfairly sentenced.
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    And I believe that there's a justice deficit
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    in our communities and our nation.
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    And so we've been trying to correct that.
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    And I come from a faith perspective that believes
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    that we are required to do justice.
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    And that's more than something you say,
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    it's something that you actually do.
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    I think when the prophet Micah said do justice,
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    he meant that we should be actively trying
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    to increase justice where we see injustice,
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    eradicate inequality.
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    I believe in loving mercy,
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    and that means being compassionate
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    and looking beyond the challenges that we see.
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    And then I believe, as the prophet says,
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    that we should walk humbly with God.
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    And that has shaped my journey.
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    That has brought me here to Montgomery, Alabama,
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    where for the last 30 years
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    the Equal Justice Initiative
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    has been trying to provide services to the poor.
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    And we've been creating spaces to help the nation
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    begin to reckon with the history of racial inequality.
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    – This is all great. It's all great.
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    Fantastic, Bryan, but come on,
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    you're not saying the most important stuff,
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    that you actually look like Michael B. Jordan.
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    I mean, come on, are you serious?
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    How does it feel that Michael B. Jordan
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    looks like you and they chose him
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    to be you in a movie called Just Mercy?
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    – Well, you know, they didn't straight up say
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    because he looks like you
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    we're going to get him to be you.
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    What's funny was when he came,
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    we spent a lot of time together
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    and he was so committed
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    to getting everything exactly right.
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    He wanted to be as authentic as possible.
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    And he would say, "Well, how do you move in court
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    and how do you do this?"
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    And he would watch me and all these kind of things.
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    And and he was just so committed
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    to being authentic and getting it right.
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    And there was a moment when I did have to tell him,
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    "I want you to be authentic.
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    I want you to get it right.
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    But when it comes to, like, the physique,
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    you can keep the Black Panther body when you play me.
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    I don't need you to get that exactly right."
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    I was really honored to have him play me in the film,
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    and I thought he did a brilliant job,
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    as did the whole cast.
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    And it's been great to see the story
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    of some of my work presented in that format.
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    – I'm white. I don't know,
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    maybe one of the people doesn't see color,
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    but I am white.
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    And a lot of white people,
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    when they hear calls for justice,
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    it sounds like just let people get off with things.
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    I don't think you believe that.
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    What -- so what-- How does those things all fit together?
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    – You know, I think we have this sense that
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    when you do wrong, you should be held accountable.
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    And when you do right,
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    there should be some affirmation of that.
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    I mean, at its core, that's what we're trying to get to.
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    We have people that make mistakes.
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    We have people that fall down.
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    But if we react too harshly, then it becomes unjust.
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    In the 1970s, we said that people
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    who are dealing with drug addiction
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    and drug dependency are criminals.
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    And that's the moment when we declared
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    this misguided war on drugs and we started
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    putting hundreds of thousands of people in jails
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    and prisons because of addiction and dependency.
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    I don't think that was fair because
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    I believe addiction and dependency is a health problem
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    and we need a health care response.
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    We've gotten acculturated in America
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    so that when someone says, "I'm an alcoholic,"
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    we don't think that they should be in prison.
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    If we see them going to a bar,
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    we don't call the police.
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    We worry about them.
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    But we understand the nature of that.
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    And what's happened when you live in a society
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    that gets governed by fear and anger,
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    you start tolerating things and accepting things
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    that you know are unfair:
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    putting children in adult prison.
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    So we have thirteen states with no minimum age
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    for trying a child as an adult.
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    So I sometimes represent nine year old kids
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    who are facing 50 and 60 year prison sentences
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    in adult prisons.
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    I've held thirteen year old children
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    who've been placed in adult jails
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    where they were beaten
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    and sexually assaulted and tormented.
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    And I know that most people,
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    everybody who could be in that space with me
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    would see the unfairness of that.
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    The justice question comes when
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    the question is posed: do we do about that?
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    Do we separate ourselves? Do we isolate ourselves?
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    Do we look away?
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    Or are we compelled to do something?
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    And that's why, for me, there is an urgency
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    in this country to do something
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    about the over incarceration
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    that has condemned so many.
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    We've got 70 million Americans
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    with criminal arrest histories, which means
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    that when they try to get jobs
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    or try to get loans, they're disfavored.
  • 00:14:55
    We've got nearly five million people
  • 00:14:57
    on probation or parole.
  • 00:14:58
    The United States has the highest rate
  • 00:15:00
    of incarceration in the world.
  • 00:15:02
    And we don't seem to be bothered by that.
  • 00:15:04
    And so the justice part is making sure that
  • 00:15:09
    we are actually reflecting our basic values.
  • 00:15:12
    We don't put crimes in jails and prisons.
  • 00:15:14
    You can't put a crime in jail or prison.
  • 00:15:17
    You put a person in jail or prison.
  • 00:15:19
    And if you believe, as I believe,
  • 00:15:20
    that people are not crimes, then you have to
  • 00:15:23
    kind of give a little more thought to
  • 00:15:25
    how we think about what's an acceptable punishment,
  • 00:15:28
    what's a just punishment.
  • 00:15:30
    And mercy for me is the important part of it,
  • 00:15:33
    because mercy is what we give, what we show
  • 00:15:37
    to others who don't deserve it.
  • 00:15:38
    Mercy is not for the deserving,
  • 00:15:41
    it's for the undeserving.
  • 00:15:42
    It's the way we reinforce what it means
  • 00:15:45
    to be persuaded that there's grace,
  • 00:15:48
    that there's compassion,
  • 00:15:50
    that love has a power to restore and redeem.
  • 00:15:53
    And I just think in too many places
  • 00:15:56
    we've moved away from that.
  • 00:15:58
    We've allowed fear and anger to cause us
  • 00:16:00
    to believe things that are ultimately
  • 00:16:02
    leading to oppression and unfairness,
  • 00:16:05
    excess and abuse.
  • 00:16:07
    And I see a lot of that in the spaces where I go.
  • 00:16:10
    – So help us, what is justice?
  • 00:16:12
    Because it does seem like when we talk about justice,
  • 00:16:15
    first of all, we talk about mercy based on how we feel,
  • 00:16:17
    we're just letting somebody off? What is it?
