Dear Rose Park,
It happened again. A familiar scene played out on the television. Lights are flashing, service personnel are tending to the wounded and frightened, SWAT officers are standing at the ready, FBI officials are clearly marked and armed, news trucks and cameras surround the scene, and we all stare with eyes wide and hands over our mouths at the television screen. Monday March 22, 2021 in Boulder, Colorado will be another date and city added to the list of mass shootings in the United States.
Boulder joins the list alongside Atlanta, Rockford, El Paso, Aurora, Pittsburgh, Parkland, Las Vegas, Newtown, Columbine, and too many others to name. This has happened so frequently that in some cases we’ve become numb to its occurrence; however, the numbness quickly dissipates when we remember that these are more than just numbers, dates, and cities. These are lives. They are husbands, mothers, children, friends, cousins, coworkers, and classmates.
When we eliminate the arm-length distance, we come to the harsh and raw realization that these are children of our Father in Heaven, these are brothers and sisters in Christ, and these are image-bearers of God. Though these deaths may not impact us personally, they do impact us communally as the Church. If we truly are the Family of God then let us mourn with those who mourn, grieve with those who grieve, and then advocate on their behalf so as to avoid these senseless tragedies.
It seems a painful reminder of how fragile life is when the news broadcast is peppered with another mass shooting week after week. It’s in these tremendously difficult moments I find my emotions torn. In some moments I am deeply saddened and my heart breaks. In other moments I find myself burning for justice and desiring to protect. In a moment of balance, I am drawn to the words of our liturgy. In the liturgy for a funeral service, we hear these words: We come together in grief, acknowledging our loss. May God grant us grace that in pain - we may find comfort, in sorrow - we may find hope, and in death - we may find resurrection. By dying, Christ destroyed our death. By Rising, Christ restores our life.
Atlanta and now Boulder are still too raw to completely process, but in the midst of this chaos and lack of equilibrium I find a small sense of comfort knowing that God is still present. I find comfort knowing that God has not abandoned us. I find comfort knowing that from the ashes, we will rise. So, let us light a candle, say a prayer, comfort the hurting, and speak for the voiceless knowing that the One who died on Calvary’s cross for you and I is the same One who three-days later pushed back the stone, conquered sin and death, and gave us eternal life.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark