Light in the Darkness
 A message from Pastor Rick

Advent and Christmas blessings to you all.

All of the daily drama over the "fiscal cliff" sure went away. It took a horrible mass murder of children for us to become aware that we might have bigger things over which to offer our concern, hearts, and prayers than an economic cliff. I confess that I have been deeply affected by what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I am sure that you also continue to be troubled and grieving. Having been at the epicenter of a mass school shooting (Columbine), not only do I know what it is like to experience the slaughter of students but I also have a window into what the survivors, families, care givers, and community will be experiencing over the coming days, weeks, and years. The event has served to drag up all of the Columbine nightmare, the heartbreak in Littleton, Colorado, and the anguish of parents and a community. When I imagine the little faces of six and seven year-old children being caught in the cross hairs of a man armed with military weaponry with rounds designed to inflict maximum internal damage, I cannot check the tears. In the aftermath of that infamous day in 1999, our community began to say, "We are all Columbine." Today I think we should say, "We are all Sandy Hook."   As the scriptures say, "When one suffers we all suffer together."

We do not have a theology of why awful things happen to innocent people. There is no simple answer to Sandy Hook, Columbine, 911, Auschwitz, the genocide of children in Rwanda and the Sudan, and the trafficking of little Haitian boys and girls to be bound as domestic and sex slaves. We do know that evil is real, and evil has no conscience. Even Jesus was put on the spot at times in having to explain awful tragedies, such as when Pontius Pilate's soldiers went into a worship service in Galilee, slaughtered the worshippers, and mingled their blood with their own animal sacrifices. Click here to continue reading