Word from the Pastor – A School Shooting Close to Home

I remember a few years ago when one of the many shootings that year took the lives of 50 people. In response to the tragedy, the governor of the state where it happened said, “All we can do is pray.” I was aghast. As a Christian and a minister, I was angry. To hear that anyone, certainly an elected leader, thought that there was nothing people could do at all to prevent tragic things from happening except pray that God would simply fix it all for us.
 
Sometimes we say prayers and then feel like our job is done; there is nothing left for us to do. But that is never the case. As Jesus followers, we are always called to actively build God’s kingdom of heaven here on earth. So it’s never true that all we can do is pray. We can always show love to others and work hard to stop suffering from happening.
 
The book of James says, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (2:15-17). If we are to be people of faith, then, what action needs to happen to stop these terrible school shootings? James would tell us today that if one of us just says to a school “thoughts and prayers,” then “what good is it?”
 
Over the years, it has been easy to fall into the regular pattern of 1) hear about yet another mass shooting, 2) be sad and/or upset, 3) wonder why it happens so frequently only in our country, then 4) go back to our regular lives as time passes and something else fills the news cycle. Even when the worst happened, at Sandy Hook Elementary, where 20 first graders were shot and killed, you would have thought things would have changed then, but they didn’t. It’s still just as easy for them to happen. And now it has happened to my family.

My mother, Ellen Dunn, is a teacher at The Covenant School in Nashville. She was there the whole time. She locked herself in her room and heard the assault rifle fired outside. She taught all the students who were killed two years ago when they were first graders. She was friends with the staff who were killed. We are so thankful that my mother was not physically hurt, but the trauma of that day will stay with all of the children, parents, and staff forever. So it has been a heavy week, with many emotions that come and go. Maybe for you too. Disbelief, shock, disgust, sorrow, and a full-throated anger that we have not made it harder for these things to happen. If nothing changes, then nothing will change.
 
We absolutely pour out our hearts and prayers to everyone in The Covenant School community in Nashville. For comfort in the midst of their terrible grief. And also in our prayers, we confess to God that we have let this situation happen again, over and over, only in our country. We beg forgiveness, and we pray that God would break our hardened anxious hearts, so that we will do whatever is necessary and make whatever sacrifice to prevent this from happening again.

We speak in prayer the names of those who were killed on Monday: Hallie, Will, and Evelyn (all age 9); Cynthia, Mike, and Katherine (all brave workers). Lord, have mercy.

Ringing to Remember

This past Tuesday (Jan. 19), there was a National Moment of Unity & Remembrance to remember and honor the lives lost to Covid-19. Towns across the country joined in illuminating buildings and ringing church bells, culminating in a lighting ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool at 5:30. Our church was honored for some of its handbell ringers to stand outside and participate in the nation-wide moment of remembering, as we rung out with both grief and hope. They rang for 4 minutes—one minute for every hundred thousand American lives lost at that point. (You can watch a brief clip of the ringing HERE.)