Dear Caldwell,
A few years ago, when I worked for Bank of America and after we had purchased Boston-based Fleet Bank, I went to work on what I thought was just another day and tried to interact with some of my new Boston-based teammates on some bank work. After my second or third comment about how no one in Boston seemed to be at work, someone explained what I didn’t know. “Don’t you know that it’s Patriot Day in Boston?” a Connecticut-based teammate said in as much patience as he could muster. “Don’t ever plan to get much done with the people in Boston on Patriot’s Day.”
Today, we all know more about Patriot’s Day but instead of celebrating we are sharing our prayers with them in grief and mourning after yesterday’s tragedy. While we know that God goes ahead to pull us through this, it’s important that we acknowledge our collective and individual pain and sorrow. After too many of these events, I feel a particular fatigue and heavy hearted-ness as I watch the news.
It is human nature to find our minds jumping to partially informed conclusions. “It’s an international terrorist!” Or, “This is an act of some anti-government anarchist.” Let us remember that we worship a God of justice, all powerful, all-knowing.
So, for now, we hope and trust. As one trauma doctor in Boston said in an interview today: “People never fail to prove in these situations how they can rise to the challenge.”
The Common Lectionary sets aside scripture readings for each day and, once again, today’s are remarkably poignant. Without further comment, because sometimes God’s word needs no additional comment, I share two of today’s readings. The first, from the Psalms, allows us to cry to God in our grief. The second reminds us that in all things we are to be agents of God’s love and peace.
Psalm 116
[1] I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
[2] Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
[3] The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
[4] Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I pray, save my life!”
[5] Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
[6] The LORD protects the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
[7] Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
1 John 4:7-21
[7]Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. [8]Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. [9]God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. [10]In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. [11]Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. [12]No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
[13]By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. [14]And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. [15]God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. [16]So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
[17]Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. [18]There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. [19]We love because he first loved us. [20]Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. [21]The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
In Christ,
John