Gun violence came close to home this week. Closer than some of us usually experience. On Thursday, Amarr Murphy-Paine, a 17 year old high school senior, was fatally shot at lunchtime in the parking lot at Garfield High School while attempting to break up a fight.
My heart is aching for the students, their parents, teachers, people who live in the neighborhood, the alleged shooter, and most of all for the Murphy-Paine family. I feel sad, and angry, and a little numb.
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Thursday was National Gun Violence Awareness Day and June is Gun Violence Awareness Month. Gun-related violence on school grounds is one dimension of the epidemic of gun violence in our country. Public statistics in Seattle show that gunshot victims in homicides are more often young men, and disproportionately Black or African American people.
The rise of gun violence coincides with other crises of hate-based speech and crimes and inadequate mental health care, resting on internalized and institutional racism. We cannot isolate gun violence from these other signs of dis-ease and unhealth in our society.
As Christians, we follow Jesus the Christ, who came to bring salvation, health, to all people. So that we could be reconciled to one another and God, and restored to health in our selves, our families, and our communities.
Health looks like communities that use words not guns and violence to resolve differences. Health looks like reparations for institutional and internalized racism in the church, in governmental policies, in policing, and in our selves. Health looks like prioritizing emotional health and physical safety of our children so that they can learn and thrive. Health looks like communities that come together to support one another in good times and crises.
Health sounds like a radical departure from the status quo.
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In today’s reading from 1 Samuel, we see the people of Israel begging to join the status quo. They are weary of Yahweh’s hands-off rule that expects them to live by the covenant of the 10 Commandments, unlike the warrior kings of neighboring nations. With an attraction akin to TikTok, the people find the shiny gods and land-hungry rulers of their neighbors more appealing than the ever-present God who liberated them from slavery and brought them to a land of plenty. Like an exasperated parent, God essentially throws up the holy hands and tells Samuel to warn the people that the ruler they want will enslave and oppress them. The people insist that they want ‘the other kind of king’ so they can be like their neighbors.
It’s not easy to stand apart from the world. To follow a God who invites us to root ourselves in deep peace and prayer so that we intuitively treat one another with respect. To build a community where all people thrive. Where ridicule, contempt, competition, condescension, and self-defensive apathy take a backseat to listening and working together.
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The gospel of Mark uses active verbs. While this may be because Mark was not a native Greek speaker, it keeps the focus on the action. In today’s pericope, Jesus talks about the importance of action rooted in our values. He goes so far as to say, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Whoever acts toward the vision of health God has in mind for all humanity is part of God’s family, part of God’s community.
It is not enough to know what we should do. Knowing is a brain exercise. Action requires us to move our bodies, to be attentive to the Holy Spirit moving in our midst, and to listen and learn and be in relationships. Most importantly for Jesus, to be in relationship. Familial relationships - siblings and parents - formed the foundation of Jesus’ culture and understanding of community.
The Trinity community touches the Garfield community. Families in our Trinity community include Garfield students and neighbors. Geographically, Trinity is the Episcopal church closest to Garfield. We cannot say, that’s not on First Hill, so those are not our neighbors. These are our siblings, our friends, our people - and when they hurt, we hurt.
Today’s scripture readings place the energy and responsibility for following God’s values and desires for reconciling and healthy relationships on US.
God delivered the people from slavery and gave them a covenant for how to live together and thrive. People succumbed to peer pressure and chose what looked like shinier ways to live. God, still there and wanting to be in relationship with us, again offered salvation, health, by sending Jesus to show us how to live in whole and thriving relationship with God and one another. Once Jesus ascended, the Holy Spirit made an entrance, bringing holy courage and inspiration for living our faith.
We cannot instantly solve the institutional and internalized racism manifest in the epidemics of gun violence, mental health, and hateful speech and action. We can LEARN about these issues in our community and how they affect our neighbors. We can LISTEN with our hearts for how the Holy Spirit nudges us to build relationships where we reconcile our differences and support one another as allies in good times and difficult ones. And then we LIVE our faith. We model and support reconciling people to one another and God, working toward God’s vision of health and dignity, justice and peace for all people.
Siblings in Christ, crises bring fear. Fear can manifest as anger. We need not be paralyzed by our fear, and we need not allow anger to drive us to respond with violence. Jesus told his disciples that people would know that we are his followers by how we love one another.
Don’t take my word as the last word on gun violence in our city. Do your own homework. Follow your curiosity, wherever it leads. Data. Existing programs, here or other places, that address root causes of gun violence. How institutional racism figures into racial disparities in violence today. The effects of redlining in Seattle. Ways to increase feelings of safety and reduce guns in peoples’ hands. Pray for the Holy Spirit to move hearts and minds and budgets to create peaceful spaces where community can come together and work creatively. Pray for the will to follow Jesus’ teachings to ACT with love and respect.
Difficult God, whom the world judges mad or worse: reveal our life’s distortions posing as normality; enlarge our sense of family beyond those close to us; cast down Satan’s kingdom of cruelty, exclusion, and violence; and give us courage to act as your followers, through Jesus the Christ who brings health and salvation. Amen.
