I got a phone call yesterday asking about a news story I hadn’t heard. Looking around on the Internet today, my only excuse for not hearing it is that I spent half the day in the car (otherwise the story would have certainly hit my ears). Tragically a man was shot Sunday morning as he was passing out bulletins at a Lutheran Church in Wichita Kansas. The person walked up and killed the usher with one bullet. Bad. Real bad.
Someone got the plate number of the car as it drove away and the police have apprehended the guy. Apparently the suspect was on the FBI’s radar as a potentially violent anti abortion activist. See the usher at the church was one of only three doctors in the United States who would perform third-term abortions. His office has been sort of infamous: it has been bombed and attacked.
Immediately when you hear the story your heart goes out to that guy and his family. It is so weird every time we are faced with the frailty of these bodies: alive and ticking one minute, worthless the next. As I got the story on the phone yesterday I was pretty taken aback; then the question really had me back peddling. It went something like this, “How could a guy who performs this sort of abortion, be an usher at a church?” Abortion is more complex than a blog post. But the question has gotten me thinking about how much people are watching us, whether we realize it or not. I mean I looked up official statements from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (Holy Cross is affiliated with a different family of Lutheran Churches). But then I realized that the belief of individual members is not found in official statements but in the choices they make everyday. What we really believe is revealed by the way we live our life at work, at home, on vacation and the world is watching. Unfortunately, they seem to always be looking for the inconsistencies.
Comments
Paul
Could this feeling/understanding/belief be the justification for Dr. Tiller and the BTK killer, both Lutherans and very active in their congregations.
Should we, as we teach,study and live the Word, maybe put a little more emphasis on the Law?
Just food for thought. I know this opens up a whole realm of discussion.
Carl
Abortion? It seems to be such a sad statement that we as Christians want to just make it go away by making it against the law instead of aiding and loving the people who are at high risk for seeking abortion. That is a much more difficult, time consuming and dirty job. Which leads me to my thought I had the other day - what ever happened to all of those WWJD bracelets? I guess people found out pretty quickly that they really didn't want to go there.
Tami- obviously we don't want to kill anyone. It's true that every sin carries the same punishment before God. But it is also true that some sins have larger earthly consequences. Chris and I talked about that in the Audio Conversation we called "Sin" Totally in agreement on the WWJD thing; that's pretty tough when you really think about it.
The choice to live as a follower of Christ is much the same. Certainly God has chosen me and by His Holy Spirit He has called me to be His child. That same Spirit now waits to empower me to live a life that proclaims the love of God for all people. Pushing the Law more will not motivate people to be "good", put showing how a life with Christ can be so much better than a life without Christ will draw people into a closer relationship with the one who gives them life.
"I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force! Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him." - Napoleon Bonaparte