Dear Friends,

When the vestry adopted our mission statement last year, we affirmed our belief that God’s Holy Spirit speaks in our lives, inviting us to respond to Jesus’ call to be his disciples in the world. The Holy Spirit speaks to us as a community, and also to us as individuals.

Of course, it is rare that anyone of us dares tosay, “Here is what the Spirit said to me today.” The promptings of God do not necessarily come in complete sentences or through the vision of a burning bush before us.  Yet the Spirit speaks.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit is speaking when we find ourselves profoundly upset or disturbed by conditions or circumstances we see in the world, conditions antithetical to what we understand to be the way of Jesus. One way I hear the Holy Spirit is through the persistent thought, the word, phrase, or unsettled feeling that will not leave my heart or mind.

What may the Holy Spirit be saying to us as we respond to the shootings last week in Parkland? We can grow numb. We can also listen, and see if God is asking us to be agents of change and reconciliation. How do we listen? Here are a few suggestions:

Listen in prayer – Connect with God. Pray for the world, and for those who are grieving and suffering. Pray also that you will be guided to act and speak nonviolently in this world, and bear witness to the love of Christ in however you respond.

Listen for those who share your passion – Connect with the like-minded: Do you hear others in the parish expressing concerns similar to yours? Perhaps you are feeling called to attend one of the gatherings being planned on Saturday, March 24th. Might the Holy Spirit be calling on you to coordinate the efforts of others in the parish to attend? is there a  ministry that might emerge from your conversations with others?

Listen for those with other perspectives – Connect with those with whom you disagree: One way to test and assess our own understanding of the Spirit’s call is to hear the viewpoint of others. Do you know someone in the parish who would vigorously disagree with your understanding of what Jesus calls us to do? What would it mean for the two of you to sit down, not with the intention of changing each other’s mind, but to truly listen to another’s perspective?

Listen beyond our parish – Connect with the larger church: Bishops United Against Gun Violence is a coalition of Episcopal bishops  seeking to engage the church in prayer and action to address the ongoing violence caused by guns in our culture. You can find out more about their work and their recommendations for us here.

Read the scriptures: Connect with Jesus and his Way: The Holy Spirit calls us to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. I know we are reading the gospel of Luke during Lent, and that is a good thing! As we consider how we are to live as Christians in a violent world, I also encourage us to return time and again to  the Sermon on the Mount, that collection of Jesus’ teachings in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew. Jesus faced the violence of his own day with a profoundly countercultural stance. He invites us to do the same.

I am listening, and I hope you are too. I am eager to learn what you hear the Spirit saying to you.

Faithfully,

Tom