A Response to the Colorado Shootings

“The church is God’s new will and purpose for humanity. God’s will is always directed toward the concrete, historical human being. But this means that it begins to be implemented in history. God’s will must become visible and comprehensible at some point in history.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The other day a former YWAM (Youth with a Mission) participant was denied a place to stay in an Arvada YWAM office. He was denied. He killed two young adults during that confrontation. Later, the gunman killed two teenagers at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He would have killed more if he hadn’t been shot himself by a security guard at the church who carries a gun (did I mention this was at a church?). She is being praised as a hero who did not falter when needing to kill one of God’s children saying, “God was with me.”

I am deeply saddened by the loss of life. The five deceased (including the gunman) were my age or younger. Such horrendous action surely is not the will of God. I grieve for their families and pray that God shows mercy and compassion. But I also grieve for the church. I am deeply perplexed that at the place where we practice the liturgy, the place where we learn what it is to be Christian, and the place where we recognize Jesus’ self-sacrifice against the dominant powers of this world (and our call to do the same) we are carrying the same weapons of the world. Not only that, but we are proclaiming the presence of God in such action. What happened to Jesus’ words of living and dying by the sword (or in this case a gun)? Jesus’ words to Peter were a lesson against the myth of redemptive violence. I am reminded of Shane Claiborne’s words when he writes, “When it comes to the world’s logic of redemptive violence, Christians have a major stumbling block on their hands- namely, the cross.”

This is hard to imagine. We are conditioned to think that one death (especially the death of a murderer) is better than having 100 others dead. But what if God doesn’t think the same way we do. We serve a God who is always creating, always imaginative, and as a result we are created also to always re-imagine. Perhaps Walter Wink is correct in saying that “violence is for those who have lost their imagination.” The first 300 years of Christianity were an intense time for a small band of Jesus followers. They would die by the packs. Their witness was a testimony of love in the face of evil, suffering as Christ suffered.

The question of our day, the context that we are in and have been in, revolves not around some post-9/11 worldview but rather, how do we live in the light of the teachings, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. For sure, a truthful witness would have to deconstruct our views of war and poverty, violence and peace. So while America celebrates a hero, I wonder how faithful we are truly being to the peaceable Kingdom. I don’t have the answers. I do pray that we can begin to talk about what it means to walk like Jesus, to his death. Or, it might even be as easy as offering our hospitality, a place to stay for the night.

“Only by concentrating on Christ as its true and final end will the church give up its struggle to bring about the end prematurely and instead gladly give itself over to the long, patient labor of becoming a sacrament of Christ’s peaceable presence.” – Hauerwas