"When God hates all the same people that you hate, you can be confident that you have created God in your own image."

                  ~ Anne Lamott

My mother was not overly protective. Nevertheless, when I was a child she gave me a few instructions for my safety, such as look both ways before crossing the street. As a white child growing up in the small town of Denair, California, I was free to walk to and from school, the little markets on Main Street, the library---just about anywhere---and feel safe.

What was true for me as a white child has never been true in our country for black children, especially young black men.

Jonathan Capehart, writing in the Washington Post, received very different instructions from his mother. He notes that his mother told him "not to run in public, lest I arouse undue suspicion. How I most definitely should not run with anything in my hands, lest anyone think I stole something. The lesson included not talking back to the police, lest you give them a reason to take you to jail-or worse."

Too many times the worst is exactly what has happened. And it is not easy to talk about. The names Oscar Grant III, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Rumain Brisbon trigger racing thoughts and emotions.   Yet the emotions and the conversation cannot be pushed down. The violence of racism cannot be ignored. It is systemic and it runs deep.

MCC's Rev. Elder Darlene Garner wrote in the Huffington Post: "To understand this moment we have to understand that Ferguson is yet another unraveled thread in the closely woven fabric of racism that has cloaked this country for 500 years. We must keep pulling on the Ferguson thread if we are ever to unravel the impact upon the United States of slavery, lynching, exclusion, criminalization, terrorization, and demonization of black people."

I'm reminded of the prayer cries of ancient forbears who facing the systemic injustice of Empire called out: "How long O Lord."

Indeed, the protest prayer: "I can't breathe" is a haunting reminder of the countless black men whose breath was cut off by the lynching rope.

August 9, 2014 in Ferguson is not far removed from August 28, 1955 in Money, Mississippi. On that day 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally tortured and murdered for the "crime" of supposedly flirting with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant. She was the wife of the owner of Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market where Emmett and friends had bought snacks.   His killers, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were never brought to justice.

I believe if Jesus were born today, Ferguson would be a likely birthplace. Like Ferguson in our day, Bethlehem in that day was outside the sphere of power and prestige. Yet Bethlehem was a place where the people had the same longing as those today in Ferguson, Staten Island, Oakland and beyond: they just wanted to be safe.

This Sunday, the scripture for my message is from Matthew 1: 18-25. This ancient scripture speaks clearly to the call for powerful witness and powerful actions to be a people committed to God's reconciling work during these difficult days.