Luke 12:13-21
August 4, 2019
On Monday, July 22, the Knight family, along with the Queen side of our family, began one of the most memorable experiences any of us may ever have. For four of us Knights, that flight to Italy was the first experience traveling abroad. Technically for me, this was my second experience traveling across the pond as they say, but this one was much different than the month I spent in Europe when I was a college sophomore. This was a family trip, full of memorable experiences and opportunities to learn about and connect with history. Italy, especially Rome, is so intricately connected to the story of humanity that you cannot help feeling a sense of awe when standing on its land. From the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, to the Pantheon, the Forum and the Colosseum, Rome, Italy is one of a kind. For me, Rome was completely different than the other places we had traveled to during our first week in Italy. It was more commercialized, more populated and simply put, more hectic than my experience of Venice or Florence or the small village towns we went to.
During our first week there I was captivated by the history of this ancient country. Our guides told us marvelous stories about famous historical figures and showed us magnificent buildings. I found the stories about the ways people chose to display their power and influence by building bigger buildings particularly interesting. Maybe that is because I was simultaneous thinking about the Rich Fool in today’s scripture. I kept coming back to one story in particular – the one about a man named Luca Pitti, who at one time was a wealth banker in Florence. In an effort to prove he was more powerful and more influential than the Medici family, he commissioned the construction of Palazzo Pitti, or the Pitti Palace. This palace would be the envy of the ruling Medici family as it would dwarf their family palace. The only problem for Mr. Pitti is that he went into financial ruin during its construction and died before it was finished. Ironically, it was purchased by a member of the Medici family who oversaw the completion of its construction. I had planned to share that story more deeply with you today, as I saw close parallels between the self-centered Rich Fool, and the story of Palazzo Pitti, but that was early on during our trip.
We arrived in Rome on July 29 and even though I had not been keeping up with the daily news, I knew what had happened only three days before our arrival. I knew what Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, teenage boys from California spending their summer in Rome, had confessed to doing. I knew how their confessed actions caused the death of Deputy Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, a member of the famed Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police force, and a newlywed. Then I heard about the mass shooting at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy California where 4 festival goers lost their lives and 13 were injured. That incident having occurred on July 28. During those four days, from July 26 to July 29, my father-in-law and I had a quick, 1-minute conversation about what happened in Rome, but that was it. I believe this is understandable because we were on a family vacation, and a most memorable one at that. It wouldn’t have been the right time or place to discuss such topics at length.
Rome was the last stop of our trip, so we boarded a plane before lunchtime on Thursday, August 1 and arrived back in North Carolina closed to 1:00 AM Friday, August 2. That Friday was a whirlwind for me and Amy, as we had to hit the ground running (figuratively of course because by this point Amy could barely walk) with work obligations. Needless to say, that day was a blur and ended with me and Amy at the Wesley Long Emergency Room trying to get answers about her inability to walk. Saturday was a bit of a blur too. It started with the two of us in the Moses Cone Emergency Room where they confirmed a blood clot had formed in Amy’s left calf. Then as we were finally back home trying to rest, news broke about El Paso, Texas. Then as I was reading up on this tragedy, I learned that what happened in El Paso, Texas represented the 250th mass shooting of 2019 in the United States. On the 215th day of the calendar year, we in this country were experiencing the 250th tragedy of the same of similar nature. Learning this statistic caused a friend of mine to share her feelings of hopelessness, and that is when I made the decision to completely change what I was going to say today.
*************************
Feeling hopeless is tragic. It is also hard to recover from a hopeless state and maybe my friend’s choice of words wasn’t entirely correct, but maybe it was. The thing is, if someone is strong enough, and bold enough to express their feelings of hopelessness then once we hear them, we should change our focus.
