June 30, 2023
Good morning, my name is Matt Hartley and I am the Director of the University of North Florida Interfaith Center. It is truly an honor to introduce Mayor-Elect Deegan this morning, and as of tomorrow, Mayor of Jacksonville. I like the sound of that.
I moved to Jacksonville 22 years ago to attend the University where I now work. I thought I was just visiting and would be gone in four years. But here I stand. There’s something about this city. For all that disappoints, for all is still painful and needs to change, we have a lover’s quarrel with Jacksonville, because we also know the beauty: from the sparkling waters of St. John’s and crashing waves of the Atlantic, to our homes, our neighborhoods, our places of worship, which have filled our hearts with love.
I fell in love with Jacksonville at Sandalwood High School, where I taught for 8 years, and met a cross section of our city’s diversity in its youth. And eventually it was this school which introduced me to Donna. I was a Marathon High running coach, and one day, huffing and puffing after a long run, 12 miles, why do I do this to myself, we found Donna Deegan there to support a bunch of high schoolers and teachers on a Saturday Morning. She knew we were running in her race, and she wanted to show up for us.
Stories about Donna showing up for people are a dime a dozen, aren’t they?
I got to know her better in the last several years, and what I noticed was a mind at work and a heart alive. My favorite story about this involves the social media app Twitter; those who know me I am online a lot, probably too much. So one day, I asked my friends on twitter to recommend books by the French theologian and paleontologist Pierre Teillhard de Chardin, and who showed up first to answer? Donna Deegan. She had not just one title but two, and made sure to note that while she thought I should read one first, Tim thought the other first. Your weatherman and mayor are theologians. And then they actually came to brunch with us to talk theology. More recently, Donna shared with me a picture from a hike in Arizona of a beautiful cave which reminded her of a Chardin book cover. It was a heart. Fully alive. This is someone who looks around and sees sacred possibilities. The early Christian church father Irenaeus said, the Glory of God is a human fully alive, and I think I have learned something about that from Donna.
Now don’t get me wrong – like you maybe, I am a bit skeptical of politicians, even ones I like. I try to keep an emotional distance and an objective lens. I root myself in my own values, in the faith I have committed myself to, and see how different leaders share values or at least respect our differences. I want to see them talk the talk, because words matter, but also walk the walk.
It reminds me of the story from my Christian tradition, Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. This is a famous story that many know, so you have Good Samaritan hospitals and laws and headlines in newspapers. You may know that the purpose of this story is to help those in need.
I’m here to tell you today, that’s not what this story is about. Not completely.
Here’s how the story goes. It doesn’t actually start with the Samaritan. It starts with Jesus having a discussion with a fellow Jew who is an expert in law. They agree that the essence, the central laws of faith, were to love God and love neighbor. But the lawyer wanted to prove just how much he loved his neighbors. So then Jesus tells the story. A man is robbed and left for dead at the side of the road. Jesus says, two of our people, who we consider religious leaders, walk right by without helping. And this is where Jesus surprises the lawyer. He says, the Samaritan stops to help. Now Jesus and this lawyer would have know the Samaritans as rivals, as neighbors, as distant cousins, but who had mixed blood and worshiped the wrong way. Yet Jesus shows this Samaritan going all the way to help the person in need. He says Go and do likewise. The lawyer was looking for a target for his love; Jesus says look for a teacher. Look for a person different than you who can teach you how to love.
This story is one of the closest to my heart in my tradition. I judge a lot I see in the world by it. So when Donna Deegan announced her campaign for mayor, I watched to see if she would talk the talk and walk the walk. Would she take the diversity of our city as her teacher? And I saw her go everywhere, to places of worship and events with religious communities, at a church one day, with the Jewish community the next, at the Hindu temple, at a Mosque and so on.
Donna said she’d bring everyone in. And after her election, I watched her name her transition team, her staff, her administration. And I saw people of every of religious stripe, racial and ethnic diversity, including LGBTQ folks, and political diversity as well. If diversity is good business, but to go further, if diversity is sacred, then we have a mayor tomorrow who talks the talks and walks the walk. It’s a new day in Jacksonville.
And now I introduce, Mayor Elect Donna Deegan
Matt Hartley 