  • 00:16:19
    – No, I think what we're inviting people to do
  • 00:16:22
    is to actually acknowledge the wrong they've done
  • 00:16:25
    with an understanding that through acknowledgment
  • 00:16:28
    there are these possibilities that open up
  • 00:16:31
    for restoration, redemption.
  • 00:16:33
    And I actually do believe that
  • 00:16:37
    when we begin to accept responsibility,
  • 00:16:39
    we actually begin to recognize why what we've done
  • 00:16:42
    isn't something we should continue to do.
  • 00:16:44
    If we don't accept responsibility,
  • 00:16:45
    then you have to worry that people
  • 00:16:46
    are going to continue to do the things
  • 00:16:48
    they shouldn't do over and over again.
  • 00:16:50
    And we ought to be inviting people to say,
  • 00:16:53
    "I plead guilty."
  • 00:16:54
    But when you create a system that will crush you.
  • 00:16:57
    If you were told pleading guilty
  • 00:16:59
    means you'll never drive again,
  • 00:17:00
    if you were told that you were going to go
  • 00:17:02
    to prison for the rest of your life if you plead guilty,
  • 00:17:04
    you actually undermine the healthier instinct
  • 00:17:08
    which we're trying to cultivate,
  • 00:17:09
    which is to have people accept responsibility,
  • 00:17:13
    to embrace the wrongfulness of what they've done
  • 00:17:15
    so that they can get to a better place.
  • 00:17:17
    And an unjust system makes that harder
  • 00:17:21
    rather than making that easier.
  • 00:17:25
    So Bryan Stephenson talks about this justice deficit
  • 00:17:28
    and that as followers of Jesus
  • 00:17:29
    we're called to increase justice.
  • 00:17:32
    Now, you might be challenged
  • 00:17:33
    by some of what you heard,
  • 00:17:35
    but don't miss the message that there is something
  • 00:17:38
    for us as followers of Jesus when it comes to this.
  • 00:17:40
    And we have to understand our context.
  • 00:17:43
    One of the things we're doing in this series
  • 00:17:45
    is reckoning with our reality.
  • 00:17:47
    And part of the reality of the American story
  • 00:17:49
    is that we have grown up, been raised up
  • 00:17:52
    in a country that has in its historical backdrop,
  • 00:17:55
    a context of injustice that was,
  • 00:17:57
    in fact, along racial lines.
  • 00:18:00
    That if you are black, indigenous, or person of color,
  • 00:18:02
    the likelihood that you have been discriminated against
  • 00:18:05
    or someone in your family's been discriminated against
  • 00:18:07
    based on race is significantly higher
  • 00:18:10
    than if you are white or Caucasian in our country.
  • 00:18:14
    And actually, often times we say,
  • 00:18:16
    "Well, it's usually more a socioeconomic issue as well."
  • 00:18:20
    And I don't deny that those are mostly connected
  • 00:18:23
    and often intricately connected,
  • 00:18:25
    but not always connected.
  • 00:18:26
    And so Bryan Stevenson shared a story
  • 00:18:28
    that kind of demonstrates even if you are not poor,
  • 00:18:33
    in a professional class, but a person of color,
  • 00:18:36
    you can still find yourself being
  • 00:18:38
    discriminated against based on race.
  • 00:18:41
    You can find yourself confronting injustice.
  • 00:18:43
    He tells a powerful story to that end.
  • 00:18:45
    Let's watch it now.
  • 00:18:47
    – Part of justice has to be this situation
  • 00:18:51
    and this situation, if they're apples to apples,
  • 00:18:54
    they both should have the same sentence.
  • 00:18:57
    That's not happening in our country.
  • 00:18:58
    Just go ahead and go down the examples or laundry list
  • 00:19:01
    of how injustice is happening in our country.
  • 00:19:03
    – Well, I mean, the disparities are really profound.
  • 00:19:07
    One in three black male babies born in this country
  • 00:19:09
    is expected to go to jail or prison
  • 00:19:10
    sometime during his lifetime,
  • 00:19:11
    according to the Bureau of Justice.
  • 00:19:13
    That's not because the rate of offending
  • 00:19:15
    are that much greater.
  • 00:19:17
    But I believe there's a presumption
  • 00:19:18
    of dangerousness and guilt
  • 00:19:20
    that we assign to certain people.
  • 00:19:22
    And that presumption then makes it really easy
  • 00:19:25
    for people to be wrongly convicted,
  • 00:19:27
    wrongly accused, unfairly sentenced.
  • 00:19:29
    If you're a black person, black man,
  • 00:19:31
    you're six times more likely to go to prison
  • 00:19:33
    for the same crime committed by a white person.
  • 00:19:36
    – The same crime, same apples to apples, six more.
  • 00:19:39
    – The death penalty has dramatic evidence of this.
  • 00:19:41
    You're 22 times more likely to get sentenced to death
  • 00:19:44
    if you're a black defendant
  • 00:19:45
    convicted of killing a white person,
  • 00:19:47
    race of the victim is the greatest predictor
  • 00:19:49
    of who ends up on death row.
  • 00:19:51
    And these presumptions manifest themselves
  • 00:19:53
    in all kinds of ways.
  • 00:19:54
    So, I mean, I'm a lawyer. I went to Harvard.
  • 00:19:57
    I've got all these degrees and all that stuff,
  • 00:20:00
    and I still have to navigate presumptions
  • 00:20:02
    of dangerousness and guilt.
  • 00:20:03
    I argued the case that the US Supreme Court,
  • 00:20:05
    which we won, that granted relieved a lot of kids.
  • 00:20:07
    I was going around the country doing these hearings.
  • 00:20:09
    And I was in the Midwest to do a hearing,
  • 00:20:11
    had my suit and tie on, got to court early,
  • 00:20:13
    was sitting at defense counsel's table.
  • 00:20:15
    And the judge walked in
  • 00:20:16
    and he saw me sitting there and he got angry.
  • 00:20:18
    He said, "Hey, hey, you get back out there in the hallway.
  • 00:20:20
    You wait until your lawyer gets here.
