Let me start by saying these are my thoughts.
I may have missed some facts.
Jesus alone is good.
Jesus offers us life—even though we are dead in our sin.
Lord have mercy.
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Sadly, today, my home state of Missouri is planning on executing a man.
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Marcellus Williams is set to be executed today by the state around 6 p.m.
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And yesterday,
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Governor Parson,
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he denied the stay order,
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which would have stopped his execution today,
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as his legal team is advocating for possible new evidence,
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possible...
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errors in the judicial process um and um some mishandling of um
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of information and things were revolving regarding the,
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uh,
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the jury process,
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the evidence and other things.
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And,
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uh,
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I just want to,
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so I'm going to first start by reading through some of the information just for
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everybody and then give you some thoughts.
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So if you're looking for the thoughts, skip ahead a few, few seconds here, but so, uh,
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Both our state court and Governor Parson rejected requests to cancel this execution,
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which is planned to be a lethal injection.
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So Marcellus Williams is being scheduled to be executed today,
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Tuesday,
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for the 1998 murder of Leisha Gale,
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who was murdered in her home during a burglary.
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and so yesterday governor parson denied the clemency request and uh um
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The thing about it is,
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regardless of his innocence or not,
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the request was to stay the execution and to sentence him to life in prison instead.
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It was not as though this man was just going to walk out of jail because the governor signed it.
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They were asking that his life be spared.
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that he would still receive consequence for whatever action he may or may not have committed.
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I don't know.
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But both Governor Parson and the Supreme Court rejected this request to cancel the
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execution so that a court could then make a new determination on whether the trial
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was valid or not.
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And so essentially right now, the attorneys for Marcellus have applied for a U.S.
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Supreme Court appeal, but that's obviously going to depend on the United States Supreme Court.
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Right now, all we know is this, that tonight the execution is scheduled.
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So let's jump into the thoughts on this.
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If you came from Instagram,
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you saw some precursors,
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but I'm going to give a little bit more detailed analysis here.
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Sorry for not looking at you all, but it's still somber, still sad.
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Let's just talk.
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I am so saddened and almost angry.
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that for many years my home state of Missouri has politically capitalized and taken
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advantage of for political gain the morality of Christians and others,
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but specifically talking from my context,
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talking from my experience,
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my communities,
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my people,
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my parishioners,
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Our hope is not in the government.
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As Psalm 46 says, our trust is not in the princes or the nations, but ultimately our faith is in God.
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Because for so long,
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the politicians of our state and country have capitalized on the morality of
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Christian believers who fundamentally,
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almost universally opposed the form of death upon those who have been given life by Jesus.
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And so for years,
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American politicians and Missourians have utilized Christian ethics specifically
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targeted towards children and unborn children.
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as a way of advocating for pro-life principles,
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pro-life ethics,
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in which we claim that the rights of the innocent ought not be touched,
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ought not be infringed upon.
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And yet that term pro-life is much more encompassing than just the issue of abortion.
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that's one single issue.
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Um,
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there's many,
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uh,
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popular slangs for this kind of idea,
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but one that is common,
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which is kind of easy to say,
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but,
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um,
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not necessarily,
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um,
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as descriptive as I may choose,
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but many people will say,
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oh,
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you have to be pro-life from the womb to the tomb.
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And the sad thing is, um,
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That's not always the case.
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People don't always believe that.
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They take a unilateral approach to being pro-life.
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That being pro-life is simply for stopping the killing of children.
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And that's simply not the truth.
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Being pro-life is to advocate that we shouldn't murder unborn children.
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But being pro-life is advocating for those who end up in foster care because of
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that decision not to have an abortion.
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it is for advocating for the life and the value that is found in,
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uh,
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people with disabilities who would in other situations,
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other countries,
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other times be cast off or neglected or abandoned because of the physical
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disability that they may have.
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Um,
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Being pro-life is offering mercy for those who have committed wrongdoings and
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having mercy for those who have been falsely accused of things.
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We don't know about this case.
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I just, I don't know about this case.
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I've not been in the courtroom.
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I've not been, I wasn't there that night in 1998 when Leisha Gale was killed.
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But here's what I do know.
