After another mass shooting, what can be said?

Update: This post was originally written in August of 2019 after mass shootings occurred on consecutive days: The El Paso, Texas Walmart shooting that killed 23 people and wounded 22 more, and the Dayton, Ohio shooting that killed 9 and wounded 17 more.  It has been updated, today (10/26/23) while the mass murder in Lewiston, Maine is still at large, having killed 18 last night and wounded at least 30 more.  However, this same lament could have been reposted after Monterey Park, CA (1/21/23, 12 killed), Uvalde, TX (5/24/22, 22 killed), Buffalo, NY (5/14/22, 10 killed), San Jose, CA (5/26/21, 10 killed), or Boulder, CO (5/22/21, 10 killed), that is if we're only listing the massacres where ten or more were murdered here in America since August of 2019.

On many issues, I am a realistic optimist, that is, I believe that things can get better with hard work, support systems, collaboration, prayer, and the grace of God.  However, I don't have any illusions about human nature changing, nor hopes that we can put an end to violence whether we're talking about an individual harming one person or a war ravaging a whole country, and honestly, I don't have any real hope that anything will change for the better on this issue of mass violence in my lifetime.  

Perhaps God will be pour out his grace upon us and help us with the mess that we've created, short of that I can't see how any progress other than that which is local and limited can be made (that level of matters enough to be worthy striving for, we all should at least be willing to work for that).  And so I pray for God to be merciful upon us, not because we deserve it, but because so many of us are crying out for deliverance.  

The original post is below:

It has been about a year and a half since I wrote, "If I say anything about guns", in which I expressed my desire to not allow my views and opinions (no matter how well informed or articulately shared) about the issues of America's culture wars to become a smokescreen that prevents those both within and outside the Church from hearing my voice about the Good News that Jesus Christ died to set them free from their sins.  In the intervening year and a half, the issues of the culture wars have grown more contentious, more polarizing, not less.  {Update 10/26/23: Things have hardly improved on this front since 2019, sadly.} A cursory glance at social media today showed several of those among my FB friends who have decided to post pro-gun memes in the aftermath of the two most recent shootings.  Rather than showing restraint in the face of yet two more examples of how one person with hate in his (I could say, "or her", but statistically this is a "his" problem) heart can murder at a rate of twenty people per minute (or more), there is a significant percentage of people who feel the need to defiantly defend the circumstances which make such rapid lethality possible.  This is not the first time I have seen this response, and not the only issue where the reaction of many is to defend their own position no matter the context.  In this case those posting pro-gun sentiments after a mass shooting are very conservative, after the next tragedy or disaster, it may be those who are very liberal defending a different sacred cow.  Such responses are a human problem, not a conservative or a liberal one.

I was sheltered as a child, I grew up in a rural community that was almost exclusively white, highly conservative on a variety of issues, and mostly Protestant.  And yet, even in that bubble I did not sense the all-pervasive animosity of the deep seated us vs. them mentality that seems today to pervade our culture.  This isn't the America I grew up in.  It is more divided, more partisan, more bitter, more prone to treat those it disagrees with as enemies, and more likely to resort to violence when things aren't to its liking.  A lot of things have contributed to where we are now: The internet, 9/11, 24 hour cable news networks, social media, Citizens United (the Supreme Court case allowing for unlimited political contributions, i.e super-PACs), gerrymandering (making politicians in the middle vulnerable, as the only serious challenge is from the more extreme wing of either party during the primary stage), just to name a few. 
Perhaps we are not too far along this path as individuals, and as a culture, to want to turn back.  Perhaps we can seek solutions rather than simply demonizing those with whom we disagree, perhaps reconciliation and healing can overcome hatred and violence.  I, for one, am doing what I can to help and trying to not be the person who makes things worse.  Trying to mold and shape the congregation I have been entrusted with, and perhaps my community as well, with the Love of Jesus Christ, one day, one person, at a time.  This is the slow and steady path that will be mocked by partisan zealots on both sides, it will encounter jeers of "cowardice" from those who would rather burn the village than let the enemy have it.  So be it, I answer to a higher authority than peer pressure.
Perfect solutions do not exist, they all have flaws, but the direction we are traveling in as a culture and a nation is not sustainable.  Either things will continue to devolve further and further into factionalism and hatreds, or we will find a way to live in peace, even if we are not in harmony.  To continue to do nothing about mass acts of violence (primarily from those wielding guns) has been morally unacceptable since at least Columbine, this issue, along with a host of other pressing concerns, requires true moral leadership with the courage to seek solutions (or at least attempted solutions) that, while imperfect, at least have a chance at making things better.  Where that courage will come from, I do not know, for we have seen precious little of it in the last two decades, and it is getting more rare by the day.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

