Will it ever stop raining?

This spring it doesn't seem like it.  The moments of sunshine between the cold, stormy  days give some small encouragement, but the otherwise incessant rain threatens to wash away our hope of an actual season where things can be planted and expected to grow.

It seems as well there will be no let up of the incessant tears falling around the country.  Aurora, Newtown and now Boston--each a site of a senseless attack on innocent people whose only mistake was being in the wrong  place when  craziness and evil conspired to do as much damage as they could.

Why do these things happen?  I don't know.  Because they do?  Because evil is present and active in the world and if something heinous can be done sooner or later it will be done?  Because there are people who actually believe their political agendas trump the right of their victims to live out their lives?  Because violence is so deeply embedded in our culture and so constantly reinforced in our media?  Because we live in a society that worships military power and prowess and that continues to think, all evidence to the contrary, that  if we could only keep these deadly weapons in the "right" hands we would all be safe?  Because sick people believe they have no other alternative?  Or because even sicker people think they are somehow justified in taking innocent life?  I don't know why.

What can be done?  A different, but no less difficult question.  We could (and probably will) increase surveillance of the general population hoping to ferret out and prevent future attacks.  Of course in the process we will further erode the civil liberties we purport to hold dear as we trade off even more of our freedom for an ever elusive security; but that seems to be an  bargain acceptable to more and more people these days.  We could (and almost certainly will) ratchet up the rhetoric of revenge as justice, and threaten ever greater sanctions and punishments.  This may give some solace to the public but will do nothing to make future incidents such as the attack in Boston less likely.  People capable of such acts are probably more motivated than deterred by threats of retaliation.  When we threaten violence we are speaking their language. 

Certainly we can pray, seeking comfort for those who have lost so much and will continue to suffer so much.  We can pray for ourselves and the rest of the country--that we will not succumb to the fear and terror this act was meant to inspire.

But perhaps most of all, this is a time for us to practice being the church.  This is a time, as we talked last Sunday, for us to heed Jesus' call to go and be the people and the place ruled by love--love for God, love for each other and love for our neighbors near and far.  Now is the time for us to be the people, empowered by the Spirit of God, who release the world from its brokenness; a people who model for the world how folks of all stripes and persuasions can live together in a respect which, even if it isn't always a true affection, certainly looks and feels like it is.

This, of course, won't change events on the ground in Boston or Newtown.  The church in Boston and Newtown will have to do that, with our prayers and support.  But what we do in Mt Vernon and our other home towns--how we live, how we love, how we heal will certainly affect what happens around us here.  Because, you see, a people--a church, who live in love, who live to heal will produce far, far fewer of the twisted, broken individuals capable of the violence and destruction we saw in Boston this week.

This is not a time to play it safe--to lock the doors, as the disciples did on that Easter evening, and hide from the things we fear.  This is precisely the time for us to open the doors wide, to break off the hinges if we have to; the time to live and love and heal fervently.  This is the time for the church (including our little church) to love so large that anyone we interact with will see there is an alternative to the violence, hatred, and retaliation that is the unfortunate first reaction of people who live in fear. Now is the time for the church to be church.

Will it ever stop raining?  Yes.  I will "wipe every tear from their eyes" God promises in the final words of Scripture.  "Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."   This is climate change of a benevolent sort--God pouring love and healing into the atmosphere of our broken world.

Now is the time to breathe.  Breathe deeply.  Live large.