Living Hope in Times of Tragedy

Well, the news was tragic. A little more than a week ago something happened that is now officially the worst mass shooting in American history. 70 people were shot by that gunman in the Colorado movie theater. 12 died. And even as the nonstop media coverage of that event starts to subside and the TV newscasters shift to who will be the next American Idol judges and what did the Olympics opening ceremonies mean for the people in Colorado, tougher questions remain.

I mean think about it, for them they'd already endured a summer of tragedy with all of the devastating wildfires and now this. How do you deal with it? How do you respond when the news seems to go from bad to worse to even worse? Well, let's talk about it. Today I want to continue our series Living Hope going verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter in the Bible. This morning Living Hope in Times of Tragedy.

As your pastor it's really my duty to help us as a church to process tragic news when it happens and to give you tools for dealing with it from a Christian perspective because it will happen again. So whether you're watching us here live or over in the venue service grab your message notes and you'll notice that right at the top it says the two most frequently asked questions after tragedy are first why did this happen? How did God let this happen?

A national survey asked people what question they would ask God if they could ask only one thing and by far the top response was why is there suffering in the world? If there's a loving all powerful God then how could he allow this kind of thing? And we spend a lot of time here at TLC answering this question. I put some recent resources there in your notes in that box. Earlier this year Paul Spurlock preached an excellent sermon, Questions About Evil and Suffering and you can download that at TLC.org and there's a great book The Reason for God by Tim Keller. You can get that at the TLC book card in the lobby.

It has a whole chapter on this and it's excellent but this morning I want to focus on the second question because whatever answer people get to the first question even if they get no answer they eventually move to this question what am I supposed to do now? How am I supposed to live? How can I get past this? What's next?

You see there's some common reactions to tragedy and these are reactions whether these happen to you, whether the tragedy is actually occurring to you or somebody you know or whether you're just watching it long distance on the news. We all go through these things. Jot these down in your notes. First, isolation right? You withdraw to your cave and you sit at home and you endlessly watch TV coverage and you think about it in the middle of the night and you can't sleep and you get more and more depressed.

And then second as a result of that irritability because when you crawl out of that cave you find that you're short with people because you're so tense and this happens to me too. In fact, true confession time here. I noticed how irritable I was getting after watching all of this intense news about the dark night rises shooting. In fact, I'm not proud of this but I was taking the family to Mary Ann's for ice cream last weekend and it probably been a couple of days of you know watching this stuff and reading about it and somebody grabs me as we're walking in by the shoulder spins me around and says, "René, remember me?"

And I drew a total blank and he goes, "Come on, what's my name?" And I go, "Well, give me a little hint." "Nope, come on, what's my name?" Don't you love it when people do that to you, right? Like, "I'm the most memorable person in the world." You couldn't forget me. And so 99 times out of 100 I say, "Oh, I'm so sorry," right? I try to be gracious. "Just help me out here." Well, this was the hundredth time and I was in such a sour mood that I actually said, "You know what? No, I don't remember you. No, I don't remember your name. I don't have a clue."

And what's more, I was just gaining a head of esteem and I began to lecture him. I said, "Let me just tell you something. Grown-ups do not approach people like that because it's socially awkward." And my wife is starting to edge away from me, you know? Yet I go on, you know? I got something to say here. And I go, "Let me teach you something. What's good manners is to say, 'It's so great to see you. You may not remember me.'" You see how humble that is? "You may not remember me, but my name is IdoThat and you can do that too. That's just a social tip to help your life." So now, what is your name?

Turns out it was Mark Spurlock. No, just kidding. That's how stressed I was. No. Of course, it was a great guy that I met several years ago in Israel and I haven't seen him since. And I felt horrible and I made it up to him. I apologize. And when I couldn't sleep that night replaying my stupid lecture to him, I thought, "Why was I so irritable? I'm not normally like that. Seriously." Well, that was directly tied to my ingestion of the constant bad news. I was already irritable. By the time I was walking into Mary Ann's, it just was going to take a little provocation to send me over the edge.

