We cry... we wait... we watch for the dawn.

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Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.

They are the words that came to me when my eyes landed this afternoon on the news out of Newtown, Connecticut.  How in the world?  Not again.  Not again.  Not again.  Too many times, too much grief; how in the world do we respond?

As the hours slowly passed and the images of intense grief were projected across our screens, I kept coming back to the only plea I could muster; Christ, have mercy.  We were expecting to celebrate the Joy of Advent this Sunday.  How do we now come together this weekend to worship? 

We will come bearing our grief and our prayers and join together to bear witness to the one who comes to bring light into the darkness.  The psalmist writes:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,

Though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;

Though its waters roar and foam,

Though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

God is in the midst of us; we shall not be moved;

God will help us when the morning dawns.

…The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

       from Psalm 46

We will come bearing our grief and our prayers and join together in the hymn of this season, crying for the coming of God among us:

O come, O come, Emmanuel…

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight.

We will come bearing our grief and our prayers and join together to hear the Gospel proclaim:

What has come into being in him was life

and the life was the light of all people.

The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not overcome it.

       from John 1

 

We will come bearing our grief and our prayers as:

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We cry…

we watch…

and we wait for the dawn.

       from Psalm 130