The congregants of Saint Bellview Missionary Baptist Church, an African-American congregation, near Nashville opened their sanctuary doors this Sunday morning to see a vandalized building, with “KKK” and “Jesus is white” scrawled on the walls.
The Nashville Tennessean newspaper’s story on this event could have focused the story exclusively on the tragedy of racial polarization, or even on the need for law and order. Both aspects are true, and need to be said. What the story reveals, however, is a church that understands forgiveness.
In Scripture, forgiveness is never sentimental. It is not “that’s okay, don’t worry about it.” Forgiveness doesn’t point us to how civilized we are, or how sweet-tempered we should be. Forgiveness is a declaration that we have an eschatology. Thus, the apostle Paul reminds the Romans not to avenge wrath because “vengeance is mine, saith the Lord” (Rom 12:19). We forgive, even as we weigh the severity of sin and rebellion.
We don’t give in to our wrath for the same reason Jesus refused to authorize Peter to slaughter Malchus at the arrest: because we believe that God can and will bring all things into judgment. We look toward the future, knowing that every evil will be condemned justly and finally, either in the sin-bearing propitiation of Christ or in hell.
The newspaper reveals a bit of this kind of eschatological faith in interviews with congregants. They express outrage at the thugs who would do this, but at the same time they point to their own need for forgiveness and, in the preaching of the pastor, to the ultimate justice of God.
Such small glimpses of the Kingdom are rare, especially in the press. I will pray for this church, that the Lord might protect them from bitterness and wrath. I’ll also pray for law enforcement officials in Tennessee that Caesar’s sword might ferret out and punish these evildoers. But I plan also to pray that the vandals read the Nashville Tennessean and see the calm, counter-cultural tranquility of a people who believe in Judgment Day. And I’ll pray today the criminals find repentance and life before they face a King Jesus who isn’t as “white” as they think he is.
