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(no OTR) a black day in the history of humanity

From First United Methodist in Austin last night:

"This is a black day in the history of humanity.
It is not the only black day in the history of humanity.
It will not be the last black day in the history of humanity.
But on this black day we have come face to face again with the extremes to
which our species can go.

Whenever I do a funeral I read these selected verses from the 8th chapter
of Romans. 
Especially these words,
"31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is
against us? 
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us. 
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 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.

In some ways this is a funeral.
Countless people have died.
But theirs is not the only death we face.
Something has died in each of us.
Trust that those kinds of things don't happen here has died.
Faith in our relative safety has died.
At least a part of our sense of security has died.
All of these are reasonable responses to the horrific events that have
taken place. 
But there is something that cannot be allowed to die and that is our basic
humanity, that part of us that makes us what we are, that which issues
forth from being created in the image of God.
We are scared, frustrated, and angry at the inhumane actions of others, but
nothing is finally accomplished by becoming them.

Who can separate us form the love of Christ?
Paul's witness is that nothing can separate us.
I wonder in moments like this whether that is true or not.
Maybe we can be separated from the love of Christ if we do the separating.

If we allow our anger and our hurt to cause us to forget who we are and
what we are. 
And if we do, we become less, less than we were created to be.
Moreover, we separate ourselves from our source of strength, that very core
of life that sustains us.

In the face of it all-death, fear, destruction, we have a source of
strength. 
But only if we hold on to who we finally are.
This is a black day, but even on this black day we can hear this word of
assurance 
For I am sure that in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. 
All these things?.even this. "

. . . . . . . 
paul soupiset
toolbox studios




why be a song
when you can 
be a symphony?
--tim booth
. . . . . . . 


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