How does collective grief impact our faith and resilience? In our recent heart-stirring episode of Resilient Faith, Pastor Laura East candidly explores this profound question. She paints a vivid picture of the shared pain and loss we all experience, emphasizing our interconnectedness during times of turmoil. Our conversation journeys into the inspiring pages of the book 'Lives we Actually have 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days' and shares a powerful blessing designed to comfort us during internal and external trials.
Pressing onward, you'll find solace as Laura invokes a prayer for God's mercy and peace in the face of overwhelming violence and destruction. Her encouraging words prompt us to lean on our faith community for comfort, reminding us that we are not alone in our struggles. The icing on the cake is the thrilling announcement of a six-week series based on their popular sermon series, 'The Gospel according to Taylor Swift'. We also shed light on the Brentwood Presbyterian Church's online services, allowing you to join our Sunday service virtually. Tune in to this episode and find your strength, motivation, and solace amidst adversity.
Welcome to Resilient Faith, the podcast. Opportunities to find deeper resilience within ourselves can come when life seems most challenging. This podcast is to help you develop that resilience and connection with God. Being resilient and having power starts with faith.
Speaker 2:
Welcome, friends, to another episode of the Resilient Faith podcast. My name is Pastor Laura East and I'm so glad to be with you today. As we are citizens of the world, we are not exempt from experiencing the pain and grief when terrible things happen, both near and far. And so, as we continue to read the news, as we continue to check our social media feeds, as we continue to connect with our friends, our family, our loved ones, we can be reminded how small the world actually is and how closely we are impacted by war, by natural disaster, by grief, by death, by loss, and that, as a part of the human experience, we often have collective grief. It doesn't even have to be for one particular thing or for one particular person, but sometimes the culmination of so many things, of the experience of human suffering, can gather us together in this collective grief. And so today, as I was reflecting on what to share with us, I turned to a book I have been turning to frequently over the last couple of months. It's a book I'm really enjoying. It's called the Lives we Actually have 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days. It's by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, so I wanted to read this blessing called Four Collective Grief, and I share this with us, for whatever is going on in our lives, whatever is going on in our world that is touching us so deeply, it can be external, it can be internal, it could be both. We are really living in some both, and space where we are experiencing things that are happening in our world far away and things close by. So, friends, hear this blessing for collective grief. This world, impossible, unthinkable. We are brought to our knees, God. Today there is no true north, and when I last checked, the sun did not rise at all. Today, the innocent still suffer, buildings still fall, families still grieve. A world has ended without any reasonable fanfare. This is the way of tragedy, how it breaks in and robs us while we sleep. Help us to know what to feel, what to do, how to grieve together. Blessed are we who try to see things clearly, though the truth of it all feels unimaginable. Blessed are we who ask and wait and ask again for answers that may not come, for hope that seems hard to find, for comfort that is not easily offered Along the way, show us how to live when we've lost the things we cannot get back. Remind us that you, o God, are our home and our refuge when life's unthinkable fragility is too difficult to hold. Take my hands as we let this blessing for collective grief marinate in this space, marinate in our spirits and our bodies.
Speaker 2:
I offer this prayer. Oh God, it seems like everywhere we look in our world today, there is violence and destruction and trauma, fires and floods and earthquakes and war. It is overwhelming. It can be easy to fall into despair and hopelessness. So much violence, so many innocent victims. We are all your children, creator, and we know you value each of our lives. The same God.
Speaker 2:
We pray for our Jewish siblings, near and far, who are experiencing devastating grief and terror. We pray for our Palestinian siblings suffering destruction and death. God, we pray for those who are suffering in ways often unfathomable. When peace feels like an impossibility, remind us of your peace that surpasses all understanding. When the darkness feels all-encompassing, remind us of the light that shines in the darkness. Remind us of your love and your grace and your mercy. Give your Holy Spirit upon us to fan the flame of love and justice in our hearts and in our world Through your son Jesus. We know that you are with us and are suffering, and you hear our cries. Help us lean on one another during these difficult times, so that we can be comforted in our community of faith. For us is your hands and feet in the world to enact justice and righteousness. Hold us fast, o God, thy kingdom come, lord, have mercy Christ. Have mercy, spirit. Have mercy, amen. Friends, we hope and pray that this season of blessings and prayers has been meaningful for you, and, of course, they are available for you to go back and re-listen to at any point. You need something a little inspiring, a little motivating or something that just bears witness to our collective lives.
Speaker 2:
I'm excited to let you know that next week we are going to be launching a six-week series using our sermons that we preached earlier this fall. The series is the Gospel according to Taylor Swift. We had so much fun doing this sermon series earlier this fall and we are excited to share it with you. We had a great conversation with myself and Pastor Dave and our worship and arts director, nancy Reeves, and the producer of this podcast, janice McQueen, and so we're excited to share that conversation with you, where we talk a little bit about the series and what our experience was of doing it, and then you'll be able to hear the sermons in this podcast as well, so something to look forward to beloveds.
Speaker 2:
I hope you enjoy it. Know that you are always in our prayers and that we do this podcast for you. Please feel free to check out the Brentwood Presbyterian Church website, bpcusaorg. You can check us out on Facebook, on YouTube, on Instagram, we do webcast our Sunday morning service. If you are not local to Los Angeles, you can worship with us virtually every Sunday morning at 1030. Thank you for being a part of our resilient faith community, our community of faith. God bless you.
Speaker 1:
You've been listening to Resilient Faith. The podcast Resilient Faith is sponsored by Brentwood Presbyterian Church in West Los Angeles. You can follow our church and this podcast on Facebook at BPCTeam and Instagram at bpc underscore USA. Make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and thanks for listening.