Genesis 15:1-6; Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16; Luke 12:32-40
My guess is that, in nearly every church
in our nation today, people are preaching and praying about the same things: the
two mass shootings we endured last weekend, the violent obsessions and racial
hatred motivating the shooters, and the violence that pervades our culture.
At this point, you know the stories too well. What stands out to me is the Dayton shooter’s
sick fascination with murder and killing police, as well as the El Paso shooter’s
horrifying white supremacy. That man traveled
more than 10 hours simply to shoot Latinx people, whom he saw as invaders in his
United States. Of course, we find the murders
appalling and sinful, but so are the shooters’ points of view appalling and
sinful. No one is more fully human than
anyone else, as we affirmed last week when we promised to “respect the dignity
of every human being” (BCP 305). To deny
the truth that every person is a child of God is to rebel against the God who
created us all.
What are we supposed to do with these mass
shootings, and the scores that have preceded them? What are we supposed to do with the shootings
and other acts of violence in our own community, acts so common they barely seem
newsworthy? As you’ve probably heard
more than once this week, far more people die in one-on-one shootings than in
incidents like Dayton or El Paso or the shooting in our own Power & Light
District last weekend. In fact, in our
metro area, 129 children of God have been killed just this year,1 most
of them in parts of our city that many of us don’t see much. We bemoan the statistics, but we barely even notice
when the story of the next victim appears on the 10 o’clock news – the story of
another person “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) but cut down
before he or she became whom God intended that divine child to be.
Meanwhile, the Church’s lectionary gives
us readings this morning that don’t really seem related to violence and hatred. Maybe that’s OK, though, because – instead of
pointing us toward the problems – I think they point us toward responses.
Specifically, they point us toward the
example of Abraham. In addition to being
the common father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Abraham is remembered as
the paragon of faith. And by “faith,” I
don’t mean intellectual assent to ideas about God; I mean radical trust in God
and willingness to follow God’s ways despite the evidence life can give us.
God first calls Abraham three chapters before
the reading we heard today, asking Abram (as he’s known in this part of the
story) to set out on a journey whose destination he can’t see. God simply tells him to leave his homeland
and go to a place God will show him, promising to “make of [him] a great
nation,” to “bless [him] and make [his] name great.” (12:1-3) Astonishingly, Abram says yes. Then, once he and his household arrive in the
land of Canaan, God adds to the promise:
“To your offspring I will give this land” (12:7); and later, “I will make
your offspring like the dust of the earth” (13:16). Abram and his wife are in their 80s, so he’s
thinking, “Offspring? Really?” But, after some adventuring against the local
kings, Abram again hears the word of the Lord, which we heard in this morning’s
reading, with God again promising him great reward.
But for the first time, Abram pushes back,
asking, “What will you give me, for I continue childless.” (15:2). I know you’re there, Lord, Abram says, and we’ve
come this far together; but help me out here.
So, again, God assures him of the impossible, given the couple’s ages. God says, “Count the stars, if you are able
to count them.… So shall your descendants
be.” (15:5) And again, Abram believes,
and God reckons that trust to him as righteousness. Now, this doesn’t mean Abram didn’t keep doubting. In fact, only two verses after today’s
reading, Abram needs reassurance once again.
But he ends up finding what the writer of Hebrews named: “The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction
of things not seen” (11:1).
In the face of this week’s news, we may
well find ourselves right there with Abraham, right there with the uncertain father
who asked Jesus to heal his son, if Jesus was able. “I believe,” that desperate father said; “help
my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). We believe in
your way of love, Lord. We believe that that
the kingdom of love is your desire and your promise. And yet, week after week, we see violence
explode. We want to trust. We believe, Lord; but help our unbelief.
As Abraham’s example shows us, trust is a
choice – a deeply countercultural choice.
You know, the world tells us violence reigns supreme. The world tells us our only option for
response is to side with one point of view or the other in the gun debate, and
whoever yells loudest wins. The world
tells us that the only likely outcome is more of the same, the path of despair.
We are not people of despair. Despair is fear all dressed up with no place
to go, and we are not people of fear. We
trust in the way of love, for Jesus’ perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Even amid recurrent violence, darkened hearts,
and unproductive debates, we are not called to despair. We are called to faithful love. We are called to pray and to act.
Of course, we could pray and act in many different
ways. But I believe our society will be
blessed if we reframe our responses to gun violence, seeing it less as an issue
of politics and more as an issue affecting people. We would do well not simply to argue about
policy but to focus on the people harmed by gun violence. For if we reimagined an abstract “culture of violence”
instead as an existential threat to actual human beings, people who have names
and stories, perhaps we could recast the debate from “whose policy framework is
right?” to “which interventions actually bring healing to God’s children?” We take this perspective in business and in medicine
all the time: Don’t follow doctrine;
follow best practice.
