I feel numb from years of unresolved gun violence . . . Numb from opportunities lost . . . Numb from Supreme court decisions nullifying laws, which could cut down on deaths . . . Numb from a gun lobby that resists rational change . . . Numb from too many deaths and too many lost children . . . Numb from empty “Thoughts and Prayers” sprinkled on graves.

What baffles me is the twisted politics of our time, when so many confuse worship of guns with worship of God. In the bizarre combination of guns and God, we have sacrificed our children on the altar of the gun lobby. We’ve diminished ourselves and pretended that guns have nothing to do with the problem.  We told ourselves assault weapons were what the framers of the constitution had in mind, when the Bill of Rights was drafted.

The motto, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” is shallow comfort to anyone picking up the pieces after another shooting, or trying to identify a precious family member.

Micah, in an earlier era, confronted the people of Israel who had lost their way, and thought that generous sacrifices were the way to God’s heart, while living outside God’s care for others. Micah questions their thinking by asking, “Would thousands of rams burnt on the altar be enough? Or 10,000 rivers of oil?” Maybe, he threw out, “Would sacrificing first born sons reach God.” Micah answered the question, of what God asks from us, with there words:

“God has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8

Justice in our nation, requires a serious look at the way we have misinterpreted the Second Amendment, so any angry resentful person, can buy a gun and create carnage with it.

Pretending we are helpless in the face of gun violence is to ignore society’s role in perpetuating this evil. It is to ignore the choices each of us make, when we elect those who represent us.   Harry Emerson Fosdick’s hymn, “God of Grace and God of Glory,” includes this line, “Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore.”   His hymn is a prayer for wisdom and for courage.   May it be, that we have both wisdom and courage to tackle the evils of gun violence.