https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/parade/2024/02/14/id/1153640

Slice of Life: Again we see violence erupt amidst ostensible celebration. This week, an innocent local woman of Kansas City, a local radio disc jockey, a mom of two, was shot in Kansas City amidst the crowds celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory over the 49ers. But the celebrations are marred now by tragedy and politicization regarding guns, etc. 22 other people were injured, and a funeral is being planned instead of celebrating the hometown team. 22 other families are dealing with injuries. Still others have been exposed to potential moral injury and questions of violence and a seeming lack of self-control. I watched the video of the violence, the trashing of the city, the melee, and then the police and other agencies move in to try and bring order to horror and chaos. Things can change quickly, very quickly, especially when some people’s emotions run high and sound judgment wanes. 

Text: In Psalms the sons of Korah penned one of the most oft-quoted and powerful poems in the Old Testament book of poetry: “God is our refuge and strength,/a very present help in trouble./Therefore we will not fear though the/earth gives way,/though the mountains be moved into/the heart of the sea,/though its waters roar and foam,/though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (Ps 46:1-3). 

In one of his reflections, the American theologian and pastor Jonathan Edwards wrote, “The church makes her boast of God, not only as being her help, by defending her from the desolations and calamities in which the rest of the world were involved, but also by supplying her, as a never-failing river, with refreshment, comfort, and joy in the times of public calamities.” 

Explication: God can and does use evil to draw people’s attention to the bigger issues of light vs. darkness, order vs. chaos, and righteousness vs. rebellion. 

Encouragement & Application: Good and evil are not just theological bromides or intellectual categories. They are spiritual realities that are played out in actual history by actual men and women. And when our headlines are splattered with shell casings, gurneys, ambulances, and crowds staggering with rebellious hearts and hot tempers, we ought not be surprised at the tempests.

Psalm 46 again is precise: “The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;/he utters his voice, the earth melts./The LORD of hosts is with us;/the God of Jacob is our fortress” (Ps 46:6).

Secularism cannot redeem because it cannot be its own savior. Redemption comes only from without, i.e., from the transcendent God, who uses evil to get all who will listen to the One who overcomes it through the melee, through the madness of crowds, through the horrors of this Kansas City tragedy, through Gethsemane, through Calvary, and even from the guarded tomb.