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And many people have pointed fingers at the Old Testament and said things about God
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that seem to contradict this position.
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But what we know is that Jesus,
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in the fullness of God,
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in the full revelation,
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in the fulfillment of the law,
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revealed to us that Jesus came
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not to condemn others to die, but to die on their behalf.
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And I think we risk taking on a really shallow form of the gospel when we,
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as Christians,
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say that we're pro-life and only value the lives of the unborn.
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I think it's a grave mistake that we would not be saddened by the fact that our home,
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our elected officials,
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our appointed officials are willing to not...
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to not just take, they're essentially not willing to take death off the table.
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They think,
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and this is ultimately not a Christian idea,
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death as a punishment that goes against what Jesus says.
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Jesus alone is the one who will judge the living and the dead.
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But for us to say that we're going to kill this person for taking another life, yes, it's wrong.
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Supposedly, right?
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I don't want to speak as though I know what actually happened because I don't.
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But for those of us who claim to follow Jesus, Jesus offers life.
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Even though we were dead in our sin, Jesus died for us.
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I've been listening several times this week to Lecrae's new single that he put out.
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What's it called?
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Die for the Party.
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Kendrick Lamar mentioned Lecrae in Kendrick's song.
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If you're not...
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normally engaged in hip-hop I wouldn't recommend you go listen to it but if you are
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and have a strong enough conviction when listening to hip-hop then you know I'll
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let you be strong in your faith as Paul says to the Corinthians but you know Lecrae
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and this song
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is referring back to what Kendrick said in his song,
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which,
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listen to it,
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your own advisement,
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if your faith is strong.
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The last line of the song,
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essentially Kendrick is saying,
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I'm just going to sit back and watch this thing that we glorified die.
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I'm not going to pretend to know all of the ins and outs of that song because I listened to it once.
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And there's a lot more there that I definitely would not have picked up and not understood.
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But regardless, Lecrae was in the song.
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Kendrick says, I wonder sometimes what would Lecrae do?
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And so Lecrae kind of told him, he said, you know, we're all that sinner.
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And Jesus didn't watch the party die.
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He died for the party.
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He died instead of the party.
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And that's ultimately the sentiment that Christians ought to have.
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is that should,
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based on human terms,
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if Marcellus Williams did kill this person,
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would it be just to kill him in response,
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an eye for an eye,
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a tooth for a tooth?
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Probably.
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It probably would.
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And I don't know.
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I'm fairly certain that governor Parson claims to be a Christian.
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I'm not certain of that.
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I haven't looked that up, but I'm fairly certain based on what people have told me that could be wrong.
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That's very possible.
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I'm wrong, but, um, we cannot hold, uh, non-believers to Christian standards.
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Let's just be clear.
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We can't not possible yet.
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Um,
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For those of us who are Christians, would it be just for a murderer to be killed?
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Probably.
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But is that what Jesus did?
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No, Jesus died for murderers.
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There was a murderer next to him, and Jesus had compassion.
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The rebel, they call him a thief, but he's an insurrectionist, a rebel, possibly a murderer.
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And he offers that man life to be with him in paradise.
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So it's a solemn morning.
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I sadly still have a lot to do today.
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It's the morning, but let me offer this pastoral wisdom to you.
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We are not able to do anything.
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Advocacy is, at the end, not able to do anything.
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May we simply come before the Lord today and pray those comforting words, the words that I pray often.
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Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy.
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Lord, have mercy.
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Christ, have mercy.
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Lord, have mercy.
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Because advocacy doesn't do anything.
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There have been millions and thousands of advocates for many different things.
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Ultimately, all we have is prayer.
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And that's folly.
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That's foolishness to the unbeliever.
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But to us, knowing that prayer is not magic, it's not a
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that you just employ and everything works magically.
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But prayer is connecting with God,
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aligning our will with him,
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and knowing that even in the midst of these injustices,
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amid all of this evil and pain,
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Jesus will come again.
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And as the
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As the apostle John writes,
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he will wipe every tear from their eyes and he will take away all their pain and he
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will make all things new.
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Lord, have mercy.
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Christ, have mercy.
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Lord, have mercy.
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Would Jesus be with us all today?
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