March 2025

Click for March Steeple

Dear Church Family,

Most of you know that in mid-February, I witnessed a tragic accident on Highway 28, in which a sedan crashed headlong into a charter bus, resulting in 4 fatalities and multiple injuries. I had been driving back from worship and a session meeting in Quincy, and had my two oldest kids in the car at the time. My car was the next vehicle following behind the sedan, and I’m grateful every day that for some reason we were following at a greater distance than I usually do. I was able to stop in time, with only minor damage to my bumper as we stopped right up against the totaled car. I’ve been so thankful for your calls and notes and prayers, and for resources available to me to process this trauma. Overall I’m thankful for what truly felt like God’s protection, as I’m amazed we stopped in time and that no debris impacted our car during the accident.

In the following weeks of driving the same road to and from Quincy, my heart simply breaks as I pass through that spot. For the lives that were lost, for the family and friends left grieving, and for the questions left unanswered. There’s a little survivor's guilt, grieving for the bus driver simply doing his job, and the passengers on the bus simply expecting to get from point a to point b. It is also one of those strange ‘both/and’ spots, both gratitude and grief mixed together - thanking God for protection, while tragedy is still a visceral reality. Why did such tragedy happen on such a beautiful bluebird day? Why in an instant can everything change in such a horrible manner? How do I express gratitude amidst such unspeakable loss?

This strange mixture of feelings feels aptly timed for the beginning of the season of Lent - the season in the church calendar that guides our way into the celebration of Easter. Ash Wednesday in particular, is the starting point of the season, in which we as the church name the reality and grief about what’s broken in this world. It is a time and space where we share how the world is not as it should be. The season of Lent allows us space in our time of worship to express lament, which is not only an important part of our human experience, but a tried and true tradition throughout our Judeo-Christian history. We’ll be reading through N.T. Wright’s Lent & Easter devotional titled, From Wilderness to Glory, meditating on passages of scripture in Jesus’ journey towards the cross. In the introduction, N.T. Wright shares these words,

“Being a Christian doesn’t mean pretending that everything is ‘all right really’ when actually it isn’t. To lament is to recognize that things still are out of joint, and that we can and should bring our puzzled sorrow and frustration into God’s presence. God’s gift of lament (following the Jesus who, according to Isaiah 53:3, was ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity’) is the way we join in with God’s own sorrow at the continuing tragedy of his world.” I appreciate these words because it isn’t about having all the right answers or proving God or forcing people to choose joy - it is a real wrestling with the ups and downs in our lives and in our world. This is an authentic way to walk with others who may also be struggling to know God’s presence through tragedy.

Wright also shares that giving space and time to the practice of lament also enriches the celebration of Easter and what it truly means. He writes, “Keeping the season of Easter isn’t whistling in the dark. It is opening our eyes to the light - and, in astonished gratitude, determining day by day to live in that light… Once we learn to lament properly, with our bodies as well as our minds and hearts - we can then praise God for Jesus’ death and resurrection, and for the new creation into which we have been brought, without any danger of making it sound cheap or trivial’. 

I hope you will join us on this intentional Lenten journey with Jesus - to open our eyes to God’s presence in the midst of our messy world, and to look for the light that God is working in us, through us, and all around us. As we lament together, we also are invited to hold onto hope together. Both can be true, and both are needed in our journey as disciples. 

Blessings to you this Lent season!
Pastor Becca