A Word On Vegas and this Sunday Service

There are just three really quick things that I need to say right now about how we are all processing this latest shooting.

First: I am taking a break from our series on Daniel this week and intentionally thinking through “how do we live as believers in this screwed up world?” We will address things like where is God in this kind of mess?  How can these things happen?  And we will try to do what one New Testament writer told us to do – Grieve with hope.

We will talk a lot more about that on Sunday at 9:15 and 11.  I would really encourage you to join us this week, even if you don’t usually.  I think it is healthy to grieve well – join us as we try to learn how.

Second:  I am sure I will talk about this too, but if you are listening to a preacher or some TV personality who has said that the hellfire in Las Vegas is God taking out vengeance on “sin city,” or some similar garbage.  Please, please, please, never ever, ever, ever watch that human being made in the image of God (yes I am gritting my teeth) again.

Jesus himself had a conversation with his disciples about “whose sin caused this tragedy.”  Those preachers haven’t read that passage.  It’s in John, see if you can find it.

Seriously.  The Bible, not your human ideas about morality, are our authority.  I believe if we read it we will see that every preacher who talks about sin and grace (including myself) is equally as deserving of a bullet in the heart for our own sin as any of the 59 people who died that night.

NOTHING, and I furiously, unreservedly, vehemently mean absolutely NOTHING makes me more angry than those kinds of preachers.  I mean, read Job for God’s sake!  You sound like one of his friends!

Anyway, seriously, turn those preachers off.

Third:  59 people just lost their lives.  59 families are grieving.  Many more are sitting in the hospital.  Even more are seeking PTSD counseling.

If you are a believer in Christ, your primary calling is to love.  At the very LEAST that means you need to use a little empathy.

Before you start commenting on Facebook over your particular beliefs of gun control. I want you to consider this: are you exploiting death? Are you ignoring death?  Think about those families who lost loved ones while you are essentially turning dead bodies into pornography by objectifying them for your purposes.  You also despise and neglect them when you fight about guns over their coffins.

We need to stop it.  All of us.  Stop.

This is not time for a gun control debate.  It is a time to grieve.  You aren’t grieving if you are worried about legislation.

Just. Stop. It.

Instead, let us simply lament.  Join us this Sunday at 9:15 and 11.  Let’s learn what it means to grieve well, to hurt, and maybe even to repent as together we cry out to God to save us.

Will you join us?

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