Episodes
Sunday Dec 16, 2012
Newtown, CT
Sunday Dec 16, 2012
Sunday Dec 16, 2012
No Audio for this week Rev. Dean Snyder
We plan our services well in advance here at Foundry. We are working on next May and June right now. We very rarely shift the focus of our service from what we have planned to something else. The last time I can remember us doing it in the last 10 and a half years was during shock and awe at the beginning of the Iraq War. We include what’s happening in the world in our prayers, but if you change your focus every Sunday you just become an extension of cable news.
We felt compelled to change our focus this week. I decided that rather than have a long sermon, we should have communion together.
So I want to make four brief statements.
First, all of us are hurting for the families in Newtown, Conn., who lost children. We all know that it could have been our child, our grandchild, our nephew, our niece, our neighbor, a child baptized here. The grief must be overwhelming.
Jane was speaking at a conference in Philadelphia this past week. I asked her to stay there and I made an emergency trip to Philadelphia to see our grandson to tell him in person that I love him. In the culture I grew up in, parents didn’t tell child they loved them. Children didn’t tell parents we loved them. It just wasn’t done.
I didn’t tell my children enough that I love them. So every time I talk to Ian I tell him that I love him. I encourage you to tell the children in your life that you love them.
Let’s pray for the families of Newtown who lost children.
Second, let’s pray for the families of the principle, school psychologist, and teachers who died Friday in Newtown. Their bravery and willingness to give their lives to save their students is Christ-like. Let us honor and pray for all those in our society who are educators. Being a teacher is a calling from God. Teachers, we do not pay you well enough and we do not say often enough how godly your work is. Remembering the teachers of Newtown, we honor you as well.
Third, we pray for the family of Adam Lanza. Their grief and shock must be overwhelming. Many of us have people we love who have issues of mental health. Some of us struggle with mental health. As a church and society we need to focus more attention and energy on mental care.
Fourth and last, we need to talk about gun violence. Our friend Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund wrote a letter this week and in the letter she said: “The most recent statistics reveal 2,694 children and teens were killed by gunfire in 2010; 1,773 of them were victims of homicide and 67 of these were elementary school-age children. If those children and teens were still alive they would fill 108 classrooms of 25 each.”
I confess that I myself have not thought much about this. Some people contacted me after Friday morning to ask me the United Methodist teaching on gun violence and I really did not know.
If any of you are interested in a discussion group about gun violence, we will have a meeting this coming Thursday at 6 PM in the Parlor. just before our Longest Night Service. If this is something you’d like to talk about, join us then. If you cannot be there, watch for more information on our website.
So as we have Communion together, let us pray and think about the people of Newtown, Conn., let us think and pray about the children in our lives we love, let us pray for God to heal the violence in our hearts and to make us a people of peace.
Everyone is invited to join in Communion. Dawn and Kevin will lead us in this Holy Meal.
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