Lent
March 19, 2018
Scripture Reading: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures forever!
Let Israel say,
‘His steadfast love endures forever.’
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it. —Psalm 118:1-2, 19-20
Our world seems to have given up on determining what is right. What is the standard that we use to determine rightness? In these weeks leading up to Palm Sunday and Easter, the debate on the death penalty reignited. The Prosecutor in the case against the young man who is accused of the Parkland School shooting has announced that he intends to seek the death penalty in that case. Oklahoma has been under a moratorium on the death penalty for three years because the authorized drug is no longer readily available. The State Attorney General and the head of the Corrections Department announced recently that they were going to pursue the use of nitrogen. Pending federal approval of that plan, the moratorium will be lifted.
The most often mentioned reason for using the death penalty is giving victims’ families and friends closure, although I heard one of the young survivors of the Parkland shooting say she did not want him to get the death penalty as it was too easy. She wanted him to have to think about what he had done for a long time.
What is right and how do we discern it? As followers of Christ, we identify him as the model of our righteousness. He talked about love and lived love, modeled forgiveness, practiced restoration. The death penalty is just one of many public issues with which we must grapple as we attempt to live as Christ’s followers among a diversity of viewpoints.
One of the things we often forget is that determining what is right is not as linear as we might think. While our civil courts must deal with crimes and punishments, we must establish the rightness of our responses. Do we bury our heads in the sand and leave it up to the civil authorities? How do we love the murderer of children? What is our role in forgiving? What is our role in the restoration of not only the criminal but also of their victims?
Prayer: Lord, lead us in righteousness that we might better discern our actions. Amen.