From the Pulpit: Decisions Matter

Less than 24 hours after a gunman nearly killed former President Donald Trump, the Cathedral gathered for prayer — and to hear about speaking up for truth.

The Rev. Canon Rosemarie Logan Duncan used the text from the Gospel of Mark, where King Herod orders the execution of John the Baptist. What struck her, she said, was the silence of the people in the room.

“No one came to Herod’s aid to act as a moral filter to prevent him from doing something so horrid,” she said. “No one said to him, ‘Hey, Herod, have you really thought this through?’ Not one person decided to speak up. They all remain silent in the face of something that they knew was morally wrong and cruel.”

She continued, reflecting on the horrible events that America had just witnessed in Pennsylvania:

“Like John, we are called to be witnesses to the truth of the gospel; called to denounce what is rotten in our political, social, and institutional systems; called to speak out against and to condemn the political violence we saw last night at former President Trump’s rally that only serves to divide us even more from one another.

Every time we decide to speak up for love in the face of hate, every time we decide to tell the truth, every time we decide to point out injustice and stand up to protect the rights of the most vulnerable — we are showing power, true power, that power of God in Jesus Christ.

John decided to live by truth. Herod decided on death. What will we decide for our lives today? Beloved, the decision matters.”