Sermon Anti-Gun Violence Sunday October 27, 2024
Today’s gospel is the powerful story of Bartimaeus a blind beggar who who calls us to Jesus as he passes Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” While Bartimaeus was speaking of physical healing to see with his eyes, I believe we are in a time when many of us are Bartimaeus sitting by the side of the road calling out for an answer to help us heal and see again with the eyes of the heart. As we look around us as division is at a fever pitch and in some circles, we see folks talking about violence or revolution as the solution to reclaiming a cohesive sense of identity as a people. We are tired and we want Jesus to come and change the hearts of our world to reclaim the gospel message of love in which we see more clearly, love more dearly and follow God more nearly.
One of these areas that left us blind in our communities, our world and our nation in particular at this time… is the reality of gun violence that is prevalent everywhere. In CT who of us can forget December 14, 2012, when gun violence was brought to Sandy Hook Elementary School?
This terrible act compelled many in our state and communities to “Do Something” to speak out and act against this atrocity. In response to that shooting that captured the nation unlike any other shooting since the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, groups in our state and beyond began to form and speak out for various forms of gun reform.
Our larger Episcopal Church was no exception. Bishops across the Episcopal Church created Bishop’s United Against Gun Violence.
Our own retired bishops Ian Douglass and Jim Curry as well as Laura Aherns were founders of this group of 100 Episcopal Bishops who advocate for an end to poverty, racism, and violence. The group takes their message to Capitol Hill in DC every year, advocates for common sense gun reform, leads public liturgy, Including processions, vigils and prayers services to commemorate the dead and inspire the living.
Each gathering of the Episcopal Church at General Convention holds a public witness in which the House of Bishops and House of Delegates marches to demonstrate against Gun Violence. This year at the 81st General Convention in Louisville on June 27, 2024, they gathered at a rally in Jefferson Square Park in downtown Louisville.
Our own youth delegation for CT, that included my daughter Anna Engler and Ella Baez took part in events and programs.
A major focus of the gathering were young people who explored this issue in sessions in KY. T.J. Rapson, a high school student from Michigan reported his experience with gun violence, saying. “When I first saw that there was an opportunity to advocate for gun violence at General Convention, I immediately flashed back to sitting in the back corner of my biology classroom during a six-hour lockdown, thinking there was a very real possibility that I or some of my friends could die.”
Friends something is terribly wrong when our children go to school and have to learn what to do if there is a threat of a shooting at school.
Following the shooting at Sandy Hook Bishop Jim Curry developed a new ministry network in CT to provide a real witness about doing something powerful to stand against Gun Violence that is so prevalent in our society.
He along with others created Swords to Plowshares Northeast. The program is focused on reducing gun violence in the communities in which our events take place, he said. “With 40,000 gun deaths per year in our country, something must be done now, “the strategy we apply to this problem is to convert weapons of death into tools of life, and then use those tools to the betterment of the community, all with the goal of reducing senseless gun deaths.”
Since the Spring of 2017, a collaboration between the Newtown Action Alliance, ECCT, the CT Conference of the UCC, Yale New Haven Hospital, the New Haven Police Department, the CT Department of Corrections, Raw Tools of Colorado, and Bishops United Against Gun Violence has focused on taking guns that have been voluntarily turned in through buy-backs in Greater New Haven and turning them into gardening tools. (Each gun received at buy backs is vetted by the New Haven Police Department and the Connecticut State Police. Guns that may be evidence in a crime remain the property of law enforcement and are not destroyed.) The process includes destroying the guns and forging them into tools using blacksmithing techniques and equipment. The first ‘crop’ of tools was given to High Schools and Community Gardens in Greater New Haven.
Some of you may remember when I invited Bishop Curry to join us one Sunday on October 6 six years ago to bring the forge and actually make a tool and these hearts forged out of materials from guns. It was a powerful witness and one that some may never forget. This heart was forged at one of the events.
Another form of witness emerged in 2013. A Memorial to the Lost® is a unique, visible education tool developed by Heeding to honor victims of gun violence and their surviving families. Tee-shirts with names and dates of those murdered by gun violence during a previous year in a designated area are displayed in front of a congregation’s building or in a public space where community members can experience in a tangible way the loss of life and disruption of lives that gun violence creates. Often, people will stop their car after driving by and return to see exactly what’s being portrayed; they will walk among the shirts, pause and pray, sometimes even finding the name of a loved one or neighbor. The Philadelphia Memorial usually contains close to 300 names each year reminding us of the immensity of the problem. The first Memorial to the Lost was installed on MLK Weekend in January 2013 on the front lawn of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia.
