Pastoral Message Regarding the Shooting In Sutherland Springs, TX

Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Yesterday, our congregation celebrated All Saints’ Sunday together with the whole Christian church. As one congregation in Sutherland Springs, Texas gathered, a gunman entered their place of worship and murdered twenty-six people, including many children.
This was a tragedy in the proper sense of the word. A flaw in the psyche of one man, a troubled sense of self and the barbaric desire to kill, led to senseless death. A flaw in our common culture, the sin of violence, led to senseless death. While this attack touches our community particularly because it occurred within a house of worship, this shooting is hardly the first we have weathered together as a nation.
Let us pray together for those who mourn in Texas. Let us pray for the whole Christian church and all who gather for worship, that they may do so in safety.  Let us pray for our nation, that peace may reign within its borders. Let us pray, but also let us act.
The risen Christ greeted the disciples with words of peace. Worship is at the heart of what we do together, and more than ever it is an act of peaceful resistance to a violent society. Engagement in our civic life enables us to find peaceful solutions to disputes and problems. Tomorrow is an election day. For information on your representatives and how to vote, please follow this link. 
The Psalmist writes, “Behold the one who makes war to cease in all the world; who breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire.” Together, let us do God’s work of peacemaking as we pray ever more loudly, “Thy kingdom come.”
Join us this Wednesday at 6:30 PM for a service of healing and prayer in place of our Word-Up service.
Yours in Christ,
​Pastor Joseph Graumann