Peace in a Warring Culture

We seem shocked when someone takes a tool that is created to kill a person a second and does just that.
We ignore the pain of the victims then, and try to justify owning tools of death.
In fact, we quickly get over the shock and make the tragedy a reason to get more tools of killing.
We are a violent culture.  It is played out in the box office, on the small screen, in our music, in what we get obsessed with and what we buy and how we get it.  Instead of investing in the tools of life, we invest in the tools of death.  Instead of seeking "the things that make for peace" (Romans 14:19), we fill our lives with the things that make for war and then claim that we do it because we love peace and want to keep the peace.  We jump to war when we can't get what we want by peaceful means, whether that is war in our own neighborhood, on our own streets or war across the world (James 4:1-3).  We have learned this well as individuals and as a nation.  We contribute to the violent nature of our society, but put the evil "out there" when horrible things happen to innocent victims.  It absolves us, in our own minds, from any responsibility in what is happening in the world which we help to create.  We justify owning "a sword" even through our misuse of scripture, ignoring that even in the worst cases, war was contextual in the Old Testament, and ignoring a preponderance of scripture on peace and living peaceably.  This allows us indirectly to blame it on God, or at least to be able to say, "Hate the game, not the player."  But we are all players in this most offensive game.  We vote for politicians specifically because they are not "soft" on war or because they support the "right to bear arms".  We support those who are supported by gun lobbyists.  We refuse to ban tools of death that have one purpose - to kill one person per second.  To be clear, I am not talking about weapons designed for hunting or even personal protection now, but offensive assault rifles.  We want it to be easy to obtain such a weapon legally.  We want no limits on the number of weapons or the amount of ammunition we can buy.  We turn a blind eye, deafen our ears and even champion the accumulation of weaponry in every home in America.  ... and I am just talking about American "Christians" here!  And then, we turn the tragedy into an argument to arm MORE people with such tools of assault and death, rather than eliminate or even limit them.

Instead of having a value for what God wants -
"God shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they LEARN WAR anymore." Isa. 2:4

Instead of believing what Jesus said -
"Put your sword back into its place; for ALL who take the sword will perish by the sword." Matthew 26:52

Instead of seeing the Wisdom that Paul saw -
"...Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all... Do not BE
overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."  Romans 12:14-21

Instead of living the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22,23... instead of... instead of... instead of...

We use our resources to produce, purchase and maintain weapons of mass destruction (60 people at a time) in our own land, having created the need for them because we are a warring culture.  Then we write laws that allow us to carry weaponry in public and use them against unarmed persons if we FEEL "threatened".  We are increasingly turning defending ourselves into the right to provoke war among our own people and likewise across the world with our immediate response being the positioning of our war machines outside of someone else's door.  People of peace do not go into situations with those tools displayed or the exhibiting the postures that go with them.   "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." and "By their fruits you will know them."  seem to be very telling quotes of Jesus about our warring culture.

I will not support, purchase or own one.  I will not vote for anyone who wants them.  As a follower of Jesus my Lord, I value peace.  Shalom means wholeness and well-being, and without peace we have none.  We have none.  Our wholeness and well-being as a nation is shaken because we are increasingly a people who do not love the peace of the Kingdom of God above our own, warring natures.  I will speak for, work for, write for, vote for peace - so help me, God.

Pastor Jamie