Yesterday evening, the Boston University Sikh Association hosted a citywide vigil at the University’s Marsh Chapel as a communal response to the attack on the Sikh temple in Milwaukee this past weekend, during which six people were killed.  As the University Chaplain for Community Life at Marsh Chapel, I was asked to speak at the vigil.  Here is the text of those remarks:

Six people dead in a Sikh temple in Milwaukee.

Twelve dead and dozens injured at a movie theater in Denver.

Nineteen dead in a Christian church in Okene, Nigeria, with two Muslims killed today in retaliation.

What are we to make of these tragedies?

We can, and should, decry the hatred that fuels such attacks.  We can, and should, have conversations about the role of weapons in our society.  We can, and should, teach each other about the heritages and practices that make us distinctive, so that difference need no longer be a source of fear.

The Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, Dean of Marsh Chapel from 1953-1965, taught that “people, all people, belong to one another.”  This we must learn.  But learning that we all belong to one another is not something that can be taught in a classroom.  Dr. Thurman knew this.  He said that we learn that we belong to one another when we experience what he called a “creative encounter,” and that in such encounters we build what he called “common ground.”

Tonight I would invite you to build some common ground together.  In a moment, I would like you to get up and to move around this space and to find someone you do not know.  Introduce yourself.  And then sit down and tell each other a story from your day today about a moment when you felt hopeful.  What happened?  What did you see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch that inspired hope in you?  What will you do differently tomorrow because of your hopeful experience today?

Have a creative encounter.  Find some common ground.

Photo by makeshiftlove via Flickr Creative Commons.