Category: Violence

The Lord’s Complaint

‘Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel!  The Lord has brought charges against you, saying, ‘There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land…There is violence everywhere – one murder after another.  That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away.  Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing.  Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame!  My complaint, you priests, is with you.’

– Hosea 4:1-4 (NLT)

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while now.  I began writing it shortly after learning of the mass shooting event at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston Maine, an event that took the lives of eighteen, injured thirteen, and left countless others in mourning.  It was the 560th mass shooting of 2023.[1]

The facts are eerily familiar: a shooter with a well documents history of mental illness; an AR-15 style assault rifle; authorities who received troubling information about the shooter but failed to act.  Now begins the familiar cycle of calls for common sense gun control legislation from the left, Second Amendment saber rattling from the right, offering of ‘thoughts and prayers,’ criticism of said ‘thoughts and prayers,’ promises by political leaders to do something, debates about doing something, the public getting bored and distracted by something else (have you seen the Taylor Swift concert movie?), the resignation to the fact that nothing will be done, and then a lull until the next newsworthy mass shooting (some mass shootings aren’t newsworthy for some reason) at which point the cycle will start up all over again. 

I’ve blogged about this issue from time to time, thought about it many more times, and honestly sat down this time with little more to say.  But turning to the scriptures, specifically to the above quoted passage from Hosea, I found something God had to say. 

Hosea prophesied in similarly violent times: ‘there was violence everywhere – one murder after another.’  As he relayed God’s words about the times, he identifies who God blamed.  Not the murderers themselves (although he surely held them accountable) but, the priests of Israel.  In other words, the spiritual leaders of the nation. 

Why would God blame them?  Hosea explains why in the remainder of the chapter (take a moment to read it if you wish).  The priests, you see, held a sacred trust.  They had been charged with living faithfully and pointing the people along the right paths.  Alas, they did neither.  Instead, they exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols.  They deserted the Lord to worship other gods.  Instead of walking in God’s ways and using their positions responsibly for the sake of those they represented before God, instead of fulfilling their sacred charge, they birthed a culture lacking in faithfulness, kindness, and the knowledge of God.  A culture in which violence was everywhere, one murder after another. 

‘That is why,’ says God through Hosea, ‘your land is in mourning.’   

And that was why, God went on to say, he would punish the priests for their wicked deeds (4:10).  God would hold the leaders accountable for failing to keep their sacred trust to care for the people. 

They may not be priests, but it seems to me that many of the political leaders of our age should feel cautioned by Hosea’s words.  The people of Lewiston Maine, along with people from every city, town, village, and hamlet on the infamous list of places where mass shootings have occurred, are demanding answers and solutions.  They have every right to call upon those in charge to enact reasonable gun control measures (such as banning the possession of assault weapons), improve access to mental health care, and mount more energetic responses when in receipt of information that an individual might be armed, dangerous, and harboring murderous thoughts.  Not much to ask for, really. 

But what do their (our) leaders have to say in response?  Well, there are some signs that some may do something in Maine.  But chances are it won’t be enough, and it is a near certainty that leaders at the federal level, at least on the right, will do nothing.  If history is an accurate predictor, they will keep offering the same tired excuses and deflections: ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people;’ ‘the real problem is in the human heart;’ ‘the best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun;’ ‘you know what I blame?  Video games;’ ‘actually, it’s transgender people;’ ‘this is the price of freedom.’  The same tired crap over and over again.

True, some leaders want to do something, typically liberals and progressives who are righteously frustrated by the intransigence of right.  But even these must be held accountable for their failure to be more vocal, more insistent, for valuing political civility over the lives of the next set of victims, for lacking the courage to stand firm and to gum up the works in an effort to stop the slaughter, for settling in and whimpering ‘peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. 

The scriptures say that God ordains civil authority (see, Romans 13).  This does not mean that government is righteous, or that the action or inaction of leaders is always right.  But one of the things it does mean is that those in places of political authority hold a sacred trust to keep the peace, to, in the words of Jean Lassere, ‘stop people from tearing each other apart.’  They, like the priests of Israel, bear a sacred charge.  And they are failing to fulfill it.  They have valued their idols (guns, the second amendment, reelection, etc.) above the lives of those they represent, even children.  In this they have birthed a culture lacking in faithfulness, kindness, and the knowledge of God.  A culture where violence is everywhere, one murder after another. 

This is why, Hosea would say, our land is in mourning. 

I pray for the day when our political leaders, and those who elect them, wake up.  When they cease to bow before their false gods.  I pray they receive wisdom from the Lord and the courage to act upon it.  I pray they will value what is right above their own political futures.  I pray they will see that the reason we have so much gun violence in America has everything to do with the fact that we have too many guns, too little compassion, and the lack of common sense to do something about it.  I pray they will finally fulfill their duty to the people and work for a society in which people need not live in constant fear of being shot while bowling, or worshipping, or going to school. 

