My heart broke again this week as
the news came out of Parkland—my heart broke yesterday listening to the story
of Peter Wang, a young man who died
holding the door open so his classmates could escape—fatally shot. My heart broke on Friday when I heard about Carmen
Schentrup, a 16-year-old student who was a youth group leader at St. Mary
Magdalene Episcopal Church in Coral Springs Florida.
I’m tired folks of having my heart
broken torn out of my chest and stepped
on—these things have happened so much that I beginning not to care— that is not
a good place to be or even where I want to be--- I wasn’t sure if I should
preach about it or even if I had a
message today.
But then I thought there are
seventeen families, there is a whole community that needs us to bind up its
wounds, and then I thought there are seventeen
families, there is a whole community that needs us to lift them to the gates of heaven in prayer today. And then I thought there are seventeen families,
there is a whole community Parkland and many other others communities Newtown
and Vegas and Charleston and Columbine that need us and the entire nation to
get up off our knees to do something. The children at Chickering and Dover-Sherborn and in Walpole and Medfield and Millis need us to get up off our knees to do something.
Today we hear a story of God’s own
broken heart and ironically God’s has done this to himself— This all feels a
bit familiar for we have arrived at this point in our country’s history by our own hands—by what we have done and by
what we have failed to do—these things happen.
We know the story --- God by his
own hand sent a violent flood to wipe humanity
and all its wickness from the face of the earth. For
forty days and forty nights it rains and floods until it chokes out all life
except Noah and those on the ark.
But that is not the end of the
story. After flood God looks at what God’s
done and God grieves his great mistake. The
story shows us a God who then changes course—he
repents of his mistakes and decides to act differently.
In Genesis today we hear the story of a covenant
God makes with Noah and ultimately with
all creation— in which he says never again will he do this, never again will he
violently wipe people fro the face of
the earth.
God re-examines his relationship
with humankind and in the covenant he surrenders his right to destroy and
instead recognize that all people, sinful and wicked or not, are worthwhile, in
the covenant he recognizes that all people have value and purpose.
This becomes a major tenet of our
Christian faith
We believe that people are inherently beautiful because they made in
the image of God and because of that all
people have value and purpose- and should be treated with dignity and respect.
On Wednesday we entered the season
of Lent— a forty day lead up to Easter--- Now you may
not realize this but the book of Common prayer suggest some of the ways that we should observe a Holy Lent—it talks
about self-examination and repentance as one way— it talks about prayer, fasting
and Self denial and as another , and it
talks about reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.
Let me just be clear—there is no
mention giving up of chocolate or beer.
Let’s talk about self examination and repentance--
self examination is about looking in the mirror and examining our lives to see our failures and our wrongs – to look at the
things that need to be changed but also the things we are not doing.
Doesn’t sound like a whole lot of
fun but it is a part of being a follower of Christ. Looking to see where we
need to make course corrections.
I believe that we have entered a time
in our lives where we need to look in the mirror both
personally and as a nation—and ask how
did we get to this point where we’ve had
212 school shootings since 2000 and
19 school shootings this year. How did
we get to a point where gun violence has become a pervasive part of our culture—that
it is becoming normal?
If we believe that all life has dignity—that
everyone has value—then shouldn’t we be talking more about gun violence and how
it so easily it snuffs out life. Shouldn’t
we be speaking about how we work to change that? Is
this not kingdom work?
Of course we need to turn the mirror
on ourselves and ask how have I been
complicit to getting to where we are?
Where have I failed?
Where can I be more supportive?
What can I do?
But I also think---These tragedies need us to
wonder about things like— about how we turn away from those who are different,
how do we make fun of those who are odd
or different, how do we fail to reach out to those who are lonely? How can we change that part of who we are? This
tragedy needs wonder about how to create a culture in this country where all
are valued-- all have worth and are afforded dignity and respect.
How can we stop some of these sorts
of crimes before they can even be considered because we have created a culture
where all feel valued, important, loved and worthwhile-that is something that
banning guns or arming more people won’t ever do – however that is work that
Jesus did two thousand years ago and it is work that we the church are uniquely
suited to do because it is part of who we are.
Self examination should always be
paired with repentance-Repentance is much more than just saying, “I’m so sorry.”
Or “please forgive me” it is about changing behavior and turning back to the
ways of God. Repentance is not
repentance if it doesn’t include a radical turning around a radical reorientation—a
180 degree turn toward a new behavior.
We have a lot to be sorry about and
we have a long way to go to get back to the ways of God. But perhaps now 212 school shootings later
and many more mass shootings-- we are
ready to say yes to God’s ways.
I pray we are there, I pray we are ready
to pick up the mantle and move forward. I pray that we will get up of our knees.
AMEN
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