March 24, 2021
In a year that has been marked by terrible loss of life, our national family grieves again for the eighteen precious lives of our neighbors, murdered in two mass shootings in recent days. I mourn for our neighbors at the grocery store in Boulder, who were simply there to shop, to work, and one who sought to protect. And I mourn for our neighbors in Atlanta, where the violence echoed a cruel tide of hate that has been directed at Asian-Americans and women. When words are hard to find, let us turn to the scriptures.
The psalmist’s prayer rings in my ears:
How long, O Lord?
How long must I bear pain in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
(Psalm 13:1-2)
And the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk:
O LORD, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
And You will not save.
(Habakkuk 1:2)
By faith, we live with a spiritual tension. It is a tension that holds these prayers of grief and, at the same time, holds the hope and promise of God. By faith, we trust in the power of God’s love and life.
The prophet Isaiah described this hope:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death for ever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.
(Isaiah 25:6-10)
May it be so, O God, may it be so. We trust in you.
We trust the precious souls of our neighbors into the power of your eternal love, which overcomes death and makes all things new.
Peace,