Well, there's a lot of Americans walking around right now, irritably. And they don't even know why. They're like, "Why am I so angry all the time?" It's because there's this constant low hum of negativity in their lives because of the continual exposure that we get because of our smartphones and because of the internet and TV and newspapers and everything else to the bad news all the time. So there's this constant irritability going on in our society and that's one of the symptoms of being exposed to all this tragedy.

And then that leads to inaction. You're afraid of how you're going to respond to people, plus you're not motivated to do anything because it feels like nothing works. Evil wins all the time. Fourth, fear. You can hardly sleep at night. You're afraid of every... You're afraid of going to the movies. You're afraid of going to Colorado. You're afraid of asking me if I remember you now. You're afraid of the giant inflatable babies at the Olympics. I had nightmares about those. You're just afraid.

And finally, hopelessness. There is just no reason to go on. Look at this list. There's got to be an alternative to this, right? And this is serious because whether or not you know it, if you're not processing the tragic news that comes our way so frequently these days, you are being affected in these ways. I was just looking last night at some stats. Since 9/11, Americans have as a whole gained weight, are sleeping less, are experiencing more stress, more insomnia. We're not dealing with it. We're not processing all this tragedy that is coming our way. We're living in denial.

Kind of like the old joke about the optimist in hell. And he's in the corner rocking back and forth sucking his thumb saying, "It's not hot and I'm not here. It's not hot and I'm not here." That phrase has become kind of a code word in our family for when any of us is in denial, you know, they'll say to the other person, "It's not hot and I'm not here," right? Well, a lot of us when we process this news, we don't process it. We just rock back and forth and say, "It's not hot and I'm not here." There's an alternative to that. You can actually deal with tragedy proactively. You can actually counter it.

And the key is in the book of First Peter. Remember, First Peter was written to Christians around 64 A.D. when stuff like the Colorado shooting was happening to them or people they knew all the time. Only it wasn't random. They were targets. Crowds would accuse Christians of blasphemy or treason and stone them to death. And they got no help from the authorities. The emperor Nero would arrest them and kill them too. Now, not all Christians, but all Christians probably knew somebody who got treated like this.

And Peter sees these Christians responding with all five of these responses and he writes them and answers the question, "How do I respond with hope when the world seems hopeless? What options do I have besides denial and those five things?" Five things Peter talks about that directly answer those negative responses to tragedy. Jot these down in your notes. Number one, stick together. Stick together, he says. And that answers the first common response, isolation, right?

Peter says this in First Peter 3:8 and since this is a verse about community, let's read this out loud together as a community, all right? Let me hear you. "Live in harmony with one another. Be sympathetic. Love as brothers. Be compassionate and humble." And I want to show you a great example of this, of compassion and sympathy and hospitality and love in the face of tragedy. There's a series of documentaries called "Day Docs" on the internet. They are great.

And here's one about a woman who really understands this verse. Watch the screen. In my lifetime, I have experienced the rule of two totalitarian regimes. One was the German Nazis and the second was the Russian Communists. The word of God says 366 times, "Do not be afraid. Do not fear." So we weren't afraid. After 40 years of communism here, the fact that many believers left the country, the Czech Republic has been called the most atheist place in Europe. It breaks my heart.

My name is Ludmila Harirosa. I'm 82 years old. I have seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren. My husband went to heaven in 2002. The Lord Jesus told me, "Now he is my husband and he wants to continue to use me. He wants me to be his representative, his ambassador." Next to the door of my house, there is a bronze sign that says, "The Embassy of the Kingdom of Heaven." My home is an extension of Christ's name. It's a place where people can come and look for help if they're in trouble or have a need.

The Bible says the Kingdom of Heaven is joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. That is the atmosphere I want here at the Embassy. The visitors that I get, some of them have called ahead to let me know they're coming and some just come. The ones that haven't been called are usually the best ones because I'm not prepared for them. Everything that happens is dependent on the Lord. Today a dear friend came by. She's a widow and her family really are struggling financially.

