Observation: Right off the bat, this letter opens with a witness to what members of John's community know to be true: God is light, meaning that God exposes truth. If we pretend we have no sin--that all is right in our lives and the world--we are walking in darkness and lying to ourselves. Worse, we are calling God a liar. In the old "green book" many Lutherans grew up with, this started off any confession of sin at the beginning of worship.
Application: Something is wrong. The world, our lives, our hearts are not as they should be. We owned up to this truth yesterday, which was Ash Wednesday. And yesterday afternoon, seventeen people were shot dead in a Florida high school.
This is sin. Not just the sin of one disturbed individual, but the sin of a society and a culture. And we have been ignoring it. We have been telling ourselves--maybe not with our words, but our actions--that it's alright. That nothing is wrong. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
I'm a pastor. I'm not an expert in constitutional law, a judge, a law enforcement officer or a legislator. I know no more than an average person about gun policy in our country. I may know a little less than the average person (especially here in Northern Michigan) about guns themselves.
What I do know about is sin. I know how we humans react when we have been accused of sin. We do anything we can to cover it up. We distract, by pointing out the sin of others. We minimize our involvement in it. We tell half-truths and outright lies, not just to others or to God, but first and foremost, to ourselves.
As we begin this season of Lent, I would like to invite you to pray with me, and examine your own conscience just as I'm examining mine. Let's look not to some hypothetical pundit or lobbyist or group of people who might make a good punching bag, but rather in the mirror, and ask the following:
Is it possible that something I have done, or failed to do, has contributed to an atmosphere where these violent events continue to happen?
Have I been avoiding the topic of what I, myself, can do to stop gun violence from happening?
Have I been blaming others, without looking inward?
Have I been lifting up my own sense of comfort and freedom above the safety of my neighbors?
Have I been offering up prayers for victims, without listening for God's Spirit to answer me?
Is there something I can do, but am not doing, to love my neighbor as myself in this violent world?
I'll be open in saying that I already don't like the answers God's Spirit is giving me when I ask myself these questions. Maybe you don't either. We're in this together, and it's uncomfortable. Let's ask God's forgiveness together. Let's repent together. Let's be better together, for the sake of the world God loves.
Prayer: Most merciful God,
We confess that we are in bondage to sin, and cannot free ourselves.
We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
For the sake of your son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.
Forgive us, renew us, and lead us,
so that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your holy name.
Amen.
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