Lynching the Image of God


Lynching the Image of God is the title of a sermon preached by Lonnie Lacy on the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. The title caught me up short. The content with its weaving of Jewish and Christian tradition which time and again affirm the dignity of every being left me weeping. 
I had another meditation prepared for today on Beauty but how can I talk about beauty when faced with this horror, this desecration of Beauty. Somehow in this time of COVID19 such a needless act of racial hate and killing seems magnified when we are supposed to be “taking care of each other”. Love is the only way through and Love is not just about the pandemic. Love is the very fabric sewn into the hearts of the images of God. 
Dorothy Sollee the liberation theologist would not even use God’s name because God was indescribable and too holy and so she called God: More, Even More. We have witnessed Less and Less in a time when we need the More and More God. And if made in the image of God we are capable of the more love, more compassion, more mercy than this incident and our racist systemic culture reflects. More is not contained in any system; More is not complicit with human ignorance and abuse.
And so this morning I offer that sermon as well as a video of Sterling Brown which moved me to tears as I was hit with the metaphor of the mask, meant to be protective but which keeps a black man from breathing, again in a time we are trying to assist life and breath. His authenticity and emotion are the testimony needed for us all.
It takes a crowd to lynch and it takes a bigger crowd to hold the lynchers accountable and it takes an even bigger crowd to transform the system, with God’s help. I want to belong to the beloved community which is made in the image of More, Even More and Loves, All the Time. I want to be about consecration not desecration. That is what we do with our “splendor”.
“Before every human angel goes a procession of angels, and the heralds before them cry out.‘Make way for the image of God.’”

http://lonnielacy.com/lynching-the-image-of-god/

this is the link to Sterling Brown on FaceBook
https://www.facebook.com/925165127600434/posts/2810471102403151/?vh=e&d=n



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