10-01-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
October 1, 2024
On this day in 2017, a man opened fire at a country music festival in Las Vegas. 58 people were killed and more than 800 injured. To this day, the shooters motivations are unknown. Seven years have past, but for all the individuals and families impacted by that event, I doubt seven years have provided little to no comfort. Senseless violence, which is almost all violence, has a reverberating impact as victims attempt to climb the mountain of understanding, only to discover there is no ultimate pinnacle where understanding is found. There are times, such as this, that one must turn to a Source of Peace found outside the usual places. In Philippians 4, the Apostle Paul writes of making your requests known to God, and in doing so, “the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus” (vs. 7). Understanding requires a knowledge of “why” this occurred, and even without any sort of explanation from the shooter (which would not have been meaningful anyway), we are caught in the convoluted mess of finding answers to how a man brings an arsenal of 23 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition into a hotel room without someone having some concern. And how did we get to a place where someone believes that such violence is the answer to anything? How do we not have an accessible and well-funded mental health system in this country? And the list goes on from there. For all of us, whether victim or heartbroken distant observer, the peace God supplies is not a hiding place from all chaos and pointless suffering, but a place where we are able to center ourselves and look at the problems without feeling hopeless. In that peace, we are better able to let go of the things we cannot change and focus our attention on what can be changed. If more people found that peace and viewed it as a place of discernment and focus, progress toward a better world might be possible.

I pause and acknowledge your everlasting presence, O God, and as I find rest with you, I pray for your sacred gift of peace where chaos and helplessness no longer define what happens next. Amen.