Love and Hope in the midst of Violence and Pain

 

Rev. Molly F. James, Ph.D.

DFMS Noonday Prayer

March 29, 2023

Feast of John Keble: Psalm 15; Romans 12:9-21; Mark 1:9-13

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Oh my friends. We have been here before, and I don’t like it one bit. There was the original idea I had for a sermon at the beginning of this week. And then someone walked into an elementary school and shot children and teachers. Again. Our hearts are breaking. Again. 

It is hard to find words. There is just pain and anguish. And fury at a country that loves its guns more than its children. 

I think all of you know that I assisted Trinity, Newtown and our bishops in the wake of Sandy Hook, so there is a particular pain in watching another elementary school go through this horror. Especially since it has been more than a decade. Benjamin Wheeler should be in high school. He should have his driver’s license, and be beginning to think about where he is going to college. 

The pain is real. No doubt we all have our own stories where we have been closer or more connected to the horrors of gun violence - in supermarkets, in neighborhoods, in religious communities, in night clubs, in so many places where people gather to seek the simple joy of being together. 

So what do we do with all this pain? Well, I think the Holy Spirit has given us a gift in the midst of all the challenges. Our readings and the commemoration of John Keble. That passage from Romans . . . Let love be genuine. . . Don’t seek to do vengeance. Don’t act in spite or hate. Indeed. The only way forward is to keep being grounded in love. To keep acting out of love. Over and over again. 

And find all the small ways we can be a prophet for God and for Love. That’s what John Keble is most known for - preaching a sermon to the legal community and government leaders to criticize them for forgetting God. For seeing the Church as a mere institution and not a prophetic messenger of God’s love. May we not fall prey to the same error. May we find our ways to preach God’s love wherever we are. May we not lose heart even when it seems things will not change. 

I found myself thinking of John Lewis this week. Do you remember when he spent hours sitting on the House of Representatives floor advocating for gun control?

There was a photo that went around social media from the March in Selma, with the caption of something like: “I don’t think John Lewis is afraid of the gun lobby.” 

I found myself thinking of him and so many others in the civil rights era who persisted and persisted - even when things looked very bleak, even when children were dying. They did not give up. They did not turn to violence. They kept marching. They kept sitting. They kept showing up, until the laws changed. All the residents of Nashville today can sit at the same tables in a restaurant because John Lewis and his fellow college students staged sit-in after sit-in enduring humiliation and arrest until the laws changed. Side note, if you haven’t seen the documentary “Good Trouble” I highly recommend it. 

So in the midst of our pain this week, let’s remember John Keble and John Lewis. Let us remember that even a single person can indeed make an impact. Let us remember the truth that they proclaimed with their words and their lives: Love always has the last word. Amen.