Whenever people enter this house, I just lay everything else aside and spend time with them. I have learned to recognize the inner voice of the Holy Spirit and get him room to use me. The Holy Spirit likes to take control. Often I listen to myself and I'll say things I wouldn't even think about. There is no problem to deal with the issues people bring when they come here because the Holy Spirit is here. It's an honor for me to be an instrument of God's love and his wisdom every day.

We often don't realize that all believers are called to be representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven. We are all ambassadors. The Lord Jesus didn't choose to do it any other way. He simply entrusted us. There is so much that I love about that. You know, she is providing an alternative to the atmosphere of fear and paranoia and tragedy. She is deliberately providing what this verse talks about. Sympathy and love and compassion and humility. It's the opposite of that isolation response.

Like Peter himself says later elaborating on this verse, "offer hospitality to one another." That's part of the solution for the fear that people feel. You might say, "How do I do that? I don't really know anybody. I've been trying to come to church to connect and I haven't connected." That is one reason that Val mentioned earlier the Jesus Journey series that we're starting up again in the fall. Get into a group this fall. Plan right now to get into a small group. That is a way for you to get the kind of thing that that woman is offering people in her home. To get that kind of love. To get that kind of support. Don't isolate. Stick together.

Number two, Peter says, "Speak positively. Speak." This is exactly the opposite of the second response to tragedy. Irritability. I see irritability invading the lives of so many Christians today, including myself last Sunday night at Mary Ann's. But I hear it when I listen on the internet to other pastors. I hear it sneaking into their sermons. I hear it sneaking into conversations. You and I need to determine right now not to let the contagious virus of anger and irritability get its grip on us.

Next verse. Peter says, "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult but with a blessing because to this you are called so that you may inherit a blessing." Now look at this. Don't miss this. For whoever would love life, don't you want to love life? And see good days. Don't you want to see good days? How do you love life? And see good days. "Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech." It's interesting to me that he's specifically talking about the tongue, about words, speaking positive words of forgiveness.

In October 2006, ten Amish girls between the ages of six and fourteen were shot at their school by a non-Amish gunman who walked into their school and just started shooting. And at the end of that one horrifying day, five of the young Amish girls were dead and five more were left clinging to life in a hospital. But what caught the attention of the world was the response of the Amish community. Just hours after the shooting they spoke words of grace, words of forgiveness to the widow of Charles Roberts, that was the gunman who killed himself in the schoolhouse.

And within a week of the shooting there were 2,400 different media stories around the world about their words of forgiveness. And two of these reporters wrote a book, Amish Grace, How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. And here's one paragraph from the book. "The most remarkable thing about Amish forgiveness was its speed. Later that same day Amish people went to the home of Charles Roberts' parents to express forgiveness and support. During the next two days on television several Amish people spoke words of forgiveness. The world saw numerous Amish people speaking words of forgiveness, words of kindness. There was a remarkable absence of anger and rage and watch this. Their forgiveness quickly became the big story eclipsing the story of violence.

Just like at the cross of Christ. One of these reporters says, "But why did the Amish forgive?" I searched for answers to that question in interviews with them and he says, "I finally realized forgiveness is woven into the fabric of Amish culture. It's part of their religious DNA. Talk about returning insult with blessing." Now let me say what forgiveness is not. Forgiveness is not forgetting. Forgiveness is remembering in a new way. Forgiveness is not forgetting. Forgiveness is remembering in a new way. The Amish are never going to forget, nor should they that day in October 2006, but they're going to remember it, they're going to frame it in a new way because of their forgiving response, because they spoke all those words of forgiveness right away.

And you can do this too. How? You've seen pictures of the Colorado shooter. I hope you prayed for the victims and their families, but I hope you've also been moved to pray for him and his soul. Pray for him to be saved. And he might be thinking, "Well, that sure doesn't come naturally." It doesn't, and that ties right into our next point, seek peace. You've got to stick together, speak positively, and seek peace. And that solves the third common negative reaction to tragedy, doesn't it? Inaction.

