Recently, I have been getting a slew of emails from members and friends of Roseville Lutheran Church asking me if it is truly I who have sent them a request to go out and buy $700 of gift cards to help the poor, the needy, the sick or the destitute. One of these requests was sent to some members at 2:30 a.m. with the words, “I’m in a prayer meeting right now and need you to do something for me.” 

(Let me tell you this, I am most likely NOT
in a prayer meeting at 2:30 a.m.,
and if I am, it is a private prayer meeting
between me and my God.)

I have been responding to many of these emails asking “Is this really you?” with the reply, “That’s not me!” 

My email hasn’t been “hacked” there are just some really industrious souls out there that like to create fake emails in pastors’ names to try to get a few (or a hundred) bucks.

But my reply, “That’s not me!” got me thinking about all of the ways we use this phrase.

When we hear stories of racism and injustice we shake our heads and our first gut reaction is to say, “But, that’s not me! I would never do that!” 

In this time of community measures being taken to help staunch the spread of Covid-19, we  hear stories of people gathering in groups without masks or proper distancing. We tsk and tut and say, “But that’s not me!” (as we quickly run into a store with no mask to be seen)..

That’s not me! Or is it?

We like to think that we are self-reliant, captains of our own destiny. But if anything, the world is teaching us today that we, all of us, share in the responsibilities of hope, healing, justice and grace.  Not only in relationships, but in the world that we have been gifted. This precious world that all of our feet rest upon.

The phrase, “That’s not me.” is one of isolation. Maybe, instead, we should start first with the “we” and begin by asking how our own personal actions and inactions affect not us, but everyone else.

Speak Out • See the "We"

Speak out. Step outside of your own place of privilege and see the “we” instead of the “me.” And please… wear your mask. It’s a sign of love.

Pastor Lauren J. Wrightsman

P.S.

I really don’t want to make light of the email scams.  PLEASE check the sender’s email. ALL communication from me is from my email PLEASE check the sender’s email before replying!