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Rev. Alan Shelby

Pastor, Harvest Baptist Church of Blue Springs

#HopeLivesKC Remarks
Liberty Memorial, January 17, 2015
There is a spiritual basis behind what we are doing today. Our statement is,
Hope Lives! Because reconciliation with God brings reconciliation with people.
The Bible presents hope as the way Gods attaches our emotions to Bible
promises. And I know Michael Brown does not live, but hope lives. Eric Garner
does not live, but hope lives. Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu do not live,
but hope lives.
You say Alan, but if these do not live, then justice does not live. But as long as
hope lives, justice can be resurrected!
In the span of 12 days we watched the loose lid blow off simmering race
relations. Natural disasters leave a wide swathe of destruction, but dissipate in a
way that allows healing and reconstruction.
But thousands over the last two months, because of a tragedy of distrust and
anger. Rev. Martin King said, A riot is the language of the unheard. I will adapt
that point to say a riot is the language of the hopeless.
People burn down their own buildings because they have no hope. When they
spray paint the slogan, If we burn you burn with us! they are making a
statement of hopelessness. The enemy of each of us wants to box every one of
us into feeling like hope is lost.
So pervading despair can seem like a snapshot of our world today, but it is only
a snapshotand not the reality in Christ. To paraphrase Theodore Parker,
I do not pretend to understand all the events in the universe. The arc is a
long one, and my eye reaches but a little ways. I cannot calculate the
curve by sight, and complete the figure by the experience, but I can
divine it by conscience. And from what I see in the scriptures, it bends
towards justice.
Justice will not fail, though wickedness appears strong, and has on its side
armies and tyrants. And so our eyes are directed not to the tragic present, but
beyond, wherein the arc of history is found bending toward victory and freedom.
And so as Dr. King wrote these words in the year I was born,

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Evil may so shape events that Caesar occupies a palace and Christ a
cross, but that same Christ arose and split history into A.D. and B.C., so
even the life of Caesar must be dated by his name. Yes, the arc of the
moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

And I tell you today, that is a statement of hope! In the affairs of history, justice
works by human process. Justice is the idea of God, but the idea of God must
become actual. And the idea of God becomes the ideal of man through the body
Christ, his churches.
Why? Because what the world wants to see already exists in our churchesand
that is the silent statement we make today. It is a living expression of the unity
that can be experienced through faith in Jesus Christ. We are making a silent
statement by our united presence, of the love of Christ, and the mighty hope of
the gospel.
The church is not black and white, but we come here united as a body of one.
And our oneness means we do not have to be hung-up on sameness. But Gods
will and Gods passion, is for us to love him and love each other.
We will go out and make a difference after the cameras are gone. Because the
change that is needed in any one of our communities is a change needed by all
of our communitiesCaucasian, Asian, Black, and Hispanic.
It is time for real transformation. But that transformation has to be caused by
conversion, and started from the inside out.
Justice will run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream,
through the expelling power of the indwelling Christ. So when we acknowledge
Gods presence in this nation, we will once again have his power.
For we know good is more powerful than evil, death is sometimes preferable to
dishonoring our God, perseverance pays, truth is more than a word, and so
justice is more than just the definition of the powerful.
Hope lives!
--30-Pastor Alan Shelby
www.hbcbluesprings.org