Peter says, "Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it." He's not saying peace comes easy. He's saying you've got to seek it. You've got to pursue it. It's so elusive. So seek peace, pursue it, do it assertively for the eyes of the Lord around the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Who is going to harm you if you're eager to do good? Now, he's not saying there nobody is ever going to harm you if you do good. He's saying, generally speaking, normal people are going to be more favorably disposed to you as a Christian if you are known for doing good works, and not just for spouting off about how bad the world is, right?

Somebody once said Christians are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but too often we see ourselves as just a giant mouth, right? Let me tell you something awesome that's happening here tomorrow and Tuesday. 200 high schoolers from Bayside Church in Rockland are going to be here. My friend Ray Johnston is the senior pastor of that church. And instead of going to summer camp this year, you know what they're doing? These teenagers are going all over California doing good works in different communities up and down California in the name of local churches that are there.

That means that tomorrow and Tuesday these 200 teenagers from Sacramento are going to be volunteering all over Santa Cruz County. They're going to be doing river clean up. They're going to be painting buildings all in the name of Twin Lakes Church. So I really hope they do a good job. But I love that. They are seeking peace and pursuing it. That is a positive response to evil. And our own youth group just got back from volunteering with camp, attitude of camp for disabled kids.

But get back to the story of the Amish shooting for a second. They didn't just stop at words. They pursued peace. How? One of the most striking expressions of their forgiveness occurred at Charles Roberts' burial, the burial of the shooter on the Saturday following the shooting. Over half of the people in attendance were Amish. And this is a picture of them. The funeral didn't happen in Amish territory. But they drove there in their horse and buggies. And this is the parade of Amish people that were driving to the funeral of the men who shot their children. Astounding.

Some of these had just buried their kids the day before. And yet at the burial they hugged his widow and the parents of Charles Roberts. And the general director supervising the burial said, "I realize I was witnessing a miracle and it didn't stop there." Some of the Amish victims' own families, kids who had been killed, the families sent meals and flowers to the murderer's widow. At Christmas time, the kids from a nearby Amish school went specifically to the Roberts' house to sing Christmas carols about Jesus. That is seeking peace and pursuing it.

And I guarantee that you're going to have a chance to do this very thing. Now, again, let me explain what this is not. This is not about covering up a crime. Seeking peace does not mean that the Amish were saying, "It's okay to shoot people." The Amish were quick to say, "Man, if he had lived, we would have wanted him incarcerated. Not out of revenge, but to protect other innocent kids. But I guarantee you they would have shown grace to him even there. They would have visited him. They would have ministered to him." That's what seeking peace and pursuing it is all about.

Now, remember the fourth common response to tragedy, which was fear? Watch what Peter says next. Number four, and this may be the hardest of all, stop fearing evil. Stop fearing evil. Do you remember what Ludmila said in that clip? She said 366 times the Bible says, "Do not fear." And so we did not fear the Nazis. We didn't fear the communists. Well, the Bible says not to. That's remarkable. And that's what Peter says here too, "Even if you should suffer for what is right, you're blessed." Don't fear what they fear. Don't be frightened.

I love this. What is he talking about? He's talking about fearing death, right? The power of the Roman government over the people in Rome was the death penalty and pain and torture. And the secret of the power of the Christian martyrs was they didn't fear what other people feared. There's not much people can do to you if you don't fear death. Now check this out. Peter's actually quoting here. I love this. He's quoting here from Isaiah. And you see where the quote marks are in Peter. He's quoting other scripture that was written about 700 years before 1 Peter.

Isaiah 8:12, and 13. Let me read you the whole big verses that he's quoting here. "Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy." Don't fear what they fear. Don't dread it. Do we need to hear this or not? Don't be freaked out by conspiracies. The Mayan 2012 thing, the world's not ending next week. And look at the very next verse. "The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy. He's the one you are to fear. He's the one you are to dread." In other words, he's the only one worthy of that kind of fear. "And he will be a sanctuary." He's the only one you need to be afraid of. And he's going to be a sanctuary for you. I love that.

