Sermon Prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church
6th Sunday of Easter, traditional
services – 5/20/01
by Gregory S. Kaurin
Associate Pastor for Spiritual Care and Development
Texts: Ezekiel
18:32; Matthew 10: 21-22, 26-31; & Romans 8:31-39
Reflecting on the Tragedy at PLU, from the Context of
Bedrock Promises
Go to: sermon menu
– or – sermon
archive – or – home page
One of my preaching mentors [Dr. Robert Linders] once said something that has really stuck with me. (Actually, I think he got it from Reinhold Niebuhr.) He said that a preacher should always preach with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
Usually one leads to the other. The Bible passage may speak to us to suggest what we can say about the world. Sometimes what happens in the world sends us to the Bible.
There’s something I’ve noticed, though. When you hold your Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, something lies between them: your heart. Honestly, because of what happened last week, I find that is from where I’m mainly operating right now, from the middle…my heart and emotions.
Over the past few years, each of these school shootings has felt like punches in the stomach. This shooting on Thursday night, though, having a wife as a professor at Pacific Lutheran, brought it under my own roof.
Now, more than ever, I understand the aftermath that we’ve seen elsewhere: the grief counseling, prayer vigils and sidewalk shrines. I see and feel how needful all this is. From the moment that I first heard that a professor at PLU had been shot to death by a male stalker, …to the half-hour later when I heard that the professor was male… Honestly, I’m still dealing with that moment.
So, it’s with some raw emotions that I turn to the Bible, to hear the voices of God’s people and the voice of God, and to the newspaper, or the reactions of world and media. I want us to look at a couple Bible passages outside of the lectionary readings that we heard a bit ago. (If you grab your red pew Bibles, I’ll give you the verses and page numbers so you can read them with me.)
The first passage I want to lift up is Ezekiel 18:32; that’s on page 807 in the Old Testament section. In this passage the voice of God was calling for repentance, for the people to turn from their wickedness. However, beyond that, he expressed what I believe is a truth for all times and places. In Ezekiel 18:32 God said, “’I do not desire the death of anyone,’ says the Lord God. ‘Turn, then, and live!’” Read that again together with me.
At the prayer vigil last Thursday night, I heard once again a statement that always sets my teeth on edge. I heard someone say about the shooting that “all things happen for a reason.” I wanted to moan out loud. I have the same reaction when I hear someone say, “It must have been God’s will.”
I really understand why people say things like that. On a certain level I even agree. What the person is trying to say is that everything, ultimately, is in God’s hands. Well that’s true! And they are saying that God has a plan. Yes, I certainly believe that God has a plan, and that we each have a final destiny that no evil force can stop.
But it seems to me that, from the beginning of creation, God’s will has been in battle against these things, against death, destruction, disease and evil! God’s Will is not the Evil, but to redeem us from Evil. He does not will Death, but to bring Life from Death! “’I do not desire the death of anyone,’ says the Lord God.” “I do not desire the death of anyone!”
Please, when tragedy hits someone, stop saying, “It must have happened for a reason.” You’re saying that for yourself, and it’s not helpful. Stop saying, “It must have been God’s will.” You’re saying that for yourself, and it’s not helpful.
Instead, say what is true. Say, “I don’t understand this either.” Say, “I’m so sorry.” Say that God does not desire the death of anyone, but, instead, has promised eternal Life.
The next passage is from the gospel lesson I read to you, Matthew 10:26, on page 10 in the New Testament. Jesus said, “Have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.”
I, like you, hate that the people who commit these violent acts get what they are looking for, all this attention. I hate that the media descends with pictures, interviews, speculation, and sensational rumors. I don’t know what the solution is, especially since most solutions would be worse than the problem.
There have been several reactions to Donald Cowan’s death on Thursday night. (Donald Cowan was the shooter.) I heard some admit that they feel like he “got away with murder.”
I have faith that Donald Cowan did not, will not, get away with murder! This is not, necessarily, a statement of condemnation. But I do believe that God’s judgment is real and that we’ll all face it. When a person stands before God’s throne, all cobwebs are swept away, all confusion is lifted. Then we look back on our life and realize, “Oh, my God! What did I do?!”
Judgment is real for all of us. That’s what makes forgiveness such an incredible, powerful gift. “Have no fear… for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.”
Finally, I think that the president of PLU said something very insightful and true. President Anderson said, “There are no easy answers.” Then, he followed that by saying, “And there are no complex answers, either.”
There are no easy answers. There are no complex answers. But what makes that easier to bear is the fact that we have something much stronger than any answer! The promises of God reign far above any simple or brilliant answer.
I hope you realize, now, that I am speaking about more than questions that come from the school shooting, but about your life, and your life of questions.
And they need to be asked. I totally believe in a faith that asks and explores all of these, even the most scary and painful, questions. We are a Learning Community, but in the context of the Bedrock Promises of God! Questions will not shift us from these promises.
I want to finish with this third
passage that was read at the prayer service on Thursday night. It’s a passage that I turn to, maybe most
often, in my ministry: Romans 8, beginning with the 31st verse, on
page 150 of your pew Bibles in the New Testament.
Paul wrote: “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or [gun]? (As it is written, "For your sake we
are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be
slaughtered.")
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us. For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” Amen.
Go to: sermon menu
– or – sermon
archive – or – home page
Any questions, comments or thoughts, please email: mailto:[email protected] and type “PLU” in the subject line.