  • 00:20:22
    I don't want any defendants
  • 00:20:23
    sitting in my courtroom without their lawyer."
  • 00:20:25
    And I had to stand up and apologize.
  • 00:20:26
    I said, "I'm sorry, Your Honor. I didn't introduce myself.
  • 00:20:29
    My name is Bryan Stevenson. I am the lawyer."
  • 00:20:32
    And the judge started laughing
  • 00:20:34
    and the prosecutor started laughing.
  • 00:20:35
    And I made myself laugh
  • 00:20:37
    because I didn't want to disadvantage my client,
  • 00:20:39
    who was more vulnerable than I was.
  • 00:20:40
    The client came in. We did the hearing.
  • 00:20:42
    But afterward I was sitting in my car thinking,
  • 00:20:44
    "I'm a middle aged black man with all of these degrees,
  • 00:20:47
    and I'm still required to laugh at my own humiliation,
  • 00:20:52
    to defend my clients."
  • 00:20:53
    And what pains me at this moment is that
  • 00:20:55
    you can be a pastor, you can be a doctor,
  • 00:20:57
    you can be a lawyer, you can be an engineer.
  • 00:20:59
    You can be loving, you can be kind.
  • 00:21:01
    But if you're black or brown,
  • 00:21:02
    you go places in this country where
  • 00:21:04
    you are required to navigate
  • 00:21:06
    these presumptions of dangerousness and guilt.
  • 00:21:09
    And for a lot of us, and I can speak to this
  • 00:21:11
    because I'm getting older, it's exhausting.
  • 00:21:14
    You get tired of being presumed dangerous and guilty.
  • 00:21:17
    You get tired of having to bear
  • 00:21:18
    the burden of incompetency and of wrongfulness.
  • 00:21:21
    And that is why we need to lift up justice.
  • 00:21:25
    We need to lift this veil that contaminates
  • 00:21:28
    our ability to be one with one another,
  • 00:21:30
    the way that we're supposed to be.
  • 00:21:33
    – You know, doing the hard work now pays off later.
  • 00:21:36
    It's like anything in life.
  • 00:21:37
    And it's why we're investing in projects
  • 00:21:39
    that are changing the world. – That's right.
  • 00:21:41
    We're not holding our money for a rainy day.
  • 00:21:43
    We're spending it on life changing things right now.
  • 00:21:47
    If you want to be a part of
  • 00:21:48
    making a difference through Crossroads,
  • 00:21:51
    you can do something bigger by giving.
  • 00:21:54
    Crossroads is a church that tithes
  • 00:21:56
    and with your generosity, God does amazing things.
  • 00:21:59
    – To be part of the movement of Crossroads
  • 00:22:01
    just take the tithe test, give for 90 days and see
  • 00:22:04
    if God doesn't do something incredible in your life.
  • 00:22:07
    If after that time you don't feel a difference
  • 00:22:09
    in your relationship with God
  • 00:22:10
    and you want your money back,
  • 00:22:11
    we'll actually give it all back. No questions asked.
  • 00:22:14
    Just head to Crossroads.net/tithetest
  • 00:22:16
    to sign up now.
  • 00:22:20
    – That story is hard to hear,
  • 00:22:22
    and yet as he shares it, what I see in him,
  • 00:22:25
    and I was in the room for that,
  • 00:22:27
    is a man who has an ability to show mercy,
  • 00:22:31
    to not hold that against that judge forever.
  • 00:22:33
    Like there's just something powerful happening there.
  • 00:22:35
    And that's the second part of Micah 6:8:
  • 00:22:38
    What does it mean to love kindness or to love mercy?
  • 00:22:41
    Now, the surface level definition of mercy
  • 00:22:44
    that probably comes to mind first when we hear it
  • 00:22:46
    is mercy is just about letting people off the hook.
  • 00:22:50
    And I would say at a surface level, that's true,
  • 00:22:53
    but biblical mercy is so much more than that.
  • 00:22:56
    In fact, if you think about what God did
  • 00:22:58
    to show you and I mercy, it was incredibly costly
  • 00:23:01
    because it cost Him the life of His firstborn Son,
  • 00:23:04
    His first begotten son, Jesus.
  • 00:23:05
    So there's a depth of mercy
  • 00:23:07
    that goes beneath just the surface definition.
  • 00:23:10
    I think it's important that we sit in this,
  • 00:23:12
    because if we're going to journey as a church
  • 00:23:15
    on doing justice together, it has to be coupled
  • 00:23:18
    with loving mercy and offering mercy to each other.
  • 00:23:23
    You know, there's a difference between
  • 00:23:25
    conviction and condemnation.
  • 00:23:28
    And I want to just, if I could,
  • 00:23:30
    pastor my white brothers and sisters
  • 00:23:31
    who are listening here for just a few moments,
  • 00:23:34
    because there's this thing of white guilt
  • 00:23:36
    that's in our culture right now.
  • 00:23:38
    And it's it's real. It's a real thing.
  • 00:23:40
    And I just want to say that maybe
  • 00:23:43
    guilt isn't the best term to understand
  • 00:23:46
    what's happening when it comes to
  • 00:23:47
    what we generalize this white guilt.
  • 00:23:49
    Because there's a difference
  • 00:23:50
    between conviction and condemnation.
  • 00:23:52
    There's a biblical difference.
  • 00:23:53
    There's different words used for that.
  • 00:23:55
    The biblical word for condemnation
  • 00:23:57
    means judgment has been pronounced.
  • 00:23:59
    You are done, you are guilty.
  • 00:24:02
    And it's actually justice with no mercy.
  • 00:24:04
    That's really the way to think about that.
  • 00:24:06
    But there's another word and it's the word for conviction.
  • 00:24:09
    Conviction is that like, "No, I am --
  • 00:24:14
    I am, I'm seeing something here that I need to see.
  • 00:24:17
    It's hard to see, but I need to see it."
  • 00:24:18
    The word for that in the Bible was actually
  • 00:24:20
    a word that means revealed or exposed.
  • 00:24:22
    And I believe that in this moment,
  • 00:24:24
    for those who are leaning in,
  • 00:24:25
    God is revealing some things and it is convicting.
