Stories of Death and Life

Our stories this morning from the Book of Kings and the Gospel of Luke are about death and life.  In the first reading, Elijah who was staying in the house of a widow at Zarephath, took her severely ill son and cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

 

Then, in the Gospel of Luke we are told about a woman’s only son who had died and was being carried to be buried when Jesus saw her.  He came forward and touched the bier and said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

These are stories about life, how valued it is, and they are stories about the power of God.  God’s creation is dynamic, open to change, and capable of transformation, of being reborn to new life.  They are stories to challenge us to alleviate the world’s suffering.  How can Christians be more like Elijah and respond to a world needing new life and hope? 

How can we as Christians follow Jesus and respond to the world’s suffering, violence and death with compassion and knowledge that God’s desire is for the life of all people?

This past Thursday was a day focused on national gun violence awareness.  During the past week both the New York Times and the Providence Journal had articles about gun violence and what measures could be undertaken to reduce the deaths and wounds from guns. The Episcopal News Service carried an article that focused on the “Wear Orange Movement,” a movement designed to reduce gun violence.

“The Wear Orange Movement began in 2013 after Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old high school student, was shot to death on the south side of Chicago just a week after marching in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade. Her friends asked people to honor Pendleton by wearing orange — the color hunters choose for safety — on her birthday, June 2.  Their cause was taken up by gun violence prevention groups around the country who last year promoted the first National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

This year a group of more than 60 Episcopal bishops formed a group called Bishops United Against Gun Violence.  They advocate for background checks on all gun purchases and other violence prevention measures, and they have urged all Episcopalians to join the movement.”

The bishops want us to support “the passage of an effective statute making gun trafficking a federal crime, and the development of smart gun technology.”

In a statement they said, “As religious leaders, we are sometimes asked why we involve ourselves in divisive political issues such as this one,” Newark Bishop Mark Beckwith, the convener of the bishops group wrote an op-ed piece in the Newark, New Jersey, Star-Ledger newspaper on June 2^nd, “Our answer is two-fold: First, to speak in the language of one of Jesus’ best-loved parables, we must not only be good Samaritans, ministering to the man who fell in among thieves; we must also make safe the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, and that is an inherently political business. And second, this issue is not as divisive as it may seem.”

Bishop Beckwith continued, “overwhelming majorities of Americans, including large majorities of gun owners and members of the National Rifle Association, support requiring background checks for all gun purchases. The numbers fluctuate from poll to poll, but seldom dip below 85 percent.”

Connecticut Bishop Ian Douglas said, “death and destruction is not of God.  The church has a key role to play.  We need to foster a conversation, create space where gun owners and those who do not possess fire arms can have a conversation about what it means to be children of God.”

“With sacred and secular rituals of memorial services and vigils, we struggle to honor and cherish the loved ones we have lost.  We owe our children something we can no longer give them — safety, protection, a society in which the slaughter of innocents is unthinkable rather than routine. Sadly, the best we can do is redoubling our efforts to provide some sense of security to the children who are still with us. The work is urgent: in the three years after the tragedy in Newtown, a child under 12 was shot and killed in this country every other day.”

Bishop Douglas concluded, “In the U.S. every year 30,000 people continue to die directly because of gun violence and 60 percent of them at their own hand… Our vocation is to work together and find that space where arm-in-arm we can say that such death and destruction is not countenanced in our society anymore. ”

Gun violence is not something that happens to other people.  It happens to us and to everyone who lives right here in Providence.  The Journal reported last week, “A new poll commissioned by gun control advocates points to strong public support for three gun-safety measures currently before the Rhode Island General Assembly. All three were introduced last year and failed to gain traction. Unfortunately, they appear headed for the same fate as this year’s session draws toward a close.

“One bill targets perpetrators of domestic violence. Another seeks to keep guns out of Rhode Island schools. And the third would restrict high-capacity magazines. All seem sensible steps toward improving public safety.”

These measures are common sense legislation designed to prevent gun violence.  As Christians and people of faith in God’s plan for creation and the future of all humanity it is not enough to offer only thoughts and prayers for victims, both dead and wounded, and their families. We need to rise to the challenge presented by the Gospel to alleviate suffering and death and to transform our culture so it will become one of peace and justice, and a place in which children may grow and flourish in safety.  Amen.