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If yours was anything like mine, it’s been a week. Packed and at times overwhelming. A message from Derrick on Monday introduced me to soon-to-be-hurricane Idalia, whose interruption was thankfully not a major event for us, but I’ve found that nothing makes me more anxious than tropical rains when serving a church prone to flooding. Not everything was so massive, of course, or bad. I had to do a weird security awareness training, offered care for someone with COVID, and hit a personal milestone. There was the launch of Starfield, I have friends visiting this weekend, and attended the first meeting of the Institute of Preaching along with some of you… But even with those extras, my mind has often gone back to the terrible violence in Jacksonville on Saturday. To the ways mass shootings and racially motivated hatred and violence feel so commonplace. I am particularly grateful for the ways many of you responded and participated in worship on Sunday as we sought to face it together with lament, but also with hope. Part of what I hoped to offer was a prayer inspired by Psalm 13, which our call to worship also utilized. It was not what I hoped it might be, but I believe the Holy Sprit was moving among us even still. That may be why I am so especially drawn to someone else’s beautiful employ of that Psalm in response to Saturday’s violence. Our very own Bishop Tom Berlin shared his reflection, and as I continue to lament, and hope, I offer them to us all today. Rev. Ben Richards Almighty God, Creator of us all, In ancient times the Psalmist cried out,
“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Psalm 13:1-2) This weekend another shooter,
leaving messages of racial hatred in so many locations
that they could not be missed,
took an AR-15 and killed
Angela, AJ, and Jerrald,
three Black people
who were buying groceries and goods,
and going about a normal day. How long, O LORD, will some have to live in fear,
while others read the news
with docile sadness,
as though a shooting in a Dollar General
is a normal day? How long, O LORD, before we conform to
your commandment
to love our neighbor as ourselves? How long before we see your commandment
as more than an aspiration, or suggestion,
or a good intention that we should hold
for some day in the future that we sense
we will never live to see? The enemy that triumphs over us is
the long and tenacious root of racism
that continues to invade our society. We confess that we have never fully committed
to removing it fully.
We have laid aside our spade and shovel
when the day got hot and the work felt
too hard or too long. We pray for those who have lost life
and those they love.
We pray for those who experience fear
that is based on facts. Stir up in a us a desire to serve you,
to live peacefully with our neighbors,
to be their allies and friends. As we devote each day to your Son,
our Savior, Jesus Christ,
we pray that his Lordship would lead us
to move beyond acceptance
to the work of transformation,
so that all would know the goodness
of life that is free from fear and death. Help us to love our neighbor
in ways that bring your kingdom
to earth
as it is in heaven. Amen.
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