The Rev. Paul Perez invites us to hope the world, “will truly be turned upside down and inside out by God’s love,” during this Advent season of 2021.

PAUL PEREZ
Director of Connectional Ministry, Michigan Conference

Last Wednesday, in response to the shooting at Oxford High School, Oxford UMC opened its doors for prayer. I joined in solidarity and support. I spent the afternoon listening and praying with Oxford United Methodist Church members and the Oxford community. I heard their grief, their pain, their disbelief, their confusion, their anger. It was heartbreaking. I also saw people laugh, hug, offer each other support, care and love. Those moments were heart healing.

In the sanctuary, wrapped in green garland and the warmth of Christmas lights, church staff arranged two candelabras, one with three blue candles to remember the three students who lost their lives and one with white candles to remember students and faculty who were injured. Unfortunately, we had to add a fourth blue candle during our time together as news came that a fourth student, Justin Shilling, died from his gunshot wounds.

There is so much healing ahead for the Oxford community, especially for the students, faculty, and staff of Oxford High School and the first responders who were on the scene.

The shooting has hit my family hard. My wife is shaken, having taught as a long-term substitute at Oxford High School about a dozen years ago; she knows the building and the community. She grew up in neighboring Rochester Hills and has several family friends who were at the high school on the shooting. Every day, given copycat threats and school closures, we’ve had a conversation with our three school-age children processing the event and what it means for their safety and well-being.

I must admit, I am angry.

I am angry my kids have grown up being trained to survive an active shooter at their school. I am angry my wife was trained how to confront an active shooter—told, at the Catholic high school where she taught, that the best weapon at her disposal was a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Mary, did you know … you would be used to protect children from being shot at school?

Mary lost her son to a violent death. She knew more than enough about violence. I imagine she spent a good portion of her life worrying about the safety of her son and his friends as they itinerated across  Galilee and traveled to Jerusalem. The first threat to his life came, after all, at the beginning of his public ministries from neighbors in their hometown synagogue.

I imagine Mary was angry. It should be no surprise that when Mary learned she was pregnant, she dreamed of a better world. It was a fiery dream. One where God scatters the proud in their own conceit, cast the powerful from their thrones, exalts the humble, fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich away empty (Luke 1:46-55). She prayed for a liveable world. She understood herself and the life growing within her womb intimately entangled in God’s healing, redeeming, and liberating action in the world.

Mary dreams of a world turned upside down and inside out by the power of God’s covenantal love. It is a dream that, in every generation, is already conceived but not yet carried to term.

Each time there is a school shooting, we find ourselves in this tension. There is anger. Statements that “this time it will be different.” Commitments for real change. A dream arises of a better world, where no more lives are lost, especially young lives, to gun violence. But each time, the dream is deferred. It never arrives. Twenty-two years of dreaming since Columbine.

This is the mystery of Advent, or maybe, better, its holy foolishness. Advent dares us to continue dreaming a deferred dream. Advent is a season dedicated to the thin line between holy mystery and holy foolishness. It is a season devoted to both Jesus’s first coming and his long-awaited second one. It marks the time squeezed between these two moments. The already and not yet; the collision of “what is passing away” with “what is to come.” Advent reminds us that this in-between-ness is the defining characteristic of the Christian life. A life lived between despair and hope. Between judgment and grace. Between death and new life.

As Advent people, we live in this tension.

What more can we do in this moment but join in dreaming of and acting for a better world? Adding our acts of love to the flywheel of history. Joining in one more revolution of love. Hoping this time, things will truly be turned upside down and inside out by God’s love.

What better way to celebrate Jesus’ birthday and await his return than daring to answer violence with love.

Here are a few acts of love we might take in the days and months ahead, as we live in the tension of the already and not yet and continue to dream of a world set right by God’s love.

LEARN:

Read and reflect on Trauma Resources for Ministry with Families from Conference staff members Kathy Pittenger and Christy Miller White.

Read and reflect on Gun Violence Prevention resources from the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church.

Read and reflect on “School Safety and Secure Firearms” and “Be Smart Schools” documents from Everytown for Gun Safety.

GIVE:

The Oxford community, in response to the outpouring of donations, has organized three ways you can make a financial donation:

• OXFORD BANK                                                                                                                                                                                                              Oxford Bank, Oxford Community Schools, and the Oxford DDA have established the “Oxford Community Memorial and Victims Fund” to accept donations for their families and our community.  The Village of Oxford and Oxford DDA will administer all funds in partnership with Oxford Community Schools. Donations will go to families and victims first, then a memorial.                                         Donations may be sent by utilizing any of the following channels:

• • In person: Donate at any Oxford Bank location
  • Mail: Send a check to Oxford Bank, PO Box 17, Oxford, MI 48371. Make check payable to the Oxford Community Memorial and Victims Fund
  • Online: Go to oxfordbank.com/donations for details

• GENISYS CREDIT UNION                                                                                                                                                                                        Genisys Credit Union has set up an account called Oxford Strong. This account will accept donations for the families impacted by the shootings. Donations can be made at any Genisys location. Checks should be made payable to Genisys Credit Union – Oxford Strong.       
  Community questions regarding donations to Genisys account can be directed to [email protected] or via our social media channels.

• DIRECT DONATION TO OCS                                                                                                                                                                                              If you would like to make donations directly to Oxford Community Schools, please contact [email protected].

 (Information taken from the Oxford Community Schools Facebook Page on 12/6/21).

ACT:

Consider reaching out to teachers, school staff and administrators, first responders, families with young and school-age children and youth in your community. Check-in, ask how they are doing, listen and provide space for them to process their feelings, offer to pray with them.

As your conscience leads, consider contacting your local, state, federal elected officials and ask what action they will take to prevent gun violence in our schools and communities.

Last Updated on October 23, 2023