Ruth Krall, Today's Sermon: Today's Idolatrous Slaughter of the Innocents

Today's Sermon: Today's Idolatrous Slaughter of the Innocents

Ruth Elizabeth Krall, MSN, PhD

Idolatry defined: extreme reverence, love, or reverence for someone or something other than G-d. 

Today's Scripture Texts

Jewish Scriptures: Genesis 37:34

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned his son for many days. (NIV)

Jewish Scriptures: Jeremiah 31:15 

A voice is heard in Ramah. 

Mourning and great weeping.  

Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted.  

For they are no more. (NIV)

Jewish Scriptures: Psalms 14:6

You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge. (NIV)

Christian Scriptures: The Gospels: Matthew 2:18

A voice is heard in Ramah. 

Weeping and great mourning.  

Rachel weeping for her children.  

Because they are no more. (NIV)

Christian Scriptures: The Gospels: Matthew 18:6

If anyone causes these little ones (of any age) — those who believe in me — to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (NIV) (i)

Context: This Weekend’s Headline News 

Context: A Brief Review of the Past Week: 

– the deadly tally of America’s gun idolatry

• Three dead at Gilroy Garlic Festival (July 28, 2019)

• Twenty dead at El Paso mall (August 3, 2019), at least 26 injured

• Nine dead in Dayton, Ohio, shooting (August 3, 2019,) at least 27 injured

• Missing, of course are the one-on-one gun killings and drive-by shooting that happen almost daily in any American city

Context: the absence of a political will to act

See William D. Lindsey, "The New Normal: Mass Shooting Following Mass Shooting Within Hours; 9 More Murdered and 26 Injured as Americans Slept" (ii)

 

In Arizona John McCain is dead, but Martha McSally is very much alive. I will work against her re-election.  

I encourage each of you to think what you can do to "bear a personal or professional witness" against this new norm in American cultural life. We have entered and are living inside a deadly new normal (Robert Jay Lifton’s language) in today's USA.  

It all began at Stockton, California in 1985. (iii) Next came Columbine. (iv)

Along the way towards today, was the massacre in Tucson which ended Gabby Gifford's House of Representatives tenure. (v) Her assailant shot 24 individuals (killing six and wounding eighteen.  The youngest was a nine year old girl. (vi).

The Aurora theater shootings occupied our attention for a moment or two. (vii)

Sandy Hooks elementary school entered our awareness. (viii)

Then came the Stoneman Douglas high school shooting. (ix)

In Orlando, the slaughter of patrons of a gay bar raised the ante. (x)

In Las Vegas, it was an outdoor music festival. (xi)

In Pennsylvania, it was the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. (xii)

Research Notes

i. NIV (with interpretive gloss by Dominican priest Father Thomas P. Doyle, Dublin, Ireland, 2013.  

ii. Thanks to Christian theologian Bill Lindsey for his August 4, 2019 blog posting, sharing this NRA information. 

iii. See "Cleveland Elementary School shooting (Stockton)," Wikipedia. 

iv. See "Columbine High School massacre," Wikipedia.

v. See "2011 Tucson shooting," Wikipedia.

vi. See "Gabby Gifford," Wikipedia.

vii. See "2011 Tucson shooting," Wikipedia.

viii. See "Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting," Wikipedia. 

ix. See "Stoneman Douglas High School shooting," Wikipedia. 

x. See "Orlando nightclub shooting," Wikipedia.  

xi. See "2017 Las Vegas shooting," Wikipedia.  

xii. See "Pittsburgh synagogue shooting," Wikipedia.