Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 5/5/2024, Easter 6, "Gun Destruction and Compassionate Love"
Centering Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, May your will be done, through me.
So the only people who seem to be more interested in using the word 'love' as much as St. John does in today's bible readings - where it is mentioned no fewer than a dozen times - seem to be the folks on Madison Avenue - who gave us such gems as:
Lay's potato chips - "The taste you love" -
Dove soap - "Love the skin you're in" -
Ikea - "Love where you live" -
Papa John's Pizza - "Love it, or it's free" -
Diet Coke - "Love at first sip" -
and the immortal:
McDonald's jingle:
"I'm Lovin' It!"
When we compare Jesus' selfless, sacrificial, and servant-oriented interpretation of this word to the glibness of modern advertising copywriters -
it's no wonder so many of us suspect that the word 'love' may have lost a bit of its luster...
Compound that with the wholesale commodification of some of Jesus' more notable catch phrases on the topic - like - "This is my commandment that you love one another" - which the eagle-eyed among us - can spot on Lucite wedding toppers - Etsy kitchen aprons - and countless silver-plated bracelets, cotton t-shirts, leather-banded necklaces, churchy bumper stickers, and fancy, script book marks -
Indeed, "love" has not only been diluted and watered down,
it's been kitschified and commodified -- making the job of the preacher a weighty task of reminding us all of the fundamental, monumental, life-giving and liberating nature of this iconic bible passage!
It is the picture of a universe:
created by love,
sustained by love,
and energized by love
that Jesus paints for us - as he describes the sacred dance with the vocabulary of relationship: 'as the father has loved me - so I have loved you - abide in my love...'
It is a love that is willing to compassionately put others first -
to consider neighbor before self -
to offer the ultimate sacrifice -
to think less about one's own safety, security, convenience, comfort, and popularity -
indeed, as Jesus articulates, "No one has greater love than this - to lay down one's life for one's friends.'
Not even I like my diet coke THAT much...
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So love is all around - in the scriptures - and the springtime air - as it lies at the heart of a huge endeavor our parish is undertaking this summer - and I have been working for weeks on this text - and our task - to lay out for you - my dear friends, how long have we known each other -my brothers and sisters, and co-workers in God's vineyard - I've been looking at how love fits in with the ways we are working for gun safety.
We are planning this summer, a 6-city tour of Metro Detroit, in which members of, and volunteers for, St. David's will be receiving and destroying firearms - in church parking lots!
It's an extension of the gun buybacks we've been doing for the last 2 years -
These weapons are from our neighbors who don't want their guns anymore and don't know where to take them.
We will be following all federal, state, and local laws -
Best practices in safety and liability -
Our bishop has put us through a very stringent vetting process - and we're not doing something stupid -
But the hope is to bless our community with peace of mind, friendship-making, and a touch of God's love through these actions.
So allow me to share with you why I think that gun destruction is an act of compassionate love - why what we are doing with unwanted weapons is a way for us to love our neighbors.
As we all know the United States makes up 5% of the world's population, however it possesses 42% of the world's firearms.
The U-S manufactures one gun every 3 seconds.
Not only do Americans have a lot of guns, but we are acquiring them at a staggering rate.
According to data from the University of Michigan's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention (IFIP), U.S. citizens had approximately 200 million guns in the 1990's.
Today, in 2024, that number is approximately 450 million guns.
There are estimates that this count will leap to more than 520 million firearms by 2034.
Ready access to firearms increases not only the suicide rate (Stanford University has found that female gun owners, for example, are 37 times more likely to take their lives with firearms than non-firearm owners),
But has helped firearms become the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. (of all the children killed in the world's 23 developed countries, 87% are American children).
Also, criminals are always out to steal firearms as 52% of weapons used in crimes are stolen.
While there are no firm numbers on how many unwanted guns are in the U.S., UofM cites research indicating this is well into the millions, as guns are extremely durable items that tend to be passed along or gifted to people who may not want or care about weapons.
