On Palm Sunday, After A Tragedy
This is a version of a brief reflection I will be offering at the beginning of our worship service this Sunday. Every Sunday, as we prepare to worship, I am mindful that many of us carry heavy hearts. I especially feel that this week. Even beyond our normal private and public griefs, I know a number of us feel a special weight from the school shooting in Nashville. It was a school connected to our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America. While I don’t know the elders or members of Covenant Pres personally, several of my friends do, and that closeness makes it particularly searing to see the faces of children, who have been ripped from the world by unspeakable evil. We can struggle to worship at times like this. We can struggle to pray and sing and declare our hope in the Lord. It can feel small and hollow. Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, when we remember our Savior’s grief. His betrayal. His abandonment. His murder. This Friday we will join in a service of da