Prayers of the People - Feb. 21

Yesterday during worship we experienced a momentary power disruption which caused one of the devices we use for our live stream to reboot. This caused the stream to freeze for several minutes right at the end of David's Time for Reflection and through most of Jan's Prayers of the People. (It also happened again during the postlude, for those of you who were still watching.) It's always frustrating when something like this happens, but it was especially so yesterday because the prayer that Jan wrote and prayed was so lovely. So I asked her to send it to me and I am posting it below. I hope that you will take time to pray this prayer with her at some point this week.

PT

As we come together in prayer, I would bring your attention to the fact that the season of Love – Valentine's Day, and the season of Lent – Self Reflection are back to back, next door to each other. So may our time of reflection focus on Love as we go through this journey toward Easter and the season of Hope.

Creator God,

We are finding it very difficult at the moment to look toward the coming season of Hope. There is so much negativity in our world that our hearts ache with the burden of it all. We sit and we ponder, we argue and we try to listen, we kneel and we pray, we see and we ignore and the agony continues.

We come together today to pray for our world, for the leaders and those behind the scenes who exert influence, for the stricken and hungry, the tired and the sick and for those who feel forgotten. We ask for the world to feel your presence, to realize that Love is the answer today and everyday. And may we love and heal our planet as well as ourselves.

We pray for our country where there is so much division and anger. We pray for our own leaders who make decisions that impact us all. We ask that compromise be a word of hope and not one of dissension. We pray for those who have been impacted by the storms and extreme weather that has passed over so much of our country. May they receive the help that they need and may those in power find ways to assure the people that they are working for the good of all.

We pray for our community where we are grieving the loss of 3 teen-agers who have been taken down in the prime of their lives. We struggle with these random acts of violence and wonder why random acts of kindness cannot be the norm. We ache with their parents as they adjust to this loss of hope for a better future that these kids were poised to explore. Help us to know how we can make a difference, how we can contribute to the solution and even how we can pray.

We pray for our own families as we wonder if our kids are next, as we wonder if Covid will take more lives that we know, as we wonder how we are to go on in this swirl of negativity.

We are told that there is hope, that there is light, that there is redemption. Help us to find it. Aid us in our Lenten journey to reflect on our own path, to find ways to reach out and to be that Christ like example that we long for in others. Bring us Hope. Bring us Love. Bring us Redemption.

Amen.

Pray for Our City

Greetings brothers and sisters, 

I write today with a heavy heart. Yet another teenager has been shot and killed in our city, the third victim of gun violence in the last four weeks. Fifteen-year-old Janaira Muhammad was a freshman at Austin-East. Her death follows that of sixteen-year-old Stanley Freeman and fifteen-year-old Justin Taylor, both of whom were also Austin-East students. All three were the victims of gun violence. My heart grieves for their families and for this community.

There were 37 criminal homicides within Knoxville city limits in 2020, the highest number in modern history. (The average for the last two decades has been 21.) There were 35 homicides in 1992 and 1998. When you add in 8 additional homicides in the county, the total number of killings in Knox County last year was 45. All from shootings. The only positive thing to be said is that none of the murder victims in 2020 were under the age of 18.

Now, this year, there are already 4 victims under the age of 18. If you think that's bad, listen to this. There have already been 16 murders this year. Let that sink in for a moment. It is February 17th. We are six weeks into the year. We are almost halfway to the record number of homicides of last year.

It's not just East Knoxville, either. Murders have happened in other parts of Knoxville - North, South, West. Three weeks ago there was a double homicide at Cazzy's Corner Grill. Three days ago there were two shootings resulting in one death in the Cedar Bluff area. Nowhere is immune from the violence.

As I was writing that last paragraph, another news alert just flashed across my mobile phone. This afternoon, a woman driving in North Knoxville was struck by a stray bullet and crashed her car into a building. She has critical, life-threatening injuries. A stray bullet also struck a school bus. With children on board. Thankfully there were no injuries.

What is happening in our city? The same thing that is happening in cities across our country. COVID, high unemployment, housing insecurity, fear, anxiety, racial tensions - all these have led to an increase in violent crime throughout the land. For the first 6 months of 2020, homicides in the country had increased 15% over the same timeframe in 2019. At year's end, cities everywhere, including Indianapolis, Houston, Memphis, and Los Angeles, reported record high homicide figures. Almost all of them gun-related.

I don't have the answers for this epidemic of violence. I believe that increased gun regulation is a must. I do not believe an increased police presence will help. I do believe that our entire community must take each one of these homicides personally and not write any of them off to "other" people in "those" neighborhoods. I do not believe that more guns is the answer. I do believe we are being called to a time of prayer.

