i don't know what to say!
October 28, 2018
Jeremiah 31:7-12
The events of yesterday have left me almost speechless, and I’m not sure what to do. I’ve searched for the words to say, but so far haven’t found them. I even thought it might be best if I stood before you today and wept. After all the scripture I am supposed to be talking about today comes from the book of Jeremiah who is known as the Weeping Prophet. I can’t do that though. Nor would you like to see that.
In all seriousness… what exactly am I supposed to do when I have to stand in this pulpit without knowing what to say? Historically, people have looked to their pastors in times like these because they believe their pastor will know what to say, and even though I don’t know if that has always been justified, it seems pastors have always had something to say. Now here I am, in this role of pastor, your pastor, and I’m not sure I know what to say.
Maybe it’s because we’ve been here before, and the fact that we keep experiencing mass shootings so frequently strips us of our words. In fact, we’ve been here during this calendar year. The first time was in February. That is when I stood in this very pulpit and read aloud the names of those killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. And even though I may not have mentioned each and every mass shooting since February, throughout the year I’ve read about a lot. Come to think of it, for those like me who try to read the news on a daily basis, there is no avoiding these mass shootings. It’s like they have become part of our weekly routine and that my friends is scary.
Care to guess how many mass shootings (where at least four people were either shot or killed) have occurred in our country in the first ten months of 2018? Take a moment and silently guess how many mass shootings we have had from January 1, 2018 – October 27, 2018? By a show of hands, how many of you guessed more than fifty? More than one hundred? More than one fifty? More than two hundred? Would you believe, in this country, we have had two hundred and ninety-four mass shootings so far this year? Isn’t that shocking? Doesn’t that make your heart break? Please tell me I’m not the only one whose heart breaks upon learning this information.
TWO HUNDRED, NINETY-FOUR shootings where there were at least four victims. Now of those victims, three hundred and three died and one thousand one hundred and ninety-three of them were injured. Let’s not kid ourselves, though, a part of them most likely died too. Isn’t that unthinkable? And yet, we are so divided in this country that instead of coming together in grief, these mass shootings break us further apart. So, I stand here in this place of worship, in the sacred space of this pulpit and I feel helpless.
I feel that way because I’m supposed to be the one who knows what to say. I’m the one who is supposed to preach the Good News. I so desperately want to preach the Good News, but more than that, I want the Good News to become our reality. Yet, when I returned home from a morning jog with my beautiful wife yesterday, I turned the TV on and read the words “BREAKING NEWS” which tore through my already fragile heart. Gunman opens fire in a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, causing eleven deaths and leaving six others injured. A single gunman, allegedly a forty-six-year-old white man, walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood near downtown Pittsburgh and opened fire on a group of people who had gathered together to do one thing… WORSHIP GOD!
Mass shooting number two hundred ninety-four happened because of religious beliefs. Are you kidding me?
Later that afternoon, Amy asked me what I thought my friend Eric Solomon was thinking in the wake of this horrific and tragic event. I told her I didn’t know, but I had been thinking about him all day. You see, Eric is the Rabbi at Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh. We first met when I took Dr. George Braswell’s World Religions and Global Cultures class at Campbell Divinity School. Dr. Braswell had become good friends with Rabbi Solomon and our class took a field trip to Beth Meyer and sat with Rabbi Solomon for a time. That day, we listened, asked questions and learned what would could about Judaism. That day we became students of Rabbi Solomon and I loved it. You see, the older I’ve gotten the more I have fallen in love with learning, and that day was perfect. I knew in that moment that I wanted to become friends with Rabbi Solomon and I am lucky to say I have. So, I reached out to him yesterday. I wanted to make sure he was OK. I wanted to make sure his congregation was OK. I reached out to him because he is my brother and I love him. I didn’t know what to say then either, but I found these simple words; “Hello my friend. How are you, your family, your synagogue doing?”
A little while later I received this from Rabbi Solomon, “Thank you so much for being a friend. You truly are, brother. We’re doing our best, obviously extremely sad and a little scared. But we’re working together and praying. Thanks again for your support.”
I then told him I was trying to piece together a sermon for today but couldn’t find the words to say. I told him of my intention to speak about him and one other person today. I told him I wanted to share him with you, and I wanted him to know that in my sharing, I’m standing with him and all of my Jewish brothers and sisters. You see, none of us here today has ever felt scared to come here and worship. All of us, I’m sure, at some other point in time have been scared, but not about sitting in this space and worshiping God. Right?
