Dear St. Lukers,
This Sunday in worship, we will be continuing in our series Love Boldly, as we look at the first of John Wesley’s three General Rules for Methodists: First, do no harm.
In the wake of the violence yesterday on two different school campuses, including at least two people dead at the time of this writing, and the violence two weeks ago at Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota, this is an apt reminder of who we are called to be as disciples and as Methodists, and particularly as St. Lukers, who center ourselves in Christ’s love in all we do.
In times when we find ourselves pitted against one another, drawn into political and social shouting matches on social media and through news outlets, it’s days like yesterday that, we hope, require us to pause and remember who we are.
There is never a reason for violence, regardless of our disagreements, regardless of our division, and even regardless of the harm that may have been done to us. Because our call is to first, do no harm ourselves. Violence of any kind, toward any child of God, is never acceptable. And we must not only stop the physical violence; we also must be a part of the change to stop the hateful, violent rhetoric that has become a part of our public discourse.
24 years ago today, we suffered the horrific violence of 9/11, and in those first days of the aftermath we began to galvanize, turning toward one another and looking for a healing balm greater than ourselves. And in Orlando, we know what it feels like to have mass gun violence take away community members. We know, too, what it has looked like over the last ten years to try to begin to heal from that tragedy. We should know better, because we have lived through the pain, and yet even within hours of two deadly shootings, each of us has watched our social media pages fill up with divisive rhetoric and harmful talk about “the other.”
Bishop Ken Carter, episcopal leader of the Western North Carolina Conference, and former Bishop of the Florida Conference wrote: “Resist the Normalization—The Bloodshed is not of God….I pray for the dead, the grieving—today, the Kirk family—the traumatized, and I pray for those who executed the gun violence that led to the carnage. I am called to pray for them and their families as well. And, more difficult, I am called to examine the violence that exists within me.”
This Sunday we will be considering what this General Rule of “First, do no harm,” means for the church – and inspired by our Bishop Tom Berlin, we will be talking about what it means not simply to do no harm, but to heal the harm that has been done.
In Matthew 26: 51, when the disciple raised his sword to save Jesus from being arrested, “Jesus said to him, ‘Put the sword back into its place. All those who use the sword will die by the sword.’” Our call as followers of the non-violent Jesus, who refused to retaliate and allowed himself to be crucified by humanities need for power and violence, sin and evil, demands for us to be people who do not dehumanize one another, but to see each other as beloved – the way God sees us all.
This week we pray for the courage to open our hearts to God’s continued calling to be healers of harm, not only in the wake of tragedy, but in a way that seeks to end all violence and reveal the fullness of God’s kingdom.
This Sunday please join us as our District Superintendent Rev. Dr. Sharon Austin brings us a powerful word from Isaiah 58:6-12. May these words prepare our hearts for how we can begin to heal the harm: “You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.”
In all of Christ’s grace, peace, and bold love –
Pastors Jenn, Jad, and Melissa
