I’ve been talking a lot about darkness lately in the midst of a season (the long pre-Christmas season) in which we are beset with all the glitter and lights and canned music that would divert our attention from the dark that prowls just beyond the glitz and glitter. I’ve been talking about the dark because in this season in the church that is what the gospel writers are talking about…Matthew Mark Luke and John. Paul also in his letters speaks of a coming violent catastrophe. Darkness can mean many different things to the modern mind: depression and anxiety, grief, despair, pain, poverty, among many other states of being we might call darkness. For the gospel writers, as well as for the prophets before them, darkness was synonymous with violence and the fear violence engenders.
The gospel writers are warning their followers of the violence that is sure to come. Their context was a time in which Israel was under brutal imperial occupation. The first century within which this literature was written included the reigns of two tyrannical emperors Nero and Caligula. This was the time when Jerusalem and the Temple were razed by the Roman legions; a time when torture and execution were commonplace on a daily basis. The gospel writers are offering hope that would stand up and against this pervasive violence….and this hope is living the way of Jesus, light his metaphor, light that would dispel the fear and the enshrouding dark. This way of light is not an abstraction; it means quite simply that living for one another, living for the good of the whole, selfless interest in lieu of self interest, will unravel the hold that the violence of our world has on us.
Violence has forever stalked the human race, and through technology we have made it easier for violence to wreak its havoc in exponential ways. World War 1 and World War 2 two consummate examples. But now we are inflicting violence not only between nations, but on a rapidly growing scale, upon ourselves. I’m thinking of the recent Connecticut massacre, and Aurora and Columbine and Virginia Tech massacres as well. And our own technology is to blame for the number of victims affected by these despicable acts. It is now time to ban assault weapons. I’m not arguing for gun control; I’m arguing for “clip” control. One doesn’t need to fire sixty rounds in a few seconds to go hunting or defend oneself. The twenty bodies of the children killed in Newtown contained from three to eleven rounds each. Let’s not take guns away, but for God’s sake let’s take the military assault clips away. Yes, there will always be gun violence, always the deranged killer, but as a self-governing people we can at least lessen substantially the number of victims gun violence claims. Such legislation would not be gun control, but victim control.
Would such action in our society qualify as living, acting for the good of the other? I believe it does, and therefore I believe this is a gospel issue. We pass laws telling us how fast we can drive, to wear seat belts; laws that protect us from contaminants, pollutants, and even second hand cigarette smoke; safety in the workplace is highly regulated. We inspect our food supply. All of these measures are to help us live for the good of all. It is now time, far past time to regulate the number of rounds that can be fired by weapons. That would be living for each other, and that is always the good and right thing to do. Such action would be a ray of light to unravel this violent dark that has stalked us for far too long.
