12-17-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
December 17, 2024
What part of your world needs to know that it is loved? For most people, answering this question is a bit complicated. Or maybe the answer feels as if it is constantly in flux. I might have responded differently yesterday morning, but now, in light of another school shooting, I am changing my answer. In a country where, contrary to what politicians would like us to believe, crime rates have been declining since the mid-1990s, and in the last couple of years, violent crime has experienced its most significant drop in decades. However, in 2023, we witnessed the highest number of school shootings in the nation’s history. And with the shooting today, 2024 surpassed last year. I don’t intend to provide an explanation or a simple solution, but I’m curious about the reason behind the observed decline in violent crime, which some believe to be a historic drop, yet violence in our schools is on the increase? What part of your world needs to know that it is loved? This day, I think my answer is somewhat scattered, but there is a part of the world needing to know in very practical terms what it means for us to claim in this Advent Season, “For God so loved the world…” From students, to parents, to teachers and school administrators, to first responders, to everyone else who is hurting and afraid and angry—for them, love needs to come alive. As a church, both locally and collectively, what are we failing to do when it comes to communicating and embodying the message of God’s love born into this world in the form of a vulnerable child, the one sages referred to as the Prince of Peace?

What can we do to make a change? Do not allow this prayer to be an escape from asking hard questions about what it means to live in the ways of the Christ Child, the one you, O Merciful God, have given as a representative of your dream for this world. Provide your Spirit as both a guide and source of strength in making this world a little more like the vision cast in Bethlehem. Amen.