What Can We Say?

WHAT CAN WE SAY?

Last Spring I had the privilege of singing Brahms “German” Requiem with the Village Presbyterian Church Choir.  For years, I have heard the Requiem sung, in German, with large orchestras, and the Second Movement has often sent chills down by back.  But, last Spring, we sang the Requiem in English with a duel piano accompaniment.

We had spent about 6 weeks in rehearsal with all of the detail work that goes into the preparation of any choral work.  Mark Ball, Music Director at Village, had taken time to outline the motivation and emotion that was behind the writing of this great choral work.  I had expected that doing all the work in preparing for the performance of the Requiem, I would not have been affected by the Second Movement.

That was not the case.  An unexpected wave of emotion came over me as we began to sing words based on these passages of Scripture:

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. (I Peter 1:24) 

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. (James 5:7) 

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. (I Peter 1:25)

Chills ran up and down my spine even stronger than the first time I heard the Requiem.  I cannot explain why this happened.

Today, December 14, 2012, I struggle, as many do, to try to find words in the wake of the shooting at the Sandy Hoot Elementary School in Newtown, CT.  What can be said to the parents, grandparents, siblings, friends and all the family and friends of the 18 to 20 children who were murdered plus all those connected to the adults who were murdered?

It was not God’s will.  Do not say that God needed more little angels in heaven.  If we can believe in the words of John 3:16 (God so loved the world…), then there must be nothing but great sorrow in the “heart of God” at the murder of almost thirty children and adults.

And, yes, I use the term “murder” and not “killed” in this case.  It is possible to kill a Supreme Court nomination, or a tree or even an animal, but when a person pulled the trigger of a gun that causes a bullet to so damage a child’s body that life can no longer be sustained, that is one thing – MURDER.

Who is to blame for these murders?  The person who pulled the trigger?  Yes.  A school system that lacks sufficient procedures to guarantee guns will never be carried into the building?  Yes.  But there is a large group that carries the blame.  Remember the words from the classic comic strip “Pogo?”

We have met the enemy and they are us.

We are a society that is obsessed with guns.  Those of us who misinterpret the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution mistake ourselves for the militia.  Those of us who seek tighter gun control, in particular handguns and assault weapons, have remained silent for far too long.  Tell me not that: “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  How many at Columbine High School, or the Colorado movie theatre, or an Arizona political rally or a Connecticut elementary school would be alive today if there were not tighter controls on handguns and assault weapons.

Recently, the Overland Park, Kansas City Council passed an “open carry” ordinance that allows anyone with a permit to openly carry a handgun.  This is 2012 not 1875.  Most of my ministry has been in urban communities.  I have confronted prostitutes that were working within 300 feet of our public charter school.  I have gone nose to nose with drunken panhandlers who caused people to avoid coming into the church on Sunday mornings.  I have responded to burglar alarms at 3 a.m. in the morning.  Not once did I feel I needed to carry a weapon.

In rural Indiana I was a sworn reserve deputy sheriff and carried a weapon only when we were on a stakeout or stopped a vehicle travelling over 100 miles per hour.

What can we do?  Some will say “Nothing.”  Others will place the blame somewhere else on someone else.  But, until we look into our own souls and allow our sorrow join with God’s sorrow will we see a day when the murder of children and their educators is no longer the headlines or the breaking news.  Not because the news media has gone on to the next breaking story, but because we have changed.

I pray that a day will come when our grandchildren, Frances and Kai, and their children and grandchildren will never have to hear of another Sandy Hoot Elementary School shooting.