This is the world we want to help.
And this is why we help:
Gun Destruction as an Act of Compassionate Love takes on three forms:
First - the Love for our neighbor -
We understand that when our neighbor can't sleep at night because they have a gun in the house they don't want - and they don't know who's going to take it - it causes them pain, worry, mental anguish.
When these owners don't want their guns in circulation at all - what do you do?
If they take it to a police department, Michigan state law says the police can do three things with unwanted weapons: keep them, sell them, or get them to the State Police for destruction.
Our experience tells us that there are a lot of people who simply want their weapons destroyed, and that's who we're working to help.
Gun destruction is an act of charity toward your neighbor who is anxious, worried, and concerned that they have no place to get rid of their unwanted weapon.
Second - our actions help us demonstrate our Love for community
When Jesus walked among us he shared a vision of a world of shalom - of peace.
He told us to pray that God's world, would become our world - thy kingdom come, thy will be done - that the world that is, is not the world that ought to be.
The world that ought to be does not have the amount of gun violence in it that we have.
The world that ought to be does not have the amount of gun injury and death in it that we have.
The world that ought to be does not have the amount of unwanted guns in it that we have.
When we work for the world that ought to be, we do so not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of others - whose anxiety we lessen - and then whose peacefulness extends beyond them, making a more peaceful community.
We bring down the anxiety of one, and we bring down the anxiety of the whole.
And third, our actions around gun destruction help us embody our Love for God
The fearful culture you and I inhabit tempts us greatly, to find our security, control, and protection in things other than God. It's why we obsess over having enough money, turn to drugs and alcohol, and - sadly - turn to guns.
But the Bible is clear - in Psalm 20:7 - 'Some put trust in chariots, and some in horses, but our trust is in the name of the LORD our God.'
When we receive donated guns and destroy them, we push back against the idolatry of guns.
We make a bold declaration that we trust not in firearms - not in money, politicians, power - or any human enterprise for our safety, provision, and protection, but we trust in God.
This was the case for MLK Jr - this was the case for Jesus - this becomes our case too.
As you all know, we are a parish that, for years, has embraced our gifts of charity that have pointed us to hunger, homelessness, and Haiti -
But after deadly shootings in Oxford, then Michigan State, we have followed the leading of the Spirit - and our bishop - and been directed in new ways.
We are being challenged to love others in this unique new way - by working toward gun safety in this unique, small corner of God's vineyard.
In years past it was easy for us to develop compassion for the victims of hunger, homelessness, and Haiti because we had, and still have, the hungry and homeless knocking on our doors. We still have parish members from Haiti - and remain invested in our partners at Haiti Outreach Mission - of which we are a charter member.
So how do we develop compassion for those who are victims of gun violence?
To do so, we want to invite you to visit our new Compassion Corner for Gun Violence
It's in the Narthex, waiting Your Prayer and Contemplation
We want to invite you to pay a visit there.
It's been established to help mold us into more compassionate Christ followers we want to be.
It's a small prayer corner in the Narthex, complete with a bulletin board giving us recent opportunities to pray for those affected by gun violence.
Just as Jesus was moved by compassion to take action, we are looking to remind ourselves of the plights of the suffering to spur us to action.
Friends, the scripture is clear -
Our faith is clear -
We are to be a people and a place of love.
We are to help make the world that is, into the world that ought to be.
Where no one who is hungry is without a meal.
Where every homeless person can find a home.
Where every elderly person has clean, safe, and proper care.
Where no one who is sick is without health care.
Where no one who wants to be educated, would be denied.
Where our LBGTQ brothers and sisters can feel safe, accepted, and not discriminated.
Let God's love inspire our love,
Let us redeem love from dilution, kitschiness, and commodification
Let us follow Jesus' example of selfless, sacrificial, and servant-oriented love,
for this is his command - that we love one another.
Amen.