{Update 10/26/23: Rereading this post actually hurt my heart, it was written before the bitterness of the 2020 election and the Covid pandemic, before the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent aborted reckoning with racism in America.  Four years later it is very hard to find more optimism than I had in 2019, with war raging in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza, there are reasons to have less.  And yet, God is good, the triumph of evil is always temporary, it is always darkest before the dawn.  Perhaps my daughter's generation will have had enough of our folly, perhaps they will learn from our generation's mistakes.}

Sermon Video: Self-Examination - 1 Corinthians 11:27-34

At the end of his instructions for the church at Corinth regarding the Lord's Supper, Paul warns them of the danger of participating in an "unworthy manner" which would result in a believer committing a sin "against the body and blood of the Lord."  Paul's warning remains for us today, we need to approach God (specifically regarding communion, but in all areas of worship as well) in a way which respects the holiness of God.  As such, it is incumbent upon as, as those redeemed by the Lamb, that we practice self-examination, seeking to eliminate sin in our hearts and minds.  What is the alternative to self-judgment?  God's judgment.  As our Heavenly Father, God will correct his children, disciplining them to prevent their own self-destruction, therefore it is both wise and respectful of God's grace toward us when we practice self-examination, admit our faults before God, and repent of our sins.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video: In Remembrance of Jesus - 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

In his effort to reform the way in which the church at Corinth was participating in the Lord's Supper, the Apostle Paul reminds them that his instructions were received, "from the Lord" and then passed directly onto them.  The Early Church greatly valued Apostolic Authority, the teachings that were received directly from Jesus and then passed on to the Church during its first generation.  It was this teaching that was then incorporated into the Scriptures, nearly all of which had an apostolic author or someone closely associated with an apostle (i.e. like Mark with Peter).  For the Church this connection to Jesus is crucial, providing confidence in what we believe and teach.
What Paul received from Jesus regarding Communion was simple enough: (1) Jesus gave thanks, (2) acknowledged that his body would be broken and blood shed, (3) and then distributed it to his disciples to partake.  Our task, as the Church, while not spelled out in great detail by Paul, is still simple: do likewise.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

Sermon Video: When Church does more harm than good - 1 Corinthians 11:17-22

I spend a lot of time and energy trying to convince people of their need to be a part of a church.  I know the absolute necessity of participation in the body of Christ, both for Christians and potential converts.  And yet, we all know that there are times when a particular church is doing more harm than good when it meets on Sunday.  Our first thought would revolve around places where heresy is being preached, where the Truth is absent, and thus people are being led astray from the Gospel.  The Apostle Paul certainly has harsh words for such people/places, but in this particular passage it is not theology but behavior that concerns Paul, and not that during the church service itself but rather at the meal which proceeded it at the church of Corinth.  That's right, it was the church potluck which threatened to tear asunder a church.  How can a communal meal be the source of such divisions?  At Corinth the rich were treating the meal as a private affair, bringing fine food for themselves and not sharing, while the poor went hungry.  In other words, they were acting as if the people whom they were outside of the Church had anything to do with who they were in Christ (as if wealth/class matter before God).  In doing so, the worship service that followed this travesty was in effect null and void; the gathering together of God's people for worship was doing more harm than good.
Are we, as a church (or Church) in any way guilty of such sacrilege?

To watch the video, click on the link below:

How a Christian must respond to adversaries

It has become readily apparent that a significant number of Christians have decided that those who oppose them, in a variety of settings that include church controversies, business, and politics, ought to be treated as an "other" and defeated by nearly any means necessary.  For too many of us, the ends justify the means because we have pridefully defined our chosen end as God's will.  And while history has shown how dangerous this attitude can be even when a nation is facing an existential threat {see for example: the firebombing of Dresden, and the internment of Americans of Japanese descent during WWII}, it can in no way be argued, according to the Scriptures {which is what ought to matter to a Christian}, that this is the morally appropriate choice for an individual, or group, of Christians. 

Romans 3:8 New International Version (NIV)
8 Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!

Romans 12:21 New International Version (NIV)
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Matthew 5:43-48 New International Version (NIV)
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

We, as Christians, have been called to a higher standard.  We have been charged with living as disciples of Jesus Christ and thus imitating our Savior in this world.  To "win" a battle utilizing immoral means is to lose the war. 

Hear this, and hear it well: God is the judge of the world.  It is better for us to lose morally than to try to win immorally.  We have not been given a command to be winners, we have been given a command to be righteous.  In this world, they're not typically the same thing.  Each time Christians choose to try to be winners rather than righteous, they demonstrate that they don't have sufficient faith in God's final victory and they taint the message of the Gospel {as hypocrites}.

Zechariah 4:6 New International Version (NIV)
6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.