Farewell to 27 - Rest In Peace

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

          “Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel!  Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!  The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies.”  (Zephaniah 3:14-15 NRSV)

          I have something to say to everyone who made it to the candlelight walk yesterday ….  You are a blessing to this community.

          We all need to support each other in the communities North of Smokey.  Every job lost to our local economy affects us all.  And it is not just here.  Our current government is moving many jobs away from small communities and eliminating others.  What they are telling us is that we don't matter.  Well, it isn't true.  We do matter.  You matter.  Our communities matter.  And the more we do to tell them that what they are doing is NOT OKAY the greater the chance that they will listen to us.  Yesterday’s walk was one way to do that.  The petition that we had here in church on Thanksgiving was another way.  Can anyone think of some other ways to let the government know how we feel?  What we think matters to our community?

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.”  (Isaiah 12:2 NRSV)

Have courage.  Governments can be changed.  Jobs can be brought back.  This is a strong community.  I have faith that whatever comes you will support each other through this and other difficulties.  Remember that you are here because you want to make this community a better place.  You are here to bring God’s blessing to this community!

I would like you to remember also that no matter how bad things seem sometimes for our community here, there are others that need our prayers and support.  Two days ago in Connecticut twenty-seven people died.  Twenty of them were children.  What kind of response can we make to this tragedy?  How can we even make sense of it in our own lives?  And how does God fit in to what happened?

God is Love.  I believe that God calls us but God does not direct our lives.  At times like this I take great comfort in this belief.  If God is love and God does not direct our lives, then I have to believe that God did not cause this to happen or even want it to happen.  Instead, God shares the pain of everyone affected by the shooting.  I’m sure there are lots of things that led to this happening but God wasn’t one of them!

How do we respond in our own community?  Our schools already have lockdown procedures.  Our children are taught what to do if there is a threat at school.  This saddens me.  We are teaching a whole generation (and maybe even a second one) that it is not okay to trust.  We are teaching our children to be afraid of anyone they don’t know.  And yet here in church we talk about having faith in God and in our fellow human beings.  Which is it supposed to be?

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice.  Let your gentleness be known to everyone.  The Lord is near.”  (Philippians 4:4-5 NRSV)

Since the shooting, I have seen people suggesting that we should turn our schools into fortresses to protect our children.  I have seen people saying that this happened because this particular school was “Godless.”  Living our lives in fear or hatred is not living the Gospel.

So how do we respond when something like this happens?  We show our sadness.  We show our anger.  We say this is NOT okay!

And we pray.  Today we will not be sharing my advent prayer.  Instead as we light the advent candles I will read the names of the twenty-seven dead and I ask you to hold them and their loved ones in your hearts.

Charlotte Bacon, 6. 
Daniel Barden, 7. 
Rachel Davino, 29. 
Olivia Engel, 6. 
Josephine Gay, 7. 

Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6.
Dylan Hockley, 6.
Dawn Hochsprung, 47.
Madeleine F. Hsu, 6.
Catherine V. Hubbard, 6.
Chase Kowalski, 7.
Nancy Lanza, 52.
Jesse Lewis, 6.
James Mattioli, 6.
Grace McDonnell, 7.
Anne Marie Murphy, 52.
Emilie Parker, 6.
Jack Pinto, 6.
Noah Pozner, 6.
Caroline Previdi, 6.
Jessica Rekos, 6.
Avielle Richman, 6.
Lauren Rousseau, 30.
Mary Sherlach, 56.
Victoria Soto, 27.
Benjamin Wheeler, 6.
Allison N. Wyatt, 6.

(Silence)