Everlasting Life Beyond Violence: Keeping Churches Gun-Free

Last updated on: November 8, 2017 at 3:51 pm by Lindsey Paris-Lopez

Everlasting Life Beyond Violence: Keeping Churches Gun-Free 2017-11-08T15:51:39-05:00 Lindsey Paris-Lopez

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The words of the hymn were still echoing in my mind after the service on All Saints Sunday when I learned about the terrible massacre in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

O blest communion, fellowship divine! We feebly struggle, they in glory shine! Yet all are one in Thee for all are Thine! Alleluia! Alleluia!

It was the day Christians celebrate the eternal life of their departed loved ones in Jesus, a day in which we are meant to remember and feel close to those who have gone before us, because in Christ we are united.

But then 27 people lost their lives. A day of celebrating eternal life became a day of mourning.

In the midst of such tragic and senseless violence, faith in eternal life in Christ does not erase the heartbreak or frustration or devastation or rage. Celebrating all the saints who from their labors rest does not translate to relief from the loss of those taken without warning, before their time. I cannot imagine that level of pain, multiplied by every life taken and every wound inflicted, but I know that Jesus enters into our suffering and walks with us in the midst of it rather than pulls us out of it.

So when I say that we can draw strength and comfort and nourishment from the everlasting life in Christ that we celebrate on All Saints Day, in no way do I intend to discount of the suffering of the people of First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, or even to say that Jesus alleviates the grief. Jesus immersed himself into the full range of human emotion, so much so that he wept just moments before raising Lazarus from the dead. Faith in the eternal life of Christ does not dull pain but instead opens our hearts to one-another in co-suffering, or compassion.

But beyond the pain and grief, there is a deeper comfort in Christ, a hope that transcends feeling. It is faith that love is stronger than death. It is trust that there is a power that exceeds the bullet, and that power is love so strong that it bears all of our violence and swallows it in mercy. Faith in eternal life in Christ is faith that love that reconciles and unites us is more potent and vibrant than any force that excludes, expels or divides us. Love is so powerful that it bridges the divide of death, so that in the human embodiment of Love, we are eternally bound to one another.

Our affirmation on All Saints Day is that all are welcomed into the abundant life that was given to us when Jesus became incarnate, suffered our violence unto death, and rose in glory. His life rendered the worst of human violence impotent. Thus, while hatred, fear, cruelty and brutality pull the human family asunder, in Love Incarnate the culmination of our destructive behaviors – death – is reduced to nothing.

Faith that Love that gives life is stronger than weapons that extinguish it is the reason I believe churches should remain gun-free zones. I say this with no animosity, and indeed no sentiment less than love, to those who think otherwise. Those who are calling for armed guards or parishioners in churches are sincere in their belief that this could be necessary for the protection of vulnerable lives. But to me, reliance on the gun is denial of the power of the cross.

On the cross, Jesus was executed as a dangerous criminal. He embraced the very people his own society cast aside and violated purity codes that kept people divided. He shut down the Temple in a prophetic act of anti-sacrifice, disrupting the systems of exploitation that enriched some and kept others in poverty. In short, he “challenged a political system of violence and death,” as my colleague Adam Ericksen put it. It’s not simply that he interpreted his Jewish faith differently from the authorities that crucified him. Jesus’s life culminated in an entirely new way of being human first inaugurated by the calling of Abram to be a blessing to all the nations. In Jesus, creation was “finished” because he perfected the image of God by showing us how to find ourselves not over and against one another, but in service to all.

Jesus’s embrace of all was considered a threat to the Powers that Be. But it ultimately exposed the fact that God stands not with our violence, but with our victims. Yet God answers all of the pain we inflict upon each other, and therefore all of the pain we inflict upon God, with forgiveness. That is the power that turns hearts, transforms lives, and reconciles enemies. That is the power that the church must affirm is stronger than violence. That is the power to which we must turn.

The Love that conquers death affirms that we will be reconciled to our enemies in Christ. Because Christ has forgiven us for the misguided violence that put him – God in flesh – to death, we are to receive forgiveness and forgive each other in the new life that begins not when we die but when we reject violent ways of living. That does not mean that all divisions have been mended, and it does not mean we must live as if injustices have been healed when there is still so much work to do. But it does mean that we must affirm the humanity of everyone. It means we must believe in the redemption of everyone. The willingness to take a life with a gun denies this redemption.

The new life in which we have our faith is found in the renunciation of violence. It is found in love that overpowers violence, love that overwhelms and washes violence away.

I do understand that some will feel safer in a church where parishioners are armed. But I don’t want to live in a world that doesn’t bear witness to the power of Love being infinitely stronger than the power of violence. This is the hope of the life that never fades away, the life that extinguishes division and death. It is the life to which Love has called us, which we must live out in daily acts of mercy and reconciliation. Rejecting the gun is the least we can do. There is no room in this Life for instruments of death.

Copyright: Screenshot from Youtube: “Good Morning America” Texas Church Massacre Open, by NewscastStudio

Stay in the loop! Like Teaching Nonviolent Atonement on Facebook!

Uncategorized

all saints sunday

First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs

guns in church

mass shootings

Previous Post

November 3, 2017

Sharia: What You Need to Know

Next Post

November 8, 2017 Why Richard Dawkins Needs Sunday School

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atonement and Current Events Curriculum Faith and Families Interviews Jesus the Forgiving Victim Lent Montessori politics Reviews The Bible Explained Uncategorized Valentine's Day Wednesday Sermon Who is God?

Select a Month July 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 January 2014 December 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz