A Cross of Bullets

This meditation was given by Rev. Christine Ng at the Good Friday Walk sponsored by the Dallas Area Christian Progressive Alliance. During the meditation, names of children of all faiths who have died from gun violence were read, and the names passed out to the walkers to carry with them.

This day, Good Friday,
Is a time to remember.
Remember the life and death
Of our Lord Jesus.
Remember how
He allowed himself
To be broken on the cross,
But not silenced.

This day we remember,
How in our own lives,
In our own communities,
We betray Jesus, again and again.
By paying lip service to all he stood for,
But doing nothing.

We remember how,
In our own lives,
In our own communities,
We deny him, again and again.
By choosing easier paths,
And leaving the crosses
He would have us carry,
On the side of the road.

We remember how,
In our own lives,
In our own communities,
We crucify him, again and again.
By crucifying all for which he lived, and died.
Peace, love, justice, the human family, God’s creation.
Crucify him
In the person of children,
Hung on crosses made of bullets
and made also
of the ignorance, fear, and greed of humankind.

This day
We walk together,
Walk beside Jesus,
Walk all the way to the cross,
Carrying with us
The names of children
Of all faiths who have died
Of gun violence.
And we remember,
Jesus’ last words to us,
And raise our voices
To join his.

As he hung on the cross,
Jesus prayed,
“Forgive them, Father,
for they know not what they do.”
I didn’t know,
Didn’t imagine the numbers.
The numbers are staggering,
overwhelming.
And it’s not just Newtown, or Aurora, or Columbine.
It’s daily, and it’s everywhere.
A child or teen
killed or injured by guns
Every 30 minutes.
In just one year, 2011,
in just the United States of America,
More than 8,000 people killed,
Including 565 children.
Many killed by guns owned
By family and friends,
Owned by people
Who “know how to handle guns.”

There is a word
For this,
It has a name,
Evil.
It’s time
To take off our blinders,
To reveal the evil
Being committed
In the name of the Second Amendment.
But the Second Amendment
Was never intended to justify murder,
Was never intended
To put guns in the hands
Of those who would harm
The most innocent among us.
The Founding Fathers
Would be appalled.

And yet there are those,
Fewer and fewer every day,
Praise God,
Who would make
A religion
Of the Second Amendment
And of the gun,
An idol.
Relying on the power of the gun
For protection, for safety,
Not the power of God.

And so we bear witness, to those who have died, and remember:

Charlotte Bacon
Daniel Barden
Olivia Engel
Josephine Gay
Ana M. Marquez-Greene
Dylan Hockley
Madeleine F. Hsu
Catherine v. Hubbard
Chase Kowalski
Jesse Lewis
James Mattioli
Grace McDonnell
Emilie Parker
Jack Pinto
Noah Pozner
Caroline Previdi

Jesus wasn’t the only one
Crucified that day.
But then, he never is.
Violence touches everyone.

One of the others said to Jesus,
“Remember me.”
And Jesus replied,
“Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus taught of a kingdom
where love reigns.
A Kingdom of God. Paradise.
And taught a few simple rules,
To make that kingdom visible on earth, like:
“Love the Lord your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and love your neighbor,
as yourself.”

But Jesus also gave a warning,
That “all who live by the sword,”
Who live by violence,
and the tools of violence,
“will die by the sword.”
Not paradise.
Not even close.

Jesus refused to use violence,
Even to protect himself.
“Put away your swords,”
He said, early in the morning, on this,
his last day.
“Put away your swords”
your tools of violence.
We need to listen.

So today, we bear witness, and remember:

Jessica Rekos
Avielle Richman
Benjamin Wheeler
Allison N. Wyatt
Cassie Bernall
Steve Curnow
Corey DePooter
Kelly Fleming
Matt Kechter
Daniel Mauser
Daniel Rohrbough

Looking down from the cross,
Jesus saw his mother, Mary,
And the disciple he loved,
Who tradition names as John,
And Jesus said to Mary,
“Behold your son,”
and to John,
“Behold your mother.”

These children,
Who have died,
Who continue to die every day,
They are our sons and daughters.
Regardless of blood, or race, or religion.
All are the children of God.
And as they die,
God’s heart breaks,
And so does ours.

And the parents
Of these children,
Who have died,
Who die everyday,
They are our parents,
Even if they didn’t give birth to us.
Parents we must lift up and support,
In their pain, and in their struggle
To continue to be good parents
To their children,
By fighting to keep their memory alive,
And so that
Other parents and children do not
Suffer as they did. As they do.

And so today,
We stand with them,
With all the parents,
And we bear witness, and remember:

Rachel Scott
Isaiah Shoels
John Tomlin
Lauren Townsend
Kyle Velasquez
Demetrius Newlin
Russell King, Jr.
Daniel Paremertor

 “My God, my God,”
Jesus cried,
“why have you forsaken me?”

Remembering
Another time,
Of too much death,
Ellie Wiesel
Told of witnessing
The hanging of Nazi resisters
In a concentration camp.
One was a young boy,
So light in weight
it took him
a long time to die.
An hour and a half,
Dangling
At the end of a rope.
Ellie heard a voice behind him say,
“For God’s sake, where is God?”
And from deep inside,
Ellie heard the answer,
“Where is He? This is where –
hanging from these gallows…”
I am sure
the same question and answer
Was heard in the hearts
Of many who responded
At Sandyhook and other scenes
Of violence against children.
And that,
echoing the words of William Sloane Coffin,
When those children died,
“God’s tears were the first to fall.”

And so we bear witness, and remember:

Veronica Moser-Sullivan
Christina Taylor Green
Charles Christopher Lewis
Kendrick Demond Lott
Jamarcus Allen
Brendalyz Morales
Maurice Edmonds II
Navaeh Benson

Jesus simply said,
“I thirst.”

We all thirst,
Thirst for justice.
Thirst for action to protect
Our children, God’s children,
From needlessly dying
At the point of a gun.

It has been too long –
We have tolerated
School shootings,
Theater shootings,
Mall shootings,
Workplace shootings,
Sniper shootings,
Temple and mosque and church shootings,
Urban neighborhood shootings.
We have tolerated these
For far, far too long.

And so we bear witness, and remember:

Tmorej Smith
Antonio Santiago
Trayvon Martin
Lawrence King
Haydia Pendleton
Jordan Russell Davis
Aaliyah Boyer
Jonylah Watkins
Christopher Stanlane, Jr.

Jesus sighed,
“It is finished!”

Yes it is.
It must be.
Finished.

The violence,
The innocent lives
Lost too soon.
Finished.

When the soldiers came,
And Peter drew his sword,
Jesus cried, “enough, no more of this.”

And our voices echo that cry,
“Enough.”
Enough.
Enough
violence.
Enough guns.
Enough of believing
The answer to
Gun violence
Is more guns.
Enough.
Enough.
No more.
It is finished.

Yet endings are often
new beginnings,
Resurrection happens
In many ways.

At the end,
Jesus breathed,
“Father,
into your hands,
I commit my spirit.”

And with
That final commitment,
Jesus passed the torch
To us.

Jesus
Is incarnated
Now,
In us.
As it has been said,
“Christ has no hands,
But ours,”
To do God’s work
In the world.

It is
These hands
We commit
To the work
Of changing hearts,
Changing minds,
Changing laws,
Changing our world,
To protect
All God’s children,
From evils
Like gun violence
That would harm them,
Take their lives too soon.

And it is with
These hands,
That we carry
These children
As we walk
This day.

Let us go forth
with a prayer.
A prayer of the kingdom,
Come to earth,
A prayer of justice,
Of forgiveness,
Of commitment,
Of protection
That can only come from God.
A prayer Jesus taught us,
Our Father,
Who art in heaven,
Hallowed by Thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day,
Our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those
Who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
And the power,
And the glory forever.
Amen.