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Cumbrian Tragedy

Dear Friends

One of the most shocking aspects about the recent Cumbrian killings in which twelve people were killed and eleven were wounded, is the shear ordinariness of events just prior to the tragedy unfolding. It was an ordinary town, on an ordinary day, with ordinary people going about their ordinary business, who then were suddenly and violently shot down by someone everyone considered, until then at least, to be a very ordinary man, before then turning his gun on himself. The event could, it seems, have happened anywhere, to anyone.
Following a similar massacre a few years ago at a North American High School, the following words were read out at a memorial service: “The paradox of our time is that we have more conveniences but less time, more degrees but less common sense, more knowledge but less judgement, more experts but fewer solutions. We’ve increased our possessions, but reduced our values. We’ve learned to make a living but not a life. We’ve been to the moon but still don’t know our next door neighbour. We’ve conquered outer-space but not inner-space. We’ve cleaned up our air but polluted our souls.”
One of the great deceptions of our time is the denial (despite abundant evidence) that all human beings are flawed in the area of our inner-space, our souls, our morality. We are all ‘sinners’ and it is only the love of God which keeps this evil in check. We all walk a precarious path through life’s journey, which is much closer to the cliff-edge than we really want to admit. But as we become aware of walking this path, there is only one right response we can make: seek help outside of ourselves; cling on tightly to God, the only reliable support and safety we have. Is this what you are doing?
If not, then you’re finding your significance and self-worth elsewhere, and that means in yourself, you’re relying on your own strength. Your life’s journey is spent relying on and promoting yourself. But beware, for this way leads to insecurity and danger. Why? Because whenever others get the better of you, whenever others get ahead of you, or they get promoted and you don’t, then you become resentful and frustrated, and your anger may even flare into rage, with desires even to destroy those others.
Today, if you’ve had enough of bearing by yourself all these anxieties, then take another look at the claims of Jesus Christ. He takes our anxieties. The perfect life he lived of devotion to God and love for others, showed forth his perfect humanity and divinity. It makes him not only the perfect example to follow (which he said he was), but also the only way back to God (which he also said he was). In God’s kingdom, you don’t have to earn acceptance or achieve spiritual success, God gives them freely to us, as we come to him, just as we are, as ordinary people, in trust and faith.
In the space of just a few hours Derrick Bird managed to get his name known in media outlets across the world. But as a Christian, I believe there is another name, known high in the heavens and across the universe, the name of Jesus Christ, whose sacrificial love at the cross means that love and justice have prevailed and evil has been defeated. It means there will come a time of final reckoning, just as Christ said there would. It means that at this time of current grief and perplexity in Cumbria, as many ordinary people gather today (9th June) for their memorial services, we do well to remember that evil does not have the last word, God does.

The Peace of the Lord be always with you, Robert