Advent
December 4, 2015

Scripture Reading: Philippians 1:3-11

And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. –Philippians 1:9-11

I was very impressed with the way the San Bernardino police handled the mass killing that occurred there on December 2. It was senseless and it was horrific, but the police were calm and collected, very professional, tried to keep people informed and were very honest about not knowing all the answers. I learned to respect law enforcement many years ago when I was a child welfare worker and supervisor. We the public needed their calm and we got it.

We are all called to do our part in ending the senseless destruction of human life that has become so routine in America today. I read recently where a man shot his waitress when she pointed out to him that the restaurant was a non-smoking facility. And who can fathom what is going on in the mind of a person who kills reportedly to protect the sanctity of life. Whether the shooters in San Bernardino were terrorist or just mad about the way they had been treated at work, they have now planted a seed of doubt in the minds of every co-worker of every persons of middle eastern heritage. Score one for evil. Violence just begets more violence, even though the Romans of old championed peace through victory it never worked for long. The only thing that came overcome such evil is love.

Yes, we do need to pray for the victims and their families and the police and support and comfort them all, but more than anything else, we need to live our love fashioned after the love modeled by Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Lord, help us be your conduits of love and not the transmitters of fear. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.