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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Genesis 6:11-14
Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw
that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. And God said to
Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of
them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make yourself an ark of cypress
wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
We live in a violent world. As much as the Bible speaks of love, as much as our church teaches us that the message
of God is one of love and caring compassion, as much as we're taught in our schools the golden rule, as much as we
teach our children about love and compassion and ministries of caring, as much as we hear the messages of Gandhi
and Martin Luther King Jr. about nonviolence and peaceful change for the better - we live in a world filled with
violence. We live in the world activated by violence. We live in a world with violence is ever present on the
television screen, with the best selling video games for our children. We live in a world where children are gunned
down daily if not by one another and by guns we leave around the house, then as often as not by the guns of the very
police we train to protect and serve our communities. Not intentionally, usually, but the guns are tools of violence
and we choose to keep them around, and we make little effort to safeguard their access and use.
We delude ourselves with the belief that humans, and especially Americans, are evolving socially into a world where
violence is becoming a remnant of a painful history. And then we shocked when we turn on the television and see a
child dead on the streets of our city, or a soldier burned alive by those claiming that the very God we worship
commands such a torturous death as an example of some divine message!
Evolution is not something that takes place over the course of millennia, but over eons. The violence which our
Scriptures say that God struck out against with the Great Flood story remains with us, it's still a part of us, it still
activates us, and it doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon. So much for evolution.
God was and is, and continues to be well aware that the violence which God detested so deeply would not be
eradicated through the flood experience, anymore so then through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Nor will it be eradicated through the death of our children, or through the death of our young men and women
whom we train to wage war.
And yet Scripture teaches us about the Flood and the suffering of Jesus on the
Cross for a reason.
Perhaps that reason was to show us just how deeply God despairs of the
violence among us. Perhaps that reason is to show just how much of a sacrifice
God is willing to make to confront the violence among us. Perhaps that reason
is to depict in the most compelling way the direction that God would choose
for the future course of humanity, a direction away from violence, a direction
towards forgiveness and compassion, acceptance, and most of all, embracing a
life of loving kindness.
Jesus calls us to follow Him as He moves toward the creation of the Beloved
Community of all of Gods Children.
One thing is for sure: when we strike out with violence in the name of God, we
are furthest from the truth of God.
J. M.

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