All-Saints Sunday / Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 61: 1-4, 7-11
“Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are those who mourn.” Matthew 5:3-4
This week I have gotten in touch with the huge sense of loss that comes from thinking about the staggering loss of life of the past 8 months. A quarter of a million people in the U.S. (and more than one million worldwide) — as though we have just gone through the loss of 9/11 nearly a hundred more times! And I’m still not over 9/11.
I admit that some of what I’ve been feeling is just numbness. And I don’t think I’m alone. I feel like there is a kind of national numbness going on. With so much frustration, anger and anxiety around, who has space and spirit for mourning?
Jesus says that those who mourn will be comforted. But I’m not ready to be comforted about the loss of so many. I feel like the Biblical Rachel, who, Jeremiah reminds us, weeps for her children, and refuses, refuses, to be consoled.
Still, it matters when we come together in our loss. And that’s what we will do on Sunday. In worship, in the Connect and Care groups, and on the steps of the church–where at 5pm we will build an altar of remembrance for those 250,000 lives lost. Join us, if you can, and we will mourn together. And that may offer its own consolation.
Yours in love and loss,
K
Click here for today’s bulletin
We continue to hold each other in prayer, you can add your prayer requests here.
Please help us continue to create meaningful virtual worship and support essential ministries by giving online or emailing donate@stpaulandstandrew.org to make a gift by electronic check.