Now practically how do you do this? How do you not fear those who can put you to death? How could Peter say this? Because watch this. He himself had seen Jesus tortured and then dead on a cross, dead. And then he himself had seen Jesus resurrected and Peter became fearless after that because he knew death, torture, that's not the end. I have another great book, Beauty Beyond the Ashes. It was written by Cheryl McGinnis. She's the widow of the co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 that was hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11. This is a really good book.

But she has such a great explanation of what it means to not fear what they fear. She says, "Jesus in Matthew 10 said, 'Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot fear the soul.'" Now this doesn't mean this is easy. Listen to this. She talks about going to the pit where those buildings once stood. "I looked down into the dull gray pit and my eyes focused on the only steel structure left standing. In the shape of a cross." And in that moment I was filled with such gratitude for what Jesus did on the cross and the reality that because of that sacrifice Tom and I will be reunited one day.

At that moment I realized why I didn't have to fear what they fear. And at that moment I realized I had to make a choice. To hold onto hatred or to forgive. To focus on the pit or focus on the cross. But how could I? How could I let go of thoughts of vengeance? Listen to this. The more I considered this, this is brilliant. The more I realized we all choose what we dwell on and what we dwell on determines our attitudes. I knew if I dwelt on anger I would stay resentful. If I stayed resentful I'd become bitter. If I stayed bitter I wouldn't heal and I wanted to be healed. And so I resolved I would not let the terrorists win the war for my heart. I love that. She focused on Jesus.

And that ties right into the final point. Stay God focused. Stay God focused. That is the only thing that solves that fifth common response to tragedy. Hopelessness. Peter says in the next verse, "Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude." Okay, what was the attitude of Christ? Well, earlier Peter says, "He entrusted himself to him who judges justly." Don't you love that phrase? "Intrusted himself to him who judges justly." Listen church, that is the secret. Focusing not on your pain, focusing not on evil in the world, but entrusting yourself to him who judges justly.

And the more you think of the power and the majesty and the grace and the love of God, the more you are able to entrust yourself to him. I gotta show you one last video. This is by a pastor in Colorado who actually has a church very near the most recent shootings. But a couple of years ago, this church had a random shooter at their own church during Sunday morning services. You say, "Why do you keep bringing up all these shootings, René?" Again, I gotta tell you, we gotta be prepared for tragedy. Bad stuff happens.

Sometimes I think we edit all of the sayings of Jesus Christ about suffering in the world out of the gospels, and we come up with some fifth gospel that's just about prosperity and goodness and positive stuff. But Jesus says a lot about being prepared for tragedy, and so do all the rest of the Bible writers. And so as a pastor, I need to prepare you for this too. Well, this pastor has this radical experience at his church. How does his church deal with it? I want you to listen to what he says. Watch the screen.

Right here on the spot where I'm sitting, two young girls were murdered on our campus. It happened around 12, 30, 1 o'clock on a Sunday morning. The Wurks family were leaving the church. As they were leaving the building and getting into their van, it was parked right here. A young man named Matthew Murray came onto our campus. He had a thousand rounds of ammunition strapped to his chest. His intention was to come on our campus and to kill a lot of people, including himself.

What happened is the Wurks family were getting into their van. Matthew Murray walked right from my left, up in front of their van, and opened fire through the windshield of their van, killing Rachel and Stephanie and wounding their dad, David. Not just a few feet behind me. Matthew then opened up fire on another car and wounded another family member and then came into our building. As he came into our building, he opened fire down our hallway, spraying the walls and the ceiling with bullets, trying to harm people.

And then a heroic security guard named Gina Psalm stepped out and stopped him, shot him four times, and Matthew Murray then took his own life in the hallways of our church. That's a tragic thing. That's a horrible, horrible moment in the life of our church. But what could have been the death blow, what could have spelled the end of our church ended up being something that God used to raise us to new life.

