How Much Do We Care?

Courtesy latimes.com

Many people want those who do wrong to be brought to justice, but often neglect the greater need of those same people being brought to Jesus.

A friend of mine recently said in reference to the Christopher Dorner manhunt that he hopes that Dorner is brought to justice, but more importantly that he is brought to Jesus.  This statement carries some weight to it given that this friend has been a part of the law enforcement community for about eight years.  This poses an important question in my mind.  How much do we truly care about people who we deem to have gone too far?

In his manifesto, Dorner wrote that he believes the Bible to be mainly a work of fiction.  While I strongly disagree with that sentiment, in a way I can understand it.  Many supposed followers of Christ and the Bible do not follow His teachings found therein. Among other wrongs, Christians often fail to be positive examples for those who do not profess to follow Christ.  In simple terms, we do not practice what we preach.  We discriminate, we oppress, we stand idly by as injustice upon injustice is heaped upon those we deem less fortunate than ourselves.

God is not happy with injustice, and His followers should follow suit. We need to stand up for those who are being discriminated against.  We should seek to correct and prevent the wrongs caused by evil men and women, and this correction and prevention begins with us.  Instead of seeking revenge against those who have wronged us we should seek reconciliation.  If they reject our efforts, then at least we did our part.  Often this act of kindness may not only diffuse the current situation, but also prevent future ones.

We often view people such as Christopher Dorner who commit terrible crimes and reject Christianity as being too bad for God to love.   However, that could not be further from the truth because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  As the saying goes, "While there is breath, there is hope."  Let us not give up on others for God has not given up on us.

Yes . . . But . . . Yet

Psalm 78:35-39 They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

God is more merciful with us than we deserve.

I find it interesting that the psalm for this morning is a historical psalm. In it Asaph gives a basic overview of key events in his nation's history. The primary focus of this overview is to ensure that his people remember God's mercy to their ancestors despite their unworthiness. It's probably easy to see where I'm going with this.

If we were to take an honest look at ourselves, and our personal history, we would see a similar pattern in our own lives. The passage that I picked out is a good illustration of that pattern. We would say yes to God, but then we would go about our usual, sinful, ways, yet God did not give us what we deserve because He is merciful and remembers our frailty as human beings. If we were to keep God's mercy, as well as our frailty, in mind more often, this pattern would be repeated less often.

So as we remember today those who have fallen, let us also remember the merciful God who, "time after time . . . restrained His anger and did not stir up his full wrath" against us even though we probably deserved it.