The Browns with their enLighten caps
During our trip to Florida in March to visit family and friends, we took the opportunity one evening to drive out into central Florida to the community of Wauchula, where ranching is the primary activity … to visit with the Browns. Mama Shelly and her three multi-talented children who make up the group today, were spending four days at the New Hope Baptist Church, which was holding its annual four nights of revival services.
We got there early enough to enjoy a great supper meal with the congregation, then hear the Browns sing as well as a truly inspiring message targeted particularly on that evening to the teenagers. The church was larger and the evening better attended than you might expect to find in a smaller community.
After the service ended, we got the Browns together so they could show off their enLighten caps!
A Pastoral word . . .
Another thoughtful sharing by Reverend Mark Adams, Senior Pastor of Redland Baptist Church in Rockville, Maryland:
At 2:25 AM on February 17, 2003, a terrible fight erupted on the second floor of the E2 nightclub in Chicago’s South Side. When security personnel arrived, they used pepper spray to break up the brawl. The fumes of the pepper spray caused people to rush down the front stairwell. In the panic, 21 people were crushed to death or asphyxiated at the bottom of the stairs. Witnesses said the stack of bodies reached nearly six feet high. It was the worst nightclub calamity in Chicago’s history.
On the tenth anniversary of this horrible tragedy, the Chicago Tribune ran a story about Howard Ray, Sr., the 68-year-old father of DaShand Ray, a young man studying broadcast journalism who was crushed to death that night. The story made it clear that someone, or more correctly, a string of “someone’s” was at fault. For example, the club owners allowed five times too many people inside the club; a rear exit was locked, resulting in nowhere for the crowd of stampeding people to go; the city of Chicago had failed to enforce building code violations and the DJ working that night incited security guards to use the pepper spray. Even ten years later, Howard Ray, Sr. is outraged that no one has been held accountable for what was so obviously a preventable catastrophe.
Ray is still seeking what he calls “real justice.” Over the past decade, he has made it his passion to educate himself on tort law, building codes, and criminal negligence. He has even built a website to share information on the tragedy. He continues to plead with officials to reinvestigate the details. When people suggested that he drop his quest for justice and move on, Howard Ray Sr. said, “My son loved me. He trusted me. I can’t stop until there’s real justice done. [If I didn’t want justice] what kind of father would I be?”
There are similarities between Mr. Ray and our Heavenly Father. 1 John 4:16 says, “God is love” and Psalm 9:16 says, “The Lord is known by His acts of justice.” Both of these fathers love their children and pursue justice. Of course, there are two important differences in this Chicago story and the Gospel story. First, you and I aren’t simply victims, we’re also participants in the cosmic calamity of sin. Second, in Jesus, God Himself took the punishment we deserved for our sin. As Isaiah 53:5-6 says, “He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” God’s love and justice met perfectly on the cross of Christ.
(c) 2013 Mark Adams.
