Erl Purnell Sermon

aLent 2 ~ February 17, 2008 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

Genesis 12.1-4a; Psalm 121; Romans 4.1-5, 13-17; John 3.1-17

Last spring, on the third Sunday of Easter, I began my sermon this way:

“Monday morning, we were all brutally attacked by a mad man. Those who died or were wounded were on the campus of Virginia Tech. I hold each of them and their families and friends in my heart as I do the entire Virginia Tech community. But make no mistake, every man, woman, and child in America was also a victim of this heinous and selfish act.

While my sadness runs thick, my patience runs thin. In my lifetime what happened on Monday has happened too many times. And, it will happen again. You know the litany of senseless killings as well as I do. People of renown and anonymous students gunned down. When will we stop? When will we wake up from this on-going nightmare?”

And so, here we are again. Less than a year later. This time, it was at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. This time, twenty-one people were shot. This time five students died. This time, there were no red flags. This time, it was Steven P. (cash-MEER-check) Kazmierczak who was the shooter. And, as in the past, this time, guns were used to kill these innocent people and the gunman, and to wound fifteen. No surprise there!

We’ve been terrorized again. You’ve seen the videos of people being wheeled to ambulances, the young man’s smiling face, and the candles held by mourning students, faculty, staff, and parents. What we have not seen, however, is outrage about this wonton act of gun violence. The media and most politicians simply don’t bring up the issue. It’s as if the debate about gun laws has itself been murdered.

Where is the outrage? We hear outrage about illegal immigration, China’s shoddy exports to the U.S., the sub-prime debacle and the economy, the exorbitant profits of Exxon-Mobil, pay and bonuses for many CEOs, lack of universal healthcare, Brittany Spears behavior, the Taliban’s treatment of women, the war in Iraq. But what about the shootings every day in our cities, at malls, in churches, schools, and universities? Once the news cycle is spent, it’s back to business as usual with no further discussion or accountability.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come?”

At the moment I’m writing this, I’m pretty well stuck in what else to say this morning. The reason I just quoted the beginning of Psalm 121 is because I’m not sure what else to do. It seemed like a good transition.

My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved and he who watches over you will not fall asleep.

Was God asleep on Valentine’s Day, thinking this is a day so filled with love and roses that there’s not a lot to watch out for? The Psalm says, “Behold, he who watches over Israel shall neither slumber nor seep.” Well anyway, you know I don’t believe that the God of Jesus is a capricious, anthropomorphic God who serves as cosmic puppeteer. So, I find no solace in railing against God for failing “to preserve [these innocents] from all evil”.

Today’s readings don’t much speak to me either. I just want the rampant gun violence to stop. S.T.O.P.

And by insisting on an end to gun violence, I think I’m on pretty firm ground. It’s because the lessons we learn from the Jesus story eschew violence. Violence to Jesus is an anathema, it’s to be avoided on principle. The violence of the Romans probably eclipsed anything we experience in America today. Jesus, you’ll remember, knew all about murders, rapes, armed robbery, rebellion, and…crucifixion. Ever wonder why he thought violence was such a bad idea?

How we as a people can stand on the principles of Jesus of Nazareth and continue to allow the weapons of violence in our society is beyond me. I know the NRA argument that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. It’s an oxymoronic argument.

Quite simply, what would Thursday’s shooter have done if he had not had the option to buy his guns a few days earlier? Would he have burst into the lecture hall and thrown snow balls or stones? Maybe. But, he would not have snuffed out five young lives.

I know that there are millions of law-abiding citizens who have guns and who have never hurt anybody. I have owned guns and hunted. Those kinds of sport rifles are not the culprits. The argument that people need guns to protect themselves is oxymoronic also, and ludicrous. Get a gun to protect yourself from the threat of all the other people with their guns? Take the assault rifles and hand guns away and most of the gun violence threat goes away. Then we can allow the police to do the protecting for us.

You may be critical of my speaking out again about this issue. It seems like a Constitutional and political one, not something to address from the pulpit on Sunday morning. As a church and community leader, however, and as a Christian, I feel compelled to say something. You already know how much I’ve struggled with what to say this morning.

Citizens of this great land—each one of us and all our compatriots—are informed by teachings in our schools, our history, the beliefs we learn from the church, synagogue, temple, mosque, TV, the internet, and mall.

But, for us specifically—that is for us who are Christian people—we pledge to follow the standard of Jesus Christ. At baptism, we promise to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ and also to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.

The Good News is not about violence. Striving for justice is not about gun ownership. Striving for peace does not condone weapons to shoot people.

The reason we need to talk about guns is because how we consider these issues is all about how seriously we take the teaching of Jesus. It has to do with our words and example. Do we choose to live by our baptismal covenant, or not? Do we choose to lock Jesus in the back room so we can fight for the liberty to have guns on our streets? The time is long past for a paradigm shift regarding assault rifles and hand guns to begin. For in the end, evil will continue to come to evil.

I end with considerable frustration as well as my own deep sadness for those killed and their families, friends, fellow NIU students and teachers, and … and, all of us.

Amen.