No longer

The events of early Sunday morning in Orlando continue to upset me. Terrifying stories of club-goers texting their parents, as they feared for their lives, or running from Pulse not knowing if they would ever see their friends again seem so surreal. And yet, this is the reality of 2016 America. In this same reality people post messages on Social Media saying they knew this type of religiously motivated terrorism would happen, and even posts congratulating Omar Mateen because he killed LGBTQ people. How do I respond to this sickening, disgusting reality? 

At first, I just want to scream at it! To rage against it, or maybe even to speak to the violence in some manner that it could understand. Except I once heard noted Northern Irish theologian Peter Rollins speak about violence. He said that to respond with the force of violence is to end conversation, to stop dialogue from continuing. Screaming, raging, and using force cannot be my response, for it cancels furthering relationship even with those filled with hate.

My next instinct takes me to thinking on those and praying for those who were killed, injured, or scarred in some other way by Sunday morning’s events. While prayer is a deeply personal practice, I have seen some criticize both the shallowness and the hypocrisy of offering thoughts and prayers for those in Orlando. I think I understand the anger from these comments. Those who offer up hollow prayers or write that they are praying just so others will pay them attention frustrate me too. And, confusing is someone who condemns LGBTQ people in one breath and offers prayers up for them the next. Prayer though is not something that I do for others to see, instead it is something done behind closed doors between God and me. 

A prayerfully lived existence though leads beyond closed doors and into some place of action. The place that I end up this morning is remembering what Paul wrote to the Church of Galatia, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). These words are critical as to how I follow Christ Jesus. I am given a mandate to no longer view people through their outward appearance, their religious identity, their gender identification, their legal status, their sexual preference, or any other distinguishing characteristic that I or the world around me fixates upon in a given moment. Instead, I am called to see through the lens of Christ who welcomed the poor, the weak, the naked, the hungry, the stranger, the outcast, and any who was considered sinful or different by the prevailing culture. Through this lens reality looks different.

Jesus envisioned a different reality, an Ultimate Reality that caused the ridiculous cultural reality to cower and crumble. In the Ultimate Reality the vulnerable overthrow the fearful status quo, weapons are beaten into tools of creation, everyone has enough, respect abounds, and love exists in such abundance that it is hard not to see it everyone I look. The trouble in moments like right now is to remember that Jesus already initiated this Reality. It already exists! Prayer, solitude, a contemplative lifestyle, service, Divine Liturgy, and so much more in the Life of Christ all point to remembering this reality. This remembering is how I am called to exist. Remembering this is not easy and I feel the tension and the clashing between God’s dream and what is happening in this world. So, I will keep praying and remembering, but as I remember I will no longer...

Be silent when others express bigotry of any kind...

Condone such lethal weapons being so readily available to people who are known to be dangerous...

See people through the ridiculous reality of hatred, fear, culture, but instead view others through the lens of Christ.

We can no longer live in this ridiculous reality, may we remember God's Ultimate Reality of respect for all, protecting the weak, and loving everyone!