While he was saying this, a woman in the
crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you
and the breasts that nursed you!" But he said, "Blessed rather are
those who hear the word of God and obey it!" (Luke 11:27-28)
A tall, powerfully built basketball player
spoke on a radio talk show shortly after his team had captured the
championship. The interviewer said, "You are all such talented players. You
each have incredible ability. Don't you sometimes want to do your own thing?
Isn't it hard for you to do it the coach's way?"
"Oh, no," the player responded,
"you see, his way is our way."[1]
The mass killing perpetrated by Stephen
Paddock in Las Vegas has dominated this week’s news cycle. To establish the context
for that incident, in 2007, the US had 90 firearms per 100 persons, the highest
firearm per capita ratio of any nation in the world, including heavily armed
countries such as Yemen and Iraq.[2]
I was raised in Maine. As a boy, I enjoyed
target and skeet shooting. I have had parishioners who depended upon hunting to
feed their families, a commentary on the importance of paying employees a
living wage. I served twenty-four years as a Navy chaplain ministering to
sailors and Marines. Yet, I remain deeply troubled when I juxtapose the image
of a gun toting citizen with that of the crucified Jesus. Events such as the
killings in Las Vegas compound my discomfort with guns.
Anglican primates meeting in Canterbury this
past week condemned the violence and issued a call for prayer for the
casualties, their families, and an end to mass killings.
Prayer is good. Prayer is necessary. But
prayer is insufficient. Having heard Jesus’ call to love our neighbor, we need
to obey his exhortation. By obeying, his way becomes our way and we receive
God’s blessing.
In what additional ways might we respond?
First, we helpfully insist that the
bereaved, the wounded, first responders, and others effected by the shooting
receive appropriate care and support. Their pain should never justify media or
personal voyeurism.
Second, we might act to diminish the probability
of similar incidents in the future. As a priest too well-acquainted with human
sinfulness and as a counterterrorism scholar, I recognize the impossibility of
preventing all incidents, particularly when the perpetrator is a lone wolf like
Stephen Paddock. However, we can take steps to reduce the likelihood of such attacks.
Constructive, widely supported steps include enacting and enforcing laws
against bump stocks and other devices that convert semi-automatic weapons to
automatic as well as mandating background checks to disqualify the mentally ill
and persons convicted of violent crimes from purchasing guns.
The word blessed, makarios in the
Greek text, means happy but even more denotes God extending God’s benefits to
the one blessed. Jesus emphasized that the blessed are those who obey rather
than simply pay lip service to God’s commands. May we exchange our personal and
cultural fascination with guns for a fascination with Jesus; may we obey his
call to be peacemakers who trust God rather than themselves for their security.
Then we shall truly be blessed. Amen.
1 comment:
So well said. All would be much safer and saner in this country if we could also write, So well Done.
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