Can you even imagine what that must feel like? I know I can’t. Yes, Rabbi Solomon, I am your brother and I stand with you and support you, your family, your synagogue and I pray you know that.
***********************************
That other person that I told Rabbi Solomon I was going to talk about today is my uncle. Did yawl know my uncle is Jewish? For those who didn’t, now you know. Want to know what else, I love him. Always have. He is fun, and in my estimation, he is an absolute genius. He has a huge heart, and in his own unique way has always opened his heart to me. He has experienced more in his life than most will ever dream of. From selling wigs on the streets of Watts, a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles, while growing up, to becoming one of the best transplant surgeons our country has ever known, my uncle is a great man.
And while all of that is amazing, you want to know what makes him stand out to me more than anything? My uncle Howard happens to be one of the most courageous people I have ever known. You see, when he was faced with the choice of love or tribe, he chose love. He chose love and by choosing love he became my uncle. He chose to marry a gentile and while that might not seem like much, in his family’s world that was huge. Like the God of his Jewish upbringing, my Uncle Howard chose love. Like the Jew we Christians claim to follow, my Uncle Howard chose Love!
Now, I don’t think for a moment that his choosing love has made everything else easy, in fact I’m fairly certain there have been moments where his path, their path, was anything but easy. Yet, he chose love! Doggone it, why can’t the rest do the same?
It is the only way we will get to experience the celebratory feast the Prophet Jeremiah is inviting all people to experience. There is no other way and I don’t understand why we can’t see that. One tribe is not better than another, and while we may nod our heads in agreement with that statement, how many more shootings do we have to experience before our hearts agree? Tribalism is about division and destruction. It always has been and if we keep it up then we need to stop claiming to follow Christ. If we keep it up, we must stop claiming to believe in the truth of The Word. Tribalism only hurts and worse than that, tribalism kills. It always has, and we can keep on traveling down this path, or we can do the courageous counter-cultural thing and choose love.
I pray we choose love!
Amen!
Jeremiah 31:7-12
The events of yesterday have left me almost speechless, and I’m not sure what to do. I’ve searched for the words to say, but so far haven’t found them. I even thought it might be best if I stood before you today and wept. After all the scripture I am supposed to be talking about today comes from the book of Jeremiah who is known as the Weeping Prophet. I can’t do that though. Nor would you like to see that.
In all seriousness… what exactly am I supposed to do when I have to stand in this pulpit without knowing what to say? Historically, people have looked to their pastors in times like these because they believe their pastor will know what to say, and even though I don’t know if that has always been justified, it seems pastors have always had something to say. Now here I am, in this role of pastor, your pastor, and I’m not sure I know what to say.
Maybe it’s because we’ve been here before, and the fact that we keep experiencing mass shootings so frequently strips us of our words. In fact, we’ve been here during this calendar year. The first time was in February. That is when I stood in this very pulpit and read aloud the names of those killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. And even though I may not have mentioned each and every mass shooting since February, throughout the year I’ve read about a lot. Come to think of it, for those like me who try to read the news on a daily basis, there is no avoiding these mass shootings. It’s like they have become part of our weekly routine and that my friends is scary.
Care to guess how many mass shootings (where at least four people were either shot or killed) have occurred in our country in the first ten months of 2018? Take a moment and silently guess how many mass shootings we have had from January 1, 2018 – October 27, 2018? By a show of hands, how many of you guessed more than fifty? More than one hundred? More than one fifty? More than two hundred? Would you believe, in this country, we have had two hundred and ninety-four mass shootings so far this year? Isn’t that shocking? Doesn’t that make your heart break? Please tell me I’m not the only one whose heart breaks upon learning this information.
TWO HUNDRED, NINETY-FOUR shootings where there were at least four victims. Now of those victims, three hundred and three died and one thousand one hundred and ninety-three of them were injured. Let’s not kid ourselves, though, a part of them most likely died too. Isn’t that unthinkable? And yet, we are so divided in this country that instead of coming together in grief, these mass shootings break us further apart. So, I stand here in this place of worship, in the sacred space of this pulpit and I feel helpless.
