Dear ones: Our hearts are broken by the pain in the world: most recently, by the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, which happened only 10 days after the shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo and 9 days after the shooting at a church in Laguna Woods.

Our hearts break over and over. Our hearts break when we remember that going to school, the grocery store, or church shouldn't be activities that are life-threatening. And God's heart breaks, too. For all of this. For all God's beloveds who are killed or injured by gun violence.

This Sunday, May 29, we are going to continue our Untroubled Hearts worship series, but our hearts are rightfully very troubled. So, together during worship, we will join in lament at a world that is off-key and out of tune. We will acknowledge our despair. We will cry out to God and sit in the stillness of grief, injustice, and righteous anger at the status quo. And then we will join with Jesus in his prayer that God's love be made known in the world, and we will act on that prayer. There will be pre-stamped postcards, message prompts, and addresses for elected leaders available for anyone who would like to encourage those in positions of power to take some common-sense, widely-agreed upon steps toward a safer, more loving world.

The Reconciliation Ministry posted yesterday on social media: Words are insufficient in these times. Our children are perishing, our grandmothers, too, and our teachers are traumatized over and over again. Lord, we need your mercy and a dispatch of your healing angels. Whom shall You send? Send us, Lord. Send us.

Beloved, let us all be healing angels to a hurting world. Take care of yourselves and each other. During these grief-filled days, community helps, so I hope to see you at church on Sunday. In the meantime, you are close in my prayers.

Love,
Pastor Megan