Our God is the God of love

Headline of the Dec. 3, New York Daily News was, ?GOD ISN?T FIXING THIS." The article was in response to the mass killings in San Bernardino, California. I have not read the article, but this caption is very intriguing. We offer our prayers, even gut-wrenching pleas, to God. We say our ?Amen? and go about our lives unchanged. We treat God as a vending machine; place your prayer into the box called ?god? and expected answers are spewed out at the bottom. When nothing seems to be spewing from this ?god box? we immediately cry foul and say prayer is not working. When creating panic is the current name of the game. When we are sucked into the fear and chaos that gun violence and mass shootings bring, the ?god box? becomes the quick fix.

The words of Martin Luther King Jr. from his book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? ?The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.?

Christmas we are reminded that our God is the God of love. Jesus ~ God in the flesh ~ knew the fear of violence, the terror of killings, and the shouts for military action. Jesus lived under the iron fist of the Roman government where bloodshed, destruction, and instilled panic were common. Jesus went to prayer too, but not to the ?god box? of spewed results. Jesus went to prayer and then acted. Prayer shaped Jesus and Jesus acted shaped by prayer. Jesus did not succumb to the calls for violence for violence, instead showed the world compassion, love, and forgiveness. Our God chooses the people of the world to love, to serve, to live with, and to work through. Our God is a God who, through love, calls each of us to pray. God shapes us by our prayers answering them through our actions of love and compassion.

Christmas we are reminded that the dark sky is not devoid of stars. For our Lord and Savior, Jesus, has already been born. For our Lord and Savior, Jesus, has already been killed through the violence of this world. For our Lord and Savior, Jesus, has been raised to life through the love of God. Jesus, the Light of the World, is here calling us to pray and guiding us to act.

Join us at Immanuel Lutheran Church (1226 E. Washington, Washington) for Sunday Worship 9 a.m., Wednesday Worship 6 p.m., and Christmas Eve Holy Communion, Candlelight Worship 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.