  • 00:24:28
    You might say it's guilt, but it might be conviction.
  • 00:24:30
    So I want to help you, particularly
  • 00:24:32
    if you are white brother and sister in this moment,
  • 00:24:34
    differentiate between those two
  • 00:24:37
    because conviction is from God
  • 00:24:39
    and you should accept it
  • 00:24:41
    because God wants to invite you to change.
  • 00:24:44
    But condemnation is from the evil one
  • 00:24:46
    and you should reject it because
  • 00:24:48
    condemnation says you can never change.
  • 00:24:50
    Conviction leads you to repentance.
  • 00:24:53
    The Bible is very clear on this.
  • 00:24:54
    One of my favorite verses 2 Corinthians 7:10 says:
  • 00:24:57
    Godly sorrow leads to repentance,
  • 00:24:59
    which brings salvation and leaves no regrets.
  • 00:25:03
    See, the conviction that God calls you to
  • 00:25:05
    is a good conviction that leads to repentance,
  • 00:25:08
    that helps you see some things differently,
  • 00:25:09
    do some things differently.
  • 00:25:11
    And God does that for everybody.
  • 00:25:12
    But across the racial lines, but I specifically
  • 00:25:14
    want to talk to my white brothers and sisters,
  • 00:25:16
    because I believe there are invitations
  • 00:25:18
    to repentance that may be coming to you from the Lord.
  • 00:25:21
    And I don't want you to miss those
  • 00:25:22
    because it is for your good.
  • 00:25:25
    Conviction inspires you to keep going.
  • 00:25:28
    Condemnation tells you to quit
  • 00:25:29
    because nothing will ever change.
  • 00:25:31
    And please hear me.
  • 00:25:32
    I'm not saying that God's not bringing conviction
  • 00:25:35
    on black and indigenous people of color who are listening.
  • 00:25:38
    I am deeply convicted, almost weekly, if not daily,
  • 00:25:41
    that God is showing me the things
  • 00:25:43
    I need to change in my heart.
  • 00:25:44
    The ways that I approach this,
  • 00:25:46
    the way I talk about this that need to change.
  • 00:25:48
    So I'm not saying that at all.
  • 00:25:49
    I just want to come alongside those who
  • 00:25:51
    might be wrestling and even stuck in guilt
  • 00:25:53
    to say there is a difference
  • 00:25:55
    between condemnation and conviction.
  • 00:25:58
    Let the Lord lead you in conviction
  • 00:26:00
    because it will lead you to good places.
  • 00:26:02
    But by all means, do not buy into condemnation.
  • 00:26:08
    And so I want to talk about what mercy looks like
  • 00:26:11
    for my black and indigenous brothers and sisters
  • 00:26:13
    who were listening, people of color like me.
  • 00:26:15
    I want to talk to us as well, because we, too,
  • 00:26:18
    are coming under the conviction
  • 00:26:20
    of the Holy Spirit in this moment.
  • 00:26:21
    And what Mercy looks like for us is, is this.
  • 00:26:23
    You know, I think about this all the time.
  • 00:26:25
    One of the things that I don't like is
  • 00:26:27
    when someone comes to me and says,
  • 00:26:28
    "What do you think black people think about that?"
  • 00:26:30
    Like, I don't want to be the one
  • 00:26:32
    who represents all black people of all time everywhere.
  • 00:26:34
    Right? None of us want to be that person.
  • 00:26:36
    And yet we can do that to our white brothers and sisters.
  • 00:26:39
    We can see them more as a group.
  • 00:26:40
    We can see them more as their history.
  • 00:26:43
    We can see them more as other identities
  • 00:26:45
    than seeing them as individuals and choosing
  • 00:26:47
    to adopt the mindset of Frederick Douglass,
  • 00:26:49
    who said,
  • 00:26:55
    So I think for black and indigenous people of color,
  • 00:26:58
    what mercy looks like for us
  • 00:27:00
    is choosing to see the individual
  • 00:27:02
    and come alongside the journey of
  • 00:27:06
    the individual white brother and sister
  • 00:27:08
    who is engaging, who is with us,
  • 00:27:10
    rather than lumping them together in a group of people
  • 00:27:12
    that makes it much easier for us to keep distance
  • 00:27:14
    and just assume that they don't get it,
  • 00:27:16
    they don't care, and they're not for justice.
  • 00:27:21
    So I think for us, it's a different perspective,
  • 00:27:24
    but here's the thing, Jesus promises
  • 00:27:26
    that for all of us, as we lean into mercy,
  • 00:27:28
    guess what? We get more mercy.
  • 00:27:30
    In the Beatitudes, Jesus says in Matthew 5:7:
  • 00:27:38
    Finally, Micah 6:8 calls us to walk humbly with our God.
  • 00:27:44
    All throughout the Bible,
  • 00:27:45
    humility precedes receiving God's grace.
  • 00:27:49
    God has a pension, a desire, a love
  • 00:27:53
    of giving grace to people who are humble.
  • 00:27:55
    Look at what it says in 1 Peter 5:5:
  • 00:28:07
    I will tell you in even preparing for this series,
  • 00:28:09
    one of the things that I love about Brian,
  • 00:28:11
    our senior pastor, I love a lot of things about him.
  • 00:28:13
    I love his aggression.
  • 00:28:14
    I love his sense of humor.
  • 00:28:16
    I love how honest and transparent he is.
  • 00:28:19
    I love his vision and how he has vision for our church.
  • 00:28:23
    And I also love his humility.
  • 00:28:26
    And so you may be asking the question,
  • 00:28:28
    "All right, Chuck, I hear you,
  • 00:28:30
    but what does this mean for me?
  • 00:28:32
    What do I do if God is calling me
  • 00:28:35
    (and I think He is) to do justice?"
  • 00:28:38
    And Brian asked that question of Bryan Stevenson.
  • 00:28:40
    And I want you to listen to the answer to that question.
  • 00:28:44
    – But where I always get caught up,
  • 00:28:46
    I was just having a conversation
  • 00:28:47
    with some staff members about this just the other day
  • 00:28:50
    is I always get short-circuited on,
  • 00:28:53
    OK, but what what can we actually do?
