Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20
- A couple months after I moved to Uptown, I found two round cracks in my car’s passenger side windows where I parked it on the street.
- My insurance company sent a nice man to replace my window. When I asked him how he thought the holes got there, he said, “It looks like someone took a screwdriver and a mallet and tried to puncture holes in the window to break in.”
- It wasn’t a big deal, but it was enough to make me aware that I’m not in Oconto Falls anymore.
- Another day this spring, I was standing on the corner of 28th and Lyndale when a flurry of police vehicles sped by, responding to the shooting of Jamal Mitchell up on Blaisdell and 22nd. Mitchell, as you know, was the cop who thought he was coming to the aid of a person who ended up shooting and killing him. I guess that was the closest geographically I’ve ever been to a shooting of that kind. It rattled me.
- I went through a period of reading the crime reports. Did you know you can track the locations where gunshot is heard in your neighborhood? I learned which blocks get the most petty crime, and which are virtually crime free.
- You’ve probably heard about the increase in carjackings around here by young teenagers. In one last week, the kids caught ranged in age from 11 to 14. During another one, the kids driving the car were shot by people from another vehicle, and at least one was critically injured.
- I heard about a free self-defense class last spring at Bryant Park, and I went.
- Almost everyone else there was like me: female, white and over 60.
- The teacher herself was about my size, but she wore a black belt
- She made the class fun, if self-defense can be fun
- She taught us to be aware of our surroundings
- And trust your instincts and get away if you ever feel an instinctive fear about someone nearby –even if it’s a person you know!
- And then she taught us how to kick someone really hard!
- You already know that, earlier this month, two SpringHouse members were mugged on the corner of 28th and Lyndale. The perpetrators were kids in a stolen car who had already robbed a few others that morning.
- And the following week, Ann’s bicycle was stolen from our parking lot during the Sunday morning services.
- I felt terrible for all these women, how undeserving they are of being robbed and threatened.
- And then last week, I went for my morning coffee at my favorite coffee shop and found two windows had been shattered by robbers during the night. The owner, Liz, was busy sweeping up glass. I felt terrible for her; she works every day to keep her business going. She says something like this happens to her about every couple years.
- Many of you live, if not in Uptown, in neighborhoods where you experience crime routinely.
- What kinds of feelings do you have about that? Is it just part of life? Have you become more fearful? Does it affect your unconscious biases? Or where you walk or drive?
- Some people laugh off petty crime: the punch line after Liz was robbed at the coffee shop was that the robbers got away with $7 and an old I-Pad.
- My reactions are mixed: when I listen to the news, I feel a little fearful and cautious
- But when I get out on the streets, I feel strangely safe!
- People are surprisingly open and friendly in the Twin Cities;
- I’m rarely alone on the street, there’s always someone nearby; even at night I see people out walking.
- It’s hard to feel fearful when nearly everyone you meet on the street is walking a chihuahua!
- And I’ve also picked up a feeling of protectiveness people have toward each other:
- Our friend Martha was one of the two people robbed near SpringHouse.
- She told me how a couple neighbors from the apartment building here, and a couple random people on the street, all rushed to their aid when they were mugged.
- One person took a picture of the license plate on the car
- Someone found their purses thrown in the street nearby
- Somebody took the two women home because they lost their car keys
- Someone begged them to accept free ice cream
- Martha said the response of caring bystanders far outweighed the experience of being violated
- It’s one reason why she wasn’t left with any residual fear.
- She said her gratitude for the people who helped far outweighed her fear of the people who hurt her
- She also told me the incident taught her other things,
- She practices meditation and mindfulness in her home life all the time;
- and she now sees how she needs to be more mindful in her surroundings out in the world.
- We can be mindful and alert
- Not just to preserve our own safety
- But to notice what’s going on with other people;
- are the people around us ok?
- Can we reach out to help them?
- When George Floyd was killed, and in the ensuing uprising and rioting.
- when I’ve heard you talk about it, I do hear the memory of trauma
- There were two kinds of defenses you had to put up:
- One was defending your own property, businesses, your church here!
- Standing out on your porches to make sure no one vandalized;
- And the other was your protective instinct toward defending people of color who experience way disproportionate violence and death at the hands of police
- Two different kinds of defensive postures to hold at once.
- Looking back 4 years later, how has that experience affected you?
- I want to close by telling you the most recent crime statistics for the metro area tell us that crime was down last year.
- 8% decrease in violent crime: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault
- Carjackings were down by 38% in 2023 (not sure how 2024 will be)
- The danger around us is part reality, part perception
- One last thought after listening to speeches at the Democratic convention this week:
- When we choose leaders, it’s worth considering the motivations and impulses that guided them into leadership.
- Their early callings to public service may come from a variety of human impulses,
- It occurred to me that the impulse to protect others, especially to protect the weak or threatened, or abused or the victim of injustice may be a good indicator of someone’s fitness for office. Especially right now in history.
- We have veered as a nation toward being a place where people prey on each other, compete against each other, cancel and destroy each other;
- and I mean all parties and factions
- But when we see leaders act protectively toward others, it makes us want to do the same.
- Maybe we can swing back to that impulse of protecting each other again as a nation.
- “Be alert,” says Paul.
- be vigilant in watching not just for danger, but for signs of compassion, kindness, strength, resilience, and courage.
- Like our friend Martha, maybe if we notice all the good around us, the danger out there won’t seem so overwhelming.
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