I feel that way because I’m supposed to be the one who knows what to say. I’m the one who is supposed to preach the Good News. I so desperately want to preach the Good News, but more than that, I want the Good News to become our reality. Yet, when I returned home from a morning jog with my beautiful wife yesterday, I turned the TV on and read the words “BREAKING NEWS” which tore through my already fragile heart. Gunman opens fire in a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, causing eleven deaths and leaving six others injured. A single gunman, allegedly a forty-six-year-old white man, walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood near downtown Pittsburgh and opened fire on a group of people who had gathered together to do one thing… WORSHIP GOD!
Mass shooting number two hundred ninety-four happened because of religious beliefs. Are you kidding me?
Later that afternoon, Amy asked me what I thought my friend Eric Solomon was thinking in the wake of this horrific and tragic event. I told her I didn’t know, but I had been thinking about him all day. You see, Eric is the Rabbi at Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh. We first met when I took Dr. George Braswell’s World Religions and Global Cultures class at Campbell Divinity School. Dr. Braswell had become good friends with Rabbi Solomon and our class took a field trip to Beth Meyer and sat with Rabbi Solomon for a time. That day, we listened, asked questions and learned what would could about Judaism. That day we became students of Rabbi Solomon and I loved it. You see, the older I’ve gotten the more I have fallen in love with learning, and that day was perfect. I knew in that moment that I wanted to become friends with Rabbi Solomon and I am lucky to say I have. So, I reached out to him yesterday. I wanted to make sure he was OK. I wanted to make sure his congregation was OK. I reached out to him because he is my brother and I love him. I didn’t know what to say then either, but I found these simple words; “Hello my friend. How are you, your family, your synagogue doing?”
A little while later I received this from Rabbi Solomon, “Thank you so much for being a friend. You truly are, brother. We’re doing our best, obviously extremely sad and a little scared. But we’re working together and praying. Thanks again for your support.”
I then told him I was trying to piece together a sermon for today but couldn’t find the words to say. I told him of my intention to speak about him and one other person today. I told him I wanted to share him with you, and I wanted him to know that in my sharing, I’m standing with him and all of my Jewish brothers and sisters. You see, none of us here today has ever felt scared to come here and worship. All of us, I’m sure, at some other point in time have been scared, but not about sitting in this space and worshiping God. Right?
Can you even imagine what that must feel like? I know I can’t. Yes, Rabbi Solomon, I am your brother and I stand with you and support you, your family, your synagogue and I pray you know that.
***********************************
That other person that I told Rabbi Solomon I was going to talk about today is my uncle. Did yawl know my uncle is Jewish? For those who didn’t, now you know. Want to know what else, I love him. Always have. He is fun, and in my estimation, he is an absolute genius. He has a huge heart, and in his own unique way has always opened his heart to me. He has experienced more in his life than most will ever dream of. From selling wigs on the streets of Watts, a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles, while growing up, to becoming one of the best transplant surgeons our country has ever known, my uncle is a great man.
And while all of that is amazing, you want to know what makes him stand out to me more than anything? My uncle Howard happens to be one of the most courageous people I have ever known. You see, when he was faced with the choice of love or tribe, he chose love. He chose love and by choosing love he became my uncle. He chose to marry a gentile and while that might not seem like much, in his family’s world that was huge. Like the God of his Jewish upbringing, my Uncle Howard chose love. Like the Jew we Christians claim to follow, my Uncle Howard chose Love!
Now, I don’t think for a moment that his choosing love has made everything else easy, in fact I’m fairly certain there have been moments where his path, their path, was anything but easy. Yet, he chose love! Doggone it, why can’t the rest do the same?
It is the only way we will get to experience the celebratory feast the Prophet Jeremiah is inviting all people to experience. There is no other way and I don’t understand why we can’t see that. One tribe is not better than another, and while we may nod our heads in agreement with that statement, how many more shootings do we have to experience before our hearts agree? Tribalism is about division and destruction. It always has been and if we keep it up then we need to stop claiming to follow Christ. If we keep it up, we must stop claiming to believe in the truth of The Word. Tribalism only hurts and worse than that, tribalism kills. It always has, and we can keep on traveling down this path, or we can do the courageous counter-cultural thing and choose love.
I pray we choose love!
Amen!
