The first murder ever recorded is
in Genesis 4:8. Cain, feeling envy and jealousy toward his brother, killed Abel
in an act of violence that pales in comparison to the violence at work in our
word today. When God confronted Cain
about this evil He simply asked him, "What have you done?"
(Gen. 4:10).
This is the
question I would ask of Omar Mateen, who, on September 12, 2016, gunned down forty-nine
fellow human beings, and injured another fifty-three, "What have you
done?" I would add, "Who do you think you are? Who went away and left you in charge of who
should live and who should die? What
have you done, Cain?"
Jeremiah
the prophet of God spoke of people "who have eyes but do not see; who have
ears but do not hear" (Jer. 5:21).
Then he added, "The heart is more deceitful than all
else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9). What have you done Omar-Cain?
My heart
hurts as I look at the world of violence in which we all live now. Our Wisdom literature reminds us, "There
is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 4:9). Solomon had concluded, "That which has been is that
which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done"
(Ecc. 4:9). To a great degree he was
right.
The human race doesn't seem to
catch on. Generation after generation we
just keep on killing each other. Countless
numbers of people seem to live to get what they want when they want it, and if
they don't get it, they will kill you. Every
race, creed, and color has fallen victim to the ways and means of death. One would think that at this late date in
human history we would catch on; but we don't.
However,
the tragedy at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, calls me to some personal
soul searching. I am reminded of Paul's
counsel to the Corinthian church when, in reminding them of how the ancients
had taken their eyes off God and turned to their own devices, said "Let
him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall" (I Cor. 10:12). It
is very easy for me to condemn Mateen's actions, a condemnation that is rightly
deserved; however, as a follower of Christ mine is not to condemn or
condone. Mine is to be shaped and formed
into the image of Jesus, to lift Him up in the mist of the messiness, and to
live out the implications of being in relationship with the God of all grace (I
Peter 5:10).
What might
those implications look like? One pastor
spoke of how he wished more people in Orlando had died. This pastor now has death threats on his own
life. So, the cycle of violence
continues, with each side believing their viewpoint is morally superior, and we
are getting no where.
It is a
dangerous and toxic age in which we live.
At this late date in history it seems we're still struggling to find our
way. I wonder if that might be one of
the reasons Jesus referred to Himself as "the Way" (John 14:6). It seems the human race is lost, even the best
among us. The planet is in trouble. No matter what the issue might be opinions
about it come down to about 50/50 or 51/49.
As a planet, we've never been as divided as we are now, and that
"now" is post WW1, WW2, the Korean police action, the Vietnam War,
and countless other acts of nation against nation and tribe against tribe and
ethnicities against ethnicities and gangs against gangs. When is it ever going to end?
I don't
believe it is going to end until the world finds "the Way." "The Way," also known as "the
Prince of Peace" is the world's best hope for learning to live together in
a broken, dangerous, and hostile world. Until
people begin to recognize that what we've been doing for the past six thousand
years or so is not working, we will continue to journey down the same roads
that lead to destruction, death, and funerals.
This does not seem to me to be the best way to move into what we all
hope will be a good future.
A popular
cliché making the circuit these days says that the definition of insanity is
doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Six thousand years of recorded history tell
us that we might just all be insane, if that definition is true. We live in a world that wants what it wants
when it wants it and if it doesn't get it, it will steal, kill, and destroy in
an effort to get it anyway. The
result? Destruction, death, and
funerals.
I believe
Jesus offers a better suggestion. In
Jesus God "emptied Himself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless
race" (Charles Wesley). I know
countless numbers of people don't buy into this but those who have actually
embraced Jesus have found that the possibility of peace actually does exist. So, I guess in the end I am speaking to those
folks who have discovered Life that is Jesus. It is up to those folks, among whom I name
myself, to live out the implications of a God who would empty Himself of all
but love and bleed for Adam's helpless race. We are a people of the cross and
the One we follow embraced people from all walks of life and created a
community that many, many, thought would never get out of the first
century.
It did get
out of the first century, however, and when that community is doing it right
hate dies away, rage is laid to rest, and people are loved for the persons they
are.
I'm only one voice and my audience
is very small, but I believe that if those of us who dare say we believe in and
follow Jesus really acted like, the possibilities of God would be lavished on
His world. And, truthfully, the world
doesn’t doesn't need the institutional church.
It needs Jesus; and there is a difference. Jesus said, "They will know you are my
disciples by the love you have for one another" (John 13:35).
So, Church, myself included, may we
heed these words:
Rise up, O Church
of God!
Have done with
lesser things.
Give heart and
mind and soul and strength
To serve the King
of kings.
Rise up, O Church of God!
The kingdom tarries long.
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.
(Based
on the words of William Merrill, 1911)
BRING IN THE DAY OF
BROTHERHOOD AND
END THE NIGHT OF WRONG.
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