Until then, I weep with Hosea, and with Hosea, I call them out. 

Don’t point the finger elsewhere, leaders of America. 

This is on you. 

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

P.S. I could almost write another blog about this, but it is worth noting that Hosea’s initial words were addressed to the spiritual leaders of Israel. Church, where is your voice in all this?

[1] According to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more persons are injured or killed. 

In the Presence of Our Enemies

‘So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and stone, for he had no sword’ – 1 Samuel 17:50

I’ve been preaching a series through Psalm 23, the one that begins, as most Christians and Jewish persons know, if not everyone else, ‘the Lord is my Shepherd.’  As I have worked through its imagery, I have, among other things, pondered the life of its author, Israel’s second king, David. 

David’s life was an interesting one, filled with ups and downs.  One day he could be ‘a man after God’s own heart,’ the next an adulterer and murderer.  David did much that was good, but also made many mistakes.  And while most people don’t see it this way, I have long felt that his first mistake happened on the day he fought Goliath in the Valley of Elah. 

Most everyone knows the story.  Goliath, champion of the Philistines, came out every morning and evening to taunt the armies of Israel.  ‘Send out your best man to fight,’ he shouted, ‘If I win, your people will become our slaves.  If you win,’ and here he surely laughed out loud, ‘we will become yours.’ 

He surely laughed because the very idea of an Israelite defeating him was ludicrous, and not just because he was nine feet tall, rippled with muscle, and armed to the teeth.  It was ludicrous because any battle between the well-trained, well-armed Goliath and an Israeli soldier would only illustrate the enormous discrepancies between the culture and might of Philistia and that of Israel.  Philistia was, for its day, an advanced culture.  They had ships that sailed the sea, traded with other nations, enjoyed the finer things of life, and, most relevant to the battle that was shaping up in the Valley of Elah, boasted of smiths who could work iron and bronze, i.e., they had swords and armor.  This latter facet of Philistine culture gave them a major technological advantage over the Israelites, who were little more than an upstart nation still trying to carve out space in the Promised Land.  Israel had no smiths to work iron and bronze.  Consequently, they were not well supplied with swords and armor.[1]  As they stood opposite the Philistines on the far side of the valley, they were armed with, well, sticks and clubs. 

In other words, any battle between Goliath and an Israelite, including the one that would take place between the young shepherd boy David and the seasoned warrior Goliath, would merely highlight Israel’s lack of sophistication and power.   The Philistines were all giants compared to the Israelites.  To any reasonable bookie, no Israelite stood a chance against Goliath, nor did Israel stand a chance against Philistia.      

But the Israelites had something the Philistines did not: God.  Their relationship with God had proven sufficient to overcome every obstacle that had ever come their way.  No swords?  No problem.  They had only to be still and know that Yahweh was God.  Moses hadn’t needed swords to lead the Israelites out of Egypt; he had only to be still and let God fight for his people.  Gideon (who, I contend, would best be played on film by Rick Moranis) needed only pitchers and torches to rout the Midianites.  Shofars had made the walls of Jericho come down.  Repeatedly, God had demonstrated to his people that they did not need to fight like the nations to prevail.  The ways and means of Israel were not the ways and means of the surrounding nations.  As God’s ‘peculiar people’ (see, Exodus 19:5-6), Israel had only to be still and let God be God. 

Which, at first, David seemed to understand.  He was only a shepherd boy when he accepted Goliath’s challenge.  But he believed that God was on his side.  ‘Don’t worry about me,’ he told a skeptical King Saul, ‘I’ve defeated bears and lions in the wilderness.  The Lord who rescued me from them will rescue me from this Philistine!’  When Saul tried to give him armor and a sword, he said he didn’t need them.  For one, they were too bulky for him.  For another, well, who needs a culture of iron when you have God on your side!

And so, David strode into the Valley of Elah.  He picked up five stones from the riverbed and the rest, as they say, is history.  ‘You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin,’ he shouted to his foe, ‘but I come to you in the name of the Lord of angel armies!  You’re going down giant, and everyone here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear.  This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!’  Reaching into his shepherd’s bag, he took out one stone, placed it in his sling, swung it (‘round and round and round and round and round and round and round,’ as my Sunday School teachers taught me to sing), and brought the giant down. 

David had won, not with technological advancements, not with the weapons of the Philistines, not, in truth, even with a stone and a sling, but with the power of the Living God. 