We have a promise from Jesus, which is the
healing power of love. We have to trust
in it – the power of love for actual people, which defeats hate for disembodied
groups. We have to trust that love finds
a way to heal even in the darkness, if we love with purpose and intention. This includes calling out that which is
not love, a practice that requires really just a few, simple, holy
questions. About anyone’s assessment of a
problem, and about any proposed intervention, ask first: Where is love in this? How does this response foster people’s dignity? How does this response bless people at risk? How does this response heal people who are broken? How does this response represent God’s loving
rule and reign? The Christlike healing
of our nation’s deepest wounds, like gun violence, does involve constitutional
interpretation and legislative change.
But it also asks us, as people of faith, to shine the light of love on
real, live human beings through prayer and through action.
Even at the very local level of St. Andrew’s,
here are a couple of trusting steps we can take, two outward and visible signs
of the grace that always puts people first.
As you know, each Sunday we offer Prayers
of the People, commending all our lives to God – the concerns of our hearts,
our homes, our cities, our nation, and our world. In those prayers, when we intercede for people
who have died, we’ll remember those who have died violently in our metro area that
week, as well as the perpetrators of that violence. This begins today, with Zavier Mendoza, who
was murdered on Thursday; Michael F. McLin and Kevin E. Waters, who were
murdered on Tuesday; and two unknown men who was murdered on Monday and Friday.2
Maybe this will help us turn our hearts
a little more directly toward those whose stories risk becoming just more ugly
noise to ignore on the evening news.
Second, we’re going to be conducting an
experiment in speaking and listening lovingly about our society’s hardest issues
while learning to see each other fully as children of God. About 15 parishioners are bravely giving
their time to this risky enterprise, parishioners from across the political and
theological spectrum. They will gather monthly,
knowing that they disagree on many things but committed to learning and
practicing the art of Christlike disagreement – dialogue that begins and ends
in love, gathered around a lunch table one day and the Eucharistic table the
next. My hope and prayer is that, through
its joys and its stumbles, this group will help show us how to do this work so
we can create more groups of people learning to practice holy and loving
disagreement. I hope you’ll keep this experiment
in your prayers because it has the potential to be a game-changer.
I believe we’re called to pray and live out
love because, in this moment, the stakes are high for our city and our
nation. But, you know, the stakes are
also high for each of us. I think if
Jesus were here – and, of course, Jesus is here – he might refer us to
the Gospel reading this morning. We are
called to be faithful servants of the kingdom of God, despite the world’s
messages of hate or futility or despair.
We’re called to set aside worldly attachments and affiliations, even though
the voices around us say, “Strive for position and power.” We’re called to worry less about whether we’re
right, whether we win the argument, and to worry more about protecting and healing
real people. We’re called to be ready to
serve as our master serves, not just because our world is dying for it (which
it is) but because our own future rewards depend on our present vigilance in following
the way of love. The master wants to bring
us to the kingdom, and the time to act is now because the moment that matters
is now. “Be dressed for action, and have
your lamps lit,” Jesus says. “Blessed are
the servants whom the master finds alert when he comes…. For the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected
hour.” (Luke 12:35,37,40) And it would
be good if we were ready.
1.
Homicide
total includes Kansas City, MO (89); Kansas City, KS (16); Overland Park, KS
(2); Olathe, KS (3); Independence, MO (4); Belton, MO (2); Raytown, MO (6);
Grandview, MO (3); Jackson County, MO (1); Liberty, MO (1); Shawnee, KS (1);
and Greenwood, MO (1). See “List of Kansas City area homicides in 2019.” Kansas
City Star. Available at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article223986505.html. Accessed Aug. 8, 2019. See also “Police release name of 14-year-old
boy killed in Olathe; teen suspect arrested.” Kansas City Star.
Available at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article233668707.html.
Accessed Aug. 9, 2019.
2.
At
the time of the sermon, I didn’t know about the most recent murder – an
8-year-old boy killed late the night before when his home was riddled with
bullets. See ‘It’s heartbreaking’: Child
killed, mother injured in KC house sprayed with bullets.” Kansas City Star. Available at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article233761797.html. Accessed Aug. 11, 2019. Apparently, I’ll have to check the local
paper’s website just before worship to ensure the accuracy of our Prayers of the
People….
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