For the past several weeks, I have been reflecting and
meditating on 1 John 4:18 - There is no fear in love, but perfect love
casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached
perfection in love -- in light of the vitriol and invective and
fear-mongering of the current presidential campaign.
And then, there was Orlando.
I have been struggling to find the words to express what I
am feeling about that horror which don’t seem vacuous or clichéd. It seems to me that the massacre in Orlando reflects
the constellation of hate, fear and paranoia that has been rotting out American
society like a cancer in recent years;
the perfect storm of our dehumanizing of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters,
of our demonizing of our Muslim brothers and sisters, and our neglect of the
reality of mental illness and the many who suffer from it in silence. Perfect love casts out fear, but hate always,
always results in violence. With all
too much frequency in the history of humanity, with unspeakable, horrible
violence.
Perfect love trumps hate.
I believe that. We need to live like
we believe it. We need to ACT like we
mean it. Instead of attacking one
another in Facebook posts and tweets, we need to be doing whatever we can to
build relationships of understanding, hope and compassion. That means getting out of our church
buildings, putting down our devices, opening our ears, listening to the pain
and sorrow of our brothers and sisters and then acting in partnership based on
that listening. This year, our Synod
passed a resolution calling on all our congregations to take on the scourge of
racism. How many of us have started to
respond to that call (which passed with no dissent)? How many of us have sat down to listen,
really listen, to our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, or our Muslim brothers and
sisters, to hear their stories and see the image of God in them? What are we doing to identify and walk with
those who suffer silently in our midst with mental illness?
Perfect love trumps hate.
Not OUR perfect love. (Which ours
never is.) But God’s perfect love. A love which took Jesus to the cross. A love which conquered death. A love which still empowers God’s people to
overcome hate and fear and invective and vitriol and oppression and
bloodshed… in spite of the many times
those things have been perpetrated in god’s name.
The God I believe in is a God of reconciliation, not
judgment.
The God I believe in is a God of love, not hate.
The God I believe in is a God who weeps with us in the face
of unspeakable violence, and then brings life from death.
All too often, I confess, I am complicit in perpetuating
systems that perpetuate hate. I succumb
to fear. But, perfect love casts out
fear and I pray that the God of Perfect Love, will use me in that holy
work. I pray that the horrors of
Orlando, and the daily horrors that shatter our world with violence, will
compel all people of faith (all faiths) to join together in God’s holy work of
reconciliation and healing the world so desperately needs.
Peace,
Bishop Mike
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