Today, folks at our church and in other walks of life have been sharing with me the heartbreak and overwhelm due to the shooting at an elementary school at Uvalde Texas. On top of the recent racist killings in Buffalo and the attack at a Taiwanese church in California, the violence in our nation is unbearable. For those whose lives have been impacted directly by gun violence or other violence, for parents of children, and for folks who contend with threats due to racism or homophobia or sexism, these events can be harder still to cope with. 

What is there to say, but to wail and moan? Our grief and outrage and overwhelm at such horrendous violence is vital to our humanity and compassion.

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how we should pray, but that very Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). Through our groans, the Spirit connects us to our Creator who embraces the places of crucifixion. 

But that does not make it okay. This is not okay. The God who knows crucifixion and resurrection stands as a rebuke to the forces of violence in our society and in ourselves. There is a sickness of violence in the soul of our nation that we must labor to heal. And we must labor – Jesus’ words are literally “Blessed are those who labor for peace.” We must labor and we must labor together. 

Please join in prayer and action with our national United Church of Christ leadership who have shared these two prayers.  

God rest the souls of those precious lives who met violent deaths. God strengthen us to struggle for the living, with faith and fierce love. 

In faith, with courage, 

Pastor Nathaniel