Santa Monica Pastor: 'Help Us Understand'

Santa Monica Pastor Asks ‘Help Us Understand’

Santa Monica Pastor: ‘Help Us Understand’

Just an hour or so before a peaceful protest in Santa Monica turned ugly Sunday (5/31/20), volunteers from several churches were serving food to their neighbors living in this booming city sometimes referred to as Silicon Beach.

COMMENTARY

But who are these neighbors?

They are the elderly and the homeless in between and around Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards. They are “the least of these” between the sparkling California coastline, the iconic palm trees, and the 405 Freeway.

Serving these neighbors is what the volunteers have been doing on Sundays for several months on the corner of 6th and Arizona at Metro Church. All done before and now during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And this past Sunday, they were serving on the day after nights of violence had already taken place up the road in Downtown Los Angeles, and the National Guard was scheduled to roll in.

In the morning, before the volunteers came at noon, the church’s pastor, Steve Snook, already knew what may come of this protest. He was prepared.

He began his Sunday message, a 30-minute talk about what’s inside the Bible streamed on Instagram LIVE at 11 am.

“We are looking at what the Bible says not just about the idea of COVID-19, but what it has to say about times like this where we are anxious, where we are worrying,” Snook said at the beginning of the live stream. “Today, we have not cancelled what we feel is essential. We are going to feed some of the community here, who are seniors and homeless people.”

Although modeling at Metro what he believes “church” can also look like, Snook points out that, “The most essential thing we can do today is pray.”

Later, in his message, in regards to the protests and reactions taking place after George Floyd, the 46-year-old African American man was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis, Snook asks a woman volunteer a question. “Help us understand a little bit about how we can pray because we are going to, a little bit later, see what God’s word says because He says not to be anxious but to pray.

“[For those who viewed the video] they saw a man’s life taken ‘right in front’ of them. Some people said that it triggered something in them. When something happens like this there’s some of us who don’t understand, even though we act like we might,” Snook continued.

To hear the woman volunteer’s answer (some wind sound in the beginning) and Snook’s brief summary and prayer WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.