This morning, I awake with the same sick feeling in my stomach, to the same troubling reality: Nine praying people, nine believing people, nine shining lights of Christ blown out… “blown away” they say by a 21 year old named Dylann Roof.  They sat at a table in the presence of an enemy who poured a cup of violence (Psalm 23.5).  He had hoped to start a race war.  He had come to pick a fight with those who are called to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5.39).

They are the latest victims of hate, new victims of an old hatred and I want to remember them, six women and three men, today.  I remember:

Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45

Cynthia Hurd, 54

Susie Jackson, 87

Ethel Lance, 70

Rev. Depayne Middleton- Doctor, 49

Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41

Tywanza Sanders, 26

Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74

Myra Thompson, 59