Trinity United Methodist Church of Coram

"When we see people who are the recipients of injustice, instead of asking, 'Where is God in this situation?', perhaps the better question to ask would be, 'Where are God's people in this situation?' Where are the saints? All the saints?" Please find Pastor Tracy's message from November 1st here: https://youtu.be/efYdjRgs6s0

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18 Please find Pastor Tracy's message from October 11th here: https://youtu.be/R1O3Btz66rM

"For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live." Ezekiel 18:32 Please find Pastor Tracy's message from September 27th here: https://youtu.be/MZYW2iaZ0uI

Today's Prayer He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 Patient and Long-suffering God,... I’m compelled to ask today; it has been haunting me for weeks now. Did your prophet Micah preach before a congregation of stony-faced parishioners? Did he look up from his notes and nearly stumble in his proclamation as he saw their arms crossed and scowling faces, as he saw them squirming in the pews at his words? Did many of them go out the side door of the sanctuary rather than shake his hand in the aisle? Did someone point a shaking finger in his face and say, We don’t want to hear politics from the pulpit, Pastor Micah? This business of truth telling has become even more difficult, and, unfortunately, rare in these days, O God. We are more comfortable with lies, with assurances that our discipleship doesn’t really impact our lives in the real world, that all you are really interested in is getting us out of here and into heaven as cleanly as possible. Did Preacher Micah ever want to give up? Did he make a t-shirt with his famous words and wear it ironically while he tended their softened souls? Or did he keep calling for justice, even when ears got tired of hearing it? Did he continue to speak up against the hate, the bigotry, the prejudice, even to people who thought he must have been talking to someone else? What do you require of us, Lord, we who claim your name and represent your will with our everyday lives? What do you really require? We need to hear it again. Amen. Derek C. Weber, September 2020

Today's Prayer Holy One, In your image You have created humankind, in great diversity. We give thanks for the differences... Holy One, In your image You have created humankind, in great diversity. We give thanks for the differences of cultures and ethnicities, of histories and life-stories, of skin colour and language and hearts that love the world. We watch in horror as Power desecrates Black and Brown bodies; walks on their sacredness, kills and subjugates, in thousands of ways, hidden and overt. We must not stop at watching held back from right action by our horror or seeming powerlessness. Grant us hearts that listen and learn; egos that are willing to accept when our own racism is called out. Grant us courage, to disassemble the systems, the stories, the mythos, that privilege whiteness over all others. Give us your Holy Spirit’s wind to call out racism in all its forms inside our hearts, inside the church, and in your world, give us the strength, the wisdom and the will to root out White Fragility, and White Supremacy, so that they would never again do harm, never again take away, never again kill. Help us to be anti-racist, in all that we say, in all that we do, in all that we are. It is time. It is well past time. God of all creation, bless us all with what we need, to march on. To live this work of anti-racism. Today. Every day. Always. In Jesus’ name. May it be. A prayer by the Right Rev. Richard Bott. The United Church of Canada.