We Will Trust in a Loving God

It's closing in on 6:15 pm (yikes!) and I have written and deleted this reflection about a dozen times. What is there to say??

What is there to say when the richest man in the world shutters the agency that helps millions of poor people? What is there to say when transgender people's existence is being denied and erased? What is there to say when migrants are being flown to Guantanamo Bay Prison? When a 24-year-old without security clearance accesses the Treasury Department computers? When the President claims that all Palestinians should be moved out of Gaza and it made into a U.S. territory? When Lutheran Social Services, which provides adoption services, counseling, disaster response and refugee assistance, is accused of receiving "illegal payments" despite having government contracts to provide those services? When the structures of our government that keep us healthy and safe - the CIA, NOAA, NIH, CDC, OSHA, EPA - seem to be in the process of being dismantled. What is happening?! And what can we believe?

Obviously, none of us know what the next few months will bring. And I'm not going to say that it's going to be okay - because for some of us, it will not be okay.

But I can say this: we are a church, and so we will keep doing what a church does. We will support one another. We will love our neighbors. We will look out for the vulnerable. We will trust in a loving God. We will seek the truth. We will practice forgiveness and mercy. We will work for justice. We will gather for worship and sing and pray, and take courage from the "great cloud of witnesses" that surrounds us with love.

I leave you with the words of Martin Luther, who wrote this hymn text almost exactly 500 years ago. I suggest that you sing it at the top of your lungs as needed!

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;

Our present help amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:

For still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe;

With craft and power great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth without an equal.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed the truth to triumph through us.

The powers of evil grim, we tremble not for them;

Their rage we can endure, for lo, their doom is sure: one little word shall fell them!