After Friday morning's tragedy, is there anyone here who does not believe that this world has fallen from God's grace? Is there anyone who still thinks that there is no such thing as sin or brokenness? Is there anyone who does not think that there is such a thing as evil?
Like you, I have spent the past forty-eight hours in shock and sadness and prayer. I cannot fathom how anyone could walk into a school and shoot children. It is a horror like the brutality of Nazi Germany. I cannot get my mind around it. It is the slaughter of the truly innocent.
All over Facebook and the news, people have started to try to reason and explain it. If it we only had for gun control...we should have better locks on our schools...and people have pondered how this young man must have been mentally ill as if we should be feeling sorry for him, as if we are heartless if we don't feel that way.
I know that Jesus calls us to pray for our enemies, but I have not gotten there yet. There is a time and a place to mark atrocity, to say, with every ounce of our being, that this was EVIL and WRONG and that nothing can change that. Nothing can take away the horror of this event. It is a scar that will mark us forever. There is no understanding it, no justifying it, no reasoning can approach it. It is...horror.
I overheard a man in a store say, "Yeah, and all this happened at Christmas! It just wrecks Christmas!"
We have tried so hard to makes Christmas into a sweet and fuzzy holiday, compete with pretty wrapping paper and snow covered hills. We do with Christmas what we do with Christianity and with Christ himself, we domesticate them and try to use them as comfort blankets. But Christ cannot be tamed. The event of the incarnation was not a fairytale.
Remember that Jesus came into a world where King Herod was killing babies. Remember that he was born in the dirt. And remember that there was a man who came before Jesus to get us ready. John the Baptist.
Into our broken world, John comes screaming. He does not tell us to get out our stockings and our decorations, he tells us that the world is about to be torn apart. Torn apart!! He likens Christ coming to an ax being laid to the root of a tree. We will all perish unless we change our lives and follow him.
To be Christian means to stand against everything that happened on Friday morning. It means to devote yourself, body, mind and soul, to serving God and to protecting the innocent. You have been baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit. The ax is lying at the root of the tree and you must decide for yourself: are you in or are you out? Will you bear fruit for God?
Do you want to be part of a community that devotes itself to trying to help solve issues of violence? Then get on board. Do you want to teach children that they are loved by God and that, no matter what, Jesus loves them? Then join us. But don't think for one second that you can just come here on Sunday and go home and be comfortable. Because once you are baptized with fire, God has invited you into a radical new kind of life, a life in which you are no longer the first priority. God must come first. You must give of yourself, all of yourself. Your life is no longer your own, for we cannot sit still so long as tragedies of this nature continue to occur.
I know that there are many political views in this country right now, but let us not misunderstand that most good Americans are trying to stand for justice and we all want what's best for our children. Our enemies are not those who disagree with us, we have a much larger, darker, and more broken world to focus on. Let us not waste time on our political arguments and neglect the true issues that surround us.
When the crowd asks John the Baptist what they should do to be ready, he talks all about money and stuff. Give up your extra cloak, collect no more taxes than the amount prescribed, give away food, be satisfied with your wages. Live a just and generous life. Live a just and generous life.
And focus on love. At the same time as we stand up to the horror at this tragedy, let us look to the doctors, nurses, counselors, fellow parents, teachers, firefighters and all others who are in the trenches serving and loving the wounded and the grieving. Let us remember that the world is not so full of darkness that there is no light. Love is real and it is all around us.
In a moment, Father Perry will bless the marriage of two people who found one another in times darkness. Liesl was a drinker who loved parties. Paul had suffered in a terrible car accident and had been in a coma for six months. Half of Pauls brain no longer functions. Liesl saw in him a man who was struggling to be whole again. And she found peace in loving him and helping him. By loving Paul, Liesl found herself again.
That is the miracle of the Christian life, that when you give your life away, God gives it back, and a much better version.
When that little baby is born in a manger, remember that you belong to Him. We are the followers of a holy child and we will strive to serve children and the poor, those less fortunate, those vulnerable and helpless- because we see that little baby within them. And he calls us every single day of our lives asking us to help make this world a better place.