Let us pray for the families of the victims. Let us pray for our city. Let us pray for the police officers who are trying their best to keep the peace. Let us pray for the first responders and emergency room workers, especially those who have to watch teenagers die. Let us pray for perpetuators of violence, that they will feel the love of God. Let us pray for our country.

And then let us do something. Prayer means nothing if it doesn't lead to action. We need to act. This is unacceptable. This is not who we are called to be. I am grieving. I am angry. I am offended. I am incensed. 

How long, O Lord, will I call for help and you not listen? I cry out to you, "Violence!" but you don't deliver us. Why do you show me injustice and look at anguish so that devastation and violence are before me? There is strife and conflict abounds. Justice does not endure because the wicked surround the righteous. - Habakkuk 1:2-4

Please join me in praying for our city.

The Church's Ministry in a Tragic Time

I came across the following this week...

"To charge these present times as the most tragic in the history of the human race might be subject to question were the condemnation based solely on the number of people who are hungry, or who are ill-housed and ill-clothed, or who have been forced into slave labor, or who suffer from the ravages of disease. But to charge these times as being tragic because of their violent reversal of trends toward a better day is to make an observation readily recognized by even the most casual on-looker of the present scene.

For example, for several generations the world seemed to be moving in the direction of assured peace. There was evident a growing desire for cooperative activity in securing what would be good for all, and a fairly widespread wish, at least, to settle international disputes through justice meted out by an objective international court. Yet the phenomenally rapid rise of a new nationalism spurred by the unholy quest for control of the world's basic resources has made this century the bloodiest in the many centuries of our life upon the earth.

Up until several decades ago it appeared that the western world was making progress in the control of the so-called social diseases. Public opinion and wise educational procedures seems to have curbed the further spread of alcoholism, sexual promiscuity, narcotic addiction, and other such practices that damage the social order. Yet the last fifteen years has seen the most violent reversal of that trend. Whether or not acute alcoholism is at an all-time high, certainly a higher percentage of the total population of this country, according to government figures, is drinking liquor more regularly. The publicity highlighting drug addiction among adolescents has thrown into shadow the more widespread habit - use of other drugs by a great multitude.

The open betrayal of public trust by public servants a generation or so ago would likely have resulted in the loss of public position. Yet it seems that a large portion of our people look with equanimity on the use of public position for private advancement and personal gain. And make no mistake, what I am saying applies not only to the Federal Government and Federal agencies, but to local educational systems, local police departments, county road commissions, civic waterworks, even the social service agencies, and sometimes to the church. It seems to be accepted as almost normal that people in such positions have as their first responsibility to look after their own interests. It is a tragic reversal of what had seemed to be a noble trend.

Yet of all these conditions so tragically evident in this day are but symptoms of a more deep-seated disease. We have neglected God. It is not that we have forgotten God. We have neglected him. We treat the faith of our fathers the way we treat a family heirloom. It is certainly not to be disposed of. It has had too much place in our past to let it be lost. We have a deeply sentimental attachment to it. We even want to display it on occasion, and with some pride, as we tell of our tie to such faith. We keep - we prize - we display our faith in God - but - we don't use it. After all, antiques are enjoyable to look at, but who wants to use a spinning wheel these days? We forget that religious faith is not a condition of a certain type of social order, but a certain type of social order results from the use of a fervent religious faith. Basic to the redemption of our present world is the recapture of an active faith in God."

The above is taken from a sermon given by Rev. Dr. Clifford E. Barbour on November 8th, 1951. Perhaps that surprises you. It did me. You are to be forgiven if you thought it was much more recent than that. It could have been preached from any number of pulpits just yesterday.

Many of you reading this know who Dr. Barbour was. For those who do not, Dr. Barbour was the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church from 1928 to 1951. He left to become President of Western Theological Seminary, which would later merge with Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary to become Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a position he held until his retirement in 1962. The excerpt above is from his Inaugural Address at Western Seminary. I edited it slightly for length and for inclusive language, but not for content. Everything you just read is as it was preached.

Dr. Barbour goes on to offer his thoughts on the church's calling in such a tragic time. He describes what he believes the church - and its members - must do to make a positive difference in the world. Given that Dr. Barbour's description of the problem is still valid and relevant today, I believe that his solution is equally relevant and valid.

And to find out what it is, you'll have to join me on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. for our Virtual Worship Service. See you then!

Grace and peace...

Pastor Tim