Happy Sunday, Middle, and Blessed Lent!
When I was in elementary school, back in Indiana, we had tornado drills. Our classes would file out into the hallway and sit alongside the walls. It was eerily silent. This was when the teachers were the most strict. If you talked, you went straight to the principal’s office. Once every single class was settled, the teachers and administrators would have us turn to face the wall, sitting on our knees, and bend our heads down to the floor with our hands covering our necks. I remember thinking, even at that young age, that I wasn’t quite sure this would help if a real storm came through, like what I saw in The Wizard of Oz. (The Wiz had a blizzard and we didn’t have any blizzard drills so I felt pretty confident I’d be okay in that scenario.) But we did it anyway. In my memory, we practiced this A LOT.
Then one day, it wasn’t practice. That day we saw the windows in our classroom rattle like never before. That day, our teachers ushered us out of the room with a significantly higher sense of urgency. That day, we could tell that the energy was different. We crouched in the hall, just as we had practiced, and we waited until it was safe.
Despite the nervous energy my classmates and I experienced during those years, I don’t know that it’s even a drop in the bucket to what our students experience today with active shooter drills. Do they carry the same practiced anxiety? – Not quite sure if all their drills would help if there was a real shooter?
It is a sad reality we live in, that our kids must prepare for the worst because adults in government will not pass common sense gun laws to protect them. But I take heart that these kids are organizing, they are planning, they are getting ready for when they have an opportunity to right the ship.
Because if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.
The scripture for this morning reminds us of a Jesus who was ready, who had practiced resistance so that when temptation arose, he knew what to do.
Luckily, we have been preparing as a community. We have been practicing. We have been paying attention and we are ready to fight the good fight. We are ready to make some holy and good trouble.
In this Lenten season, it is time for some self-reflection. Are you ready? Have you practiced what to do in case of an emergency? Do you have the resources you need to sustain the fight? The alarm bells are ringing. It is time to find out!
We invite you in this season to read with us Wisdom for the Wilderness: A 40-Day Journey. Join the course on Circle to journal together. You can also download your copy from our online store or receive a hard copy at worship. And, we invite you to come to the conference in the fall– to connect with others who will not give up the fight, to learn from those who have dedicated their lives to justice.
See you at church!
Rev. Natalie Renee Perkins