In our lectionary, the Sunday after Easter always brings the story of Thomas from the gospel of John. It’s a great passage, not just because Jesus acknowledges Thomas’s doubts, but because we get to “see” Jesus, too. John reminds us the resurrection doesn’t magically erase Jesus’s wounds – or the pain, suffering and trauma of the past. Instead Jesus keeps on showing up, impossibly, bearing witness to a life stronger than his trauma.

Easter doesn’t erase Jesus’s suffering, nor does it erase ours, as much as I sometimes wish it would. The resurrection reminds us that Jesus does show up, that life has a power stronger than we imagined.

As we prepare for Holy Week, news coverage of recent mass shootings, describing the Atlanta and Boulder shootings as evidence of “return to normal” has left me sick to my stomach. No one wants this “normal.”

This week’s mission alert from the PC(USA) Office for Public Witness decries gun violence. We must continue to support policies, legislation, and corporate actions that limit accessibility to automatic weapons and other firearms. We must also remember that policies and legislation do not hold all the answers to the problems of this “normal.”

It didn’t take long for me to recall the Aroma Therapy Spa location on Piedmont Avenue, two blocks from the church I served in seminary, a few miles from the hospital where I was born, across from a bank where I worked as a summer teller. Tuesday’s shooter chose a southern point in a corridor of immigrant neighborhoods in northeast Atlanta, where the confluence of three interstates also happens to provide popular, easy access to strip clubs for well-heeled businessmen, visiting athletes, and local commuters.

While the perpetrator of this crime claims sex addiction, given his targeted location and identities of his victims, we cannot deny the realities of race, gender, ethnicity and class. As we grieve the victims and share outrage at the horror of this killing, we at Western stand, grieve, and pray with all whose shared identity means this violence resonates with painful personal experience.

The series of the PC(USA) Office of Public Witness (“OPW” in our three-letter acronym world) on the impact of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol has me thinking about Western’s response. We in the Zoom gathering the following Sunday most likely recall Susie Farr saying “I don’t want to forget [what we saw]; I want to remember.” Many of us with video on were nodding in solidarity; I can imagine some with cameras off were, too.

As many of us as would not want to relive the horror or the evil of that day and as the mob violence traumatized many, we know that we cannot forget it. We can’t forget, not just because of the current eyesore of a barricade or the ongoing efforts to get to the bottom of what happened, but because we shouldn’t forget.

We shouldn’t forget, for so many reasons:

• We need to see the truth of what God would have us see – about the events, the people, and the circumstances leading up to January 6;

• We need to be clear that the Jesus we follow would not want his name waved on a flag in the middle of that crowd;

• And grounded in our faith in a God of love and justice, we need to see the dangers of white supremacy, for black and brown bodies and for all people.

I’ve always given thanks February is the shortest month. Each year a small part of me worries the month will never end, that it will always be cold, that the bulbs will never get to bloom, that Groundhog Day will become Groundhog Month, in the spirit of the Bill Murray movie. This year, as much as any, we have plenty to grieve and “winter” through, and now must include those experiencing Texas power outages in our prayers.

Yet here we are, over halfway finished with February and already in Lent. I am grateful for the fun and community that happened this past Sunday night during the virtual Valentine’s/ Mardi Gras games, led by Bill Rappolt and Will Ramsey. The spiritual connection during the post-worship virtual fellowship with members of Western and Northminster was an all-time Ash Wednesday highlight. And I’ve just learned that this week, often known for the Presidents’ Day holiday, also brings the birthday of two of my favorite women writers who are also both African-American: Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde. February does bring gifts, and I would be remiss if I didn’t add Black History Month!

Each year, Lent is a time when we are invited to commit to renewal in our lives and in our world. Our liturgical calendar, regardless of whether we worship in person or virtually, begins with Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday at Western has always been different from Sunday worship. A small group, mostly from the Foggy Bottom community, gathers for scripture reading, prayer, a few hymns and the imposition of ashes.

Last year we continued the tradition begun with Rev. John Molina-Moore of observing Ash Wednesday with our Presbyterian kindred from Northminster. This year, their current pastor Dr. Gay Byron contacted me to see if we might be interested in continuing this tradition. I was glad she asked and that Western’s session concurred.