Dear Morgantown UMC friends,
I had a great sermon to share with
you this morning. A sermon about
what it means to come home for Christmas and what home really means and what
meaning it has for each of us. A
joyful message about home being a place where we are welcomed and rejoiced
over, and how some of us might be anxiously awaiting someone to come home. I hope to share that sermon with you at
some point in the future. But I
feel that God has laid it upon my heart to share with you my thoughts and feelings
in reaction to the tragedy that occurred Friday morning at an elementary school
in Newtown, CT where 26 people, 20 of whom were children, were gunned down and
killed by a 20 year old young man, who then took his own life. My sermon that I had spent hours on
earlier this week entitled, “Home,” then took on a new meaning for me as the
thought kept occurring over and over again in my mind that those parents of
children who lost their lives would be awaiting children who would not be
coming home for Christmas, and in fact, would never come home again. Presents under the tree meant for these
children will never be opened by them.
Stockings will remain empty, and homes quiet and still. In one morning, within a span of
several minutes, people’s lives changed in the blink of an eye and will never
be the same again.
How
can we begin to even understand and address the depth of grief, sadness, anger,
and confusion that families of the victims are going through at this moment and
will continue to go through as the details of this story continue to
unfold? How will those children be
affected by the trauma they have experienced? How will those first responders go about doing their jobs
without feeling overwhelmed by the tragedy and bloodshed they have now witnessed? Our country has suffered more than
enough lately with mass shootings, gun violence, suicide, and mental
illness. This week alone we heard
of a shooting at a shopping mall in Oregon, and just yesterday another shooting
at a hospital in Alabama, and the stories continue to roll in, one after the
other. It seems sometimes that
each one is more horrific than the last, but particularly this situation has
touched us deeply because it involves the small, innocent lives of children who
had their entire lives ahead of them and families who never for one moment
feared that sending a child to school included the possibility that they would
not return home again. When I
turned on the news yesterday, there was shock, sadness, tears, and anger. Why do these things happen? What is wrong with people? How did this young man plunge himself
so deep into the state of mind that caused him to commit something so
unbelievably evil? Is there any
hope for the world? All of these
questions have crossed my mind, and I’m sure they have crossed yours as
well. And of course, the question
of where is God in all of this?
Right
now, in my spare time, I am reading a fictional book called The Hour I First
Believed about a husband and wife, and the wife is a survivor of the Columbine
shooting, having hid in a cabinet in the library, thinking that she was going
to be discovered and not going to make it. Their story is about the aftermath of her traumatic
experience, where we see how her life unfolds in the wake of the
shootings. After suffering with
post-traumatic stress disorder, a drug addiction, depression, and flashbacks,
she struggles to get her life back, only to end up in prison for killing a
young man when she hit him with her car while driving intoxicated. For this couple, it’s one bad thing
after another that has all spiraled from this one traumatic and horrific event
that unfolded at Columbine High School that day, and their story continues as
they try to piece their lives back together and begin to rebuild themselves. But because 2 young men decided to
commit horrendous acts, many, thousands, millions of people were affected, and
that still continues today. This
kind of domino effect is everywhere- a ripple effect of sorts that reminds us
of how one person’s actions affects each and every one of us, no matter how
near or far away we are from the event.
These kinds of things affect all of us. So how do we begin to stop the cycle? How do we begin to pick up our lives
after tragedy and grief, and begin to restore our lives back to some
resemblance of normal, if that is even at all possible?
I
received an email yesterday from a ministry group that suggested that the
Advent candle this week remain extinguished and instead a candle of grief and
remembrance should be lit. In
traditional Advent tradition, this week’s candle is the Joy candle,
representing Christ as our Joy.
When I read this email, my first thought was- no! Why would we leave the
Advent candle extinguished this week, especially in the face of trauma and grief? We need this message of love, peace,
hope, and joy now more than ever!
