Some Reflections on George Zimmerman, Trevon Martin and How America Might Become A Less Violent Nation.

Some Reflections on George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin and How America Might Become

A Less Violent Nation. 

Based on Luke’s Version of “The Good Samaritan Story,” Luke 10: 25-37 

“A lawyer asked Jesus, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  Jesus answered, ‘what is in the law?’  He answered, ‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and should and strength; and your neighbor as yourself.’  Jesus said, ‘you have answered rightly. Do this and you will live.’” 

The lawyer (wishing to justify himself) then asked, “who is my neighbor.”  At this point Jesus told a story which most of us have heard over and over.  What caught the attention of Jesus’ hearers was the surprising twist on who helped the man out, the foreigner, the Samaritan, the one who should not have helped, the other.  Then Jesus asked, “which one was a neighbor to this man?  To which the man responded, “the one who showed him mercy.”  Jesus replied, “go and do likewise.” 

As I turned on my computer on Sunday morning to review my sermon for Sunday, the first thing I saw was the news that George Zimmerman had been found Not Guilty of the murder of seventeen year old Trevon Martin.  The irony of this news in light of the Gospel of the day was palpable as the whole issue of what did or did not happen comes back to the lawyer’s question, “who is my neighbor.”  Now I know that the goal in a court of law is not to establish neighborliness, but to prove guilt or innocence “beyond a reasonable doubt.”  I believe, however that it may well be useful for us to look at this situation, this human tragedy, regardless of what actually happened in light of this powerful story. 

There can be no love of God that does not express itself in the love of one’s neighbor. James the brother of Jesus, makes it more clear in his letter when he simply says that “if you say you love God who you cannot see and don’t love your neighbor who you can see then you are a liar.”  Jesus’ message to the lawyer in this story and to us is “we have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so and so is our neighbor or not, we must get into action and behave like we are a neighbor to him or her. 

Perhaps this parable will help those of us who have differing opinions about the outcome of the trial, those of us who were not in the courtroom, those of us want to be safe as well as provide an environment where the other is safe as well, to make better decisions about how we can be neighbor to those around us.  The fact that there are demonstrations and that they are for the most part peaceful gives me hope that our system gives us a way to deal with important issues in a constructive way.   

I also have hope that as we strive to be neighbors that we will have constructive conversations about race in this country, about guns in this country and about violence in this country.  I believe all these issues are present in this situation, pushed down under the surface, but present none the less.   I also believe that these important issues are just under the surface in some form or fashion in most of our lives and communities. 

Above all I believe that this whole situation is a human tragedy that did not and should not have happened.  I believe that having a gun as Zimmerman did may have made him bolder than who should have been, and may well have been the reason he confronted Martin rather than allowing the police to handle the situation after he called it in.  I believe that Martin could have pulled the hood down from over his head and not tempted fate.  I believe that it is time we as a society find ways to settle our differences in peaceful ways. This will be a challenge for us as a nation.  All we have to do is look at Washington to see that our nation’s leaders need some work on how to live and function together in a healthy way.  All we need to do is look at the founding days of our nation and note the way we were built, not only on the freedom of religion and on laws, but on violence against the people who were here when many of our ancestors and founders arrived on our shores.  And we can look at the violence perpetrated on the slaves and indentured servants who were brought here from Africa and from Europe to do the difficult work of carving a nation out of the wilderness. 

We cannot go back and change our history and make the conquering of our land any different than it was.  But, we can acknowledge our past, that we were not always the good guys, that we did not always make decisions based on our faith, but on our interests.  If we acknowledge the violence, cruelty and deception of the building of our nation, we may well be able to understand better why violence still exists today, why it will destroy us if we do not make some changes and we will be able to become the nation that we see glimpses of when we are at our best, we can truly become “. . . .one nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for All.”