A Moment of Silence?!?!?

Wednesday night marked the first time since the Newtown tragedy for a school sporting event.  The Newtown High School girl’s basketball team hosted a neighboring school district at home.  Before the game it was announced that in “honor of the victims” that there would be a “moment of silence” before the game began.  How sad!  How tragic!  If the slaughter of 20 innocent children and 6 brave adults is not enough to turn us to prayer to God Almighty, what is?!

The public, the media and the “experts” are all wringing their hands asking; “Why?”  Sadly, these discussions are just so much “rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.”  People are driven to just “fix” the problem, not solve the problem!  We don’t have a gun problem, a mental illness problem, a divorce problem, a video game problem, a school security problem…even a “moral problem.”  These are all unfortunate and tragic symptoms of THE REAL PROBLEM.  WHAT IS IT?  WE HAVE A SIN PROBLEM!  The sin dross of one young man’s heart murdered the innocents and the adults at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School.  The same sin dross has fueled every mass murder in American history since 1622 when 347 men, women and children were massacred at Jamestown, Virginia.  That same sin dross will fuel every future murder, mass and otherwise, until the end of time.

In the long ago, the God of Heaven answered the question “Why?”  “…your iniquities have made a separation between you and God, and your sins have hidden his face from you…” – Isaiah 59.2 (ESV).   As our Lord has often told us…unless we repent we will perish.  America, and all of mankind, is lost without hope in its separated state.  We must all “repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” in order for true progressivity to take place in society.  “It is not within man to direct his own steps” as Jeremiah put it.

The entire nation should pray as Daniel did in the long ago; “…we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.  We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.”

A “moment of silence” makes a mockery of the truth and to the memory of the innocents.  God must once again be held in the same high esteem as He once was for our nation to survive.  Adams put it best; “Our form of government is suited for a religious and moral people and none other.”  It is sheer folly to ask God to protect our schools when He is barred at the front door.

There is, however, GOOD NEWS!  God has solved our sin problem through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Sin and dross can be defeated through Him!  That message is entrusted to you and me, the church of Christ.  Truly, “Jesus IS the Answer!”  Let’s get busy in dispensing the salt and light of the gospel to a dark and deteriorating world.