Rochester, MN UCC - Pastoral Letter After Mass Shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde

In the last two weeks our country has witnessed two mass shootings: one at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and the other at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The depth and breadth of these tragedies are hard to fathom. Thinking about all the lives lost, the families devastated, the entire communities traumatized is simply overwhelming. Yet these tragedies are somehow made worse by their familiarity. These horrific mass murders are now commonplace. They follow a well-worn pattern- the shooting occurs, we express our outrage and grief, debates begin about what we should or shouldn’t do, nothing much happens, and then there is another shooting. It seems like everything that could be said has already been said. Even saying that you have no more words has become just another cliche we repeat in the aftermath of these tragedies. The repetition of this pattern creates a sense of apathy, of learned helplessness. We begin to see these mass shootings as inevitable- this is just the world we live in.

 The Church of Jesus Christ has always lived in tension with the world. As Christians we believe that we belong first to God, that we are citizens of the kingdom of God before any worldly kingdom. Jesus portrayed this kingdom as one in which all were welcome, where pain, and death, and sorrow are no more, where children are welcomed and celebrated. We believe that the kingdom is coming- that God is working at all times to bring this kingdom to reality on the earth. This means that we are never fully at home on the earth, we are always critiquing the ways of the world as it is, always seeking to bring it more in line with the ways of God’s kingdom. It also means that no matter how terrible things become we always have reason to hope, reason to believe that even the most intractable problems will one day be overcome, because the kingdom of God is coming. 

 It is hard to imagine something more contradictory to the kingdom of God than the mass murder of innocents. A world in which mass shootings are a regular occurrence is a world that citizens of the kingdom of God must refuse to accept. We must do everything in our power to condemn these shootings, to create policies that make them more difficult and less frequent, to make sure that our children and our neighbors, and ourselves are safe in our communities. We must do all that we can to help our world more closely resemble God’s kingdom. 

 It will not be easy, nor will it be quick, to end gun violence in our country. The lack of progress on solving this problem in the past 25 years should alert us to the difficulty of the task ahead. Fortunately, we are not tasked with bringing about God’s kingdom all on our own- rather we are called to participate in the work that God is doing. Our faith assures us of both God’s final victory and Her presence with us in our struggle. We have reason to hope and a call to be of service. Let us each pray for courage and guidance as we seek to discern how each of us individually, and all of us as a congregation, can help to bring an end to gun violence. Amen. 

 Pastor Andrew Greenhaw & Pastor Shannon Smith

Sarah Struwe