Hello,
“How do we live in a world like this?”, was the question that was asked
this morning in the wake of the bombing terror in Boston by one of the Mike’s
of the Mike and Mike show on ESPN.
“What do we tell our children?”
His answer was a good one, and it was (paraphrased), “Bad things happen
in this world, but there are far more good people than bad, so the likelihood
of this happening to you are so low.
So don’t live in fear.”
Although I echo his response, I would want to add something more, and
that is, “We who have just lived through the marking of the death and
resurrection of Jesus have seen that this evil, or any evil, will not have the
last word. God will have the last
word: a word of love not hate, a word of life not death, a word of hope and not
despair.”
And we who bear the name of Christ incarnate that word. When evil strikes, the Spirit of God
draws us together to stand up and be the living, acting voice of God’s last word. That is why when famine strikes, we send food. That is why when wars displace people,
we are there in refugee camps.
That is why when someone is given the worst health news, we join ranks
around that person and hold them when their knees are buckling. That is why we wrap our arms around
someone whose life has come crashing down upon them, whether their downfall be
of their own making or outside of their own deeds.
As the Gospel of John says Jesus is “the light that shines in the
darkness and the darkness is not able to overcome it.”. Jesus did not run from the
darkness. He strode into it. Likewise, the Spirit of God draws those
who bear Christ’s name into the darkness of our day.
When we gather on Sunday morning, we do not gather to escape evil, but
gather to be empowered by God to overcome evil: to overcome the evil that
ravages our own lives with the power of God’s forgiveness that makes all things
new; to overcome the evil in our neighborhoods by welcoming those who have been
kicked in the teeth over and over again by the world; to overcome the evil in the world caused by judgments that have been driven by
easy answers by joining hands and hearts with those who are wandering through
the complexity of life; to overcome the evil of terror, even this Bostonian
terror, not with vengeance but with justice.
How do we live in a world like this?
What do we tell our children? What
do we tell ourselves? We can tell
them, and tell ourselves, “When Sunday comes, let’s go to church.” Church where we fill our tanks with the
explosive power of God’s love and mercy.
Church where we stand side by side and confess our faith, saying to
ourselves and the world, “We are not alone.” Church where the organ echoes the victory of evil when the
Easter tomb’s stone was rolled away.
Church where we hear and become God’s final word to evil, “Death be not
proud.” Church where we go back
into the world equipped to join God in facing evil head-on, rather than running
in fear from it.
Mike’s answer that good people outnumber bad people is an answer that we
need to hear, but it seems to me that there is more power in God’s answer…an
answer that we are part of….”The light (of Christ) shines in the darkness, and
the darkness will not overcome it.”
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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