I attended a memorial
service last night at Congregation
Dor Tamid in Alpharetta for the Jews murdered in their sanctuary on Saturday
at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Seated in the row in front of me
was a Lebanese Muslim (coincidentally my doctor’s cousin) and Jewish lady who
is a member of Dor Tamid. At the altar with the rabbi were imams, priests, Baptist
and Methodist preachers and a Mormon Bishop. The crowd of a couple of hundred
people were similarly diverse their faiths, races and national backgrounds.
It was beautiful
service and I think it represented to best of what we as Americans can be. It’s sad that it takes something
like this to bring us together. I told the lady sitting next to me how nice it
was to meet her. She said the same and mentioned how terrible the reason we were
meeting was.
For some reason, after events like the shooting on Saturday,
I’ve often felt led to attend worship services with the targeted community.
After the shootings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando my family and I visited Central Congregational UCC, an open and
affirming church with an openly gay senior pastor. After the shootings at
Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston, we visited Big
Bethel AME on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta.
Of course, the problem is that it has generally taken
enormous tragedy to get me out of my Sunday morning comfort zone; my nice
suburban church with familiar hymns and a sanctuary full of people who look and
live pretty much just like me.
My new friend from Dor Tamid invited me to come back any
time, and I plan to do so, along with intentionally visiting some places of
worship that will make me a little more uncomfortable than I am used to being
on Sunday morning.
Peace and Amen
