The 24/7 news cycle distorts our world.  How many times a day does this ticker land on the bottom of the screen:  “Breaking news!”  I remember days when that ticker was justified:  the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle; planes crashing into the World Trade Centers; the events of January 6th.  However, that ticker is up all the time, every day.  The truth is that earth-shattering news doesn’t happen constantly.  However, if the networks keep telling us it is then, for a while, it feels like it might.  You’ve got our attention, which of course is the goal for the network.  Eventually, though, after stressing every time we see that ticker—“Oh no! What now?”—we end up jaded:  “Ya, right…”

Scripture has been used throughout history to justify terrible things:  slavery, prejudice, misogyny, vengeance, homophobia. Choose a hateful action.  Find a verse that supports it.  Take that verse out of context.  Make those few words your foundation.  Christian preachers have preached hate this way for centuries.

Here are the seven names that I want to say out loud this morning:  Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha; Lalsawmi (Zomi) Frankcom; Damian Sobol; Jacob Flickinger; John Chapman; James (Jim) Hendersen; and James Kirby.  These people were parents and had parents.  They were beloved friends and had beloved friends.  They came from all over the world but where they were together on April 1st was Gaza, working to bring food to the people who lived there who are starving.

March has been a month of memorial services, three weeks in a row.  One of those memorial services was for a friend, Mary Beth.  I didn’t know her long but I knew her deeply.  The first time that I met her was to help her plan her wedding.  Immediately, there was a profound sense of how open-hearted and caring and present she was.  She was deeply spiritual. It’s that spiritual part of her that I tried to address at her memorial service.  Here is where I started…