Yet Again

Luke 16:10-13

I'm saying "yet again" a lot these days. Yet again, we are mourning the loss of so many to COVID-19. Yet again, we are experiencing division and hatred in our country. Yet again, X people have died due to a mass shooting in Y public space...

But it must be acknowledged, and we must lament. Yet again, a mass shooting has devastated yet another community in our country. Highland Park, IL was celebrating a July 4th parade when shots fired out--the death toll rose of 16, with even more being injured.

It seems that we are living into a season where we are beginning to anticipate trauma when we get together in person.

Later in the evening and in Philadelphia, an errant explosion during a fireworks show cause a crowd to flee in terror even though there was no gun present because of the atmosphere of trauma we are all living in. I mourn what we are losing, and the world we are creating for our children. This past holiday weekend was the deadliest weekend for mass shootings this year. I lament.

I really don't want to be a doom and gloom kind of pastor. I would love to focus only on the exciting things that give me energy and move my spirit. But that is simply impossible in this season of relentless episodes of violence and death that we are bearing witness to in the world. It is simply impossible in this season to only focus on what is positive and joyful, to focus only on abundance even, without also focusing on where deep need and scarcity have been created.

And yet we must. We have to do both.

We are still called to give thanks and notice the new thing God is doing even as war rages, as violence persists, as poverty grows. We are still called to perceive God's abundance in us, and use that abundance to meet the world's scarcity that we encounter. Even as we are beset by narratives of violence in so many forms all around us, I hope you can recognize that there is abundance here in our church.

When I feel hopeless in response to these massive problems over which I have no control, I turn toward what we are doing here at Lakewood UMC for a source of strength and a place to have gratitude. Because we are creating a place of refuge and peace with the abundance God has given us. We are being a community with abundance hospitality in worship. We are growing in ways that meet our communities in the new ways that churches must grow.

And when I feel hopeless I also remember and give thanks for the community we have and are trying to grow at our church. I hope that when you meet with fellow Lakewood United Methodists that you feel the gratitude I have that we get to do this work of God's calling together. Some of you have incredible stories of commitment and legacy with this church. Many of you have been involved with our church longer than I have been alive.

I think that is amazing. And I also think its amazing how, even in this stage of the church's life, that we are a community willing to try new things, deal with new problems, and experience new failures as we figure our story and vision out together.

There is a lot of doom and gloom present in the world today, but as your pastor I am so grateful that I can turn to you, and our community and what we are doing for the hope I need to fuel my next steps with each passing day.

All to the greater glory of God!