Dear People of St. James’,
Yesterday, in partnership with iACT, members of the Austin community gathered in vigil in the sanctuary at St. James’ in order to lament the tragic loss of life in the mass shootings in a grocery store in Buffalo and this week in an elementary school in Uvalde. Faith leaders and the faithful across denominations and faiths gathered. Civic leaders joined in our lament. The entire Austin Independent School District Board took time out from their meeting and stayed to be in a place where they could stand with parents and teachers and students. Pictures of the children and teachers of Uvalde and those killed in Buffalo lined the windows in the narthex.
We gathered to pray for the murdered and those who mourn with a grief inexpressible. We gathered to lift our voices to call out for change so that our nation might repent of its unholy relationship with guns, racism, and violence. We gathered to be commissioned to use what power we have to be change-makers, asking that God would change our own hearts and minds and use us for good.
It was good to gather in this way, because we are less afraid and more able to keep going when we know that we are not alone.
Every time this kind of public nightmare occurs, “thoughts and prayers” language is used and then criticized, rightly, by those who are frustrated that the thinking and the praying doesn’t seem to change our nation’s course of action. And so, one might wonder, what good is the thinking and the praying when it does not seem to move a deeply polarized people closer to agreement over what to do about guns or more into agreement over the need to confront the racism that infects our society. A fair question. What kind of thinking and praying is required of us who hope for a nation where children and teachers can go to school unafraid and where the slaughter of innocents is no longer a recurring reality? What kind of thinking and praying is required of us who hope for a nation repentant of its long-standing murderous relationship with racism, persecution of the poor, and violence?
We are in desperate need of God’s presence and each others’ presence to give us, in Paul’s words in Philippians 2, the mind of Christ Jesus, so that we might think some new thoughts and pray some new prayers that will make us ready to pour ourselves out for the vulnerable.
Theologian Miroslav Volf says, “There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.” But his solution is not, don’t bother with prayer so that you won’t be a hypocrite. It’s pray in ways that open your own heart to God and to the suffering so that you can become honest and so that God can change your mind and set your feet on pathways that lead to justice and to peace.
On Sunday, we celebrate some glorious milestones in the lives of members of our community in the midst of this new series of grim milestones in the life of our nation. You will have an opportunity to sign a baptismal certificate for Tyler, the daughter of Natalie Adelaja and Ricky Green, and prayer books for a bunch of graduating high schoolers, and we are also going to have materials so that you can write and sign letters to your legislators. If you can’t join us this Sunday, I hope that you will join in the Episcopal Church’s work of advocacy (learn more here).
It’s kind of a strange thing to belong to a church with a reputation for hosting a good vigil in the midst of national tragedy and a good funeral, but I like to think that means that St. James’ is truly an Easter people. Even when the road is long and our voices grow weary, I give thanks to God for you, a people of resilient hope and active love.
Rev. Eileen
