"Standing Together", A Canadian Gathering To Remember a Norwegian Tragedy

Below are the words I gave at this event, Aug.4, 7pm at St.Mark's Anglican Church, Halifax, NS:

 Genesis 1: 1-5 
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.  Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness God called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Shortly after events in Norway, the National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran church in Canada wrote:
"We join the world in sending our thoughts and prayers to those who have been devastated by the tragic loss of family, friends and classmates.  We also join in prayer with the Church of Norway and the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway as they respond pastorally to those in shock and grief.  We pray that the presence of Christ will be a source of comfort and strength in the midst of overwhelming grief."

The chaos in Norway, their grief, is the grief of Lutherans across Canada.  Many of our church communities are home to Norwegian immigrants, many of whom still have family ties in Norway.  One of the parishioners at Resurrection, where I serve, had friends and friend's children die -as many of you have connections to those who are gone.  She reflected that grieving is hard, especially when one is separated from their people by an ocean.

In 2007, Rev.Stan Johnstone, a Lutheran Pastor who was the Brigadier General of the Canadian Forces at the time, reflected that battle/combat was true chaos -having no inherent meaning and being absent of light.  Chaos is what there is before God comes; out of chaos/the formless void/the deep waters -God says,'Let there be".  This phrase is not an order but an invitation, where something or someone responds to fill the void.

Tonight it is the community that has gathered here, you and me, that is responding to fill the void, to speak against the vacuum of violence, the chaos of grief -to answer the invitation 'let there be', with a response...a response full of hope and creative energy.  We fill the void of chaos with prayers: let there be peace, let there be understanding, let there be good seen in the world again.

You are invited to pray:
(adapted from pray on pg.76 of Evang.Luth.Worship) 
O God,
where hearts are fearful and constricted, grant courage and hope.
Where anxiety is infectious and widening, grant peace and reassurance.
Where impossibilities close every door and window, grant imagination and resistance.
Where distrust twists our thinking, grant healing and illumination.
where spirits are daunted and weakened, grant soaring wings and strengthened dreams.
For good to be seen in the world again.
All these things we ask in your holy name. Amen