  • 00:28:56
    – Yeah. – What can happen?
  • 00:28:57
    We can talk about the injustices.
  • 00:29:00
    It's awful that you have a worse experience
  • 00:29:03
    in America when you are more qualified in everything.
  • 00:29:05
    I've never been to Harvard.
  • 00:29:07
    I don't know if you know that.
  • 00:29:08
    I've never been to Harvard,
  • 00:29:09
    never desired to be in Harvard.
  • 00:29:11
    I think I could probably spell Harvard. Okay?
  • 00:29:14
    And yet as being less qualified in terms of
  • 00:29:18
    smarts and academics, everything, my life
  • 00:29:21
    is going to be much easier than yours because
  • 00:29:26
    I've never had a bad interaction
  • 00:29:27
    with an authority figure simply because of my skin.
  • 00:29:30
    You have and you do regularly.
  • 00:29:32
    What do we do about it? What do I do about that?
  • 00:29:35
    – Yeah, I think there are four things I can recommend.
  • 00:29:38
    I think we have to commit to getting closer to people
  • 00:29:42
    who are experiencing inequality and injustice.
  • 00:29:44
    We can't separate ourselves from those
  • 00:29:46
    who are marginalized and excluded and abused.
  • 00:29:48
    We actually have to be in fellowship with them
  • 00:29:50
    because when you're proximate,
  • 00:29:52
    you hear things you won't otherwise hear,
  • 00:29:54
    you see things you won't otherwise see,
  • 00:29:55
    and you actually take on the burdens
  • 00:29:57
    of the excluded and the disfavored.
  • 00:29:59
    They become your burdens
  • 00:30:00
    and it changes your comfort level,
  • 00:30:02
    your space in that society.
  • 00:30:05
    The second thing is that I actually think
  • 00:30:07
    we have to believe things we haven't seen
  • 00:30:10
    about what we can achieve to create a more just community.
  • 00:30:14
    If we accept that these things are just inevitable,
  • 00:30:17
    that we'll never get to anything better,
  • 00:30:20
    we won't actually be motivated
  • 00:30:21
    to do the things we have to do.
  • 00:30:23
    And then I think we have to be willing to do things
  • 00:30:25
    that are uncomfortable and inconvenient because
  • 00:30:28
    there is no pathway to justice that
  • 00:30:30
    doesn't require some discomfort and some inconvenience.
  • 00:30:33
    And finally, we have to reflect on
  • 00:30:36
    our own complicity in the world that's been created
  • 00:30:40
    that advantages us and disadvantages others.
  • 00:30:44
    – You mentioned, for me being complicitous.
  • 00:30:49
    What does that mean?
  • 00:30:50
    That means stuff has happened, I'm white,
  • 00:30:52
    I should feel guilty about that or what?
  • 00:30:54
    What does that mean?
  • 00:30:55
    – No, it just means that we live in an environment
  • 00:30:57
    where our history of racial injustice
  • 00:30:59
    has kind of created these pollutants,
  • 00:31:01
    they're just in the air.
  • 00:31:02
    We've all been contaminated
  • 00:31:05
    by a long history of racial bias,
  • 00:31:08
    narratives of racial difference.
  • 00:31:10
    We inherited that.
  • 00:31:12
    And a lot of us have been taught
  • 00:31:14
    that we can just ignore that,
  • 00:31:15
    we can be silent about that.
  • 00:31:17
    And some people have argued that eventually
  • 00:31:19
    these toxins will dissipate from the atmosphere.
  • 00:31:21
    Well, I don't think that's true.
  • 00:31:23
    These kinds of contaminants are the kinds of things
  • 00:31:26
    that we have to actually work to deal with.
  • 00:31:29
    We have to correct them.
  • 00:31:30
    And for me, racism is a sin.
  • 00:31:33
    White supremacy is a sin.
  • 00:31:35
    An ideology that insists on racial hierarchy is a sin.
  • 00:31:40
    A belief system that says that black people
  • 00:31:42
    aren't as good as white people is a sin.
  • 00:31:44
    When we begin to persuade ourselves that
  • 00:31:47
    black people are less deserving, less capable,
  • 00:31:49
    less worthy, less human, we actually are sinning
  • 00:31:54
    about what we understand to be
  • 00:31:56
    our calling as human beings.
  • 00:31:58
    And so we have to now work to overcome
  • 00:32:00
    and confront the things that have been embraced
  • 00:32:02
    around us that have perpetuated that.
  • 00:32:04
    And that means just ending the silence.
  • 00:32:07
    I don't think it's guilt.
  • 00:32:09
    I actually just think it's recognizing, you know,
  • 00:32:11
    and I actually think the church has
  • 00:32:13
    a critical role to play in this because
  • 00:32:15
    we're supposed to understand something about
  • 00:32:17
    how to help people who have fallen down,
  • 00:32:20
    who've been misdirected by sin and misjudgment.
  • 00:32:24
    And what we offer people is redemption
  • 00:32:27
    and restoration and salvation.
  • 00:32:29
    And I don't talk about these things
  • 00:32:31
    like lynching and segregation and slavery
  • 00:32:33
    because I want to punish America.
  • 00:32:35
    I want liberation.
  • 00:32:36
    I believe there's something better waiting for us
  • 00:32:39
    all across this country,
  • 00:32:40
    something that feels more like freedom,
  • 00:32:42
    feels more like justice, feels more like equality.
  • 00:32:44
    It's waiting for us, but to get there,
  • 00:32:47
    we have to have the courage of our convictions
  • 00:32:50
    to end the silence,
  • 00:32:51
    to learn the things we need to understand,
  • 00:32:53
    to talk about the things we need to talk about.
  • 00:32:56
    And you can go all around the world
  • 00:32:57
    and you'll see manifestations of this problem.
  • 00:33:00
    You see a group with power
  • 00:33:02
    othering people with less power
  • 00:33:04
    and using that difference -- – "Othering," I like that.
  • 00:33:07
    Yeah, and it can be based on ethnicity.
