How Long, O Lord? — Oceanside Sanctuary

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?

Dear OSC friends & family,

“Oh Lord, how long?” Thus begins the prophet Habakkuk, who — all these 2,600 years later — strikes a chord for people all around the globe in 2020.

But this cry is not merely the lament of those (like me!) who are weary of stay-at-home-orders. No, this cry of agony comes from a deeper place; a place of moral distress, from those who are bearers of, and witnesses to, a harsh, daily life:

Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous — therefore judgment comes forth perverted.”

We can feel that Habakkuk is not merely weary, but genuinely angry by his exasperated claim that, “justice never prevails” (Never? Really Habakkuk?), and “Judgement comes forth perverted.” This conveys more than the cry of inconvenience, or even the frustration of social-disconnection. It is even more than the cry of short-term tragedy and suffering. Habakkuk’s cry is the wail of deep, longstanding, social inequality. It is the cry of inescapable poverty. It is the cry of ethnic oppression. Even while we identify with the cry of Habakkuk, we dare not lose sight of the depths of anguish in these ancient oracles, otherwise we trivialize them.

How long until our COVID lock-down comes to an end?

I’m afraid the answer is, “still longer yet.” A few weeks ago, we thought we were very close to gathering again, but then COVID returned with a vengeance. Now, it seems, we are still a long ways off.

I know other churches have been gathering, but I think that is a terrible mistake. At OSC we are committed to well-being of our neighbors. Love often means laying down our rights for the good of others, rather than insisting on our rights and endangering others. Therefore, we will not congregate in-person again until the rule of love, in accordance with the best epidemiological guidance, allows that freedom.

And so we’ve developed a protocol for beginning to gather again. We will begin to gather again once the daily count for new COVID cases in Oceanside averages less than 3 new cases per day for 4 consecutive weeks. At that time, we will first gather in small groups.

That means, we are going to need to develop some some groups! So over the next two months, we will begin a few new small groups, first on Zoom and then in-person as the virus subsides enough to resume gathering. The first of these will be a new scripture study group called Call & Response and it being July 23rd. We will begin by studying the book of Habakkuk.

How long, Oh Lord, until Black lives really do matter?

The other “How long, O Lord?” in our current historical moment, is, of course, the “How long” of racial justice. How long will it be before we see justice for Black Americans?

The image above — of a black boy running from National Guard troops — comes from the 1967 “Summer of Rage”, when our nation erupted with anti-racist protests not unlike the upheaval we’ve seen in the summer of 2020. It is a start reminder that over 50 years ago we were reckoning with America’s infection of racism.

And you may have noticed, Hispanic lives, too, are routinely dehumanized in America. And Asian lives, and Persian lives, Kurdish lives, Pacific Islander lives, and other groups categorized as non-white by their outward appearance. Racism is a pervasive infection, just as endemic in American life as any Pandemic.

Like Coronavirus, we cannot — I repeat, we cannot — directly eliminate racism. The need to bias is deeply rooted in the human heart and anti-blackness is deeply ingrained in American culture. We cannot touch it with our hands, remove it from our bodies directly, or close our eyes and will it to go away. But like any virus, we can awaken to its reality; we can educate ourselves about its symptoms and causes; we can nurture an environment, a system that is diverse enough, strong enough, and healthy enough to fight off the infection. We can and should do all this, not only for our own good but for the good of others.

This, but he way, is the work of the Spirit of God. Can you feel it already at work, energizing us toward this kind of difficult, yet necessary and long overdue ministry of conciliation?

At the church, we have been working closely in our partnership with The San Diego Organizing Project to address racism and other social issues here in the City of Oceanside and in San Diego County. I’ve been working with them, in particular, to build a County-wide caucus of interfaith clergy to work together to see change on matters of racial justice, housing and homelessness, and environmental justice.

In accordance with those efforts, our Justice Works team is working to begin three new efforts:

A new racial justice learning group at OSC, which will start by reading the book, Rethinking Incarceration, together later this month. You can sign up for that group here.
A new youth and social justice team, to bring together youth and young adults from across congregations in North County to work collaboratively on Social Justice issues.
A get-out-the-vote effort for the upcoming fall election.

Click here to see how you can get involved in these new Justice Works efforts.

It is an unsettling and anxious time for all of us, but that also means God is at work by the Spirit to bring about something new; in each of us, in our church, and in our communities. Are you ready?

Be safe, be well, and God bless.

Rev. Jason Coker

Lead Pastor