Dear people of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection,



If you’ve watched the news over the last 48 hrs, you’ll know that a conservative activist who worked primarily with college students was killed during one of his events in Utah. His name was Charlie Kirk. I am committed to keeping this parish apolitical, but within that, I feel there is a need to speak into this moment.

There is a lot of ugliness out there right now. Liberal and conservative commentators have both already been saying “this feels different” and “it feels like we’re turning some corner as a society.” With that in mind, I’ll say this. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, your Christian identity has to be greater than your political identity. As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:27-28 “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” The fact that we are Christians has to come before even our political identities, and as Christians we have to act in love even to those we feel are our ideological opposites.

If the pundits are right, and we are turning a corner as a society, it is our responsibility to hold to Christ and be different from the world around us. Resurrection is different. We need to keep being different. We need to keep being who we are.

I love this parish. I love that we have democrats and republicans together, that when they speak of their political differences with other parishioners they say things like “Well you know. We may have very different viewpoints, but they’re my friend and I love them.”

I believe in the power of the gospel. I believe in the power of the church. In Luke 13 Jesus said “What else is the Kingdom of God like? It is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.” We are to be a tiny catalyst that injects the love of Christ into the world around us. We are to be little bubbles of love in the dangerous frothy sea of the wider world.

Since this happened, I keep thinking of 1 Corinthians 13:6 like a mantra. “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” As Christians, we are called to be people of love. What does love look like? “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Let us be people of love. Resurrection already does this very well. There is great Christian value in how we already are. Let us continue to hold to our identity, our Christian identity, no matter what is happening in the world around us. Always remember that we are the yeast and not the flour.

With love in Christ,

Fr. Jonathan W Galles +