From the Pastor |
I was driving home from church today, filled with joy, marveling in the Love of God, when I heard the news on the radio about the horrific shooting in Orlando. About 50 dead and over 50 wounded at a gay nightclub. I send a great deal of time preaching about love, hope, joy and peace and letting go of fear, anger and hatred. However, I have to say… I AM ANGRY!!
My heart is Breaking! Fear, anger and hatred have become the norm in this world, the staple of life and it is allowing evil to reign. Even within our once great nation, fear, anger and hatred rule! Now I don’t care what your views on homosexuality are. I DO NOT CARE if you believe it is a choice and a tremendous sin or if you are a strong supporter of the LGBTQI movement. It does not matter because no matter what your feelings regarding homosexuality… What happened in Orlando was NOT RIGHT and was a horrible tragedy! 50 dead and over 50 more wounded. The worse mass shooting in USA history. This was an act of terror plain and simple… and act of evil! What makes me angry is the fact that as a world, and especially as a nation… this is our fault. Say what? Our fault? Yes as a society, this is our fault because we spend so much time and energy focusing on all the things that make us different… all the things that separate us… divide us… that we can no longer function as a society or a nation. I do not care what your skin color is: White, Black, Yellow, Red… purple with pink polka-dots… It should not and does not matter! I do not care what your sexual preference is: Heterosexual, Homosexual, Bisexual, Asexual… It does not matter! I do not care what faith you practice: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, Hindi… whatever you believe… It does not matter! Your culture, your heritage, your socioeconomic standing, married or single, young or old… It does not matter because the one thing we have forgotten is that we are ALL Human Beings! Instead of always looking at what out differences are… we should be… we MUST instead look at how we are the same. Look at what unites us. We are all, first and foremost, human beings. We all have a heart and a brain (even if many choose not to use it); we have thoughts and feelings. We all feel love, joy, hope and longing. We all feel anger, pain, sadness and fear. I beg you all to listen to me… to heed these words and STOP!!! Stop focusing on what divides us and look to what connects us. Stop allowing the fear, anger and hatred that is running rampant in the world to consume your heart. If you are filled with those things… there is NO ROOM FOR LOVE! Anger, fear and hatred make it hard not only for us to love, but for others to love us as well. The only thing that can stop the reign of violence and terror, to stop evil, is LOVE! I am not a big Beatles fan but John Lennon had it right when he wrote “All you need is love, love Love is all you need!” Now, being a Christian, a firm believer in the Love of God revealed to us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, people have asked me “If God is the God of Love, how can he allow” these terrible things “to happen? Why doesn’t he stop them?” I will tell you the truth! I DO NOT KNOW! All I can tell you is what I believe; God did not cause this tragedy… a God who would cause such indiscriminate suffering is not the same God we see revealed in Jesus Christ. I believe… no let me change that, I know in my heart that God did not cause this. It was not His “plan”. He did not wake up and say “I think today is the day to have a young man go to a gay nightclub in Orlando and punish those horrible sinners. Yeah, that will serve my purpose.” This was caused by the misguided actions of a very disturbed young man who was so filled with hatred that he was open to the influence of evil. He was a man who had not given his heart to the God of Love and Grace and Mercy. If he had God would have filled his heart with love and then the evil that was influencing this man’s actions would not have been able to take hold. This is the curse that could be viewed as the flip side of the blessing we have been given of “Free Will.” It is our choice to allow God into our hearts, into our lives. Just as every one of us has the choice to accept God into our hearts, we also have the right to say no. But that still leaves us with the question of why. Where was God in the midst of this horrible tragedy? Everything about this event moves us to heartfelt sympathy for those people in Orlando and their families and friends. I cannot believe that God is less moved with compassion and sorrow than we are. God was certainly there in Orlando, just as he was there in Brussels, Paris, Sandy Hook, Columbine and everywhere else where people have suffered from violence and hatred! I can see it clearly in my heart and my mind. God, the Father, was there. He gathered all those who were shot in His loving arms. He cradled them gently against Him and with tears in His eyes He whispered to them: “Don’t worry; it will be all right… I’m here with you…I’ll never leave you! I am here!” THIS IS the God I have come to know and love! He wasn’t allowed into the heart of the man who wielded the gun… He is not a God who forcibly imposes His will on us… but He was there bringing comfort and peace to those who needed Him most at that moment. As always, one of the ways God has to help human beings who suffer is to send others to provide care. As human beings we are meant to hear the call of God to provide love and support for those in need. We wrap our arms around those who survive and help them put the pieces of their lives back together again. When God wants to bring hope and help to others, God sends His people. Regardless of where suffering comes from, God calls us to be His hands and voice in responding to it. Jesus teaches that the essence of love and authentic discipleship is to help those who are in need. By doing this we become the presence of God for others and in this way God answers prayer and works in our world. “Weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Ps. 30:5.) The grief of this tragedy is still unfolding, but as the prophet Isaiah tells us: “I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.” Isaiah 12: 2 So I beg you… let go of fear and anger and hatred… turn away from violence and look to love. Because until we can stand side by side, hand in hand with those who are different from us… until the day we can truly set aside the differences and hold on to those things that make us similar… Until that day, EVIL WILL RULE THIS WORLD! Please join me as we pray for those suffering in Orlando, for those who have lost loved ones, for those recovering from the wounds that will need healing even after the body is healed. Let us pray that we can work to set aside our differences and focus our hearts and minds on living together as human beings. Let us pray for this divided, floundering, once great nation to become once again a nation united. Let us pray for love, hope joy and peace. Amen.
0 Comments
|
Yeon Shin
|