Friends,

Just over a month ago someone died where I used to live, and rumor has it, by his own hand. He and his followers made my family feel intensely unsafe, and they wouldn’t let it go. I wouldn’t let it go either. More often than not, I feel like my approach was well-handled given the circumstances. I do have regrets, but not many. Since I received the message about his death, I have felt an odd cocktail of emotions. Relief, sadness and the temptation of vindication. I am relieved that he won’t be harassing anyone anymore. As with any bully, he was sad and wanted everyone else to be as miserable as himself. This is undoubtedly a sad story with a sad ending. A part of me wants to feel vindication, because maybe this is evidence of his own misery and my own righteousness, but this is immature and silly. This has nothing to do with me. Someone died, and this is a sad story.

What did I think was going to happen? Our wish for any sinner should be reconciliation. He was so far down his own rabbit hole, that the chances of him coming out of it were next to none. Maybe full-blown reconciliation and us exchanging Christmas cards is naïve, but maybe any movement away from his misery would have been satisfactory. But this is not about me, the story is sad, and someone died. I should feel sad and pray for him.

I write this on the twenty-fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11th. I debated on whether to make a post on the Church’s social media pages. Motivated out of fear of cheapening the commemoration, I decided to see what other Churches with more resources were doing on Facebook and found nothing. It wasn’t just 9/11, apparently, we are one of the few that post semi-regularly anymore! So much tragedy happened that day, and as a freshman in High School I remember hearing much about unity in the following years. We were united, but it was still such a sad story.

Yesterday Charlie Kirk was assassinated, and it is a very sad story. Someone died. We should feel sad and pray for him.

Hostages taken by Hamas years ago are still being held. Many died in captivity. This is sad story; we should pray for them.

Innocents are being killed in Gaza, and many are starving. This is sad. We must pray.

When I cave into the temptation to scroll through media on my phone, I am astounded at the appetite the world has developed for tragedy. Justifications, angles, spinning narratives for political gain, assassinations, ethnic conflict, and lust for righteous war have been selling well lately.

If someone dies, then that is sad, and I will pray for them, and I encourage you to do the same. If you come into St. Luke’s to hurt, threaten or intimidate others, you will be asked to leave with gusto. Beyond that, I refuse to be your enemy and I am deeply invested in finding a home for you here.

I will not always succeed, but I will also strive to treat everyone the same and to lift up every member of this congregation in our mutual ministry. How can we discuss our deteriorating political situation, our obviously broken relationship and laws around firearms, let alone the horrors in the world, if we cannot embrace our mutual humanity? St. Luke’s can be our testing grounds for how to love your neighbor, but we need to take this practice beyond our walls.

We cannot expect the confession of every sinner, nor can we expect empathy from everyone, but we can be different. If others are ready to hate us, then let our response be in love. When anyone dies, feel whatever you need to feel, but do not forget to feel sad and pray.

Blessings,

Nick