After the 2011 shooting in a Tucson grocery store parking lot, the church where I serve held a community-wide peace vigil to mourn the six deaths and 15 people injured. Seed packets were distributed so participants could plant seeds of peace.
After 27 children and teachers were gunned down in Sandy Hook Elementary school in December 2012, the church again memorialized the victims. Sunday School teachers and students hung angel ornaments on a tree in memory of each precious one killed.
After the massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston last summer, the church placed nine Bibles at the foot of the cross in memory of the nine beloved ones slaughtered. Additionally, the church hosted a "Hymns for Healing" event to raise money for African-American churches affected by terror.
After the recent mass shooting at the Orlando Pulse Nightclub, the church hosted another community-wide service of prayer to mourn the 49 treasured sons and daughters cut down in a terrible act of anti-LGBT violence. There have been further prayers and memorials for the Nickel Mines Amish School victims and other gun violence deaths locally and nationally. On a global level, the congregation has lifted up prayers for Syria and other countries affected by war.
Certainly faith leaders would like to pray less often in reaction to tragedy and more often in praise of a transformed world. But only the most stringently anti-religious would claim that these memorials and prayers have no impact. Prayers provide comfort to those who grieve and hope for those who are hurting. Gathering together as a community during difficult times provides strength and healing. God’s inspiration and redemption are available through spiritually focused gatherings and God may change lives at these assemblies.
Some might say there is no curing the violent nature of humanity and that shootings always will be a part of American culture. That is the voice of apathy and idleness, which is deadly in its own way. All life is to be actively treated with dignity and is deserving of protection.
In Chapter 15 of Luke’s gospel, Jesus searches for the one lost sheep. Ninety-nine sheep are safe and well in the wilderness, but one has slipped away. Jesus looks for and finds the lost sheep and there is great rejoicing. When one life is kept safe because of stricter gun regulations, this is an opportunity to rejoice. When receiving mental health support stops one potential shooter, this is another occasion for praising God.
Cynicism makes people think that working toward a more peaceful world is a ridiculous folly. The cynic has a life of infinite ease, never needing to take action by always pointing out how things have gone wrong and never placing their trust in any process that might improve any small part of society.
Always better for the spiritually oriented to ignore cynicism and keep praying and studying the Bible, for "the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective" (James 5:16) and God’s word never returns empty (Isaiah 55:11).
For the religiously inclined, there is an acute need for more prayer and worship. The purpose is not for withdrawal from a sinful world but rather to connect more fully with the creator of the universe. Time in the sanctuary provides crucial wisdom and direction in accessing God’s power in peace-making and justice-seeking.
Memorializing, worship and prayer are a necessary part of empowerment for those who are Christian. If these spiritual practices are co-opted by leaders for the purposes of stagnation and staying inactive in the face of solvable problems, it interferes with Christ’s call to "go, therefore and make disciples" (Matthew 28:19). The operative word here is "go." At their most powerful and effective, prayer and worship activate participants to make positive change in the world.
Rev. Elizabeth Goudy is pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Lehigh Valley, Allentown. www.mcclv.org, www.revelizabethgoudy.com
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