Monday, January 12, 2015

What Does The Killing All Have in Common?


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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