June 21: Open Wide Our Hearts

1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 10-16;     Psalm 133
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-41

Emanuel: God is with us. 

On Wednesday evening, Dylann Roof entered the Emanual African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, S.C., joined a prayer service, telling those gathered that Black people were taking over his country, they had to go, and then began shooting, killing nine people,  killing the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Cynthia Hurd, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, The Rev. Depayne Middleton Doctor, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, The Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sr., Myra Thompson.

At times like these, it is hard to believe that God is with us.  This newest in a line of tragedies that seem to dominate our newsfeeds and our Facebook posts shakes our belief in the promise of Emanuel—God with us—making it seem more of an improbability than a reality.

As a white woman witnessing this horror from afar, like Rabbi Rachael Barenblat, I am asking myself:  “What can I do to change the reality in which this kind of hate crime is possible?  I want my nation to be better than this. I want humanity to be better than this.”

I feel like those disciples in the boat during the storm in today’s Gospel.  Oh Lord, the seas are rocking.  The seas are rocking with waves of racism and hatred.  Oh Lord, the seas are turbulent with the roar of gun violence and inhumanity.  Dear God, the oceans are white with our indifference and our acceptance of senseless violence in this nation.  Save us, Lord, save us from ourselves.

The Good news in Today’s Gospel is that Jesus is with us during the storm.  Jesus has not abandoned us in this tempest of racism, gun violence, and our refusal to change the systems in order to end these tragedies.  Jesus is in our boat.  As we cry out, “Lord, why?”  As we cry out, “Lord, save us!”  Jesus responds: Love one another.  Act in love.  Create systems and regulations, laws and societies that are founded on loving one another---acting for the benefit of one another---turn from self-preservation, self-centered love, and work toward the good of the whole, the love of God’s creation and God’s created.  Jesus has not abandoned us, nor the good people of Charleston, but Jesus may be getting weary of our asking him to do what it is that we must do for ourselves.

Yes, beloved, God is in charge of the oceans, the Creation, this fragile earth, our island home, but God has placed the stewardship and care of Creation and of one another in our hands.  How much longer will we deny our brothers and sisters and allow racism and gun violence to be our way of life?

Like me, you might find yourself asking: What can I do?  I live in Wisconsin; this is not my story, not my city, not my fight.

But as disciples of Jesus, it is our story.  These acts of violence and hatred, these are the things that break the heart of God. These dead and dying, these killing and hating, these hurting and mourning, they are our brothers and sisters.  In Christ there is no us and them; there is only us.

So, let us begin with prayer.  On Friday, Intercession hosted a prayer service for the people and city of Charleston---lifting up our hearts for those who grieve and those who are most profoundly affected by this senseless tragedy.  We are called to love others as God loves.  It is easy for us to love those who are hurting and suffering in this tragedy.  And we express our love in prayer, in lifting them up, in saying their names, and honoring their lives.

But we are called to love those responsible for this act as well.  To love Dylann Roof who has confessed to these killings.  To love those who taught Dylann it is honorable to hate people because of their race.  To love those who said nothing when Dylann told racist jokes, wore badges proclaiming racist regimes. To love those who tell us this is not terrorism or a hate crime and we don’t have a problem with guns in our country.

We are called to love all---those who are easy to love and those whom we find it very difficult to love.  And in times like these, when we are in the middle of a storm, we need to remember that Jesus is with us and God is in control, and we must decide to move and respond, to react and to speak, from love. 

So, let us begin with prayer.  For the love we are called to is impossible without our hearts being changed.  We are called to have the hearts we see in David and Jonathan’s story.  David and Jonathan who shared a covenantal love---a love where one loves another as his own soul.  Jonathan and David’s love is a sacrificial love---acting for the benefit of the other, laying down one’s life in the midst of danger and threat.  Later in their story, Jonathan takes action to secure David’s life—even when it put his own life in danger. This is the covenantal, sacrificial love of God that we are called to embrace, to honor in the blessing of marriage between two persons, and to live out in community and in our lives with one another.

In a blog post for the Diocese of Virginia, the Reverend Dr. Dorothy White, an ordained Episcopal priest and formerly a Baptist minister, writes:

As our bishops and deputies gather to share in the 78th General Convention, I would urge that you take time and focus on “those things that break the heart of God.” Loving as God loves is not without challenge. Loving as God loves will stretch our lives to such a degree that only a Holy God can make possible.

As a nation, a nation of Christians, atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Natives, pagans, wiccans, and the unaffiliated, a nation of believers and non-believers, we are called to demand an end to racism, systemic and particular.  We are called to elect officials who will not allow laws and systems that value one section of humanity over another.  We are called to be citizens who speak up when hatred is spoken in comments and jokes, when flags that symbolize prejudice are flown at state or federal buildings, when our systems are broken and violence is out of hand.  This is not somebody else’s problem.  It is our problem.  The answer is to love as God loves.  The challenge is to love as God loves.  The risk is to act and speak in love as God loves.  But, if we who pray “God’s Kingdom come, God’s will be done,” if we who have founded our way of being on the great love commands to love God and love one another as God loves, if we remain silent or removed or inactive----then who will speak, who will act, who will move?  So, let us begin with prayer.

Heavenly Father: We lift up our voices, our pleas, our hearts for our brothers and sisters in Charleston, S.C., and all those affected by this violence. Come, Holy Spirit, and transform our hearts toward love, change our vision that we may see you in the face of the other, strengthen our arms that we may hold those who have been hurt, and give us the courage to take the necessary actions to spread your Kingdom. Guide us in our responses and our words that we might become a nation that shines with Your love, dispelling hatred, violence, and division. God, please save us from our inhumanity; God, please open wide our hearts. Amen.