Orlando...

A little more than a week ago a tragedy occurred in our country that reminds us the boundary between order and civility on one side and chaos and violence on the other is indeed a fragile one.    The Orlando shooting was indeed shocking since our small part of the world for the most part is measured by order and civility.    This is for us a reminder that in the larger world we live in, many people measure their lives not by civility and order but by violence.   As shocking as this may be for us, and it certainly should be, this is just a small taste of what others experience on a regular basis.   

I live in a middle class suburban area – part of the suburban sprawl between Baltimore and Washington DC.   A number of years ago a mentally deranged homeless man entered a local Episcopal church and shot the rector and secretary to death.   This was indeed a tragedy.   I was speaking with a pastor friend of mine not long after it happened – it was fresh on her mind since the rector of the church happened to be her friend too.   I made a comment about something related to that event, and she strongly reflected how this was the kind of tragedy that made her question her safety.    It obviously struck her very close to home –literally as well as figuratively.  

But as horrific as the murders in that Episcopal church were, let’s be honest, we don’t for the most part have concerns that our family members will be killed or murdered somehow as they carry out normal life activities.   Murders like this can certainly shock many of us to our foundations… often because violence like this is so foreign to our lives.    Violence like this is so out of the normal realm of things for so many of us in suburbia that when it does strike, some begin to question their safety.    But truthfully it doesn’t take us long to shift back to our middle-class suburban routines of soccer moms (and dads) and after-school activities.  And our anxiety returns to its normal manageable levels and our minds return to their normal concerns.

We just don’t live with that level of fear and anxiety as part of our daily lives.    But many, many… too many in our world do.   I can’t imagine a life where I have to worry – actually worry – constantly worry – whether my children or wife will be killed by terrorists bomb or a radical’s bullet, or any other form of violent attack as they come back from school, or from shopping, or from worship, or from any other “normal” every-day activity of life – activities that characterize civilized and stable living.  

This past week since the Orlando shooting has brought up – again – debates and second -guessing and demands for change and arm-chair quarterbacking and demands for action of some kind…  on political levels (probably reflecting the impact on personal levels!)   The reason we do this as a society is (perhaps) because we as individuals feel fear, anxiety, incompetence, leaving us with a sense of inadequacy in dealing with this kind of violence.   

This is one in a long string of events that challenges the glittering image we all have of America as the Shining City On A Hill, the beacon of hope and light to the world.   At first glance America may indeed seem that way – but you don’t have to dig too far to recognize the divisions and fissures that still exist… the challenges we all still face to live up to the ideal of America.   Since its inception America – us Americans – the society we endeavor to create – has been guided by hope, equality, justice… and we certainly have come a long way!    But we indeed still have a long journey ahead of us!

So what is our response to Orlando?    …To the tragic shooting in Charleston?     …To the events in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray?     What is our response to the shootings at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, where the shooter thought Sikhs were the same as Muslims?

Under the surface of our shared society – a society shared among descendants of long-arrived Europeans, and descendants of long-arrived Africans and Long-dwelling Indigenous Native Americans, and perhaps not-so-long arrived Muslims and Central and South Americans – we have parents trying to raise their daughters in an environment that diminishes femininity and the softer traits of compassion and mercy… but holds up instead some totally unrealistic ideals of what it means to even look like a woman!       Folks... Barbie isn’t real!

Like our LGBT brothers and sisters, like the Spanish speaking immigrants, like Muslims, like the Black people in this country…   now the rest of us learn what it means to watch over our shoulders. 

But unlike us, that violence – that hate – that venom – is more often directed at those I just mentioned.   

Ask Black fathers and mothers about giving their sons “the talk”…  how to behave around police to minimize the possibilities of police violence.    Ask Muslims in America if September 11^th made their lives easier or harder here… even if they had the exact opposite views of the hijackers.    As many gains as we‘ve made with respect to the LFBT community (where more than 2/3rds of the US states now allow gay marriage – allowing gay people nothing more than – and nothing less than – the same rights and responsibilities that marriage brings) even still, ask gay couples whether they feel comfortable even holding hands with their partners in public or not.    Even though the US is ostensibly open to all, “bring me your tired, your hungry, your huddled masses…” ask Latinos whether they’ve ever felt the “stare” when they speak their native language here in the US.    

The question we face is often expressed in this way, “What is our Christian response to Orlando?”   But I would get even more basic than that… “What is our HUMAN response to this?”  

“What would Jesus do?”   “What would God do?”    Even if I knew what Jesus would do, I’m not Jesus.   And as far as God… well, I have no idea what God would do.    I’m a human… and so are the rest of us.   Maybe the better question would be – “What would God have us do?”   “How would God call us to live… in the midst of all this?”

All across America on Sunday mornings, all the church-going people gather to worship God, to raise prayers, to sing hymns and songs (still not sure what the difference is) to God.   But all the prayers and songs, all the sacraments and ordinances… they do no magic!    They – in and of themselves – offer us no magic.   They do not magically change us!    In that sense there is no magic!

So where’s the magic then?    The magic exists between one human being and another.    God rests and dwells within us… and is more especially visible in our relationships – in how we treat each other.

I totally have hope that not only America can keep improving – can fully live into its “shining city on a hill” vision, but I also have hope that we all can.    I have a hope that because we’re human  we can live up to our fullest measure of human-ness.   I believe in the magic of being human- the beauty and brokenness, the frailty and fullness- of the sacred human experience.

I believe in God; calling us- in the midst of our human-ness, to stand, to rise – and help each other rise, to walk – towards the “other”, the “outcast”, to cross boundaries of isolation, to expand beyond our perceived limitations.   I believe in God.

In spite of this belief… we will fail.   We will fall.  We will not always live this way. We will make mistakes.  People will be hurt, by words or actions.  People will be injured, figuratively and literally.  And people will die.       But we can’t stop trying!  

We can’t stop trying to lift up what it means to be people of faith… to live our lives as people of faith.  We can’t stop lifting up – to its fullest – what it means to be human!    

In the last conversation I had with one of my former High School teachers - a man I admired - who died back in 2008, he said don’t ever justify being an idealist!   He said don’t make excuses for being an idealist. 

All this to say – I believe in the magic of “Emmanuel”  (means “God with us” in Hebrew).   God with us – God in us – God around us – God between us.    In spite of this latest tragedy, I am still hopeful that we will still walk – however tenuously – towards a better society.   I still hope – because I still believe.