Scripture: Isaiah 57:21
“There is no peace, and ” says my God, and “for the wicked.”
Thought for the Day: What kind of world do we want to live in? Do we want to live in the world Jesus envisioned, where love ultimately defeats violence forever? Or do we prefer to live in a world where a sports announcer can’t even mention the necessity of gun control legislation without getting ostracized and his advertisers threatened with boycott? Sorry, Bob Costas, that you tried to do the right thing and got beat-down for it. A couple millennia ago you probably would have been crucified.
What kind of a world do we want to live in? The world that Jesus attempted to convince people to create right here, right now—a world of hope and unconditional love, a world of support for the downtrodden, the widow, the orphan, a world where we put the needs of others before the needs of our selves? Or do we prefer to live in a world where it’s literally every person for himself/herself, a dog-eat-dog, consumerist, capitalist, greedy, money-grubbing, do-anything-on-your-way-to-the-top as long as you get there first world?
Do we want to live in a world where food and water and shelter and the other basic necessities of life are plentiful and easily accessible, or do we want to live in a world where there are more places to purchase guns than food? In the United States there are more than 58,000, places to purchase firearms—deadly, automatic and semi-automatic weapons. That’s more gun stores in America than there are Starbucks in the entire world.
Do we want to live in a Godly world or not? I became a Christian because in Jesus I see a teacher of wisdom, peace, and unconditional love. In Jesus I see a spiritual master, so connected to God as to be indistinguishable from God. In Jesus I see a radical, hippie freak, willing to speak out against violence and injustice of every sort—willing to be killed for speaking out against the oppression and violence of empire. Yet I see people calling themselves “Christians” and believing the most anti-Jesus ideas—like the “right” to own automatic weapons. Are you kidding me? Jesus didn’t even carry a staff.
How many more innocent children have to perish unnecessarily before we start changing the way we live?
Do you call yourself a Christian? Then you absolutely CANNOT be a member of any organization that promotes violence. Christians in particular, because of who Jesus was and what he taught, should be anti-gun and anti-violence in all forms. Jesus was very clear: there is no call or justification for violence, ever. Violence creates an endless cycle of violence. Only peaceful protest really changes the world. Think about the effectiveness of the Civil Rights movement in this country—Dr. King understood Jesus and Jesus’ teachings. Peaceful, non-violent (or as I like to say,”peace possible”) protest does change the world.
I’ll come right out and say this knowing it will be unpopular with many of you. But hey, that never stopped Jesus. Ready? Here’s the real point: Christians! Start acting like Christians, for Jesus’ sake! To be Christian means we believe what Jesus had to say and the things he did in his life. To be Christian means we live the life of Jesus—peacefully protesting violence and oppression in all its forms. We must never side with the empire, whether that empire is the government or a pro-violence lobbying organization.
I also understand that guns themselves are not the whole issue. The bottom line is that we are a species full of self-loathing. We consider we have fallen from grace somehow, and are unworthy. So we react violently, because deep down every single one of us feels worthless, so the only way we can think of to feel better about ourselves is to do it at the expense of someone else. This is no way to live. The truth is, grace is something we can attain, not something we lost. The truth is, if we start acting differently, the world will certainly change. The truth is, through Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, Buddha, or any of the great spiritual masters that have walked the planet, we learn a different way of life. When Christ enters our hearts, we are truly transformed into beings of peace, so intimately connected to God that we are virtually indistinguishable, like Jesus. We begin to lead lives of service to others, unconditional love, and a peaceful, calm, serene sense of being. And that changes the world more permanently, and more for the better, than any weapon ever could.
It is time to change the world, friends. Think of this as a call to action for all Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Human Secularists, Agnostics, Atheists—all people who want to see a completely different planet, without war, without violence, without guns and school shootings. The kingdom of heaven is possible, right now. But for it to happen, we all have to let God and common sense into our hearts so our attitudes and lives can be changed, so we can see each other as brothers and sisters, so we can change the entire market-driven, violence-worshipping structure of the planet and start sharing land and resources, eliminating artificial borders, destroying the accepted culture of states and nations, and begin living simply as one people, under God, who care so deeply about God that they begin caring for each other deeply, no matter what we’re called, serving simply because it is our primary duty to God and our human family.
We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we can start by admitting that Christianity was never about and is not about violence, and certainly not about gun ownership. Being Christian—following Jesus, not worshipping him, means a life of sacrifice for others, love for all beings, and forgiveness of trespasses. So if you call yourself a Christian, in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy, I hope you’ll think deeply about the true meaning of that idea, and give up on the notion that a Christian can have any part in violence of any sort, other than to put a stop to it with a commitment to God so deep, that love ultimately changes the world forever.
Prayer: Eternal God of peace and forgiveness, may the unfathomable violence we experience in the world begin to wake us up to a new way of living completely in relationship to you—peacefully, with love and compassion for all. Give us the strength to change the world, Lord, to understand our constant fighting changes nothing. Inspire us to think in a new way about life on earth, in relationship to you and each other. Bring us personal peace, so that we may all serve as beacons of peace in a world desperately in need of realignment. Amen.