Wash the blood from off the sand.

On October 4th, 37 shots were fired on 8th Street in North Philadelphia. Those shots killed three, and wounded four others.

These killings took place right around the corner from my friend’s church in North Philly. He’s pretty unmoved by the shootings, which is shocking to me. He’s seen it before–too many times. And because he has to do the funeral tomorrow, and run his after-school program, do his homework for seminary, and make sure his kids do their homework, he’s on autopilot. He’s got to power through.

But, some of the other of us Mennonite pastors were having a hard time coming to grips with the murders. One decides that today, instead of a bible study, we should go to the sights of the shootings, and bless those spaces, reclaiming them for life and for love.

But, at the site of the first shooting, there was still blood on the sidewalk. I stood right next to it. The place where was standing was the place where someone died last week–violently died because someone unleashed 37 bullets on their body.

At the site of the second shooting, there’s no blood on the sidewalk, but there were tributes to the woman who died. She was a mother of four, and a friend to many on the block. The neighbor told me she heard the gunshots, but didn’t want to believe that it was happening on her street, so she went to the back of the house to forget about the sounds. There was not blood at this site, but it was equally horrifying. Someone who was a mother–like me–was gunned down right where I was standing.

When I left each site, I shook the hands of each member of the community I met, I told them I was praying for them. And I am. But it feels so pathetic to say that–so inadequate, so distant, so sanitized. But, what can I do?

As we left the make shift shrines, we sang to gether “O Healing River.” It was the right song to sing, but as I prayed in song that God would wipe the blood from all of the sand, my song of prayer had an image to go with it. An image of a bloodstained sidewalk.

God of grace, send down your healing waters onto the streets of Philadelphia. End the violence. Lord, hear our prayer.