What shall we say about these things?
There will be many ways to respond to tragedies in our communities. We must act.
In these days we grieve. In these days we are afraid. In these days we live in anger.
We gather this Sunday at 10:00 AM in person and online to do what Christian people have done for centuries: we proclaim, we sing, we pray, we commune, we are blessed. And this Sunday we give thanks for the internship of our 50th vicar, Wes Isberner, and we eat. Come. Be together.
If a prayer is helpful for you or others, here’s one. There are no right words.
Let us pray.
Holy One,
You spoke through prophets of the days when weapons of violence would be transformed into tools that brought about the food we need for life. We don’t have that imagination or hope these days. Would you receive and hold our anger, our rage, our grief? Would you, even already knowing the things that have happened in Buffalo and Laguna Woods and Newberry and Uvalde, ask us, “What things?” that we might share with you our dashed hopes and our bitter helplessness?
Would you renew our hearts and the heart of an entire nation, and rekindle among us a vision of weapons being destroyed and resources given to things which give life abundant?
Send your Spirit again, we beg, that we would listen this time, knowing that listening leads to transformation and action. May that led us to follow the command to love like Jesus, who rejected violence and showed another way – the way where we know one another as beloved.
In the name of the one we call the Prince of Peace we cry these prayers. Make us one, animated by love, like you yourself are one and you yourself are love. Amen.