But then, I contend, he made his mistake.  As Goliath lay unconscious on the ground, defeated already, David ran over, pulled Goliath’s sword from its sheath, and killed the Philistine by cutting off his head.[2] 

I have heard it said that David’s taking of Goliath’s sword was a turning point in the history of Israel.  It signaled, not just the casting off of the Philistines, but the dawn of a new day.  From this point on, Israel would use the tools of the Philistines as their empire expanded.  They too would work with iron and bronze.  Their smiths would make swords, spears, and armor.  They would become like the nations around them.  They would become a power and contend with the nations on a level playing field.  

There is only one problem with all of that: it is not God’s way. 

God’s way is a crazy way.  It calls people to, as I have previously noted (quoted from scripture really) be still and let God be God.  It calls people to trust God, to face a hostile world in peculiar fashion, believing that he will deliver them from their enemies without the need to become like them.  God’s way is the way of Jesus, who conquered the world with a cross, not a sword (heck, he didn’t even use a sling).  It is the way of utter foolishness to the world, but for those who believe, it is the wisdom and power of God (see, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25). 

David, in picking up Goliath’s sword, took a significant step away from the wisdom and power of the God he had trusted so completely when he first stepped into the Valley of Elah.  In taking it up, he not only adopted the weapons of his enemy, but the ways and means of his enemy, the ways and means that would, as we see when we read the rest of Israel’s story, lead the nation further away from God. 

I cannot help but wonder what might have happened if David, instead of taking up that sword and cutting off Goliath’s head, had simply commanded in the name of the Lord that the armies of the Philistines pick up the prone body of his enemy and take it back to Philistia, never to bother Israel again.  I wonder what would have happened had Israel, instead of becoming a culture of iron, had simply gone on living as the peculiar people of God, trusting him to preserve them from their foes. 

I know, you’re thinking that would never have worked, that even if the Philistines had listened to such a command, they would have come back a second time, with either a revived Goliath or some other champion.  What choice did David have but to take up the sword of his foe and wield it?  What choice did Israel have but to adopt the ways of means of their enemies, and become a culture of iron so that they could defend themselves in the future?    

To this I can only say, ‘Seriously?  You don’t believe that God could have used a sling and stone, or some other unexpected means, to overcome the enemy a second time?  You don’t believe that the God who delivered Israel out of the bondage of Egyptian slavery without their having to raise so much as a finger, couldn’t have delivered them again by miraculous means?’ 

I write all of this, not to pick on David, but to make us think.  We live in a time when many Christians believe that their cherished values and beliefs are under assault.  While I tend to think much of this fear is exaggerated, I would admit that there is some truth to the notion that the Church is under attack.  After all, it always has been, and it always will be (Jesus warned us to expect as much).  Sometimes it can feel as if a giant is standing on the far side of the valley calling us out, mocking our faith.    

The question is: what do we do about that?  Should we pick up the weapons, the tools, the techniques of our enemies?  Should we become like them?  Should we seek political power and influence?  Should we lie, cheat, and steal to get what we want?  Should we adopt a ‘do it them before they do it to us’ mentality?  Should we become like the nations?

Or should we live as peculiar people, move forward in faith, entrust our future to God, and believe that he will do what is necessary to further his purposes in the world?  Should we simply live with the conviction that we are not to use the ways and means of our enemies, but rather the ways and means of a loving, powerful God? 

In Psalm 23, David, on one of his better days, wrote of God being present with him in dark valleys and preparing a table before him in the presence of his enemies.  That’s the version of David who started so well that evening in the Valley of Elah: the David who trusted in God’s presence and provision and proceeded accordingly. 

The David who picked up Goliath’s sword, well, I would submit that was David foolishly taking matters into his own hands, becoming the very thing he fought against, and dooming Israel to do the same. 

To all who would adopt the ways and means of the world to fight God’s battles, take heed.  The best thing to do in any situation remains to be still and let God be God, to allow him to set the table before us, even in the presence of our enemies. 

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

[1] See, 1 Samuel 13:19-22; 17:38-39.  There were no smiths in Israel, partly because the Philistines didn’t allow them; they wanted to keep Israel in the technological dark ages so that they might more easily dominate them.  Only Saul and Jonathon possessed smelted weaponry.  When David went to fight Goliath, the only suit of armor Israel had for him to wear was Saul’s, which David wisely rejected. 

[2] It is commonly believed that David killed Goliath with his sling and stone, but the text makes clear that Goliath was still alive after the blow to his head and that David killed the giant with his own sword (see, 1 Samuel 17:51).  Whether the blow from the stone would have proven fatal or whether Goliath would have recovered is something we will simply never know. 

Until the Next Time

‘Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there?  Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people?’ – Jeremiah 8:22

Last Thursday, the church I pastor hosted a candlelight vigil to honor the ten men and women cut down by an assault-style semi-automatic rifle with a high-capacity magazine in the racially motivated mass shooting at the Tops Market in Buffalo, NY.  While planning the event, another episode of gun violence occurred at a church in Laguna Woods, CA, adding yet another victim to those we recognized at the service.   The vigil was a somber attempt to create sacred space for lamentation and reflection, and, from that space, generate constructive action toward the goal of eradicating the twin evils of hate and gun violence that characterize so much of American life these days.    

