No. More. Of. This. (2018)
Every week we are presented with another violent, American, gun tragedy.
Every time, politicians race to be first in offering their *thoughts + prayers* and then shrug off any suggestions that perhaps there could be a solution. We have an American Gun problem - We trust in guns and bigger guns (not to mention bombs + drones) to keep us safe. We feel safe in the assurance that we are armed and therefore capable of shooting first if a "bad guy" with a gun comes near.
Honestly, this is not just an American problem - it is an American *Christian* problem. America has put its trust in guns, and American Christians have blessed this faith and become gun-bearing chaplains and cheerleaders. In light of this, it is worth reflecting on Jesus' arrest.
When the mob came to arrest and kill Jesus, his closest followers saw in was coming. “Should we strike with the sword?” they asked.
Before Jesus answered, one of them struck out at the mob and cut off someone’s ear.
But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched the ear of the man in the lynch mob and healed this person so the man could continue lynching Jesus without pain.
- Luke 22:49-51
NO. MORE. OF. THIS. Such a simple, short sentence. Four words that would be easy to miss. And yet the good news of Jesus is hidden in those words. When Jesus disarmed Peter, he disarmed us all. Violence is the problem, not the solution.
NO.
MORE.
OF.
THIS.
No more of this damn violence.
No more swords of violence in the night.
No more investing more in defending gun rights than preventing their victims.
No more caring more about our right to bear, than the children who bear the cost.
No more assault rifle hell with musket-era regulations.
No more inflicting more pain on the young or weak.
No more angry mobs defending themselves while demanding everyone else get it together.
No more comments sections hurling venom and hate
No more being “right” instead of being good.
No more bombs dropping on little children and hospitals and then calling them ‘collateral damage’.
No more of 10,000 more injustices that hurt and wound and maim and kill and destroy and stab and shoot and insult and bully and lie.
No more pretending that the violence of others is more dangerous and evil than the violence in me.
No more calling #fakenews when presented with facts that are difficult to accept.
No more of this hate and willful ignorance and dehumanizing and dismissing and talking past each other and wishing for a world without “them.”
No more fear and manipulation.
No more hungry people in an age of wealth.
No more sick people without medicine.
No more blaming everyone else for the things I am not powerless to affect.
NO. MORE. OF. THIS.
ALL of THIS is finished and now is the time to *LOVE.
*Love often looks a lot like just legislation and policies.
*This is an update of a 2016 post.
