Rest in Peace Charlie Kirk.

O God Who Cherishes All You Have Created.

All people are your creatures, and you grieve the brokenness of this world even as it plays out in the particulars of each life and each death.

Today we sense an echo of that same sadness upon learning that the life of Charlie Kirk has ended. This was a person whose presence in the world was familiar to many–for we had long been given a window into the public parts of their existence. Our emotions over this are but a barest hint of what we would experience at losing someone near to us; and yet what this passing stirs in us is not for that reason insignificant.

We feel it as a fragment of that same larger, universal sadness at the ways death unmakes so much that you, O God, had first made good.

You created this world to be a place of order and flourishing, where your image-bearers would commune with you, receiving from your hand the gift of immortality.

So when a well-known person, a star, a celebrity, a newsmaker, an artist, an athlete, or a political or religious leader dies, it drives home to us again how much has gone wrong in our world, how much remains shrouded by this blanket of death and suffering and sin and sorrow. The loss of Charlie Kirk is one more reminder of the wound at the heart of the world.

Our sadness is not born of a misguided appraising of the relative worth of one life over another. You, O God, are not swayed by the fame, status, celebrity, or notoriety of any person, for you see the secret heart, the deep desires, the innermost thoughts. All of your creatures are well-known to you, and you grieve each death, whether it makes headlines or not.

But we experience Charlie Kirk's death as a noticeable loss because their life did, in some way, touch on ours, and they were, in some small measure, known to us. We were aware of their story and had grown to care about it. And because we witnessed the shape of their public existence, we can now more readily see the hole created by their sudden absence. So it is fitting that we pause to acknowledge what has been lost in their passing.

For any eternal good that came of their presence in this world, O Lord, we give you praise. For anything in their life and work that stirred eternal longings, giving glimpses of your grace at work in their gifts- whether or not they recognized you as the source of those talents- we give you thanks.

Now be near, O God, to those who loved Charlie Kirk from a human distance, while we merely observed from afar. In this time of their bereavement, reveal to them your heart, your love, your comfort, your self. If they know you already, may they be aware of your strong arms enfolding them in this season. If they do not know you, then use even the tendering effects of this sorrow as invitation, that they might in the midst of this grief encounter the divine love and consolation their hearts so thirst for.

Now hasten the day, O Lord, when you will return to restore all that is broken, to establish your kingdom on earth and to repair the world's griefs. Hasten the day when there will never be news of another death, for death itself will be no more. And be merciful, O Lord, to all who mourn in this hour, whether their losses are known to us or not.

Amen.

(Liturgy from Every Moment Holy, Volume II)