A friend of mine was telling me about a video going viral on YouTube. It features a young boy in China getting run over by a truck, about people just walking past, about another truck… He had to turn away. I found the link, but I couldn't bring myself to watch it. It seems to cover everything wrong with our world, violence on children, the cheapness of human life, how little we might get involved… And we may blame this story on "them", over "there", but how many people are watching over here? Shocked and appalled but riveted?
If I didn't believe in a God that I had faith could overcome even THAT, I would despair. If I did not believe that even things so horrendous, so…God-awful…could not be overcome by the grace in Jesus, I don't think I could do this job. It has taken me a few days just to think about it, just to pray about it, just to consider blogging about it. But if I don't, it is just going to slip away, another bit of horror in a sinful world, and no reaction to it.
I hope calling what happened "sinful" helps to restore the full, ugly, evil meaning of the word. It's not just a 'church word' that has been so over-used as to be meaningless. It is evil in the world, it is horror in the world, it is the full extent of what humanity can perpetuate against humanity. It does recognize, I hope, that there are monsters in the world.
It is ironic that I enjoy Halloween so very much. I like the 'monsters', the vampires, werewolves, zombies, mummies, and the variations therein. It has gotten me some negative feedback as a minister that I will dress up as something dark and foreboding. I do it because it is make believe. There are real monsters out there, but they are us.
But I am not here to dwell on the dark side. If 'sin' can be re-infused with all that is horrid and terrible in the world, I believe 'grace' can be infused with "the powers of good" to overcome any such sin. I have to admit, I am not sure how to turn something like this video around. A boy is dead, horribly, and thousands of people have watched it, maybe repeatedly. But if we are talking about it, if we are figuring out what needs to be done to respond to it, if we dare to say that Jesus is stronger than that, that the Kingdom of God here on earth can bring comfort and grace and goodness to overcome even that, then we are already letting Jesus flow.
No comments:
Post a Comment