It’s hard to put into words what I want to say about the inhumane way Sonya Massey died at the hands of such evil and hatred. To see another human being treated with such hatred as if she was inferior and as if she was a threat rather than someone who needed to be protected. There wasn’t a posture of seeking to understand. The two policemen thought they knew the situation. They walked into her home with a bias which caused them to choose to see her as less than human. These men, after taking the life of an innocent woman, started immediately justifying to one another that they “had to do it,” or they would have had to deal with some hot water… They didn’t have the response that this woman just lost her life and should do everything they can to help her.
Sonya Massey was a beautiful image of God, and that image, that creation, was killed in an instant by Sean Grayson. There was no honor shown to Sonya Massey in that moment. Sonya and the policemen were different but why should their differences be considered a bad thing or a threat? Why should her differences lead to the loss of her life?
Amos 5:24 says, “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Even though it seems hopeless at times, I pray that justice rolls. 1 John 4:20 says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” As the Church, we are brothers and sisters in Christ and should want one another’s light to shine. We don’t want others to have to dim their light. When each of our lights are shining brightly, like how God meant for it to be, the Church is seen for who she is meant to be. There was a desire here from Sean Grayson for Sonya Massey’s light to be dimmed.
Unity in the church does not look like sameness. It looks like many different voices lifted up together in one spirit, one heart, and one mind. The Kingdom of God is made up every people group. Every nation. In fact, Revelation 7:9-10 says, “After this I looked, and behold, I saw a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
The Kingdom of God looks like every nation being represented, crying out together in unity. We are all created in His image, but that does not mean we all look the same or are the same. That’s the beauty of it. I pray we all start appreciating the differences rather than condemning the differences. Sean Grayson and the other policemen did not see Sonya Massey for her differences. They did not see her as a person worthy of dignity and respect. We should embrace the differences rather than feeling threatened, and we should see the image of God in each person we come to meet.
By: Carmen Eby LPCA, Trauma-informed