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Dear friends and members of University UMC:
I’m plugging along through life while the news from Gaza lives just below the surface. I move through my days with all their morning routines and night-time rituals, to-do lists and conversations, meals and walks, but more and more, my mind gravitates towards images of emaciated children and the nightmare that exists across the world. I carry these images with me as I rise each morning and crawl into bed each night. I know I’m not alone. I am haunted by the cruelty of those in power who could make the situation different but do not. Political dialogue and debate goes back and forth, blaming Hamas and blaming Israel. There are voices trying to convince us the situation isn’t as dire as some would have us believe. “The images are manufactured”, some argue. I keep thinking of Richard Rohr’s words: “Before the truth will set you free, it will make you miserable.” I’m not interested in hearing the perspective of those who are committed to spinning an alternate and false reality. We know the truth.
And it is miserable. Those with power to help are spending copious amounts of energy manipulating the truth. Meanwhile, their integrity plummets, and countless numbers of innocent lives are lost. Meanwhile, hundreds upon thousands of children are caught up in the decisions of adults who throw their power around in corrupt and evil ways. Meanwhile, we feel helpless. We can give money to relief organizations and write legislators, but it’s understandable why we believe such acts are futile. It’s no wonder we feel hopeless. |
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| People wait for food at a community kitchen in western Gaza CityAnas-Mohammed | Shutterstock |
| As people of faith who believe in a loving God who calls us to compassion and service, we know the truth. There is a deep and widening chasm between the way things are and the way things ought to be. As we go about our daily lives, we hold in our minds reality and God’s dream for the beloved community where war is no more and all bellies are full. People in Gaza are also thirsty. The extreme lack of clean water is staggering. In the face of such hurt, I recall the many biblical references to water. In the Gospel of John, Jesus offers living water to the Samaritan woman at the well. The prophet Amos cries out: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). Water is life. |
| In the biblical imagination, water is not a bargaining chip - it is a sacred trust, divinely given to creation for the flourishing of all. – Mae Cannon and Ben Norquist in Sojourners, July 30, 2025 |
| Recently, I preached a brief sermon on forgiveness. I say brief because there is so much to say on the topic, and anything uttered in a single sermon seems insufficient. In this season when both local and global news overwhelm us with despair, I remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s teachings on grace. Theologian Bonhoeffer’s distinction between cheap and costly grace reminds us that the unconditional love and mercy of God we know as grace is not disinterested in matters of accountability and justice. |
| Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. – Bonhoeffer |
| The grace God gives demands justice and works for peace. It is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus, the One who gave and offers love and his very life for all.
I still believe in forgiveness. And I’m convinced that in many circumstances it’s too early for forgiveness. Children are hungry. Children are thirsty. Children are dying. The beauty of our shared humanity is being tested. May we be the ones who believe in the Jesus way of a love that demands compassion–no matter race or creed. May we be the ones who believe in the Jesus way of justice that demands accountability for all who abuse their power and cause suffering. And may we find the prayers of our hearts echoed in the Psalms: |
| The Lord is near to the brokenheartedand saves the crushed in spirit.– Psalm 34The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit. a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. – Psalm 51 |
| This day and every day, I give thanks for you and your big, beautiful, broken heart.
What a joy to be your pastor!
Teresa |
| When the church fails to respond to the literal thirst of our neighbors, it is not just a moral lapse — it is a spiritual crisis.– Mae Elise Cannon and Ben Norquist, “Lord, When Did We See You Thirsty in Gaza?” |
| | A Prayer in Response to the Starvation We are Seeing in GazaDivine Parent,We know your heart breaks at the atrocities that we, your beloved children, enact upon one another. When disagreement and fear turn to “othering” — when we privilege our own well-being at the expense of others, we no longer see our connection to each other and all of creation. Too often, we pick up weapons, seeking each other’s harm. War brings a host of devastations, both intended and unintended…and all of creation loses.
Recent images of mothers holding starving children have forced many of us to see what we don’t want to see and to know what we don’t want to know. We cannot help but acknowledge the reality that evil and suffering are present in so many places across our globe. From Gaza to South Sudan to Somalia to Yemen to the United States to Democratic Republic of Congo to Nigeria to Ukraine to Russia to Syria to Haiti to every single continent, there are people suffering from lack of resources, suppression and war.
Our bodies cry out for water and nourishment, as all of Creation cries out for water and nourishment. And yet we debate what to call this, worry about political alliances, and have taken and hoarded what was meant to be shared and nurtured. Forgive us, our sins. Sins of violence, withholding, hate, silence and apathy.
How do we heal what we have broken? How do we see the face of The Divine in each human being and in all of creation? May your creative and empowering Holy Spirit, Sophia, hover over us as She did over the chaos of creation and help us to honor your Divine imagine within us, so that we will seek one another’s good in all things and restore our world.Help us not turn away from the pain we witness. Help us see suffering and move towards it in active love.
May we never give up hope for this world. We pray for your healing and comfort, especially for all who hold their beloved close in the agony of suffering and death that could have been prevented had we, their worldwide community, interceded with active love and courage.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.
Amen.
– by General Secretary Stephanie York Arnold and Director of Sexual Ethics Tyler Schwaller of The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women UMC |
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