Luke 10:25-37 – You may have read or heard the story of the Good Samaritan
over and over before but in reading this after a stream of tragedies – what
struck me is that Jesus never focused on
the actions of the robber. I want us to think for a moment on Only
Love!
In the aftermath of tragedies many of us ask the question, “where
is God?” Especially, in the midst of the deaths of innocent children, we ask, why
do bad things happen? Death baffles us and senseless deaths such as the murder
of these children enrages us; empties us; leaving us void, numb, and in need of
any sensible conclusions. But amid our pain nothing comforts us nor does logic
or rationale, offer any soothing reasons for barbaric actions.
In truth, we all are struggling to find God in the midst of the bloodshed,
the tears, the bewilderment, and the funeral processions of the victims in
Newtown, CT and the millions of nameless victims of acts of violence. I do not have a complete answer because we will never completely know until
that time when we stand face to face before God. On that day will come the fulfillment of the
psalmist refrain “We’ll understand it
better, by and by”. Only when standing before our mighty and
holy God will we know completely.
In the meantime, we must proclaim and believe that in the mystery
of death, there is the towering, intimate, compassionate presence of God. God must
not be deemed as a tyrant and orchestrator of such calamities, but God is to be known as our only source of
hope, our only means through and out of these times of peril.
The
Holy Scriptures remind us that we all live in a very broken world. In Romans chapter 8, the
Apostle Paul affirms this saying: “all of
creation is waiting with eager longing…for the creation was subjected to
futility; but one day the creation will be set free from its bondage to decay…but
for now the whole creation is groaning in labor pains, groaning inwardly while
it awaits for adoption the redemption of our bodies.” Thus we must wait in
hope of reconciliation.
There is nowhere in the world where the brokenness of creation is
not witnessed; and pointing out the brokenness of the world around us may not
help to ease the pain which surrounds these tragedies. But naming these acts of violence in Newtown, CT, the Birmingham
courtroom, Homewood, AL, or those of professional football players and the innumerable other
homicides and suicides happening everyday may help to remind us that we are not
alone. We can bear witness that illnesses,
accidents, vicious events, hunger and poverty wreak havoc on humanity; claiming human lives prematurely, unjustly and senselessly aren't arbitrary but are affecting our neighbors.
Yet, merely knowing that such tragedy abounds does not
lessen our own pain and grief, what is important for us to understand in the midst
of this broken world, while each of us groans in pain and despair, God is with us. God’s work of redemption is not yet complete.
The hope that you and I are to believe in and embrace is that
one
day God will overcome all of the world’s brokenness.
As the writer of Revelation proclaims to us in Revelation 21: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…and in that time there
will be no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain...God will wipe away
every tear….and death will be no more”.
You and I are called to try to live into that hope…even in the
midst of the death of those 20 children under the age of 8.
We’re not alone. The families that lost these precious children,
those courageous adults, even those left to mourn the loss of the shooter, none
of them – none of us are alone. God promises never to leave us. The reality is
that God too is devastated. God’s hope for creation was that we would love God
with all heart, mind, soul and strength, and that we would love one another. We
must believe that our pain is shared by God.
God knows what it is like to lose someone to a tragic death. In our own tears, may we remember and know
that Jesus also weeps. So, we don’t cry alone, the great God of the universe
weeps with us.
The mystery of and goal of faith is to redeem our brokenness and encourage
us to pursue authentic love. We will continue to encounter our own Jericho Road
experiences and know of many more senseless tragedies. But we must find comfort that God, the
Ultimate Good Samaritan, comes alongside us whether we are in places filled
with danger or places of comfort deemed safe, God arrives in our midst to
both suffer with us and to facilitate our recovery. It is true God shares our
pain and sorrow because God is love.
God is with us and remains with us sharing our sorrow
and offering us comfort and hope for a new day.
Such tragedies remind us of the uncertainty of life, we know not
the time of our final breath; thus, we must learn that we can’t take life for
granted. No one knows how long she or he
will live, whether our lot is 7 years or 70 years. Today, if we purpose to grow
in loving God and our neighbor as God commanded; perhaps, we will experience
some solace from the deaths of these innocent children and the heroic and courageous
adults. Furthermore, as we like the Good Samaritan lend ourselves to relieve
the suffering of our neighbors we are alerted to remember that all life is precious and that family, friends and even strangers
are irreplaceable.
We must learn to love, respect and appreciate one another while we
are living. In these moments, we are recipients of the cruel reminder that life can be short but we must seize today by embracing the
fullness of the possibilities which God continues to place before us.
Our entry point to recovery from the devastation of senseless tragedies
is through God’s gracious love consuming us, empowering us, directing us and
leading us to love God with all our
heart, mind, soul and strength and loving our neighbor.
My Friends, we must come together. Let us not allow death-tragedy
to win, but let us allow something good to come forth from the despair we feel.
In short let us let us live each day guided by love, because only love can guide us through the valley
of the shadow of death, only love
will comfort us, only love will
empower us, only love will restore
our hope, only love. . .
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