These statistics are numbing, and maybe that is part of the problem. Have we become culturally numb to tragedies like these? Just listen to these numbers:
2019: 252 (Events) Mass Shootings
280 (Lost their life) Killed
1036 Injured
2018: 323 (Events) Mass shootings
387 (Lost their life) Killed
1247 Injured
2017: 346 (Events) Mass Shootings
437 (Lost their life) Killed
1803 Injured
2016: 382 (Events) Mass Shootings
451 (Lost their life) Killed
1538 Injured
2015: 335 (Events) Mass Shootings
368 (Lost their life) Killed
1337 Injured
2014: 269 (Events) Mass Shootings
262 (Lost their life) Killed
1079 Injured
I wish I had answers, but I simply don’t. More than that, I would never choose this platform, this pulpit to preach about how to fix this clear propensity for massive violence. That is not my mission, nor, in my opinion, should it be the mission of any preacher. Today, I made a choice to use this pulpit to speak out… to describe the best way I know how, what I am seeing and hearing in the world around me because if I don’t it will consume me. If I try to hold the hopeless feelings of others all by myself, it will devour me.
This massive violence is so deeply troubling that choosing not to talk about it didn’t feel \right. In fact, to not talk about it, I believe, only serves to perpetuate it. There is a huge elephant in the room, and everyone knows it is there, and when we don’t talk about it things just become weird.
Now, this doesn’t mean I know what to say, because I assure you, I don’t. But not knowing what to say should never stop any of us from saying something. Speaking only when the right, or correct words, surface will leave you mute, and none of us benefit from such silence.
Which is why in such a non-eloquent way all I know to say is that from the looks of it we currently have an un-nerving propensity for mass violence, and I don’t know why. I do know it doesn’t have to be this way. And how do I know? Well I know because none of us were created to be this way. We were created to love and be loved. We were created to live in community and be part of a community, not destroy community. Living into the being we were created to be should be our ultimate goal. It is the only way to find life itself. Selfish living and selfish destruction of community is the opposite of who we were created to be and how we have been taught to live. Caring only about your needs and your desires like the Rich Fool in today’s lesson, or not caring about anything or anyone are both soul crushing. They will never lead anyone to life, but they will most certainly lead to death.
****************************
My soul was nourished by my time Italy. I was captivated by its historical significance and by all of the lessons that history has to teach us. Then, in a matter of two days, my return home has served as a violent reminder of how far we have to go. And while there is great pain in that reminder, I remain hopeful because I have a great teacher and I trust in the goodness of God’s creation to work together and live together in a community where the benefits are mutual.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
August 4, 2019
On Monday, July 22, the Knight family, along with the Queen side of our family, began one of the most memorable experiences any of us may ever have. For four of us Knights, that flight to Italy was the first experience traveling abroad. Technically for me, this was my second experience traveling across the pond as they say, but this one was much different than the month I spent in Europe when I was a college sophomore. This was a family trip, full of memorable experiences and opportunities to learn about and connect with history. Italy, especially Rome, is so intricately connected to the story of humanity that you cannot help feeling a sense of awe when standing on its land. From the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, to the Pantheon, the Forum and the Colosseum, Rome, Italy is one of a kind. For me, Rome was completely different than the other places we had traveled to during our first week in Italy. It was more commercialized, more populated and simply put, more hectic than my experience of Venice or Florence or the small village towns we went to.
During our first week there I was captivated by the history of this ancient country. Our guides told us marvelous stories about famous historical figures and showed us magnificent buildings. I found the stories about the ways people chose to display their power and influence by building bigger buildings particularly interesting. Maybe that is because I was simultaneous thinking about the Rich Fool in today’s scripture. I kept coming back to one story in particular – the one about a man named Luca Pitti, who at one time was a wealth banker in Florence. In an effort to prove he was more powerful and more influential than the Medici family, he commissioned the construction of Palazzo Pitti, or the Pitti Palace. This palace would be the envy of the ruling Medici family as it would dwarf their family palace. The only problem for Mr. Pitti is that he went into financial ruin during its construction and died before it was finished. Ironically, it was purchased by a member of the Medici family who oversaw the completion of its construction. I had planned to share that story more deeply with you today, as I saw close parallels between the self-centered Rich Fool, and the story of Palazzo Pitti, but that was early on during our trip.
We arrived in Rome on July 29 and even though I had not been keeping up with the daily news, I knew what had happened only three days before our arrival. I knew what Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, teenage boys from California spending their summer in Rome, had confessed to doing. I knew how their confessed actions caused the death of Deputy Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, a member of the famed Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police force, and a newlywed. Then I heard about the mass shooting at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy California where 4 festival goers lost their lives and 13 were injured. That incident having occurred on July 28. During those four days, from July 26 to July 29, my father-in-law and I had a quick, 1-minute conversation about what happened in Rome, but that was it. I believe this is understandable because we were on a family vacation, and a most memorable one at that. It wouldn’t have been the right time or place to discuss such topics at length.
