If [a twister] …tore up this church…, what would we do? What would we have lost if none of us had been harmed? Have we put high price tags on some things that don’t really matter in the end? If we all gathered here on an empty place of ground where our church once was, would one ounce of our faith be taken from us: would we have become unbaptized? Would God no longer love us? Would sins no longer be forgiven? Would Christ no longer be our Saviour? Would I go to bed…terrified to live the rest of my life without God in my heart? No, of course not. But if that twister also tore up the other houses in this neighbourhood and those families were standing on their property weeping for all they had lost, how many of them would know that they are still bathed in the grace of God: this is the question that Jesus challenges us to answer.
I’m asking you to pray for us as a parish, that we will have the faithfulness to let God lead us forward in our mission to invite others into this knowledge of God, so that with all the walls around us down, we would see how some of our neighbours might need to know what it means to be loved by God.