Gun Violence: What’s a Church to do?

We have a serious problem in America and its time for the church to step up to the plate and do something about it.  There’s been yet another school shooting with fatalities.  Since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, there have been 74 school shootings in our country, with most occurring in K-12 schools.  We are now up to 1.37 school shootings per week.  What meaningful gun legislation or mental health reforms have taken place?  Our elected officials have either run scared from powerful political action groups or they’ve chosen not to care anymore.  Is there a problem here?  Though some may claim this is primarily a Second Amendment issue, we in the church know otherwise.

Those of us who have mentioned anything about gun control from the pulpit have perhaps already been harshly criticized.  We are told that religion and politics should not be mixed.  To that flawed argument I say that gun violence and any other kind of violence perpetrated on the innocent is primarily a religious issue. 

Contrary to the individualism running rampant in our culture today, where individual rights are held as gospel, the scriptures are more than clear that life in covenant with God is a life lived in community.  Individual rights are trumped by communal needs every time.  There’s no such thing as individualism in the scriptures.  Instead of being preoccupied with the morals and ethics of individuals, the voices of scripture are overwhelmingly concerned with public morality especially when it comes to issues of economic and social justice.  How the widow and orphan are treated matters to God.  How those living on the margins are cared for matters to God.   How victims of violence are healed matters to God.  Life in Christ has nothing to do with walking alone in some remote garden with Jesus, rather it is lived out in our responses to alleviate the suffering of the innocent.  For every admonition about personal behavior, the scriptures give five exhortations toward compassion and social justice.  

When violence in school classrooms and on our streets causes the deaths of children we must take action to heal it and stop it.  A church that claims to follow Jesus and yet stands idly by offering nothing is not worthy of being called a relevant church.

So where do we start?  It seems to me we begin by acknowledging the fact that the One we claim to follow was himself an innocent victim of violence as his tortured body hung dying on a cross.  Tell me where Jesus would advocate that the right to bear arms takes precedent over the right to not die by them.  Only after we have acknowledged that the One whom we follow defines who we are, can we begin to have meaningful conversations as people of faith about gun legislation, mental health issues, and the culture of violence.

How we address the violence inflicted on Jesus and on those who die violently in our schools and in our streets, will in the end prove what kind of a church we really are.  If we, whose Lord was an innocent victim of violence himself, don’t speak out for and act on behalf of all victims of gun violence who will?

Let the holy conversations begin.

Peace and Love,

Pastor Doug 

My New Office!

I have a new office and man is it huge!  You should see it.  My desk sits in front of a huge window that looks out on a bustling street and sidewalk.  The walls have some of the coolest artwork you’ll ever see.  The furniture in my office is incredible too.  My ceiling lights emit some of the most awesome colors.  Red, green, yellow, and white everywhere! There are tables all over my office where folks can gather together and just chill out.   I even have an oversized couch and two of the comfiest lazyboy chairs you’ll ever experience.  Bring a pillow, you might just want to take a nap in my office.  Of course that is if you can fall asleep to the tunes of  “Cage the Elephant”, “Bastille”, and oldies like “The Ramones”, and “Pink Floyd”.  Did I mention the coffee bar in my office?  Lattes of all sizes and temperatures are available.  Would you like a Three-Cheese Panini with basil and tomato on multigrain bread with a side of kettle chips?  Come to my office and let’s have a meal.  It’s all here in my new office.

But wait you say, how can all of this fit in your 15’ x 15’ office?  Well, actually it doesn’t.  My office at 597 East Avenue doesn’t quite have enough room for all of this, so I’ve undertaken an expansion effort.  This afternoon I took my office on the road – or down the street if you will and spent some time in a local coffee shop on Park Avenue.   Laptop in hand and work to be done, I spent almost two hours today in my newly found satellite office and I have to tell you I loved it!  And yes, I actually spoke to folks whom I would never have seen had I done the same work in my 597 East Avenue office.   Maybe it was my trusting face or the clerical collar I was wearing, but I actually had someone ask me if I would keep an eye on their computer while they went to the restroom.  Talk about trust!

Anyone who knows me is keenly aware of my obsession with coffee.  But that is not why I chose to turn my office into a coffee house.   Coffee houses and other places like them are where the world lives, not in locked up church buildings.  We are told in scripture that a long time ago the Word became flesh and lived among us.  Literally, the Word became flesh and pitched a tent among us.  I’d like to think that I pitched a Jesus tent on Park Avenue today. 

I pitched a Jesus tent at Boulder Coffee not because I desire to “sell” or “market” our congregation to the world but because I want to know people’s fears and doubts as well as the things that bring them joy.  I want to know that for which folks in our neighborhood hunger and thirst.  After all, I believe Jesus when he tells us that he is the bread of heaven who provides living water.  I believe Jesus when he promises to exchange our heavy burdens for his rest.

I did not expand my office today to bring people to church.  I did it to take Christ into the world.  This is not to say that I won't keep office hours at 597.  Of course I will.  That office is important too.  But I need to get to know my neighbors.  How else can I bear Christ if I don't know the neighborhood's needs?  So that you may join me anytime, I will regularly post my next coffee house office hours on Incarnate Word’s Facebook page.  After all it’s not just folks in our neighborhood who hunger and thirst.  You and I do too.

Peace and Love,

Pastor Doug