As an African American pastor I always want to acknowledge both the guilt and the grace of the African American Churches during the AIDS crisis. We, I, learned a lot.
Almost 30 years ago, when I was the Assistant Dean of the Chapel at Stanford, a group of Black men who were dying of AIDS and gifted me with listening to bible studies I was writing for their churches, many of whom had ignored them. They said something to me that changed my perspective.
I read to them a chapter that I’d put together that I thought captured their anger. It shamed the family and friends who abandoned them. One of the men looked at me and said “when you are dying you don’t have time to worry about the ones who walked away. You simply are overwhelmingly in awe and appreciation for the ones who stayed” I went back and reworked the Bible study and it became the chapter in By the Pool of Bethesda entitled “Going through the roof for the sake of a friend”
Don’t be the kind of person of faith that is truly forgettable. Meanness and cruelty is the legacy of infamy and ultimately irrelevance. Be the one that astonishes people with grace that can not be denied and is spoken of for generations by families, friends, and the loved ones of those who expected less of you.
There is no future in meanness!
For Christian’s remember that the names of the soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross to enforce the acceptable laws of the times have been forgotten but the name of Simon of Cyrene who helped Jesus carry the cross will always be known. Be memorable! Kindness and mercy are eternal!
Thank you Floyd -- Faith is what we stand on to look over the object that is in our way.