Our own Diocesan Camp joined this It was a movement recently. Each summer at spring camp, which my Ben and Anna participated this year created the Memorial you see on the lawn of our church.
So, for two weeks we have brought a powerful witness to Hebron at St. Peter’s. Our in front of the church are 48 T-shirts representing an individual life in CT who died do to gun violence in 2024. After this service I invite you to go through the memorial to the lost to look at these names.
There is an expression, “Everyone is Somebody’s Everything” Each the name has a person or group of persons for whom the person on the T-shirt meant everything and is now they’re gone.
They were brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts or cousins that are no longer in this world due to some tragically violent event that cost them their lives. Maybe it was a drive-by shooting on Albany Avenue in Hartford; maybe it was due to suicide by guns, which makes up the most loses due to gun violence which rose dramatically during COVID.
As of 2021, the third leading cause of death among teenagers aged 15 to 19 years in the United States was intentional self-harm or suicide, contributing around 18 percent of deaths among age group.
My friends we are indeed blind to this issue in so many ways. No one is talking about removing the second amendment, however, there is need for speaking out and taking action on common sense reform that the vast majority of Americans support. In leading public worship like we are doing today, and the Memorial for the Lost out front we are making visible the effects of gun violence right in our community as encouraged by Bishops United Against Gun Violence.
Each one of the people on the T-shirts was loved by someone beyond measure. I invite you to join me in a litany of remembrance as we gather this morning. Please turn to page ??? and use the response to each of the petitions while we light a candle during each petition.
- For Victims of Gun Violence
Leader, We light this candle as we call to mind the many victims of gun violence, those who have lost their lives, those who have lost their livelihood, and those who have lost life’s passion. We pray especially for those who have been killed in CT and we hold their stories and their memories dear. May their loss not be in vain, and may we shape a new story of hope from the broken pieces of grief. Silence And so, we pray,
All God of sacred stories, heal us and make us whole.
- For Friends & Family of Gun Violence Victims
Leader, We light this candle to stand with those who have been left behind, the families, friends, and loves ones of those taken by gun violence. We pray that in this time of heartbreak, grief, and loss that they might find comfort and hope to face the days ahead, and that their tears may be turned into songs of joy. Silence And so, we pray,
All God of sacred stories, heal us and make us whole.
- For Communities Torn by Gun Violence
Leader, We light this candle to tell the story of homes, communities, neighborhoods, cities and town shattered by gun violence. We call the time the sacred ground around our nation that has been watered with the blood of loss and the tears of grief. We especially remember those remembered in our state who have lost their lives in 2024. Grant that we may work tirelessly towards a vision where all may sit under their own vine and fig tree in safety and security. Silence And so, we pray,
All God of sacred stories, heal us and make us whole.
- For First Responders
Leader, We light this candle to stand with first responders, those who live with the horror of gun violence in service to the common good. We stand with them and their families as they heal from bearing witness to the aftermath of lives ended in violence. Grant that we, with them, may create a world where all are protected, all are honored and all are seen, valued and beloved. Silence And so, we pray,
All God of sacred stories, heal us and make us whole.
- For those lost through suicide by guns.
Leader, We light this candle to remember those who ended their lives at their own hands with a gun, those who lost their lives by accident, and those children whose promise of life was cut short. We pray that we may be strength to those in despair, hope in those in desolation, and comfort to those in misery. Silence And so, we pray,
All God of sacred stories, heal us and make us whole.
- For those who feel helpless in the face of Gun Violence
Leader, We light this candle in solidarity with those who feel helpless, dejected, or powerless in the face of the gun violence epidemic. We know that gun violence touches all cultures, classes, genders, races, tribes, and nations. We pray that we may not be overwhelmed by gun violence but that we may overwhelm the world with the violence of love. Silence And so, we pray,
All God of sacred stories, heal us and make us whole.
- For The Perpetrators of Gun Violence
Leader, We light this candle for perpetrators of gun violence. We pray for their families, their friends, and those who love them. We pray for those who see no other way than violence. We pray for those who suffer from mental illness, social isolation, loneliness, and debilitating fear. Grant that we may reach out in love and transform ferocity into friendship and fear into faith.
Silence And so, we pray,
All God of sacred stories, heal us and make us whole.