Sermon Text: Luke 13:1-9
Sermon Excerpt
I can assure you that the saying “everything is bigger in Texas” is true when it comes to Christianity. A Christianity Today cover story concluded, “Dallas . . . has more megachurches, megaseminaries, and mega-Christian activity than any other American city.”
Travel back with me to my world in the 1990s. I was living in Arlington, Texas – just outside of Dallas and Fort Worth. The area was very much as Christian as I am making it sound, perhaps even more. I dare not try to count the number of times complete strangers asked me if I knew Jesus. I was a young seminarian who lived in this bubble – a place where nearly everyone went to church and the few who didn’t attend church respected churches as sacred spaces.
My assumptions about the religious world as I knew it were shaken on September 15, 1999. Just down the road in Fort Worth – at Wedgewood Baptist Church – teenagers gathered for a Wednesday evening prayer rally. An uninvited 47-year-old armed man entered their assembly and opened fire. He killed 7 people and wounded 7 more before taking his own life.
This tragedy hit too close to home for many reasons. Not only was I familiar with the church, but I also knew it was home to many seminarians. The first person shot that evening was a seminary student.
How could anyone intentionally seek to do harm to people while they were gathered for worship? Surely the killing of anyone – much less teenagers – as they worship was a story I would hear only once in my lifetime. Sadly, it wasn’t.
Shootings at houses of worship in our country have become so common that many experts now suggest churches prepare in advance for the possibility of an active shooter situation. Last year our government released its first ever “Guide for Developing High-Quality Emergency Operations Plans for Houses of Worship.”I have even had conversations about this guide with leaders of multiple congregations here in Southwest Florida.
Churches are supposed to be places where religious people feel safe. But, honestly, bad things happen . . . (read full manuscript)
So What?
Today is yet another opportunity to be fruitful. On this Memorial Day weekend think not only of our nation’s past, but also about our present. How well is our nation really doing when it comes to our ideals of freedom and opportunity?
Think also of what it means for your local congregation to be fruitful. Engage in an honest assessment of where you are as a community of faith today, and whether or not your current actions are helpful for either continuing on with being fruitful or moving in that direction.
And, ask yourself about your own life as a follower of the Way of Jesus. Over the course of the past week, how would you rate yourself when it comes to loving God and loving your neighbor?