"How Long Will We Sing This Song?"

In the early 1980’s , the popular music group U2 wrote a song entitled Sunday Bloody Sunday- it was a song written in response to British troops killing unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Northern Ireland. 

The song begins with this lamentation:

 I can't believe the news today

Oh, I can't close my eyes

And make it go away

How long?

How long must we sing this song?

How long, how long?

How long— How long? How long?  Is this not the lamentation  of our own hearts—is it not the cry of our voice --- How long till there are no more Parklands, how long till there are no more Las Vegas’s-- how long till there are no more Sandy Hooks?   

How long must we sing this song? We are tired-we’re angry and fed up.

Of course, we don’t know how long?  We don’t know when or if shootings at our schools-  our movie theaters—our concert will ever stop.

Lamentations like this aren’t just cries of sadness,  Lamentation aren’t just shaking our fists in anger-- they are spiritual moments when we cry out with all our heart to God and something else happens

Claus Westerman who writes about lamentations in the Psalms say that lamentations … move the worshiper from hurt to joy, from darkness to light,  Lamentations move people from desperation to hope.

So how do we move from hurt to joy— how do we move from desperation to hope—

At the end of the song the lyrics  of Sunday Bloody Sunday take an unexpected turn they talk about claiming a victory—they speak of a battle beginning – These are the words

“The real battles  [has] just begun- to claim the victory that Jesus won on Sunday Bloody Sunday…”

That is our role as the church on this day--- that is our role in the face of unspeakable tragedy, in the face of  evil to shout from the rooftops, to claim the victory that Jesus has won.   To share That light does shine in the midst of darkness, that love does triumphs over evil, that life does emerge out of death.   That’s how we move toward joy, that’s how we move toward hope. Knowing God has come against evil and death and darkness and we have a role to play in changing it.

Today, our job is to stand in the gap for our brother and sisters in Florida, we stand in the gap for all who lives have been scarred by gun violence--- we stand in the gap for all who eyes are filled with tears on this day.

Today we make our prayers—today we lay the dead at the feet of God—today we storm the gates of heaven with our prayers, but tomorrow we get up off our knees and say a new way is possible in our country—-- we get up off our knees and  we become the answer to our prayers.  We get up off our knees and say no longer.   We get up off our knees and follow every student and child who walked out of their schools this morning. We get up off our knees and we do what ever it takes to make this never happen again.  

The battle has just begun…

Amen