by Marcia Mount Shoop
Luke 13:1-9
“How do we meet the deprivation of evil we are experiencing with the metaphysical and moral force required for the universe to tend toward Beauty, toward maximum harmonization–toward the conditions of life that include contrast and diversity and harmonic resonance?
In this moment, our contribution can be the truth of tears, the truth of lament, the truth of narratives that we refuse to erase, the truth of our shared humanity–which finds expression in our capacity to feel what is happening–not by othering it or smothering it, but by acknowledging it and expressing it.
The sorrows of the world that we feel are the threads of our deep connection, the ways you are feeling it are evidence that we are all connected. The heaviness, the tears, the anxiety, the exhaustion, the disorientation—that is evidence of the fact that our cellular connection with strong, that our shared life-force still has a pulse.
This shared sorrow is fertilizer for what unfolds from here. It’s our best chance to bear fruit. Cruelty has consequences–and creates its own chain of reactivity and deprivation. Compassion and courage have consequences, too, and they create impact and nutrition, instead of deprivation.”
Watch the full GCPC service on 3/23/25 here
(Scripture and sermon begin at 1:19)