  • 00:33:10
    It can be based on tribes.
  • 00:33:11
    You had a genocide in Rwanda that wasn't about color.
  • 00:33:15
    It was about tribal affiliation.
  • 00:33:16
    It can be based on religion.
  • 00:33:18
    It can be based on whether you're an immigrant
  • 00:33:19
    or not an immigrant.
  • 00:33:20
    So it can manifest itself everywhere.
  • 00:33:23
    But we shouldn't allow that to distract us
  • 00:33:25
    from the fact in America that we have been shaped
  • 00:33:28
    around a very specific divide shaped by race.
  • 00:33:32
    Forty one states in this country until the 1960s
  • 00:33:35
    had laws that prohibited a white person
  • 00:33:39
    from being in a romantic relationship
  • 00:33:41
    with a black person.
  • 00:33:42
    That's during the 20th century.
  • 00:33:44
    Most of us were born at a time when that wasn't allowed.
  • 00:33:47
    We did not allow people who were black
  • 00:33:50
    to go to school with people who were white.
  • 00:33:52
    We were shaped into thinking about the world
  • 00:33:55
    through that color lens.
  • 00:33:57
    And so that is the challenge
  • 00:33:58
    that we have to confront here.
  • 00:33:59
    But you're right, it is a universal human problem
  • 00:34:02
    and there'll be new challenges if we're not careful.
  • 00:34:05
    If we allow ourselves to be persuaded
  • 00:34:06
    that people who are immigrants are somehow
  • 00:34:09
    more dangerous, less worthy, less capable,
  • 00:34:11
    then we're going to see that kind of bias.
  • 00:34:13
    People who have a different faith than we do,
  • 00:34:15
    people who are from the MidEast,
  • 00:34:16
    people who are Muslim,
  • 00:34:17
    people who are in different spaces.
  • 00:34:19
    And that's why we have to understand that
  • 00:34:23
    we are called to love all of God's children.
  • 00:34:27
    And that, for me, is where it all boils down to.
  • 00:34:29
    And if we understand our capacity to love
  • 00:34:31
    to be disrupted by bias,
  • 00:34:33
    that's something we've got to work on.
  • 00:34:34
    – Let's say you're leading a rather large church
  • 00:34:40
    that has campuses in more than one state,
  • 00:34:45
    and you have people who are all across the spectrum
  • 00:34:49
    in terms of their political affiliation
  • 00:34:52
    and their skin tones.
  • 00:34:55
    What would you do if you were me?
  • 00:34:57
    Because I feel like no matter what happens,
  • 00:35:00
    I can't win, I cannot win.
  • 00:35:03
    – Well, I actually think we have to --
  • 00:35:06
    – I don't mean, like, give me a defense,
  • 00:35:07
    like what would you do in terms of
  • 00:35:09
    the energy of the church?
  • 00:35:11
    What to do with how often you talk about something?
  • 00:35:14
    Your budget, like, what would that be?
  • 00:35:17
    – I would begin by preaching from Micah 6:8
  • 00:35:23
    about how we can't really claim to be God's children,
  • 00:35:28
    we can't actually claim to be honoring the faith.
  • 00:35:31
    – Micah 6:8.
  • 00:35:32
    I was just memorizing that earlier. So good.
  • 00:35:35
    Maybe remind me exactly what Micah 6:8 said. Yeah.
  • 00:35:39
    – And so in Micah 6:8, the prophet is asked,
  • 00:35:41
    "Well, what does God want from us?
  • 00:35:43
    What kind of offerings do we need to make
  • 00:35:45
    to have the favor of God?"
  • 00:35:47
    And Micah responds that what God requires of us
  • 00:35:50
    is not any of the burnt offerings,
  • 00:35:52
    not giving away your first child,
  • 00:35:53
    not all of that ornate stuff,
  • 00:35:55
    not coming to church every Sunday,
  • 00:35:57
    not wearing the best clothes,
  • 00:35:58
    not having the most to tithe.
  • 00:36:00
    What God requires of us is that we do justice,
  • 00:36:03
    that we love mercy, and that we walk humbly with Him.
  • 00:36:07
    And I believe that we haven't preached on,
  • 00:36:10
    we haven't taught on, we haven't thought about
  • 00:36:12
    what doing justice require.
  • 00:36:14
    And in a nation where some people
  • 00:36:17
    are disfavored and marginalized and excluded
  • 00:36:19
    and treated unfairly because of their color,
  • 00:36:22
    doing justice means that we have to speak about that.
  • 00:36:24
    If unarmed black people are being shot
  • 00:36:26
    by the police in ways that
  • 00:36:27
    are just absolutely unacceptable,
  • 00:36:29
    we have to speak about that.
  • 00:36:31
    If there are disparities based on how people
  • 00:36:33
    are treating based on their color,
  • 00:36:34
    we have to talk about that.
  • 00:36:36
    And we have to talk about it from a place of love.
  • 00:36:39
    I think when we talk and lead,
  • 00:36:42
    we have to invite people to learn because
  • 00:36:44
    we haven't learned the things we need to understand.
  • 00:36:47
    – Bryan Stevenson, this has been fantastic, brother.
  • 00:36:50
    I mean, truly brother.
  • 00:36:51
    I came here wanting to interact with you
  • 00:36:54
    on race and justice issues,
  • 00:36:57
    having no real understanding of just kind of
  • 00:37:01
    the deep spiritual well you drink from
  • 00:37:03
    and I've just enjoyed every minute being with you.
  • 00:37:06
    So thank you for pouring into us.
  • 00:37:08
    Thank you for challenging us and encouraging us.
  • 00:37:12
    – You know, as we come to the last minutes
  • 00:37:14
    of this series, I just want to remind you,
  • 00:37:16
    we did not do this series to give social commentary.
  • 00:37:19
    We did this series for the spiritual health
  • 00:37:22
    and formation of our church.
  • 00:37:24
    Racism is a sin.
  • 00:37:27
    And just like every other sin in the Bible,
  • 00:37:30
    it is dealt with by the power of Jesus on the Cross.
