Tired

I'm tired today.  This is a state not unknown to clergy during Holy Week.  But it's not so much everything that's happening this week that's leaving me drained as it is the world around me.  Yesterday's attacks in Brussels were just the most recent in a string of atrocities: Ankara, Ivory Coast ... San Bernadino ... the list goes on.  We are told that radical Islamists are behind the killing.  Some have responded by saying that all Muslims should be barred from entering the country.  Others suggest monitoring Muslim neighborhoods.  This doesn't seem very Christian to me.  Jesus told us to turn the other cheek.  When he did so, he didn't call us to be patsies - he was actually suggesting something provocative, something that took away control from the aggressor.  If Holy Week teaches us anything, it is that the forces of darkness in our world will take every opportunity to turn us against one another and thus hinder the advent of God's kingdom.  Responding to hate with hate and fear with fear only leads to more hate and more fear.  Yes, as a society we should be vigilant, determined, ready to fight for and shake off our complacency about the weak and the oppressed, prepared to take on those who kill and maim in the name of a twisted vision of their God.  But in doing so we should not let our vision of the God we have come to know also be warped.  We need to remember who has called us, who has saved us.  We need to be Christians when we confront evil lest we become prey to and pawns of evil itself.

So, yes, I'm tired today.  I'm saddened.  But I'm also hopeful.  Because I know in my heart that in the midst of the insanity and evil being let loose in our world, a good, loving, healing God of justice and mercy will be by our side.