Because They Couldn't Breathe, We Cannot Be Silent (A Responsive Reading For George Floyd and Others)

This responsive reading was inspired by the following Tweet from Latasha Morrison:

Because I can breathe, I don’t want another person to die at the hands of police brutality because they can’t breathe. What will you do with the breath in your body?

Creating, Sustaining, and Saving God,
Hear us in these heavy times
because it feels like no one else does.

People of God take heart, for the Scriptures tell us:

“God hears the hearts of the afflicted;
He encourages them and listens to their cries,
He defends the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that people will no longer terrorize us”
(Psalm 10:17-18)

How long?
How long, O Lord?

People of God take heart, for the Scriptures tells us:

“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
(Joel 2:32)

How long?
How long, O Lord?

I don’t know.

It feels too long.

I know.

It feels too heavy.

People of God take heart, for the Scriptures tells us:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30)

But it doesn’t feel that way.
The oppression feels too heavy.
Another video.
Another life taken by authority

By those who are supposed to protect

People of God take heart, God has word for you:

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.”
(Isaiah 10:1-2)

But it keeps happening:

Alton Sterling
Tamir Rice
Trayvon Martin
Philando Castile
Eric Garner
Bothem Sean
Breonna Taylor
Amaud Arbery
George Floyd

And so many more.

Live cut short

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
(Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail)

Creating, Sustaining, and Saving God,
Remind us of our mutuality

Their suffering is our suffering

George Floyd couldn’t breathe.

But we can.

Eric Garner couldn’t breathe.

But we can.

So what will we do with our breath?

Remind ourselves that it is a gift.

And gifts are not to be wasted.

We will use our breath to speak for the voiceless.
We will use our breath to cry with the afflicted.

Because they could not breathe,
we cannot be silent.

God, you promised to cast down the mighty
and we don’t know how much longer we can wait.

Because they could not breathe,
we cannot be silent.

God, give us the courage to lead with love,
to challenge unjust systems
and to name the national sin of racism.

Because they could not breathe,
we cannot be silent.

Because they could not breathe,
we will not be silent.