A small forge in a church parking lot may seem like an unusual place to heal wounded hearts, but that’s what happened at an event our congregation hosted this past spring. We were ready for a glimmer of hope. To help us better understand the challenges we face, authors Shane Claiborne and Mike Martin shared information about gun violence trends, as well as the spiritual aspects of fear and violence.
Around the forge, we watched a gun being melted down and hammered into a gardening tool, echoing the words of the prophet Isaiah: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4). Everyone there who’d been personally affected by gun violence was invited to name the loved once they’d lost and take a first swing of the hammer. We were given slips of paper and asked to write down the hostilities in our hearts. These, too, went into the forge.
As evening settled into night, we prayed, sang and rejoiced in a God who heals our wounded hearts. Our ritual of grief, lament and letting go, became a ritual of commitment and hope.
This message is excerpted from “Lessons from the forge” by Laura Brix Newbury in the October 2019 Gather magazine.
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