Once again, we mourn for America, for her freedoms, for her free speech. It appears that speech isn’t free, that we must earn it, or pray or pay for it, or simply do all we can, peacefully with words, to protect it.
We mourn Charlie Kirk, a true patriot, assassinated on the eve of September 11, the devastating attack on our country, that bombing of the World Trade Center and Washington D.C. by radical Islamist terrorists. The Texas flood and the lost children, the murder of children praying in school in Minneapolis, and the Ukrainian immigrant murdered on a train, have formed a chain of sorrow running through these summer days. We mourn. We cry. Our hearts are breaking.
As I wrote in my last post on this site, Christians look to Christ to bring us into that glorious liberty as children of God. And in this fallen and broken world, we live that liberty with love and learning, educating those who do not know, comforting those who mourn alongside. So we are the lucky ones, the believers in this loving God of life. We are the ones to heal our nation and the world. And so we must not be silent. We must use our words to give witness to life, the life embraced and enfleshed in the Judeo-Christian tradition of the West.
For Christ was the Word made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the Father. He was and is the light in our darkness. We must be his light in the world.
Just like Charlie Kirk.
And so, my quarterly contribution to American Christian Fiction Writers was published on Nine-Eleven, Thursday, Patriot’s Day, the third in a series on the Virtues, Visible Virtues: Prayerful Prudence. I dedicated this to Charlie and his family.
Each of us is a word made flesh, a word created by God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, at the moment of conception. On this thirteenth week of the Trinity season, we are strengthened by the Holy Trinity, feeding us and nurturing us with word and sacrament through Christ’s bride, the Church.
We give thanks for the life of Charlie Kirk, and we mourn his passing, a great loss. And we pray for the healing of our country.
For Our Country
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for
our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may
always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favour and
glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry,
sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence,
discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from
every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one
united people the multitudes brought hither out of many
kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom
those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of
government, that there may be justice and peace at home,
and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth
thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of
prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day
of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we
ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 1928 Book of Common Prayer, 36
Christine Sunderland
Christine Sunderland 