  • 00:37:33
    And when we repent of that sin,
  • 00:37:36
    we're invited to walk a different direction,
  • 00:37:38
    a direction that leads to more life
  • 00:37:40
    and leads us to more of what Jesus has for all of us.
  • 00:37:44
    And when that life gets applied,
  • 00:37:46
    not just personally, but across a structure,
  • 00:37:49
    across an institution, across a country,
  • 00:37:52
    God's blessings begin to flow.
  • 00:37:54
    In Micah we see this.
  • 00:37:55
    God promises in Micah that
  • 00:37:57
    He's going to bring a shepherd forth.
  • 00:37:59
    It's one of the early prophecies of Jesus
  • 00:38:02
    that we see at the end of the book of Micah
  • 00:38:03
    that He's going to bring a Good Shepherd
  • 00:38:05
    and that Good Shepherd is going to bring prosperity,
  • 00:38:07
    not just at the individual level,
  • 00:38:09
    but at the structural level for everyone.
  • 00:38:11
    That's what the Kingdom of God is all about.
  • 00:38:15
    And so I want you to be asking this question
  • 00:38:18
    at the end of this series:
  • 00:38:19
    God, what does all of this mean for me?
  • 00:38:24
    God, what are you inviting me to do?
  • 00:38:28
    How do I do justice, love mercy,
  • 00:38:32
    and walk humbly with You?
  • 00:38:34
    Because that's the call for all of us.
  • 00:38:36
    God's calling all of us to something
  • 00:38:38
    and Micah 6:8 summarizes that for us so powerfully well.
  • 00:38:42
    And here's a beautiful picture
  • 00:38:44
    that I hope gives you encouragement.
  • 00:38:47
    As we obey, as we walk in this direction,
  • 00:38:52
    we get to see a glimpse of heaven.
  • 00:38:54
    When we were with Bryan Stevenson,
  • 00:38:56
    he shared a true story
  • 00:38:57
    that you're going to now see dramatized,
  • 00:38:59
    but it's a true story, a recent story.
  • 00:39:03
    And man, as I sat there and heard him share it,
  • 00:39:05
    my heart just filled with hope because
  • 00:39:08
    this is what's possible when we follow God's direction.
  • 00:39:33
    – One of the exhibits in our museum
  • 00:39:34
    is a collection of jars filled with soil,
  • 00:39:38
    and these are jars with the names
  • 00:39:40
    of lynching victims and the dates.
  • 00:39:42
    And we asked people to go to lynching sites
  • 00:39:44
    and actually fill the jar with soil
  • 00:39:46
    from the lynching site to honor these people
  • 00:39:48
    who've never been acknowledged.
  • 00:39:50
    And we've been doing this for several years
  • 00:39:52
    and we have hundreds of jars in the site.
  • 00:39:54
    And we did one in west Alabama a couple of years back.
  • 00:39:57
    And a middle aged black woman
  • 00:39:58
    went to a site to collect soil
  • 00:40:01
    and she was nervous about it because
  • 00:40:02
    the site she went to was kind of remote.
  • 00:40:25
    But when she got there, she said,
  • 00:40:27
    "I'm going to do this," and she found the lynching space
  • 00:40:29
    and she got down on her knees.
  • 00:40:44
    And she said a man drove by in a pickup truck,
  • 00:40:46
    white guy, and he started staring at her.
  • 00:40:51
    She got really afraid.
  • 00:40:55
    And then the man parked his truck
  • 00:40:56
    and he got out of the truck.
  • 00:40:59
    He started walking toward her.
  • 00:41:07
    We tell people that they don't have to explain
  • 00:41:09
    what they're doing, so she was just going to say,
  • 00:41:11
    "I'm getting dirt from my garden."
  • 00:41:13
    And this man walked over to her,
  • 00:41:14
    and sure enough, he said, "What are you doing?"
  • 00:41:17
    And she told me later, she said, "Mr. Stevenson,
  • 00:41:19
    something got ahold of me.
  • 00:41:20
    And when that man asked me that, I told him,
  • 00:41:22
    'I'm digging soil because this is where
  • 00:41:24
    a black man was lynched
  • 00:41:25
    and I'm going to honor his life today."
  • 00:41:27
    And she said she got afraid
  • 00:41:28
    and she started digging and the man just stood there.
  • 00:41:30
    And we give everybody a memo
  • 00:41:31
    that talks about the lynching.
  • 00:41:33
    And the man said,
  • 00:41:34
    "Does that paper talk about the lynching?"
  • 00:41:36
    She said, "It does."
  • 00:41:37
    And then he said, "Can I read it?"
  • 00:41:39
    She gave the man the paper. He read the paper.
  • 00:41:41
    And afterward he put the paper down
  • 00:41:43
    and he shocked her by saying, "Excuse me, ma'am,
  • 00:41:46
    but would it be all right if I helped you?"
  • 00:41:49
    And she said, yes, and she said that man
  • 00:41:51
    got down on his knees next to her
  • 00:41:53
    and she said he started throwing his hands into the soil
  • 00:41:56
    and putting in the dirt and kept throwing his hands.
  • 00:41:58
    And she said he was doing it with such conviction
  • 00:42:01
    his hands were turning black with the soil.
  • 00:42:03
    And he kept doing it and it moved her.
  • 00:42:05
    And he kept digging with his hands
  • 00:42:07
    and she kept digging with the implement.
  • 00:42:08
    And they got near the top of that jar
  • 00:42:10
    and she looked at him and he was slowing down.
  • 00:42:12
    And then she saw that his shoulders were shaking
  • 00:42:15
    and then she saw a tear running down his face.
  • 00:42:17
    And she stopped and she put her hand on his shoulder.
  • 00:42:19
    She said, "Are you all right?"
  • 00:42:21
    And the man said, "No, no, no, I'm not all right."
  • 00:42:23
    And then the man said, "I'm just so worried
  • 00:42:26
    it might have been my grandfather
  • 00:42:27
    who participated in lynching this man."
  • 00:42:30
    And she said they both sat there on the roadside weeping.
  • 00:42:33
    She said, "I'm going back to Montgomery
  • 00:42:35
    to put this jar in the museum."
