It is hard to write today. I have been numb since the news arrived of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday morning. Many of my colleagues have weighed in and offered counsel to their congregations and pastors. I have allowed the tragedy to steep in my soul for the past three days. Now it is my time to write and speak . . .
I remember a recording that was made soon after 911 by Kitty Donohoe. Her recording of There Are No Words brought solace to our souls and gave courage to survivors of that national tragedy. Tragedy is linked with other tragedies--even though they are different. Donohoe's music also speaks to the terrible trouble that has come to Newtown . . . and to our towns.
"There are no words" . . . ., but we still do have a Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn. 1:1, RSV). It is the text that greets us at Christmas. It is the Good News that floods into the darkness at our candlelight services on Christmas Eve: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn. 1:5, RSV). There is a Word in this horrible, holy time, a Word that comes to reassure troubled hearts, to resurrect our hope, and to make the world right.
That Word gives us courage to speak of our own complicity in this trouble. Violence breeds more violence. The weapons of war have invaded our homes and our streets. What's the point and the purpose of citing the Second Amendment? Were these the "arms" that our forebears envisioned for our society? It is time to adjust our thinking, to come together, so that automatic, rapid-fire weapons are not accessible in our society. It is time, now.
And, the Word, challenges us to care more deeply for those in distress--for families in unimaginable shock and sorrow, for people with illness untreated, for neighbors in their isolation and fear. The Word pulls us toward others at the edges of madness, of insanity, of harm. It is time. This is more than a "private" issue. Newtown reminds us of the public cost that often comes. It is time to come together, to stand and speak up, to kneel down, and to pray as we lift one another. It is time, now.
May Christmas come with new power and enduring peace. May the Word have its way with our society, our world, with us each and all of us.
Come, O Come, Emmanuel!
I remember a recording that was made soon after 911 by Kitty Donohoe. Her recording of There Are No Words brought solace to our souls and gave courage to survivors of that national tragedy. Tragedy is linked with other tragedies--even though they are different. Donohoe's music also speaks to the terrible trouble that has come to Newtown . . . and to our towns.
"There are no words" . . . ., but we still do have a Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn. 1:1, RSV). It is the text that greets us at Christmas. It is the Good News that floods into the darkness at our candlelight services on Christmas Eve: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn. 1:5, RSV). There is a Word in this horrible, holy time, a Word that comes to reassure troubled hearts, to resurrect our hope, and to make the world right.
That Word gives us courage to speak of our own complicity in this trouble. Violence breeds more violence. The weapons of war have invaded our homes and our streets. What's the point and the purpose of citing the Second Amendment? Were these the "arms" that our forebears envisioned for our society? It is time to adjust our thinking, to come together, so that automatic, rapid-fire weapons are not accessible in our society. It is time, now.
And, the Word, challenges us to care more deeply for those in distress--for families in unimaginable shock and sorrow, for people with illness untreated, for neighbors in their isolation and fear. The Word pulls us toward others at the edges of madness, of insanity, of harm. It is time. This is more than a "private" issue. Newtown reminds us of the public cost that often comes. It is time to come together, to stand and speak up, to kneel down, and to pray as we lift one another. It is time, now.
May Christmas come with new power and enduring peace. May the Word have its way with our society, our world, with us each and all of us.
Come, O Come, Emmanuel!
Amen! Peace be with us all. Shalom Rod Bowles
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