So let me take you back. The tragedy happened on a Sunday. I'd been the senior pastor at New Life Church for five months. Thirteen months earlier, New Life Church was on the front page of every newspaper and the lead story of every broadcast because of a scandal involving a former pastor. Here we were 13 months later on the front page of every newspaper, the lead story of every newscast for a tragic shooting. Well, we had a really bad Sunday morning.

What we needed was a Wednesday night, three nights after the shooting right here in our living room, we gathered together. And I remember walking down the center aisle and right here in the middle of the church was a lot of dignitaries wearing dark suits. People from the government, the state, federal government, local officials, police and firefighters, first responders, they were all in the front part of our building. Surrounding them though was a sea of 6,000 new lifers.

But something supernatural happened that night that I will never forget. The purest, most powerful worship moment of my life happened. Pastor Ross Parsley came on the stage and there's a song that was written here called "Overcome." And the line says, "We will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony." We were making this spiritual declaration that we were not going to give up our church. We were not going to surrender to fear. We were not going to just roll over and die and let the enemy win.

We decided that night that we were going to bond together, that we were going to worship like we had never worshiped. We were going to pray like we had never prayed. And I wish I could tell you that the healing happened right away, that we were able to move right on past that and forget about people being murdered on our campus, but it didn't. It was a slow process. Often along the way we would have to stop and mourn and cry again.

But the healing started that night because I believe at the core of our church's being we were a church that knew how to worship and we were a church that knew how to pray. If you know how to worship and you know how to pray, you can walk through just about anything. The darkest seasons of your life will not overwhelm you. You know, what we do here when the service starts, worship, and we're going to have a time of worship after this sermon as well this morning, that's not just sort of like the credits after the main event or sort of the warm up act.

Learning how to worship God, how to just focus on God and worship Him is so key to dealing with times of tragedy in your life because the key is to focus on God, not on the evil, not even on yourself. The key is to entrust yourself to Him who judges justly. Now it starts with these five points, but as he said, you go on to get support. You go on to get biblical counseling. But don't take it from me. Take this from Peter. Take it from a guy who ended up being martyred himself. Peter himself was crucified in Rome.

Take it from those early Christians who read this and learned to actually live like this. Peter says, "Here's the bottom line. So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." What's he say? Two things. First, commit yourself to God, to your faithful Creator. Have you done this? You know, for all the things that tragedy leaves us confused about, one of the truths it clearly illustrates is the fragility and the brevity of life.

Those people in Colorado thought they were going to a movie. They had no idea those were the last moments of their lives. And none of us, very few of us, get a warning. I don't want to be morbid, but we just never know. And so the question I'm compelled to ask you is this. Are you ready? Have you committed yourself to God? And for the ones who've made that commitment, don't give up doing good. Even in the face of tragedy, continue to do good. Don't isolate. Don't give up. It's not hopeless.

Man, the worldview for dealing with tragedy is this. If you forget everything else I've said, don't forget this final verse. "Those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." Let's pray about this. Would you bow your heads with me?

Father, help us to demonstrate that kind of faith. Help that to be part of our DNA as Christians. And I want to pray for all those here today who aren't just looking at tragedy in the news, but who are going through times themselves that are tough. And I'm not saying this is easy. I don't mean to be glib, Lord, but please help us to heed Peter's advice and to be empowered to live this way by the grace of God that is available through Jesus Christ.

And for those who want to commit themselves to their faithful Creator right now, maybe for the first time, maybe as a recommitment, may they pray, "Lord, I want to commit myself to you. I want to surrender. I want to give my life to you. I don't understand all of this, but I don't want to fear what they fear anymore. I want to live a life of confidence and spreading peace and hospitality and joy. I want to be an ambassador for the kingdom of God. I want to live my life for the only one worthy of that kind of awe, you God, and you will be a sanctuary.

And so I choose to run into that sanctuary now by the grace available through Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.