Invocation in a time of sorrow

Tomorrow morning in the congregation I serve, we will open our worship for all ages with these words:

There are a lot of good and beautiful things in our world.

There are a lot of scary things in our world.

Sometimes we feel great joy and a lot of hope. Sometimes we are brokenhearted and afraid.

We are here in our church this morning because there are a lot of good and beautiful things here. Here, we are surrounded by people that care. Here, we love, and we are loved.

It’s okay to be afraid sometimes. It’s normal to feel pain or anger when something terrible happens. Everybody feels those things sometimes. It’s a part of life.

When those times come, think of places like this. Think of people like the kind people that are here.

We know we don’t have all the answers. Here, we can at least share our questions. And here, we can share a lot more than that: we can share our thoughts and ideas, we can share our pain and our hope. Here, we can remember that we are not alone.

We are here in our church this morning because there are a lot of good and beautiful things here. We’re also here to learn how to bring good and beautiful things into the world.