Dear friends:
It’s been 10 days including two Sundays followed by lovely coffee hours (thank you, Linda Diaz) and the first of our informal summer gatherings (thank you, George and Sarah Young) since I joined you as Trinity’s Interim Rector, so I thought this would be a good time to check in with a short note and let you know how it’s going.
I must say how delighted (and not at all surprised) I have been with the warm and generous welcome you have offered Zonnie and me. We feel cared for and embraced. We are already right at home. Of course, your hospitality isn’t the only “warmth” we’ve been experiencing as the New Orleans summer heat and humidity is taking some getting used to. No worries, though, we are adjusting.
Another source of delight for me has been getting to know and work with Trinity’s exceptionally talented program staff. While over the years of my ministry, it’s been my privilege to work with numbers of faithful and dedicated staff who keep the program wheels turning, I’m pleased to report that the folks you have given me to work with here at Trinity are absolutely top shelf. The best.
Here’s a link to the staff page. The next time you see one of these gifted and faithful Christians, please thank them for the service they offer to you and to the Trinity community. They each do their work with skill and cheer and good humor, and they deserve our immense gratitude. They sure have mine.
Of course, the world continued to turn these last ten days, and we awoke on Sunday to find that the United States had entered the conflict between Israel and Iran. War is always the occasion for the greatest prayer and lamentation regardless of how one may feel about the righteousness of any particular cause.
I recall with great clarity the evening of September 12, 2001.
I was Rector of St. Alban’s Church in Austin in those days, and on that evening a group of us gathered in the church to pray, lament and simply hold each other. There were a number of retired military in that congregation and among them was Rufus Woody, a retired Air Force brigadier general who had commanded a wing of B-52 bombers in the Vietnam conflict. Which is to say, Rufus was a warrior. So when Rufus rose to speak, particular attention was paid!
We had been reflecting on Jesus’s admonition in the Sermon on the Mount to not only love your enemies but to pray for them, and we were praying for an end to violence of all kinds all over the world. Rufus said that he was struggling with his pull for retribution, his pull for revenge, his pull to strike back in violence at his enemies.
And then he said words that I will never forget.
“I can’t do anything about healing the violence in the world until I heal the violence in my own heart.”
Silence filled the room as we each looked into our own hearts, breathing deeply, gathering ourselves to reflect on our own wants for violent retribution in the face of these unjust attacks.
It was an epiphany. The feeling of helplessness in the face of events beyond our control was giving way to an understanding that healing the violence in our own hearts was within our power to control.
Bringing peace to my neighbor, bringing peace to the world, was going to begin with bringing peace to my own heart. Healing the violence in my own heart was where I could begin.
There is so much violence in the world right now. Israel, Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, violence carried out by state actors and non-state actors alike. And here at home. Domestic terrorism targeting political figures. Mass murders in schools, too often involving children killing children. A culture that glorifies violence and belittles empathy.
Before throwing up our hands in despair, please remember that we have agency. We can act. And we can act not only through our elected representatives, but also through community organizations and through engaged churches like Trinity.
Feed a hungry person with Trinity Loaves and Fishes. Call or visit someone who is sick or lonely or grieving. Take a walk around the neighborhood, wave to folks and pick up the litter.
Someone once said that everything true and beautiful can be discovered in a ten-minute walk. Love and beauty are truth. We have agency. But first we pray. For guidance and divine wisdom. For those with whom we may be in conflict. For an end to violence. For the healing of the violence in our own hearts.
The Prayer Attributed to Saint Francis is a good place to start.
A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
And then try these two:
For the Nation
Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
For Peace
Almighty God, kindle, we pray, in every heart the true love of peace, and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth, that in tranquility your dominion may increase until the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
May these summer days be filled with blessings for you and all the ones you love, and may all our hearts be filled with gratitude for the beauty and the bounty of the world God has created for us to live in and care for,
Lex
