Injustice, Be still

A Message for the Florida Poor People’s Campaign
Service of Lament and Hope
May 10, 2021

Our theme is, “For such a time as this”. 

These words come from the book of Esther, in the Hebrew Scriptures, when Esther stands up for her Jewish people against unjust rulers. 

Just as Jesus, who I follow as Christian, stood up to the might of the Roman Empire. 

In all of our religious traditions, we have heroes, and we have non-religious heroes as well, who have risen to the occasion for such a time as this. 

And what kind of time is it for us? 

A time when Florida legislators make laws which put protestors for justice at risk, which make voting harder, which target and harm our transgender children and siblings, which invite more damage to our beautiful Florida ecosystems, which line the pockets of the rich, while leaving the people to fend for health care and housing. 

Friends, I am disheartened and I know many of you are feeling this too. Some of your lives have been deeply impacted by the unjust actions of our Florida government. 

And so we need these words of encouragement from Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And maybe we need that last famous verse, Be still and know that I am God. 

But I also want to draw our attention to a couple verses we didn’t read from the Psalm, verses 8 and 9, which come right before the words Be Still. This is what they say: 

⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord;

   see what desolations he has brought on the earth.

⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

   he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;

   he burns the shields with fire.

This is the desolation God brings: the end of war, the destruction of weapons and conflict, the collapsing of walls and barriers between us.

And then God says, Be Still. And I wonder. Be Still. These words we so often think of as meditative, what if we heard God saying, Stop?

War. Be still. 

Violence. Be still.

Injustice and White Supremacy. Be still. 

Unjust laws and rulers. Be still. 

This is what voices in this group and throughout our state have been calling out, faith leaders and activists and brave elected leaders, they have been crying out to those in power who would abuse the people, Be Still. 

So take heart my friends. Rest when you need to. Drink water and eat some food. And may we continually come back to raise our voices together, as we do tonight, religious and non-religious, united for justice and fairness and a good life for all, calling out to injustice: Be Still.