Lament for Buffalo

Deacons and daddies.

Caregivers and aunties

Shopping for a carton of milk, a birthday cake, a cartful of groceries.

Shot down, killed.

By a man who just emerged into adulthood.

With a manifesto of hate, the longest paper he’s ever written.

By a man who is hours from home

After a four hour drive, the longest road trip by himself he’s ever taken.

How long are we going to hear stories of people killed by hate?

How long are we going to hear stories of deadly racism?

How long will the voices challenge CRT and allow Fox News to disciple their children into a racial ideology?

How long do folks need to fear for their lives?

How long will the options be: ignore the news,or fall into despair?

How many funerals? How much police tape? How many young white killers taken into custody without a scratch.

God. Change our hearts.

Let our hearts break for the things that break yours.

Erase the hatred of blackness from the hearts of white people.

Erase the anxiety.

Change our hearts towards love, courage, and justice.

God comfort those who mourn. The loved ones of those who were killed, and those who see themselves in the ones who were killed.

God give us courage and accountability to live in the direction of your beloved community.

God give us courage and grace to speak the truth, about history, about the present, about the different futures that are possible in front of us.

God protect BLACK LIVES.

Let there be consequences for EVIL, but more than that, let there be room for flourishing and goodness.

God, you made us in YOUR image.

Each of the people in that store were precious in your sight.

You are the God of justice, you are LOVE.

You are the one who can transform hearts. You are the one who brings healing to the hurting. You are the one who is longing for restoration with us.

YOU made a way, you keep making ways, another world is possible, and we want to join you in it.

Amen