Dear Friends, Neighbors and Members of St. Cyprian's,
Our nation is grieving in the wake of two traumatic events in less than 5 days--both involving frightening and deadly explosions in unexpected locations. The tragedies in Boston, Massachusetts and Waco, Texas happened in two dramatically different parts of our country: one urban and "blue," the other, rural and "red." Wherever we call home, these tragedies remind us of the fragility of life and the incredible resilience of humanity in the face of trauma. There are not enough words to express the wide range of emotions and responses to communicate where we are or may be in relationship to this moment.
Midway between these two devastating events, politicians in Washington failed to pass bipartisan gun control legislation that would have helped to protect all of us from the senseless violence that can result from too easily accessible deadly weapons and ammunition. Yesterday, as I crossed through the Western Addition to a meeting with another pastor, I learned at the bus stop from Adrian Williams, Executive Director of
The Village Project and member of St. Cyprian's, that she and her neighbors were awakened in the night to gunfire outside their apartment complex. This time, thank God, no one was hit. Adrian and the children of the Village Project don't need reminders of the fragility of life or the resilience of humanity. I wish none of us did. Yet we as a nation seem to be at ease with drone strikes in foreign countries where innocents are killed. And we seem at ease with mass incarceration and structural inequality that Michelle Alexander calls "
The New Jim Crow."
Fragility and resilience: in some ways these seem like incompatible ideas. And yet, in large part, that's what nurturing spiritual community is all about: helping one another remember just how vulnerable life is, and how, with the Great Spirit's help, we may discover hope. Hope comes to us in the form of real life human beings that help us recognize our connection to each other.
One person that nurtures this spirit of connectivity in her life and work alike is
Marian Wright Edelman. Here's a prayer she wrote that speaks to me today:
O GOD OF ALL CHILDREN
O God of the children of Atlanta, Albania, and Amman,
Of Afghanistan and Pakistan, India, Israel, Iraq. and Iran,
Of Jerusalem and Jericho, Chechnya, Russia, and Colombia,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.
O God of Black and Brown and White
Albino children and those all mixed together,
Of children who are rich and poor and in between,
Of children who speak English and Russian and Hmong and Spanish and Korean and languages our ears cannot discern,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.
O God of the child prodigy and child prostitute,
of the child of rapture and the child of rape.
Of run or thrown away children who struggle every day without parent or place or friend or future,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.
O God of children who can walk and talk and hear and see and sing and dance and jump and play and of children who wish they could but can't
Of children who are loved and unloved, wanted and unwanted,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.
O God of beggar, beaten, abused, neglected, homeless, AIDS, drug, violence, and hunger-ravaged children,
Of children who are emotionally and physically and mentally fragile, and of children who rebel and ridicule, torment and taunt,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.
O God of children of destiny and of despair, of war and of peace,
Of disfigured, diseased, and dying children,
Of children without hope and of children with hope to spare and to share,
Help me to love and respect and protect them all
See you soon at Turk & Lyon!
Peace,
Will
St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church
415-987-3029
turkandlyon@gmail.com
