Bethel friends,
Do you feel like the world is burning? There are so many troubles, so much pain.
COVID-19 has led to so many deaths, so much confinement and alienation, so much economic pain, so much loss. People are getting tired of the isolation, and some are tempted to do things that are against the rules. Graduates have been robbed of parties and ceremonies that should mark their accomplishments
The terrible death of George Floyd through the windpipe-crushing knees of the police in Minneapolis has set parts of the US on fire. People of colour are justifiably angry and generally people seem perplexed over how to solve the reality of systemic racism. Canadians should not be smug, because racism has found a home among us too – just consider the uneasy relationship between settlers and First Nations, and the third-world conditions on many reservations.
As followers of Jesus we experience all the trouble of the world, and are to offer hope and perspective to the world. That’s spoken very clearly in 2 Corinthians 1, where it says:
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
My prayer for we who are Bethel Church is that we endure with grace these times we are in, and that we find ways of offering grace to those in our community who are burdened with pain or worry.
May God bless you and watch over you.
Pastor Bruce