As people of faith, we cannot turn away from joy or hope in the face of
darkness, because we worship a God who promises that the light will overcome
the darkness, no matter how dark it may be. So today, our candles burn brightly as a reminder of just
that- that at this time of year, now, more than ever, we await the joy and hope
that Christ brings, and that we are to cling onto that message ever so tightly,
as if our lives depended upon it.
Even
the Christmas story is one surrounded with darkness. Jesus, after all, was born in the darkness in the midst of
violence. In Matthew’s Gospel,
Jesus’ very life was in danger as King Herod declared a slaughter of the
innocents in Bethlehem- all children 2 years old and under. As the story unfolds, Matthew’s Gospel
quotes the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “A voice was
heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more." How eerie it is to hear this story
surrounding Jesus birth and feel that we have now experienced in our own
culture a slaughter of the innocents of sorts. Jesus was born at night, into a world of darkness and pain,
bringing the much needed light into the world. Like people then, we, too are weary of violence, blood shed,
and the killing of innocent souls.
We, too, are in need of a Savior, now more than ever. Now, more, than ever, we need to
believe that God truly does make Himself known even in the darkest of
places. God is here among us,
shedding tears, comforting those who grieve, and mending broken hearts, if we
only have eyes to see and ears to hear.
No,
God does not need “more angels in heaven,” no, it was and never is God’s will
that these horrific things take place, and that statement that “God doesn’t
give you more than you can handle” can’t be true, because sometimes, we are
given more than any one person should handle, and those things are not of God. Comfort, peace, patience, mercy, grace,
hope, love…these are the things that God gives us. I wish I had all of the answers to why these horrendous
things occur. I wish that, as your
pastor, I could stand here and tell you the ways in which our crazy world
works, and promise that everything is going to be ok, and that God will reveal
himself to each of us in a way that we can believe in this kind of hope without
a doubt. I can’t do those things,
but I can share with you that I do NOT believe that these tragic events are God’s will, but acts born from the very depths of human sin and free will and
an illness and sadness so great that this young man saw no other way out. I can share with you that at this time,
we should reflect upon each of our lives and give thanks for the goodness and
happiness that come from those we love the most, and never take those persons
for granted. I can share with you
that it’s ok to be angry or sad about the world we live in where people hurt
one another and where at times, hope seems lost. I can share with you that we as people of faith are a
praying people, that we might simply pray a simple prayer of peace and
understanding for all humankind, and that the Light of Christ will make itself
known to those who have lost loved ones to violence of any kind. I can share with you that I do believe
that God never leaves us or forsakes us, and does indeed heal the brokenhearted
binds up our wounds.
We
have a long road ahead of us, and probably many more tragic incidents that we
will become witness to in the future.
We will stare at our TVs with tears in our eyes and anger in our hearts
again, but do not let those tears and anger have the final word. Instead, may the peace of Christ rule
our hearts, no matter what form that peace might take at this point in time for
you. Let it wash over you and
restore you, piece by piece, that we will be ready to face whatever comes. My heart breaks a little more with each
tragedy I hear about in the world.
But my heart also swells a little more with each passing moment that I
have faith in the hope that even though we are a people who walk in the
darkness, that the light is on the horizon, and the darkness will not overcome
it. Because if we don’t have hope
in that, what do we have? What can we say?
What shall we do, if we don’t
have hope?
Come,
Lord Jesus, Come. Now more than
ever, come to be among us. As we
await with hope in this holy season of Advent, we hear the cries of the
innocent, the hurting, the grieving, the pain that is unbearable. When it end? Have mercy on us, O God, as we try to understand this dark
world and how we are to go on each day to live a joyful life that is pleasing
in your sight. May we not let the
darkness overcome us, but instead, let the light of Christ, our Lord of hope
and Prince of Peace, have the final word.
As I kept hearing the story unfold on Friday, there was a song that kept
going through my head that has these words- I imagined them being God’s words: “Tears stream down your face…when you
lose something you cannot replace…tears stream down your face and I will fix
you…lights will guide you home.
And ignite your bones. And
I will try to fix you.” Amen.
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