Pray for Baltimore…

I had been feeling sad and even ashamed this past week to be from Baltimore in the wake of all of the violent criminal backlash to the alleged police brutality in the Freddy Gray case; thugs throwing bricks at cops, burning down buildings, bashing cars, hurting innocent bystanders, forcing 200 innocent businesses to close and much more. Here I thought these race riots only happened in places like Ferguson – but what transpired in Baltimore, “Charm City,” was even worse. And then I heard the priest at church yesterday tell of stories where a young boy reached out and handed – not threw – a water bottle to one of the police officers on the line; where another police officer picked up a lost little girl and hugged and protected her until he could find her parents. Small stories you don’t see on the nightly news. And I realized, we are ALL from Ferguson, we are ALL from Baltimore, we ALL need to pray together and rise above and do the next right thing. Today I feel hopeful as the curfew on Baltimore is lifted; I pray life in my wonderful city goes back to “normal” – no, better than normal, where people are treated like equals and people reach out with water bottles instead of throwing stones no matter their race, their age, their occupation. Jesus and His disciples preached not only to their own people but spread the word to all people, eventually to the ends of the earth. When Peter speaks to the early Christians – made up of Jews and Gentiles from various cities, races, nationalities, he tells them, “YOU are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession…for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God.” (1 Peter 2:9-10). I believe the “YOU” Peter speaks to  is “US.”