Second Mt. Zion

Devotional Meditation

Monday, June 1, 2020 

I got a call from my brother yesterday, Pastor Clarence Drake, he was concern and perplexed about his two sons and a discussion he had with them. One of them is in his late 20s and the other, in his early 30s. They are both church goers, active in church activities, engaged in Worship. During a discussion about the death of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd and the police killings of defenseless African American men in America, they asked him; their father, their pastor, their trusted friend who always had an answer, always told them the truth, always made sense out of the confusion, they asked him, “Daddy, Where is God?” His concern was that even in the depths of his explanation with scriptural support and confirmation, that his answer was insufficient for them. I thought, Jesus asked the same question, “Father, where are You”. Oh, maybe a little different wording, but the same question. “Why have you forsaken me?” Why are You allowing this to happen? Why are You letting them do this to me? Why don’t You do something? This is the same question that pastor’s sons were asking him, “How many more lives of young innocent black men have got to be lost before God does something?” Doesn’t God see what’s happening? Is He there? I wonder if God is asking the same question of us. “Saints, where are you?” “How many more young, innocent black men will lose their lives, before you do something?” Something more than march and loot and destroy things and burn things and be angry and return hate and question my where-a-bouts. I am not happy about Ahmaud Arbery’s or George Floyd’s death. They didn’t deserve to die like that. Neither did Jesus. Yet, Jesus’ death set off a powerful movement of faith. Those who mocked Him labeled Him with an offensive epitaph, “He saved other, Himself He could not save.” Jesus’ death was so impactful that it changed the world. This is in no way an attempt to lift their deaths to the level of Jesus’, however, it is my hope that his death will not be in vain, that his death will set off a movement of faith that will “turn the world upside down.” We may not be able to answer the question that pastor’s sons asked him, “Daddy, where is God?”, but we can sho answer the question that God is asking us, “Saints, where are you.” We can answer God’s question by just showing up; Reporting for Duty! Not just in the streets but at the polls, at the meetings, at the table of fatherhood, the table of brotherhood… community leadership….at the altar. It may be there where we find God.