Hi First Presbyterian Church,
It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up. With a new year comes fresh hope. We look forward to the opportunities that a new year brings - opportunities to deepen relationships, achieve goals, and create joy and peace. I pray that will be your experience in 2024. Of course, Christian faith teaches us to trust a loving God who gives us peace even despite difficult circumstances.
But sometimes we are reminded in vivid and personal ways of the sobering truth that suffering exists in the world. This week, two events brought this truth into my mind. On New Year’s Day, very early in the morning, someone drove an SUV stashed with gas canisters toward pedestrians leaving a concert at the Kodak Center. The crash killed three people, including the driver, and injured many more. Some people within the Pittsford Presbyterian community have family that were on site while the crash happened and, gratefully, were unharmed. Then, earlier today, I read that, in Rochester on Tuesday, police found the body of a Pittsford person who had been missing since early Monday morning. Some of you may know her or her family. What a tragedy.
On this first Mid-Week Meet-Up of the new year, where feelings of shock may be lingering, I offer these words for us to pray together:
God of hope, we come to you in shock and grief. Help us to find peace in knowing that you show love and mercy to all your children. Give us light to guide us out of darkness into the assurance of your love in Jesus Christ our Lord. Hear our prayer for those in despair, when days are full of darkness and the future seems empty of hope. Remember those who were taken away suddenly from their families and loved ones. In your tender love, comfort and strengthen those who mourn today. Help us to share the life–giving power of your love that those in need may experience your steadfast compassion.
God of all mystery, whose ways are beyond understanding, lead us to a new and deeper faith in your love, which brought your only Son Jesus through death into resurrection life. Amen.
Peace to you,
Pastor Aaron