Today we learn of the horrific events that took place in Aurora, Colorado over night. The shock and anger that we feel in the wake of such violence leads naturally to questions about faith and the reality of God. While some questions cannot be dealt with easily, scripture offers comfort and insight at all times. One of the morning psalms for today makes a profound point: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight…” (Psalm 51:4). To believe in the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ is to accept God’s presence in our midst. The psalmist suggests that all sin is committed against God; when we wrong a neighbor or a stranger, when we damage our covenant relationships with others, when we fail to meet our obligations, when we disregard the needs of the poor or the hungry, in every case we are acting against God whose presence in the world makes God a target of all unrighteousness.
This puts God squarely on the side of the afflicted: with the friend who has been cheated, with the loved one who now faces a lack of trust, with those who needed our love and support but did not receive it, with those to whom we offered no care or compassion. But this means that God is also there in the midst of the gunfire, and in the loss of innocence, and in the death of loved ones, and in the chaos of a world that sometimes seems beyond hope. God is with us, so close in fact that God alone becomes the focus of our sinfulness even as God becomes a source of strength and hope.
Most of us will never commit such acts of violence as have taken place in Colorado (or Bulgaria, or Syria, or elsewhere), but we all sin and fall short of God’s will in a variety of ways. The good news is that God is steadfast in love and patience. Far from leaving us on our own to suffer, God stands with us in the hour of need. And now is one of those hours. Lord be with us!
Prayer: Lord God, be a comfort to those who suffer this day and especially those who have encountered violence firsthand, wherever they may be. For it is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.
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