United or Divided?

I just watched the movie "The Help."
It's about a time, just a few decades ago; when a group with one skin color was elevated above another. This treatment was accepted and legal, and in the movie, was portrayed as something that was expected. Putting another person in situations that degraded and even threatened them and their families, as if they were "less than" human was the societal norm.Those that didn't "tow" the line would be threatened on both sides of the color divide. I think we (we being whoever holds the "power" to treat another this way) act as if that was a long time ago and something we have moved on from, but I don't think even the issue of the black/white divide has resolved itself and in some ways.

Beyond the black and white divide, there are so many other ways that the one who holds the power over the circumstances of another person or group of people continues to look at another and treat them as "less than," putting them in situations that are degrading and even life threatening. Oftentimes, it is within the law to do such things. I just read another article about the immigration "debate:" The article is laced with areas of divide that reveal the fuzzy line of prejudice and hatred of the "other," much of which I believe is because the one who holds the power doesn't understand or want to understand the circumstances of the other whom they are putting down.

The article takes in so many levels of this power divide that could be discussed from the elevation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio to a hero status in the eyes of his supporters who chant "Go Joe, Go Joe" as they parade in in support of his power. 

In the article we see areas where his ability to look upon another as less than has, from my opinion, clouded his ability to reason, but he continues to have support and encouragement. We read about his treatment of prisoners in the article. Requiring prisoners to wear pink underwear as a deterrant from returning to prison reveals his lack of compassion and understanding for those he has control over. Reducing dignity as a way to prevent one from certain behaviors, rather than going deeper to the root of the problem in itself touches me deeply.

Perhaps I am deeply touched because I am confounded that I myself need to confess the times when I myself have acted and reacted in pretty much the same way when I held the hand of power.
Perhaps I am personally touched when I speak of condemning Joe for his actions because I am embarassed to admit that I don't have to look very far to see the depths of my own sinful past.
Perhaps what touches me the deepest is my own fear that I may slip into a behavior that may not mimick Joe exactly, but could use the same argument to justify my choice of actions with explanations of working "towards the better good," or doing "the best we can do." 

Even if we are inactive observers, we are still partipating through our silence, sharing an equal part of the blame for overlooking the struggles of another.

I wonder why it is so easy to justify overlooking another with words such as this?
I wonder what our God cries out from heaven whenever we sit in our positions of untouchable power silently overlooking those around us who cannot share the same human rights as we do?
I wonder whether our souls cry out whenever we choose to remain where we are, knowing that there are others who can't join us?
Maybe we justify our inaction because there are simply too many who need our compassion, our understanding, our voice.
Beyond the lines of division based on the skin color, immigration, or inmate status of another, there are lines most of us either actively ignore or actively participate in.

How many times do we overlook those around us who deal with disabilities where we allow physical barriers to encroach on their rights to enjoy the same things that we do? 

How many times do we avoid those who deal with mental illnesses for fear of getting too involved, or even condemning them for the "choices" they make? 
How many times do we look upon the poor, homeless, under educated and assume that they have had the same opportunities that we have, looking down on them for not "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps," as some would say?
How many times have those around us who have been born with sexual and gender identities that don't fit the "norm" in our understanding, those who so desperately want and need warmth and compassion, yet we turn the other way?
Even our silence often becomes a part of the obstacles others face.

Maybe we justify our thoughts and behaviors because we think we can't possibly fix it all, but does that make it alright?

I belong to and am a pastor in the United Church of Christ denomination; a church that believes that God is still speaking. Many in recent years have seen the use of a comma in explaining who we are. It's a comma that represents a belief that we should "never place a period where God has placed a comma" (Gracie Allen).

Yet, if we as a church believes that God is still Speaking, then where do we think God's voice is in the divisions of this world?

Are we waiting for some deep and booming voice to thunder down from the heavens in order to straighten out the sins of the world?
Didn't God do something better than that in Jesus?
It was God who came to earth and lived among us, experiencing the ways of humanity in the fullness of life.

It was God in Jesus, who humbly lived among us in order to
- show the ways of peace,

- call for unity,
 - and teach truth over the ways of the world;
and yet the world killed Him.

We live in a world that silences the voice of God.
We participate in that silencing whenever we remain silent or inactive or ignorant to the ways in which God's voice continues to cry out, even in the depths of our living..

That's why I think it's important for we who believe that God is still speaking to come together as one to tune in our hearing for what it is God is saying to us today.
That's why I think it's important for us to gather as a church to worship and recharge our spirits in order to live in a world that will seek to silence the ways of God and work against anybody who doesn't "tow the line" that strengthens the divide.
That's why I believe that God's voice needs to be heard in church so that the community can take that voice into the world to work against the lines of division.

God's acts don't have an ending.
Christ's Life didn't end with the cross.
The Spirit continues to flow in and among the world through the we who choose to allow It.

Hundreds rally to back hard-line Arizona sheriff
God is Still Speaking