I am going to do some personal sharing with you this
morning,
and
it won’t be all happy and pleasant,
but
there is an important reason for doing this.
Today is the National Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath,
a
project of the national cathedral in Washington, D. C.,
and
the group Faiths United to Prevent Gun
Violence,
a coalition of 50
national denominations and faith-based organizations.
Places of worship across the nation are joining with them this
weekend
to
remember those who have lost their lives to gunfire,
to
pray for those whose lives have been forever changed
because
of the loss of a loved one in this way,
and
to continue the discussion on how communities of faith
can
work together to help reduce gun violence.
Our topic for today’s adult education forum was this.
Gun violence hits closer to home than just the headline news.
Let me tell you about my experiences – three of them –
because
they cover three well known circumstances for gun violence
and
none of them has to do with criminal activity such as gangs or theft.
When
I was 11 years old my aunt was shot and killed by her husband.
The
memory of the call that came while we were eating dinner
telling
my mother what had happened are burned into me.
I
watched my parents fall apart.
I
had never liked my aunt’s husband
and
could never bring myself to call him uncle.
But
how can a child communicate that to adults?
All the adults were trying to protect my
sister and me from what had happened,
but
I was still able to find the newspaper story about it.
I
read in disbelief the story he told the police,
that
my aunt had started the argument and threatened him with the gun,
and
that the gun had gone off accidentally
when
he struggled with her to take the gun away.
I
didn’t believe any of it.
This
was the 50’s and in cases of domestic violence
blame
was often put on the victim with the idea: she deserved it.
Over
the years the family was finally able to talk more about it openly,
but
all of us were wounded deep inside by this.
#2 When I was serving as a priest in
northern Minnesota
and
my daughter was still in high school,
one
of her classmates came to school with a gun and held a class hostage.
They
were able to evacuate all the other students from the building,
and
word spread quickly in that small town about what was happening.
All
of us parents rushed to the school to get our children
and
to stand vigil for those still inside in the tense situation.
The
classroom teacher was able to convince the student
to
let the rest of the class leave,
and
she volunteered to stay with him
and
talk to him as long as he wanted.
After
about three hours she and the student left the school peacefully
without
any actual shooting.
Needless
to say this incident intensely affected the community
and
raised awareness about mental health in adolescents,
school
bullying and stigmatizing and isolation among teens.
My
daughter and I particularly felt an impact
because
this brought up for us a flashback
to
gun violence that we had experienced just five years prior.
This
is the hardest story because it involved a whole congregation.
While
I was in seminary,
I
would bring my son and daughter to our own church for Sunday morning
before
I left for my field ed. parish.
My
son was with the other adolescent boys in the youth office
hanging
out with the youth minister.
My
daughter was in her Sunday school class.
The
father of one of the boys entered the youth office.
The
youth minister was aware that this family was experiencing difficulty.
The
mother had become fearful that her husband was “losing it,”
and
she had taken the children and had gone to stay with friends.
The
father took the son out of the youth office
and
then shot and killed him on the steps to the entrance of the church.
He
then went to their home and set it on fire and died in the blaze.
I
came back from my field ed. parish
to
a tremendously traumatized congregation, youth group,
and
my own children as witnesses to all this.
We
were all victims.
We
were all scarred by what happened.
Life
would never be the same, and that congregation would never be the same.
Symbolically,
the entrance to the church was entirely redone.
But
the memory of what happened remains.
Gun violence has a ripple effect.
Once a trigger is pulled it’s no longer an individual
matter.
There is a need for us humans to pull meaning out of all
this,
with
the hope that this can bring some sort of comfort.
People
need to know that God is always and everywhere;
and
deeply loves all of creation;
and
that in Jesus, God comes to us as one well acquainted with suffering.
After the shooting at Sandy Hook, the Rev. Torey Lightcap
wrote:
“The priest in me wants to try and make sense
of this.
The writer in me longs to understand and to
help others understand.
The counselor in me wants to rush in and
somehow fix an unfixable scene.
The father of two small children in me can only
turn away in disgust and fear. Honestly, … very little of me
is willing to sit with these facts and to
let them sink in.”
Being willing to sit with the troubling issues is very
appropriate for Lent.
Being willing to sit with the darkness of violence,
in
the world around us AND also within us,
is
a very good way to prepare for Holy Week
and
to go deeper into the profound Love of God.
The Lent theme, as you know, for the class between
services is
Encountering
Darkness,
faith
responses to some of the world’s worst suffering.
You have seen the list of topics:
domestic
violence, gun violence, the violence of war,
economic
inequality, and human trafficking, the new slavery.
We address these topics to see our common humanity,
and
to see ourselves reflected in the mirror of all the violence around us,
not
just what is out there
but
what is inside here, what is in the heart.
The Gospel reading for today has one of the best known
Bible verses ever.
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son,
so
that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but
may have eternal life.”
God sent Jesus to intervene, address and save human beings
in
the midst of our violence, suffering and death.
God so love the world.
The world, a word in Greek with a specific meaning.
It’s not just creation but the kosmoj,
the
world of our social culture, our political structure,
our
various world views conflicting as they do.
That includes those committed to service and compassion
as
well as those entrapped in cycles of hatred, violence and cruelty.
God so loved the world
with
a love that offers the opening of a way through all the suffering
to
the realization of the triumph of Godly love.
So how is God asking us to respond?
Here are a few thoughts provided for today.
1. Pray. Pray for victims of gun violence and
their families
and
the people and places affected.
Pray for anyone you talk to, that they would
know peace.
And pray for yourself, for who knows what we
are capable of?
2. Count your blessings.
Love
the people in your life.
Tell
them how much you love them.
Don’t
just assume they know. Find them and tell them.
3. Learn and repeat this small prayer from
Psalm 90:
“Teach us to number our days, that we may apply
our hearts to wisdom.”
4. If you have children or
grandchildren, be honest with them about gun violence.
Give them the amount of information that seems
appropriate.
If you’re asked a question for which you don’t
have an answer,
don’t
make one up.
When a child asks to change the subject or to
go off and play,
recognize
that that’s not an insult; honor it as best you can.
5. Recognize that compassion begins within.
You can’t be compassionate with others unless
you love yourself.
Know when it’s time to pull back and gather
strength.
Ask for help when you need it.
6. Work to put a stop to violence wherever you
see it,
recognizing, as Jesus himself knew, that
telling the truth comes with a cost.
The events of gun violence change the course of our lives
but
it is up to us what that change will be.
It will force you to adapt,
because
you are no longer the same person,
and
the course of your life will change as a result.
Where that course leads is up to you,
and
you are not alone.
God so loved the world…
