You likely know the story–here’s the Cliff-notes version.
Livi Petit and his OU fraternity brothers caught on tape in a hateful, disgusting, racist chant. Levi’s expelled, frat’s shut down, social media blows up in a frenzy of well-deserved denunciation.
Then Levi steps up an apoligizes, owns his behavior, meets with the OU football team, reaches out to African-American leaders. He asks for forgiveness, hopes for reconciliation.
I’ll confess to more than a bit of skepticism. Then I read these comments from Ray Miller:
It reminded me also of the calling of the church to be an alternative community.
When the rest of the world wants vengeance and blood, Christ calls us to enemy love and sacrificial living. When the rest of the world condemns, the church through Jesus offers a community of forgiveness. When the world wants this young man to go away and never be heard from again, the church calls us to live in the tension of our own depravity and God’s Divinity because it is there that transformation can really happen.
Church truly is an alternative community from the world. Church calls us to live our lives in Christ, meaning that we pattern our lives in the life of Jesus. The only way this pattern of discipleship occurs is through the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. Sometimes this is painful and causes great anxiety.
I don’t know the true motivations of Levi. That’s not my job to discern. There is only One Judge. I do know this: Levi is a sinner for whom Christ died, as are the people who are condemning Levi, and as are the African-Americans whom Levi wounded deeply. The calling of the church is to take all those three groups and model reconciliation and forgiveness. We truly are an alternative community.
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