"Faith Walks"

Linden Tree Article; December 23, 2012 

God Still Lives 

Written by Dan Schmiechen 

We are united in a chaotic, numbing sorrow over children and adults killed in Newtown, Connecticut.  We run headlong into a stone wall over such premeditated evil. The wall turns into a weeping wall where we weep over little lives extinguished too soon and budding lives cut short.

Leave these families alone in their sorrow and grief. Light candles and remember them in your prayers. Please don’t get sentimental in your faith. God did not take them. A deranged youth did.  God only weeps. We wait for God to heal and comfort after we run out of words.

Last Sunday, we celebrated our annual Christmas pageant at Linden Hills UCC.   Our lovable innocent children told the story of a Baby Savior coming into our violent world. It was such a heart warming experience set against the inconsolable grief of families in Newtown. In St. Matthew’s gospel there is a horrific Christmas story - King Herod goes on a killing rampage of children who are a threat to his throne. I shy away from that story. You do, too. It seems out of place at Christmas. Yet it isn’t. This Bible story finds all too common life in our world.

Evil lives but evil does not have the final word. I don’t believe this deranged youth has the final word. I don’t believe the national media has the final word. What I do know is this.  I can only light a little candle to hold back the yawning chasm of darkness and say what we believe:

Give thanks for lives no longer with us. Bind up broken hearts. Speak a word of comfort to heal. Live a love which goes a second mile. Practice a forgiveness so it can be implanted.   Offer a helping hand to bring about change. In the name of the Christ Child.  Amen.

Scripture: St. John Chapter 1:1-14