  • 00:42:36
    And the man said,
  • 00:42:37
    "Would it be all right if I followed you?"
  • 00:42:39
    And he came back with her
  • 00:42:40
    and I watched these people enter that space.
  • 00:42:43
    And beautiful things like that
  • 00:42:44
    don't always happen when we tell the truth,
  • 00:42:47
    but until we tell the truth,
  • 00:42:48
    we deny ourselves the beauty that is redemption,
  • 00:42:52
    that is justice.
  • 00:42:53
    And what I want people to understand is that
  • 00:42:55
    they are welcome to kneel with us
  • 00:42:57
    who are trying to resurrect this history
  • 00:42:59
    that we've forgotten, to join us
  • 00:43:01
    in putting the soil in the jar and help us
  • 00:43:03
    lift up the truth that we might get to this better place.
  • 00:43:06
    There is something better waiting for us.
  • 00:43:08
    And I want it not just for my friends and family,
  • 00:43:11
    not for my community. I want it for everybody.
  • 00:43:14
    But we can't get there if we don't come together.
  • 00:43:16
    And that's the power of the opportunity
  • 00:43:20
    of the moment that we're in.
  • 00:43:21
    And we are in a moment, yes,
  • 00:43:23
    of conflict and division, of fear and anger.
  • 00:43:26
    But we are also in a moment
  • 00:43:28
    where an invitation is being offered.
  • 00:43:29
    That's why we built these sites.
  • 00:43:31
    They are an invitation to all
  • 00:43:33
    who are looking for something better.
  • 00:43:35
    It's a place where you can confront the truth
  • 00:43:36
    and maybe it will cause confession,
  • 00:43:38
    maybe it will cause repentance.
  • 00:43:40
    But that's the path to salvation.
  • 00:43:42
    That's the path to restoration.
  • 00:43:43
    That's the path to redemption
  • 00:43:45
    and we should be excited about that.
  • 00:43:53
    – We can't get to a new place alone.
  • 00:43:55
    We need God, we need God to help us.
  • 00:43:58
    So I want to invite us to finish
  • 00:44:00
    our time in this series, praying together.
  • 00:44:02
    Right now, we're going to do a prayer experience.
  • 00:44:05
    So stay with me because
  • 00:44:06
    I'm going to ask you some questions.
  • 00:44:09
    And you can do this on your phone.
  • 00:44:11
    You can do this on paper
  • 00:44:13
    or you can do this in your heart.
  • 00:44:19
    This time is for you and God.
  • 00:44:22
    We will go through three steps together.
  • 00:44:26
    First, take a moment
  • 00:44:29
    and be completely unfiltered with God,
  • 00:44:31
    He can handle it.
  • 00:44:33
    Where are you frustrated?
  • 00:44:36
    Where do you feel stuck?
  • 00:44:38
    As it relates to this series,
  • 00:44:40
    what do you think He's asking you to do?
  • 00:44:46
    And are you willing?
  • 00:45:22
    Next, we all have biases, prejudices,
  • 00:45:25
    and actions that do not reflect
  • 00:45:27
    God's heart for all people, but the good news is
  • 00:45:30
    when we invite Him in, He can change our hearts
  • 00:45:33
    unlike anyone or anything else.
  • 00:45:36
    So be specific.
  • 00:45:38
    Where do you want a change of heart?
  • 00:45:59
    Finally, the goal isn't simply
  • 00:46:01
    to have the right beliefs,
  • 00:46:03
    it's to extend God's Kingdom.
  • 00:46:06
    So where do you think God is asking you to lean in
  • 00:46:09
    and take a step, and how might you do that
  • 00:46:12
    with both conviction and gentleness?
  • 00:46:16
    Ask God what He would like you to do,
  • 00:46:19
    and again, be as specific as possible.
  • 00:51:54
    – Thank you so much for journeying with us
  • 00:51:56
    in the What Color is God? series.
  • 00:51:58
    Again, this series is for the spiritual formation
  • 00:52:01
    and health of our church, and I believe
  • 00:52:03
    it can set us up for a way that
  • 00:52:05
    God wants to break through with more hope,
  • 00:52:08
    more unity, more justice, more goodness
  • 00:52:11
    that doesn't just impact us or our church,
  • 00:52:13
    but actually impacts the places
  • 00:52:15
    and the people where we live.
  • 00:52:18
    We'll see you next week.
  • 00:52:22
    – We all agree that justice is critical,
  • 00:52:24
    but as you can see, actually delivering
  • 00:52:26
    on that promise of true justice
  • 00:52:28
    is not nearly as simple as we sometimes like to believe.
  • 00:52:32
    In spite of that, our goal with this video,
  • 00:52:34
    with this whole series, is that you walk away
  • 00:52:37
    with more clarity and hope around these topics
  • 00:52:39
    than what you started with.
  • 00:52:40
    – So check out every week of this three week series
  • 00:52:43
    at Crossroads.net,
  • 00:52:44
    and don't miss next week on Crossroads.
  • 00:52:50
    – I want to take you on a journey,
  • 00:52:53
    a journey of one of the world's most powerful animals
  • 00:52:56
    as he learns how to be free
  • 00:52:57
    and discover what he was created for.
  • 00:53:00
    This is my story. It's the gospel.
  • 00:53:04
    This is the living hope.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. The questions below are for the weekend of June 12 & 13 2021.

  1. When someone finds out what you do, or where you are from, what question do they always ask you?

  2. Read Luke 10:29-37. Like the people in this story, do you believe cultural perspectives influence your thoughts about people from different cultures or races? If so, how?

  3. Read Micah 6:8. What does it mean to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God when it comes specifically to race and people who look different from us?

  4. Read Romans 12:9-21. Take a moment to think about what sticks out to you in this verse? When you’re ready, share where God may be inviting you to lean in and take action.

  5. Now close your time in prayer. Here’s an example: “God we thank you for your mercy & justice that you have first extended to us. We ask for clarity on your truth and how we could partner with you for unity amongst all people. Show us your ways. Examine our hearts. Deepen our belief in Jesus and who he is and how he showed us to be. Amen.

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Jun 11, 2021 53 mins 17 sec

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