|
The Blues
 Memphis has erred again. I could only think of Jesus of Nazareth being beaten and abused as He was walking to his painful end.
I had just returned from Jerusalem, a pair of days after the Tyre Nichols horror, where I had walked the walk of Jesus - the Via Dolorosa - that included kissing and praying at the huge rock in the Garden of Gethsemane, which houses those antique, gnarled, and twisted olive trees, where Jesus wept and got no attention from His so-called buddies, and even rich Judas betrayed him and organized His arrest. Sometimes when everyone doubts or is against you, it’s hard to keep on having faith. But in that Garden, a solemn place to visit, we can kneel in prayer and even weep. I wept this day.
At dawn of that day, I had visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to participate in a Holy Eucharist right outside the empty tomb. It seemed forever to get there over stone rocks in the brisk cold morning. But somehow, I could feel the twisting and torturing of faith, and the constant endless war between Palestinians and Jews and Moslems and I guess that includes Christians. None seem to be able to get along with the other. Each one points out the negative of the other, when really, there is so much positive where each life, yet the Palestines are blocked in by walls and passports and restrictions that just don’t seem just or right.
Finally, after passing through a few check points, the Muslims have joined the tourist trade, so that now, one can get closer to the giant rock from which Muhammed rose to heaven, but not see it, as one walks around the Muslim Tomb of the Rock. The pull and tug of who can go where and when and not at all is sad. It seems if you don’t belong in your category, no one loves you, supports you or trusts you. How sad. But I was able to see the rock when I went there in 1997. I’ll never forget that. 
Yesterday in a Jerusalem synagogue seven were. When I was there, I was horrified about how everyone hated each other based on faith. The hatred between Muslims and Jews and any other faith tossed in, is exasperating. The Palestinians cannot even enter the city unless they go through check-ins. the Jews hate the Muslims, thinking they are the ones who dump garbage outside their homes, and the streets around the Wailing Wall and other Jewish holy sites, and many people have to go through a checkup to be able to enter the Wailing Wall or anything else that is holy to the Jews, and likewise, there is animosity up the hill where the Dome of The Rock (where resides the giant boulder from which Muhammed ascended into the heavens) and thank God, we were able to walk around the Dome and say a prayer for the Muslims who were praying within. And if one wants to have their heart broken, go to the Holocaust Museum, which is the most thorough and truth horrific of the history of that disaster is the basis of the Museum, you wonder how God handles these giant religions who hate each other but live on the same blocks one way or the other. War goes on every day, it seems.
My last night in Jerusalem was a long tedious one. We were be taken to Tel Aviv at 1a.m. in the morning to catch the flight to Amsterdam. Running through airports, learning their perky ways, dealing with bags filled with accumulated gifts, squeezing in with the masses, freezing as we waited for our plane to appear, and then I learned about what was happening in my hometown. A young man named Tyre had been slaughtered in a horrid way. A youth caught in a trap, who had no one to rescue him because the rescuers should be a healthy police group, but instead a stack of five officers became his murderers. What is happening in this world?
Last night as the film of the Memphis crime was released to the world, I could not help but compare young Tyre to Jesus, both suffered, both were innocent but had to take the job to be the one sacrificed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or he was a victim of incorrect judgement or jealousy, envy, and fear. Here, too eager police officers on a shift tried to destroy a kid with no reason, but because they had a power in their new department program (they didn’t wear police clothing), that allowed them to make judgments that were not always correct. They went over the falls, so to speak, and so now they must pay the price, God willing. That may not resolve the problems of city crime, but there must be a wiggle into making things better with more control and common sense. No one loves the Memphis Police Department more than I do. I have been a chaplain for them since 2012. But this was the cruel and inhuman powers given through a new project for un-uniformed policemen who could jump into a scene and fight or kill somebody because they were members of some special team.
Where Jesus wept and no one came to help or rescue him, one could feel his pain of being abused and forgotten even by his own followers and friends. It seemed no one as well was there to fight for Tyre. It was in the dark. And he was surrounded by flashing lights, and five unmarked cars of police not dressed as police, shouting and flashing guns in their hands. Why? How could this happen to young Tyre one night in a decent part of town. In my birth home of Memphis, in a single night, men made themselves Pilates, and Judases and took it upon themselves to whip this youth, beat him, abuse him while abusing their rights to deal with a human being with such violence. Did they call their superiors to see what to do next?
In a single night men made themselves judgement powers. They took it upon themselves to whip him, beat him abusing their own rights to deal with a human being, much less a youth, five of them, who for some reason slaughtered all hope for their victim by tearing him apart, abusing and killing him, - why we don’t know - and in so many ways we have never known why the Sadducees and Pharisees attacked Jesus in this same way.
One was led to the cross. Since there was no cross here, for what it’s worth, a young man, tall, simple, wondering why this was happening to him, yet he bowed down and gave himself up innocently as he was to satisfy the so call rulers of the moment given some sort of right because the group was supposedly policemen trying to get the danger of this non-dangerous young man out of the picture of this world as he wiggled on the cold cruel tarmac of a street. No one came to his aid, and surely there were onlookers who were cheering for one side or the other, just as happened to Jesus until a soldier who finally realized this man on the cross was important and a savior of sorts. Just as surely one of the attackers began to see there was something wrong with this picture - this attack - but it was too late. The meat was already tasty. They had killed him as the youngster cried out for his mother, as Jesus cried out for his mother and the world He had been given to care about when Jesus breathed his last breath.
Did God allow this so we would wake up about the abuse that happens when people make a mistake? Or seek power over a person, a youth, a kid who was terrified and innocent and in the wrong place at the wrong time? If we read things the wrong way, five big guys muscular and powerful men who sought to dominate this tall thin youth (they needed five big bulky police???) or to seek power over a person, a youth, a kid who was at the wrong place at the wrong time? Was it so difficult to talk kindly to the kid, rather than screaming and yelling and giving shouts out to their partners all to dominate this tall thin youth? The police wore cameras on their chests required by police rules - but only two had them. Did they smile? Did they weep? Did they laugh and think themselves supermen with power they should not be given? We need police to handle the evil and the crime on the streets of our cities - men and women who make good or bad judgements and not anxious to flex their arm muscles and power mongols like a gorilla pounding his chest in victory
Was it worth it? Just as people realized this man Jesus was sent by God and now, He was gone, how similar the young youth - a symbol of innocence - was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had quickly lost his rights, his hopes, and dreams on earth. I pray that he is safe in the right hand of God.
Was it worth it that this clean young man became a whipping block, an example for other youth to not mess with the police on this planet? Squad or no squad, we cannot lose our police. Most of them are caring, loving, bright men and women well trained and wise. There is too much crime and danger in our streets, even too close to our front doors. It’s what men and women with courage sign up for and we are blessed to have an amazing female chief of police. Now the road of respect is going to have to be repaved with patience and love and trust, as Jesus would want. We all must come together in and with love. It’s God’s way. Grab a hold of it and see what can happen.
~ Rev
---------------------------------
audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
|
