It seems like a confluence of events. Twenty dead in Paris, death among police
officers and the civilian population on the front pages here, ISIS calling for
terror attacks everywhere, an island nation slowly drowning, no escape, always
something more.
And then, this morning, in my own devotional work, the
apostle Peter says “Grace and peace to you all in in abundance.”
Yah.
Where does our grace and peace come from as followers of
Jesus? In his death. Seems to me this is a unique start to a
religion, the leader being a lamb led to the slaughter.
The Good News is that three days later, God brought Jesus
back to life, and the miracle of life from death is given to all who believe by
the good grace of our God up in heaven.
But the fact is that our faith was born from violence. And it grew up in violence.
From attempts to kill it off by the Romans through the religious
wars-for political gain, for right belief, for national and political advance,
the vestiges of which can still be seen in a few places like Northern Ireland, our
history is bloody.
And while I would love to say that this violence and killing
no longer affect my faith, I would need to live in a box not to know the
reality. Where America is involved
around the world, our faith is involved.
Maybe we don’t define ourselves this way, but radicalized Islam is
fighting a religious war, against Christians, against Jews, against atheists
(Charlie Hedbe).
Grace and peace come to us through the violence and death
committed against Jesus Christ. I wonder,
in my soul, how we can pray for and work for and accelerate the power of the
Living God to bring grace and peace again through this violence and death.
The hardest part is going to be changing on the minds of my
fellow believers. There are a lot of
Christians out there who explain the violence and death as simply the playing
out of the Book of Revelation, that there is no grace and there is no peace to
be had until Jesus comes again.
Makes me think there is something fundamentally wrong with
the way we are understanding and interpreting God’s Word if we believe that God’s
plan is to leave us all to rot.
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