To my family of faith in Crozet,
As I sit here in Pennsylvania, having presided over a worship service of Holy Matrimony less than six hours ago, I am struck by the juxtaposition of that celebration of love with this day of suffering and hatred in our neighbor, Charlottesville. While I am not with you in body, I have been joined with you in prayer, and am with you in spirit now. I have too many words. There are words of anger and outrage at the suffering of an entire community. There are words of sorrow and mourning for those who lost their lives and those who have been harmed in the course of events that escalated because of hatred lived out in violence. Mostly there are words of prayer and supplication, as I cry out to God for relief from the kind of human sinfulness that can only be satisfied by hate-filled words and causing public fear. My heart breaks for our community.
I am not going to sit here and offer some form of analysis for what went wrong. We do not need that, because I think it is obvious: what we experienced was sin. It is a sin to hate another person. It is a sin to use violence against another person. It is a sin to make another human being feel anything less than the beloved child of God that our Lord created them to be. It is a sin to strip another person of the dignity with which they were endowed by our Creator while they were still in the womb. Those that gathered in Charlottesville to proclaim their hatred and cause fear sinned, and brought evil into our midst. It literally crashed into our lives, our peaceful community and caused death. I do not need anyone to decry that. It is obviously wrong, a sin, and evil to murder another person.
There is no excuse, no other side, and no option to ignore what happened. We shall not. We shall not forget what happened when human beings decided to give into their hate and cause hurt. Hatred never stays a feeling, a harmless sentiment. It eats away at us, poisons our minds, and perverts our hearts until it has no where left to go internally and ruptures into our world, often in words and acts of violence. We saw this today. So our work as people of faith and servants of Jesus Christ has only begun.
We must now ensure that we have seen what unchecked and unquestioned hatred can do. Are we aware of our own prejudices? Are we actively working to eradicate it in our hearts and in our beloved Crozet? Do we prefer people who look like us, sound like us, dress like us, and live like us? Are we willing to turn a critical eye internally and see where our words reflect that we see some people as other while our Scriptures tell us that in Christ there is no distinction? If the Apostle Paul were writing his letter to the Galatians today, then I have no doubt it would read:
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer native or immigrant, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer black or white, there is no longer male and female, there is no longer heterosexual and non-heterosexual; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
It is a sin to hate a person God loves, and just because you might temper that word “hate,” do not think that God is fooled. We are all sinners. We are all in need of the grace that only Christ provides. We can all be transformed from sinners, and liberated from our hatred. So we start with ourselves, and we no longer let each other speak the language of prejudice that makes hatred of another person socially acceptable. Change starts with us, and Christ has freed us for this very purpose, this holy cause. We need to raise the children in our homes and in our community to love as God loves, and reject the sinful divisions humankind has created to reinforce a false hierarchy that raises some up by forcing others down into the depths of an unholy social prison. In this country, people have the right to hate, but we are not building an earthly kingdom of legalism, we are building the Kingdom of God, and there is no room for hatred here. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with us.
When the painful reality of human sinfulness makes us suffer, we get down on our knees and lift up our prayers to the highest heaven. Together let us pray:
Merciful and mighty God,
We come to you, our refuge and our redeemer,
Crying out from the aftermath of hatred in tangible form,
Poured out in our lives from human vessels.
Save us from this sin, Almighty God.
Protect us from this insidious evil that has taken lives,
And continues to cause pain, suffering, and bring forth violence.
We know that we have work to do to purge this sinful hatred from the world.
It begins with each of us taking on the heart of Christ,
Which rejects hatred and prejudice against any other person.
It means that we can not harbor hatred in our own hearts,
And we cannot allow it to be spoken and lived out in our community.
We seek your strength to do this,
Your guidance to help us accomplish this holy purpose.
We are not willing to accept hatred as a reality any longer.
We are people of faith, hope, and love,
And you proclaim that greatest of our attributes is love.
Let it be so, in accordance with your will.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
We pray.
Amen.
She Offered Them Christ 