Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
On March 14th, I am inviting congregations around
Iowa to gather and hold a vigil of lamentation for victims of violence across
the nation. It is a call sparked by the latest mass shooting in Parkland, and
yet the aim is to embrace all victims of violence in prayers that transform us
who pray and lead us to hope.
Paul Fromberg, Rector of St Gregory of Nyssa Church in San
Francisco, and the presenter to the Growing Iowa Leaders Day in Marshalltown on
March 3rd, frames the concept of hope in this way:
“Hope is not a
romantic notion; it is a tough and scrappy thing. Hope is a function of
struggle; it is what is built in us when we strive to do hard, scary things.
Hope is not so much an emotion as it is a behavior. Hope comes when people set
goals, pursue them tenaciously and with real perseverance, and believe they
have the ability to achieve them. Hope
is not how we feel; it is how we think. Hope means learning to deal with
disappointment. Hope needs determination. Hope grows as we make an attempt,
fail, and try again. Hope requires us to practice compassion. Hope is not a
gauzy feeling that things will somehow work out for us. Hope is about struggle.
And hope is about relationships. Hope is what makes friendships last over the long
term.”
Events of the past week or so have taken me back to the
early days of my priesthood. The last of our class of ten deacons was being
ordained priest and I was traveling across the hill to Thousand Oaks to
participate. News came on the radio that Terry Waite, the Archbishop of
Canterbury’s right hand person had been taken hostage in Lebanon even as he had
been sent there to negotiate, on behalf of the Archbishop, the release of
others who had been kidnapped.
What is the Christian response, I thought? As a human rights
advocate in my early professional life, in communist countries, I would have
had a clear path of action. But I had left that behind, and had become a
priest. Was I now handcuffed to “thoughts and prayers?” Priests gather people
for Eucharistic action. We combine our advocacy with thoughts and prayers and
the incarnational nature of Eucharistic worship is what we offer. Yes, God may
have rooted me on one spot, and restricted my wanderings to a particular
parochial boundary and particular cares to a given community context, but there
is an offering, “with angels and archangels” that can be celebrated. And so we
started a Eucharist of Intention for the hostages in Lebanon every Tuesday
evening until their release.
What was our part in the grand scheme of things? God only
knows. It was as equally significant as my years spent being a voice among many
for voiceless people in a communist society through advocacy, protest and
intervention, as well as a little subterfuge. When the Berlin wall collapsed,
we were like those who dream. Economics was the primary blunt instrument upon
the wall, but millions of brave souls picked away at it over the decades, and
even more prayers had weakened it like a dripping stream of water forges
valleys over time.
On such experiences we build our hope for the Prince of
Peace to establish the kind of society his prophets envisioned. And I have no
doubt that economics will be the blunt instrument, as perhaps we are beginning
to see now that a group of children have begun to ask the right questions of
our politicians and their relationship to legislation regarding gun safety. I
am not however just talking about gun safety, but global security. Peace begins
when someone somewhere with power lays down its weapons and decides to study
war no more. We do not know what lies on the other side of such an act of
vulnerability. We do know however that it is how resurrection happens. It is
the way of Jesus.
Let me quote Dr. Fromburg further, “God’s promise is sure: wisdom is justified by her deeds. When we
engage the world around us, we are transformed by the engagement. When we press
through our fear to see the world as God sees it, we are transformed. When we dare
to break the rules, to risk respectability, for the sake of God’s Commonwealth
of Peace, we are transformed.”
After Parkland, the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral texted me
and asked about coming together for a vigil to honor the victims, as we have
done since Orlando onwards. The outcome then was to include prayers and remembrances with a scheduled Choral Evensong on Sunday February 18th. I told him I would also like to propose something more consistent. After Easter we're returning together to the holding of a weekly Eucharist of Intention, the focus of which I envision orbiting around
our issues with violence. I offer it as a place of respite and a gathering of
resolve for those engaging society for the “sake of God’s Commonwealth of
Peace.”
Until then, and as we pray for the progress of what seems like a genuine reframing of our legislative thinking of gun safety and the various health issues related to gun safety, I invite you to come together in prayer and to let your light for compassion, peace and hope shine across the state on March 14th.
In the peace and love of Christ,
+AlanThe Rt. Rev. Alan ScarfeBishop of Iowa
