It has been a difficult news week… Last week we started the service with a pray for those who died in the mass shooting in Erie. This week there was a high profile shooting at an elementary school in Oregon; this was the 36th school shooting in our country this year. We woke up this morning to news that a military accident has caused a mass casualty event in Alberta, Canada.
The war in the middle east is escalating, this past week the international airport in Riyadh was bombed – killing at least a dozen people and leaving hundreds injured.
Here in our own community today we wear purple as a sort of memento mori to Alzheimer’s. We recognize and remember the power of disease and death, we recognize and remember those impacted by Alzheimer’s, specifically those in our faith family. But while we wear these tokens of purple, we raise our souls in lament and hope – as we worship a God who joins us in grief, who joins us in working towards a better world, who comforts us in hope, and who invites us to see this world through the eyes of the Kingdom of God.”
And so, as we come before God this morning, let us turn our hearts and minds toward the things of God. Let us remember who we are called to be, how we are called to live, and what is worthy of our attention.
-Hear again the Kingdom wisdom of the Scriptures…
