“God With Us-Ness” – May 29, 2022

Rev. Chelsea Simon

Sunday, May 29, 2022 at 9:30 am
Livestream Worship

person holding lighted oil lamp

Hi Everyone,

Like many of you, my heart stopped and then broke as I read the news of the massacre at Robb Elementary School. An Elementary School. Perhaps like you, I didn’t believe it at first. It was too horrific…too painful…too insane. But as reality set in and more news came to light I began to realize this pattern has become too familiar.

You know what they say about insanity? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and over again yet expecting a different result. Our country is caught in a cycle of insanity. We didn’t even have space or time to grieve the 9 murdered at a supermarket in Buffalo or the person killed at Geneva Presbyterian Church just over a week ago.

As I try to process my grief and my fear, I am left with only questions. How are we prioritizing guns over lives? Love of power over power of love? Fear over faith?

If our faith really dictates how we participate in the world, how are we going to participate? What are we going to do to respond? How is our Christian understanding going to inform what we do now?

Of course we start in prayer for prayer is bringing that which we love before God. And love is the fuel that keeps us connected to the world, to our neighbors, to ourselves and to God. But maybe our prayers this week look a little different. Maybe we say them with a little more urgency and determination. And maybe our prayers look a little more like action.

As Rev. Sandy Olwien said in her letter to the district, “We pray that God will convict us, forgive us, and change us. Prayers don’t – can’t - stop with our lips and hearts; prayers must also be lived in our daily choices through what we prioritize in the world we create. This is not the way the world is. It is the way we have allowed the world to become.”

You see we can’t just be people that go to church. If we claim to be Christians that means we are followers of Christ. The Price of Peace. And this Price of Peace does not tell us to be peacekeepers. He tells us to be peacemakers. Peacekeeping protects the status quo. Peacemaking actively seeks healing.

Let us gather this week to grieve the lives lost and those forever traumatized, lament our country’s obsession with violence and power, repent of our complicity and complacency, and commit ourselves to the active work of peacemaking.

I hope you will join us at 8:00 a.m. (in the Chapel for a shortened Communion Service), 9:30 a.m. (in the Sanctuary with the Chancel Choir), or on Livestream at 9:30 a.m. (and throughout the day and week on our YouTube Channel).

Peace in Christ,
Chelsea

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