Last week’s horrific news from Charleston, SC left much of the nation, engulfed in horror, anger and disbelief, as we reeled from the not only the savagery of the murder of the nine parishioners of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal, but the fact that their killer sat with them during Bible study, after they welcomed him in their midst, and as they studied and shared, and then the coda of violence.

When it was later revealed that the shooter, Dylann Roof, almost did not do the evil deed, because he thought that they were so nice to him, according to one of the survivors, left alive, so that, in his words, she could tell the world what had happened.

Roof’s goal was to cause a race riot, and he chose Emanuel AME because he could find the greatest concentration of blacks there, and he did including a state senator, a great grandmother, and a new assistant pastor, and other stalwart souls dedicated to the Word of God; but instead of a race riot, what happened was a unification of various people across the nation, as they stood, prayed, and even cried at the death of the martyrs, a vivid scene played out across the country, Sunday, the day that Emanuel opened its doors for worship, and welcomed all.

I've pondered, and wondered, here before, at what needs to happen in America to stem the tide of irrational and destructive racism, at how black lives have been shattered at the hands of those designed to protect them, and now, a young blond, almost cherubic boy, barely out of short pants, but brimming with hatred towards black Americans, and spewing racial epithets, and invectives,shot and reloaded his gun, even as many of those still alive begged him to stop.

And, now the church bells pealing, the crowded churches (mine was packed yesterday) and the angry, and bewildered wails of good and decent people. We know of course that this type of murder is not new, we know that the black church, “Mother” Emanuel, no exception, have stood as places where justice not only rolled down like a river, but where it was organized. We remember 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama where three little girls, ready to be baptized, had their young lives snuffed out by a killer’s bomb.

We know even now, as I write, that a black life is being snuffed out, often at the hands of the police. What we have to contain in our hearts as well as our hands is how the irony of American ideals has not been shared in equality with non-whites, how black bodies are not safe, and our places of worship cannot now be safe places.

My pastor yesterday noted that in the Gospel, assigned for the day ,Jesus rebuked the storm on the boat that the apostles were on (Mark 4:35-41) Jesus did not just protect them from the storm (a dark and murky collective of evil and danger in the first century world) but that he protected them within it.

For those that survived the onslaught of the assassin's bullet that seems to be true. But, for the rest of us, we must learn to rebuke the anger, the hatred and the fear, and work, work for justice, for as President Kennedy* once noted, “I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”

Kennedy also talked about the bonds of injustice, a fact that we still see today, whether at the hands of a monster, or the indifference of elected officials, or the illegalities of the employment, or real estate office, the injustice remains.

The blood that was emptied at Emanuel has not remained, but it must be lifted up, like the bodies of the martyr’s, it is redemptive blood, but this time to establish an even new covenant, one that has the promise of Christ for a new beginning, a battle against the moral crisis that we face as a nation today, both black and white. Is this not the blood of redemption, the redemption for a new beginning, and one that was brought forth by the driver that spotted Roof’s car, which led to his arrest, and that was ceded in the voices of the surviving family members, and as one by one they gave Roof their forgiveness, one borne of pain and sorrow, and yet one that in true Christianity forgave the killer?

Our work must begin now, and as I have said before anew; I am thinking of Revelations when we reach that heavenly place that our robes shall be white “in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelations, 7-14). Lord we have had our lambs, and now we must be warriors in the revelation of justice, as we fight for freedom, for we are not free, if others around us are not. It is only when all are free, that freedom shall truly be ours.

As Kennedy concluded, “It is a time to act in the Congress, in your state and local legislative bodies and, above all, in all of our daily lives.It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this is a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.”

Come, let us take each other’s hands, like sisters and brothers, as the heavens call out, and begin the work, the hard work of justice.

*Civil Rights Announcement

June 11, 1963