Rome was the last stop of our trip, so we boarded a plane before lunchtime on Thursday, August 1 and arrived back in North Carolina closed to 1:00 AM Friday, August 2. That Friday was a whirlwind for me and Amy, as we had to hit the ground running (figuratively of course because by this point Amy could barely walk) with work obligations. Needless to say, that day was a blur and ended with me and Amy at the Wesley Long Emergency Room trying to get answers about her inability to walk. Saturday was a bit of a blur too. It started with the two of us in the Moses Cone Emergency Room where they confirmed a blood clot had formed in Amy’s left calf. Then as we were finally back home trying to rest, news broke about El Paso, Texas. Then as I was reading up on this tragedy, I learned that what happened in El Paso, Texas represented the 250th mass shooting of 2019 in the United States. On the 215th day of the calendar year, we in this country were experiencing the 250th tragedy of the same of similar nature. Learning this statistic caused a friend of mine to share her feelings of hopelessness, and that is when I made the decision to completely change what I was going to say today.
*************************
Feeling hopeless is tragic. It is also hard to recover from a hopeless state and maybe my friend’s choice of words wasn’t entirely correct, but maybe it was. The thing is, if someone is strong enough, and bold enough to express their feelings of hopelessness then once we hear them, we should change our focus.
These statistics are numbing, and maybe that is part of the problem. Have we become culturally numb to tragedies like these? Just listen to these numbers:
2019: 252 (Events) Mass Shootings
280 (Lost their life) Killed
1036 Injured
2018: 323 (Events) Mass shootings
387 (Lost their life) Killed
1247 Injured
2017: 346 (Events) Mass Shootings
437 (Lost their life) Killed
1803 Injured
2016: 382 (Events) Mass Shootings
451 (Lost their life) Killed
1538 Injured
2015: 335 (Events) Mass Shootings
368 (Lost their life) Killed
1337 Injured
2014: 269 (Events) Mass Shootings
262 (Lost their life) Killed
1079 Injured
I wish I had answers, but I simply don’t. More than that, I would never choose this platform, this pulpit to preach about how to fix this clear propensity for massive violence. That is not my mission, nor, in my opinion, should it be the mission of any preacher. Today, I made a choice to use this pulpit to speak out… to describe the best way I know how, what I am seeing and hearing in the world around me because if I don’t it will consume me. If I try to hold the hopeless feelings of others all by myself, it will devour me.
This massive violence is so deeply troubling that choosing not to talk about it didn’t feel \right. In fact, to not talk about it, I believe, only serves to perpetuate it. There is a huge elephant in the room, and everyone knows it is there, and when we don’t talk about it things just become weird.
Now, this doesn’t mean I know what to say, because I assure you, I don’t. But not knowing what to say should never stop any of us from saying something. Speaking only when the right, or correct words, surface will leave you mute, and none of us benefit from such silence.
Which is why in such a non-eloquent way all I know to say is that from the looks of it we currently have an un-nerving propensity for mass violence, and I don’t know why. I do know it doesn’t have to be this way. And how do I know? Well I know because none of us were created to be this way. We were created to love and be loved. We were created to live in community and be part of a community, not destroy community. Living into the being we were created to be should be our ultimate goal. It is the only way to find life itself. Selfish living and selfish destruction of community is the opposite of who we were created to be and how we have been taught to live. Caring only about your needs and your desires like the Rich Fool in today’s lesson, or not caring about anything or anyone are both soul crushing. They will never lead anyone to life, but they will most certainly lead to death.
****************************
My soul was nourished by my time Italy. I was captivated by its historical significance and by all of the lessons that history has to teach us. Then, in a matter of two days, my return home has served as a violent reminder of how far we have to go. And while there is great pain in that reminder, I remain hopeful because I have a great teacher and I trust in the goodness of God’s creation to work together and live together in a community where the benefits are mutual.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
