GUN MADNESS
Jeremiah 31:15-17
Matthew 5:1-11
"Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted because they are no more..."
"Blessed
are the peacemakers."
After the shooting of
children in a school in Newtown, Connecticut, in December, 2012, Isobel wrote a
poem based on our reading from Jeremiah
today. It is published in her new poetry
anthology.
For all of Rachel’s children, weep, oh weep,
This time a gunman came and with one
sweep
Of bullets twenty children hit the floor.
Because we see in shock
they are no more.
For all of Rachel’s children, weep, oh weep.
There is no comfort for our grief is deep.
Like the poem goes on to tell, the story continues, for daily innocent men,
women and children are shot dead by guns across the globe. Hilary Clinton told us this week that 77
people are killed every day in the US by guns, more by far than those killed on
the battlefield. But the US Gun Lobby rejects restrictions on buying guns, and
a candidate for the Republican nomination as President proposes that school
teachers be armed. Police shoot first
and then ask questions, or they are killed by gangsters who want their weapons. Meanwhile nations around the world are arming
themselves to the teeth at an alarming rate, war in the Middle East is escalating,
Palestinian youths throwing stones and wielding knives are gunned down, and in
every war zone towns and villages, hospitals and schools, are bombed to
oblivion. Fundamentalists proclaim that
we are entering the End Times and witnessing the beginning of Armageddon, and
they do so with relish because they think it proves that their reading of the
Bible is true. We, on the other hand,
are appalled by parts of the Bible that provide ammunition for ardent
fundamentalists to justify owning guns by the score and going to war with
religious passion, and remind them that Jesus told us to be makers of peace and
that God is love not a God of war..
Recently
I gave a lecture to the U3A on the Battle of Waterloo and recounted how the
Duke of Wellington, who commanded the coalition forces, after seeing the slaughter
on the battle field, declared that the only thing worse than losing a battle is
winning one. Afterwards the warring nations
of Europe came to their senses and a hundred years of relative peace came to
Europe. But this did not extend to the
colonies. Guns continued to be made and
tested for their effectiveness as war was exported to the colonies in Africa
and Asia. There were umpteen bloody wars
in the Eastern Cape and Zululand, and the Anglo-Boer War brought the century to
a violent end. And then European madness
broke out again in 1914 and war has become endemic ever since.. We have come to regard war as normal. Working
for peace seems abnormal. Soldiers are applauded for killing the enemy;
conscientious objectors are jailed for refusing to do so. We humans are the only creatures it seems who have
a strange tendency to self-destruct.
Even though every war is meant to end war, none do. Instead more efficient weapons are invented, ostensibly
as a deterrent, but designed to kill and needing to be tested in combat. Computerized games glorify war as do some TV
programmes and movies, awakening an appetite to participate in the real thing. From
the moment boys are born and toy guns placed in their hands, guns become an
extension of the arm and deemed essential for security. And now in the US girls are queuing up to
become marines on the front lines. Guns are
the centre piece at national parades; they are fired in honour of visiting dignitaries;
they are cleaned and polished in preparation to be used against the foe,
whether real or imaginary, teaching children to shoot happens long before
teaching them to drive, and even a pastor our son Anton knew in Atlanta wore a
gun into the pulpit! The more guns we
have, the more tanks and fighter jets we possess, so the propagandists tell us,
the safer we are. And people gullibly
accept such nonsense. Guns have their
uses, such as when people on safari are charged by wild animals, or in other extreme
circumstances, but for every person whose life is saved by a gun, hundreds of
thousands are slaughtered. Guns are a
fetish, they have a mystique, so they will continue to be made, sold or stolen
by the million. Getting your hands on a
gun is like getting a new cell-phone.
For all of
Rachel’s children, weep, oh weep,
Of bullets twenty
children hit the floor.
For all of
Rachel’s children, weep, oh weep.
I know we need to be realistic. How can a Hitler or ISIS be stopped? How can terrorism be countered? How do we stop the violent aggression of
nations who want to possess more land and control trade? How do we deal with armed criminals? What happens when diplomacy seems to fail and
enemies start shooting? I know we need
to be realistic. But what does it mean
to be realistic? Is bombing Baghdad or
Tripoli to smithereens the way to get rid of a despot? Is not working for peace more sane than
preparing for war when you know that it will solve nothing and devour most of
the national budget? Is training people
to kill others a more realistic way to bring peace to the world than training
them to work for peace? Are spending
vast amounts on weapons a better way to protect our society than building
homes, schools and hospitals? Does having a gun in your cupboard really protect
you from criminals or prevent family members from shooting themselves or
children their playmates?
Jesus
did not come to tell us that wars would cease, in fact he said there would be
wars and rumours of war. He was a
realist about human nature, well aware of the causes and consequences of
violence and strife. But he taught us
about an alternative way of being in the world.
In the midst of a violent society ruled over by a ruthless empire he
told them that peace makers are blessed, that peace makers are truly God's
children. He told his followers not to
take up the sword even in his or their own defence. Was he crazy or was the world insane? Was he realistic or a starry-eyed
dreamer? In a world gone mad, a world awash
with guns, are not Jesus' words the only
bit of sanity left to celebrate and emulate?
We have come here today to share the peace of Christ with
each other, and therefore to commit ourselves as we go out into the world in
Christ's name us not just to love peace, but to make it. We have come here to
pray for justice, peace and the healing of people and nations, and witnessing
to an alternative way of being human in the world. We may not be able to stop
wars or the manufacturing of guns, but we can help create a climate of peace,
we can help change the gun-made mindset around us, we can in the words of St.
Francis, be "instruments of God's peace" sowing love rather than hatred. It is a tough ask, but it is essential to what
it means to be Christian. "Blessed
are the peacemakers for they are the children of God."
John de Gruchy
Volmoed 15 October 2015
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