On the following Sunday, a member of our congregation, one of the most socially active I know, apologized that he had been unable to attend the vigil because of work.  He expressed his hope that we would not need another one any time soon.  The moment those latter words passed his lips, we looked at each other and sighed; we both knew it would only be a matter of time before the next high-profile act of violence involving guns would occur.[1]  The only question was: how long would it take? 

Two days. 

Tuesday evening I came home from work and saw the news.  Another gunman, armed with an AR-15, the assault-style weapon of choice for mass shooters in America, had shot up a fourth-grade classroom in Uvalde, Texas.  By the following morning, the death toll had risen to twenty-one: nineteen children and two teachers.  Nineteen children, each about 10 years-old, who simply went to school that morning to learn.  Each with hopes and dreams for the future.  Each who now, if I may paraphrase Neil Young, will never get to grow up, never get to finish school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.  Their teachers, two women with families of their own, died as heroes while attempting to shield the children with their bodies. 

One would think nothing could be worse than this.  But what makes it worse is that this is nothing new.  Shootings of the kind we have just experienced in Buffalo, Laguna Woods, and Uvalde are pretty much part of the landscape these days.  They have been for decades.  I thought of listing some of the place names, but the list would be so long it would probably crash your server.  The stories are somewhat different in each one, but the vast majority of the time, there are common denominators: an assault-style weapon was involved; and/or a person who should not have had access to the weapon used obtained it lawfully for lack of appropriate background checks and screening; and/or there were warning signs flashing (a documented history of mental illness, a published manifesto, a string of violent social media posts, a record of threats or violent behavior, etc.), the kind that should have alerted someone in authority to have acted before it was too late, or at least have served as an impediment to the purchase of a gun or ammunition had appropriate background checks and screening been employed.  Any and all of which could easily be addressed with sensible gun legislation that would have, if it had been enacted in time, prevented at least some of the shootings; that would have saved at least some of the innocent lives.  That could, even if enacted after the fact, save countless lives in the future. 

Which leads, of course, to the infuriating common denominator we experience in the aftermath of every mass shooting: the hard reality that no commonsense gun legislation ever passes.  What happens instead is as predictable as the rising of the sun.  Within hours of a mass shooting, politicians and pundits on the left call for common sense gun control measures while politicians and pundits on the right talk about the loss of life, including the lives of children, being the ‘cost of freedom’ (an expression that makes my blood boil even as I write it).  This plays out over a couple days, maybe a week, until the pro-gun forces of intransigence prevail, and nothing is done.  Then, most of the public gets bored, forgets, and moves on to think about happier things. 

Until the next time, when the cycle starts all over again.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Oh, and bury the bodies. 

Predictably, the politicians and pundits are at it even as I type.  The script is being followed to the letter.  And while people are hot today, if history is any predictor of what is to come, we know that as soon as there is a lull in the violence, people will just move on to happier things. 

And so, Jeremiah’s lament, ‘Is there no balm in Gilead?’ echoes in my soul today.  For like him I ask, ‘Is there no hope?  Is there no one who can bring healing to this land?  Why is there no healing for my people?’

Five years ago, I wrote Jeremiah’s words at the head of another blog post about another mass shooting.   Over the course of a month, in fact, I had written two posts in reaction to high-profile mass shootings in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs.  In them, I decried the fact that nothing had been done and nothing would likely be done.  I called for a time of lamentation, of sackcloth and ashes, in which we would sit in the dust and grieve the violence of our society.  I urged people not to simply move on to happier things, not to seek solace in something more comfortable, but to wade into the misery, to let it sink in, to empathize with the victims and survivors, and to then leverage what they felt toward constructive action. 

My response is the same now, with one difference.  Our lamentation time, as necessary as it is, cannot go on for too long.  We must cut it short and get about the business of making a better world before the next shooter strikes.  It is time to step up and do something.  It is time to engage in creative, nonviolent actions which push for an end to gun violence and create more beauty and peace in the world.[2]  It is time to act politically and vote the fools who think that dead school children are the ‘cost of freedom’ out of office.  It is time to demand our state and federal legislators pass common sense gun legislation and that our governors and President sign it. 

If there is a balm in Gilead, we are going to have to make it.  I for one, will begin today. 

I’m no longer waiting until the next time. 

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

[1] I say high profile, for, as we should all know, gun violence happens every minute of every day in America. 

[2] E.g., in the church I serve, we are partnering with RAWTools to decommission guns and turn them into garden tools (see www.rawtools.org).