We are Bidden

It never occurred to me that George Zimmerman would be acquitted…totally exonerated…free to walk away as though Trayvon Martin never existed. It should have occurred to me, but it didn’t.

Like many, I grew tired of the constant news coverage of the Zimmerman trial. As a result, I feel as though I feel asleep during the most important part of a movie.

With the verdict, I awoke – as obviously many did – with an exclamation of What the Hell???? 

Why would it have not occurred to me? Just because all the markers that indicated that George Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin, stalked him, confronted him and subsequently killed him were in place, the times we live in at this moment should have sent out all sorts of warnings that Zimmerman might get off.

The blatant racist remarks made over the past 5 years about the President of the United States, the growing war that seems to be in the midst of destroying the middle class and all that it was and could be, the violent rhetoric spewing at an unprecedented rate against women by Texas and other state legislatures, the absolute hate and virulent actions against all things outside of a very narrow ideology, the sinful amount of corporate and private money being poured into the promotion of that excessively narrow mindset…all of these things point to a nation turned upside down both morally and ethically.

I am not sure why the State of Florida prosecutor did not use the Stand Your Ground idea with the thought that Martin attacked Zimmerman simply because Zimmerman confronted and scared him. Certainly, Martin had as much right to confront his stalker as did the husband who awoke to find his wife in a less than platonic position with a male neighbor on the living room couch. I am also not certain why Martin appeared to be on trial even though as the victim of this shooting, he is dead.

The only things that Martin might be accused of were being a black teenager, wearing a hoodie, and not answering Zimmerman’s questions the way Zimmerman wanted him to answer. Not good reasons for receiving the death penalty, at least not in the “normal” sense. But these times are far from “normal”.

If every teen who ever sassed a wannabe adult got the death penalty for intended or perceived disrespect, there would be very few teens left in the world…at least not in the less-than-United States.

I can’t even begin to get into the insanity of the Stand Your Ground defense…nor of Florida being one of the 22 Kill at Will states.  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=476611935762054&set=a.330756843680898.74066.328133157276600&type=1&theater

I cannot begin to describe my sense of amazement or rather, dumbfoundedness at the devil that lives within the minds of those who conceived the law that allows one person to kill another … legally…as long as it is not a fetus, of course.

I am sure I am not alone in my bewilderment, frustration, and sense of despair. Yet, today,  deep within that state of mind that make me want to fall on my knees – not in wonder but in anguish – and lament My God, My God…came a post on Facebook from Brian D. McLaren,” author, speaker, pastor, and networker among innovative Christian leaders, thinkers, and activists.”

What we call the secular is actually the realm or domain of the Spirit. The secular - literally meaning the world, the realm outside of church control - isn’t profane. Rather, properly understood, it is sacred because the Spirit is and has always been active there, evoking light from darkness, order from chaos, fulness from void, life from lifelessness, actuality from potentiality, and potentiality from actuality. - From Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? (p. 151) (sic)
Learn more here:<a href=”http://bit.ly/R8fzUI”>http://bit.ly/R8fzUI</a>

In that post, I was brought back into the hope that is the Holy Spirit, into that sacred, crazy, chaotic space where She lives and moves and God breathes. Into that sacred terrifying space we are invited to not just exist but thrive. Into that space, we are asked to be a part of all that is holy. Into that space, we are not simply invited but bidden.

It is there, here, that we are called to share our love…right here in the midst of hate and venom, violence and distrust, anger and anxiety, pain and suffering.

Here in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, ruach…we are bidden…come...come and be a part of the darkness, the chaos, the void, the lifelessness, the light, the order, the fullness, the life...the actual potential of a life filled with the Holy Spirit.