The Vigil for Love Against Hate – June 16th, 2016:
I want to thank Iman Haqq and Dr. Abreu for their words tonight, and also all those – clergy, singers, lay leaders – who have volunteered of their time to be here, to participate, to offer whatever they could, in response to the tragedy in Orlando. And most especially, thank you all for being here tonight. We are never so strong and full of hope as when we gather together in love.
Before I begin, I want to say that I have observed over these past several tumultuous days a heaviness of heart overwhelm so many, as though a rip tide was drawing them under. The incessant media coverage – non-stop 24 hr. a day – in your face reporting, along with Facebook posts, and all the rest…it can envelop a person to where there seems to be no light, only darkness, no love, only hate. If this is happening to you, I want to say first – you are not alone. And then – turn it off. Turn off the TV, take a Facebook fast. And then…look for the good. It is there – but it doesn’t sell, it doesn’t make for ratings – but it is there. We see it in the first responders, the hospital workers, the people in the community banding together as we are tonight. This is the light the follows darkness. And this light, this light of love, is always stronger than the darkness of hate.
And now, I want to address the reason we are here tonight. We are once again plunged into darkness, a darkness of the soul. The tragic loss of 49 people, and so many more injured physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It has left us stunned, our hearts in pain, like a strange and horrible nightmare. And in this darkness we fumble around for explanations. We cry out for understanding, we ache in our hearts, we are weary with grief.
So many questions, and the easy answers elude us – they seem cheap, hollow. Because – the truth is, there is no explanation – no answer that makes it all better, that makes it all comprehendible.
And so, we are a people walking in darkness – a darkness of our hearts as we take in all that has happened. It is a darkness that has unfortunately been a part of humanity since the beginning of time. A darkness that is always there, ready to envelop us – and as we have seen, it tragically permeates the soul of those who are deeply troubled. The result is a spreading of that darkness to others, and a sense of hopelessness.
And we can wonder – where is God in the midst of this dark world? Where is God in this tragedy, in this senseless loss.
You see, God isn’t absent when these things happen – but more present than can be imagined. God grieves alongside us, and is the love that is the candlelight that sustains us amid the darkness. And God is found in the love that we offer to one another, and to those most affected. It is the life that grows out of death – the light that overcomes darkness.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – a man who truly risked everything for everything – a man who stepped boldly forward in love, even though he had every reason to be fearful. King once said, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”
Unarmed truth… Unconditional love…
And so I want to speak some truth today…it is the truth as I see it, and I speak for no one else. But I must speak – I must – because ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Enough of turning a blind eye to gun violence in our communities.
Enough of fostering hate, or rejecting people different than ourselves based on some skewed literal interpretation of scripture.
Enough closing of doors, and building of walls, pushing people to the margins, and arming citizens with weapons of war.
Enough of saying we love you, but only if you would be more like us.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Dr. King understood that God implores us to not be confined by the limitations of the chains that can bind us in fear, but to break them – to proclaim the good news that everyone is a beloved child of God. We are called to radical hospitality in the name of God – to seek and serve God everywhere in a needy world. To get up out of our temples, mosques, and churches, and into the streets – working to break the chains which bind us to our past, and free ourselves to live and love as we are called to do by our God in the world today.
And to do that, we must address the elephant in the room – the horrific way in which we marginalize those who think, look, speak, act, and love differently than we do. We must, especially people of faith, because for far too long, especially in the Christian Church, it is our religious institutions that have been part of the foundation for oppression, and IT MUST STOP! Because it is NOT who we are as a people of God.
If you believe that God wants you to marginalize another part of God’s creation – you are flat out wrong! God loves everyone – all people – gay, straight, Muslim, Jew, male, female, conservative, liberal, all races, all people, all animals and creatures, all of life. Period. No exceptions.
We are being called to live joyfully, to dance, to revel in the overflowing grace that is ours as God’s beloved children, and to bring that love out into the emptiness of the world, to fill them with the overwhelming love of God, to offer what has been given to us with over the top hospitality.
We cannot become a people that operate out of fear – fear of others, fear of people not liking what we do or say, fear of not being a part of the “club” – the inner circle – the denominational, political, or social power group. The moment that becomes more important to us than “to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with [our] God?” we are lost.
Because at the center of it all, at the core of who we are as a people of God, is the radical truth that EVERYONE is worthy of God’s love. EVERYONE is a beloved child of God. When we attempt to exclude anyone from this truth, we deny the very God in whose image all of us were made.
We need to be shaken out of our comfort zones, and embrace a faith that is alive not dead.
We need to let go and let God, to live the life we are meant to live, a life of inclusion, forgiveness, and grace.
We need to knock walls down, so that we may share love – God’s love – and proclaim it, show it, and be it, every day of our lives.
Amen.
Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
June 16, 2016
Vigil for Love Against Hate
This was not recorded, so no audio is available.
