Jonathan LeMaster-Smith

This post was originally posted on my Facebook the Sunday Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law.

I’m not preaching today, I’m off until tomorrow. But if I were leading worship, I would do three things, regardless of what I had planned.

First, I would speak to the continuous natural disasters (Texas being the most recent) the feeling of hopelessness, and how we can respond to it, and how we shouldn’t.

Second, I would offer space for prayers of lament, testimony, and anxieties around the things we see in the world (My churches regularly have people stand up and testify, and we are smaller communities) and for people to name where they see hope as well (I would point toward the UMC and GMC in Texas partnering to make sure cleaning buckets and resources get where they need to be, and saying take cleaning kits to any Methodist Church and that it will get where it needs to be).

Third, I would preach from the lectionary today, Isaiah and Luke specifically. They work well. Isaiah is speaking to God comforting God’s people as a mother comforts her child. Life is heavy right now. We need to acknowledge this. I might even play Shannon Milea’s song “Weary,” with the lyrics:

“Lately every day brings a new struggle
piling on to yesterday’s mess.
It all seems so heavy
for any one to carry…”

Luke then speaks to Jesus sending the 72 out into the world to spread the gospel. He particularly says he sends the disciples out like lambs among wolves. And that we are all sent out differently. Not all are called to protest, not all are called to do disaster relief, not all are called to work in the soup kitchen, not all are called to write policy changes, but all are called and sent.

We need both images of God. We need a God that comforts and that empowers. If you’re like me, you have a sundry of opinions on the current political realities and even on how to respond to disasters in your congregations. But we can all agree that we can root ourselves in the teaching of Christ and the possibilities of God’s Kingdom.

I might even end with the close with us singing the portion of the Shannon Milea song above she adapted from St Patrick:

“Peace be with you.
Grace before you.
Love within you light the way.
Ground beneath you, sky above you:
all creation joins to say…

Come to me, all who are weary.”