12/16/2012 Sermon... Violence, Evil & Jesus

Readings for the day: Zephaniah 3:14-20, Isaiah 12:2-6, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18

In this morning’s reading from Philippians, the Apostle Paul writes “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”

It is a fitting text for Abiding Grace this week... we have a great reason to rejoice... we closed on our building this week. For the first time we are sitting in chairs that we own, on a floor that we own, and under a roof that we own. We rejoice because God has provided all these things for His church and for us, His people. This is truly a mountain top experience for us, and we should rejoice. We should rejoice because we don’t get very many mountain top experiences in life, and the ones we do get don’t seem to last very long. My mountain top experience this week lasted all of 18 hours.

I have preached on this text three times.

The first time I preached on this text was Sunday, April 22 2007. I was working at Jacob’s Porch, the Lutheran campus ministry at Ohio State University. The text was given to me weeks in advance so that I could prepare my sermon. On Monday, April 16, 2007, 6 days before my sermon, 33 people were killed and 29 people were injured during a shooting spree at Virginia Tech.

The second time I preached on this text was Sunday, February 17, 2008. Again, I was working at Jacob’s Porch and again I was given the text weeks in advance. On Thursday, February 14, 2008, 3 days before my sermon, 6 people were killed and 21 people were injured during a shooting spree at Northern Illinois University...

Today, I am at a complete loss for words. I don’t know what it is about this text... I never want to preach on it again. How is this even possible?

I decided to look deeper in to the text. It turns out that Paul writes Philippians while imprisoned in Rome staring death in the face... He is sitting on death row and is urging Christians to rejoice in their faith while he is imprisoned because of his faith. Paul rejoices because of his coming death, he writes in Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He rejoices because the end is near.

Maybe it is my lack of faith, but I’m not ready to rejoice at the thought of my death… and I am certainly not ready to rejoice at the death of 26 innocent people, 20 of them in kindergarten.

Actually, I don’t want to rejoice, I want answers! Why God? Why world? Why?

My questions led me to our reading this morning from Zephaniah – “The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more... I will remove disaster from you”

Now this is a nice thought... but I do fear disaster because it hasn’t been removed from us! But I don’t think God is the problem... I think the problem is us; we are broken people living in a broken world.

Some people say that guns are the problem... I’m not sure that’s totally true, but I’m not sure that’s wrong either. I went Christmas shopping yesterday. While I was at the mall I went to visit my friend who is a manager at Dick’s Sporting Goods. He said that since the store opened in the morning, he has been selling assault rifles non-stop. Honestly, the last thing I thought of after hearing the news on Friday was running out and buying an assault rifle...

But I think it points us to part of the problem, we are violent people. The whole world is and has always been violent; it seems to be in our DNA. It seems like the most common way to a settle dispute is with violence, and we start so young. When I started a new school in second grade, the first day I got on the bus a fifth grader asked me if I thought I could beat him up. I looked him up and down and replied “probably.” I was wrong.  

Whether it’s the playground during recess or Omaha Beach, violence is a part of our story. It always has been. We have ancient stories of wars like the time David used his slingshot to kill Goliath.

Not only do we use violence to settle disputes, we are entertained by violence. The Romans filled the Coliseum to watch gladiators fight to the death... Now we put it on pay-per view and call it martial arts or boxing. So many movies and televisions shows are full of violence, because we love watching stuff blow up... I know I do. But I wonder by the time our children turn 10, how many times have they seen someone on TV shoot a gun at someone else?

Some violence is necessary... but not all violence... not most violence.

The other part of the problem, the bigger part of the problem, is that we live in a broken world where evil is alive and well. And when violence and evil come together we always get disaster and tragedy. It all started with Cain and Abel and has been a part of daily life ever since.

So how do we cope when tragedy strikes?  What do we do or say when all we can think to do is scream WHY???

I think the first thing we need to do is be honest with ourselves:

We were not created to bear this much evil and this much emotion, we cannot shoulder this level of suffering. On Friday, many of my pastor friends were posting words of comfort and hope on Facebook. I wanted to post something too, but I couldn’t find the words. I was lost and shocked and sad and angry and I couldn’t form a worthwhile sentence.

When we know we can’t handle the pain, we turn to God.

We turn to God in prayer. We pray for hurting families and broken communities that have had their children ripped from them. We pray for churches and pastors to drop their agendas, come together and minister to those who are hurting.

But most of all, we pray for Jesus to come and set this broken world right, we pray for Jesus to come back and put an end to all evil and all hurt... which is what the season of Advent is all about.

While we wait for Jesus to come, we fight evil. As the church, we have to fight evil. In today’s reading from Luke, John the Baptist said: "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." The best way to fight evil is to give, serve, and love each other. I went to see The Hobbit Thursday night at midnight... because I like movies with sword fighting and other violence. In the movie, the great wizard Gandalf was asked why he brought Bilbo Baggins on the journey. Bilbo is a hobbit, he is half the size of everyone else and has no fighting skills. Gandalf said that evil is not overcome by mighty acts, but in many small acts of goodness and kindness. I thought that was profound... and true. Every act of kindness matters, no matter how small. Every act of love counts in the war against evil. I believe the only way to defeat evil is to love it right out of people.

And finally, we hold our loved ones tight... and we cling to Jesus...  we cling to the promises God has made to us through Jesus and the hope they give us. Isaiah writes “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might, and has become my salvation.”

Jesus has become our salvation through suffering. He was the victim of our brokenness... the cross is a first century example of what happens when violence and evil come together. Humanity killed him the most painful way we knew how.

And God the Father knows how it feels to lose a child because He had to sit idly by while His son was being murdered.

God went through that pain for a reason, so that we might be given the gift of everlasting life. Death is not the end for those who lost their lives on Friday and it is not the end for us… Death does not, will not, and cannot win because Jesus has won.

I don’t know what it will look like when we see Jesus face to face. I don’t know how I’ll feel or what I am looking forward to most. But I know one thing… We will no longer need to ask “why?”

And maybe that is reason enough to rejoice.