Dear Middletown Reformed Church Family and Friends,
The grace of Jesus, our friend and Savior, be with you.
Last week I had a meeting and decided to wait for the person on the Great Lawn with the Arts Center campers and teachers. It always gives me such joy to see little ones running about and playing on the church property. As I was standing there talking with a teacher and some little ones, an average, ordinary helicopter flew overhead. A little girl standing next to her brother (they couldn’t have been more than six years old) said, “Whenever my brother sees a helicopter in the sky, he says that means war.”
Lord, have mercy. What have we done to our kids?
A few days before school started here in Middletown I found myself wondering if there was some kid who had been waiting all summer to do a mass shooting. And then I wondered why I thought such a thing. Twenty years ago this type of thinking would never have occurred to me, but how utterly tragic that’s where my thoughts go to now. And then, just days later, a shooting at Apalachee High School — 4 dead, many injured.
The shooter was fourteen years old. Let that sink in. Fourteen years old with access to an assault weapon.
Lord, have mercy.
I had concocted a long message in my mind to write to you about gun violence as an epidemic in our country, but to be honest, what more can I say that I haven’t written already on multiple occasions?
I am heartbroken.
My soul is weary.
And I am devastated by all this violence, especially against our young ones.
My good friend Cameron asked a hard, bitter question, “Whose kid has to be shot for a change to be made?” And I wonder why our Second Amendment is more important to the people in power than our children are?
Please know I support safe, responsible, and legal gun ownership. Both sets of my grandparents grew up on farms and owned guns to protect their livestock. My maternal grandfather owned two guns, and my sister and I knew to NEVER, EVER go near or touch those guns. And we didn’t. But, I do not, for the life of me (literally, it seems here) understand why any civilian needs to own an assault weapon, because such a weapon is good for one thing, and one thing only — killing.
Jamie said something the other day that gave me pause. He said that when we were growing up, we practiced end of the world scenarios in schools, like getting under your desk for a nuclear bomb, and our fear was based on the other, someone outside our country harming us. But now, when we/our children practice active shooter drills, the threat is from within, our own people, citizens, wishing to do each other harm.
Lord, have mercy.
Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will die by the sword (Matthew 26.51-52).
I will pray and act for a country whose citizens follow the Way of Jesus — putting away our weapons because . . .
I am heartbroken.
My soul is weary.
And I am devastated by our children, and so many others “dying by the sword.”
Come to worship this Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost at 10:30 AM to pray for a better and more peaceful way for our children and for all of us. Tom will lead us in our hymns and sing the Anthem “God Is Not Against Me.” I am preaching from Genesis 2.4b-7, 15-17; 3.1-8 and my sermon title is Naked Before God. As it is the second Sunday of the month, we will receive our Deacons’ offering to help those in need in our community. After worship, come downstairs to the Lower Auditorium for coffee and conversation with your church family.
In gratitude for the privilege of being your pastor and the holy call of loving you,
Pastor Trish