The Journey 351
Read: Acts 5,7When people encounter pain or crisis, the prayer that is made often is that “God deliver me from this pain, or let this crisis end fast. As truth behind the Newton shooting is being unfolded, the pain is becoming more and more intense, and the agony more severe. It all began when the law enforcement agencies started releasing the names and bodies of the victims that were killed in the shooting. The world gasped in horror when it was known that kids who died were as young as six and seven year old and the worse part of it was that most of bodies seem to have multiple bullet shot wounds. This was just too much even for Connecticut chief state medical examiner H. Wayne Carver II who has spent almost 30 years performing autopsies. He said that in his three decades of practice, this has been the worst that he has seen. But along with the horror and the sadistic and evil design of the whole shooting, also comes stories of extreme commitment and sacrifice of teachers and individuals who had no reservations to sacrifice their life so that innocents kids of Sandy Hook could live to see another day. The name of three teachers are being spoken with respect and Newton would not have been the same had it not been for these three teachers. They are the first grade teacher 27 year old Victoria Soto who huddled her student into a closet and then placed herself between the students and the gunman. A teacher by passion, and a person who was very vibrant, finally gave the ultimate price of sacrificing her life for the kids that she loved. The next person that is remembered is the school principal and a psychologist; Dawn Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach. It is reported that minutes before the shooting happened, some of the teachers were huddled up in a meeting with the school principal and the psychologist and that is when they heard the sound of the gun fire. Most of the teachers went under the table to protect themselves but both Dawn Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach ran towards the sound of the gun fire totally disregarding their safety. Reports states that they might have been killed in an execution style shooting. Along with these teachers comes another wonderful witness by Robbie Parker whose daughter Emilie Parker age 6, was one of the students killed in the shooting. This is what Robbie Parker said about Adam Lanza the assailant and about how he is coping up with this tragedy, “ The person that chose to act in this way was acting with a God given right with his own free agency. That free agency is given to all of us to act and choose whatever we want and God cant take that away from us. I know that is something that he has given and that is what he chose to do with it. I am not mad because I have my agency to make sure that I use this event to do whatever I can”. Here are four individuals who uses their will to choose to do what is right for them. All of them choosing their free will to do extreme acts of sacrifice so that others could live and also in the process leaving a wonderful legacy for others to follow. I think we all are besieged with the same option and freedom. The freedom to use the free will given by God for his glory and for the goodness of others or be very selfish and use that free will only for the welfare of oneself or for satisfying ones sadistic needs and pleasures of life.
We are meditating on the theme “Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Acts 5 : 1-11 and Acts 7. The acts of the apostles describes the growth of the early church. How the church grew, the pain and the opposition that the apostles and the early church believers encountered as they began to live as followers of Christ. The growth of the early church also is a witness of people who deliberately used their free will to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and then show to the world what it means to live as Christians. To be a Christian was neither honorable nor was that the norm of the day. To be a Christian meant that one had to break away from the so called existing patterns of living of that day, and move to an entirely different life style that involved “meeting together in the temple courts, having communion meal and worship, selling their possessions and sharing with others in their need” [ Acts 2: 42-45]. It was a witness of individual who wanted to show to the world the difference that Christ made on their lives. But even in the early church there were people who were not totally captive by the gospel message and on the contrary used their free will to bring dishonor to the gospel message. In the portion for our meditation we have a couple Ananias and Sapphira who deviated from the norms of the day, where one had to of give everything to the Lord and to the church. They were guilty of becoming greedy and selfish, who instead of thinking of the total welfare and goodness of others were concerned only about their welfare and the satisfaction of their needs. This made them to exhibit selfish desires by hiding a portion of money that they received from the selling of a property. On the other hand you have the story of Stephen who is not concerned about his safety and he boldly preaches to the Sanhedrin about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Stephen is stoned to death for his boldness, but his sacrifice does not go in vain as Saul who is a witness to the stoning of Stephen later becomes a Christian and the gospel message reaches far and wide, with the church also extending its boundaries beyond the Jewish community. Just as the early church is indebted to people like Stephen who was ready to sacrifice his life for the cause of the gospel and the church, the society of today is also indebted to lot of people who puts the welfare and the interest of others more than their own interests. These are people who like the teachers in Sandy Hook Elementary School have decided that they will use the free will that God has given to them not to live to pursue their selfish and sadistic desires just as the assailant did, but on the contrary live and use the free will for the welfare of others, even if it means to die for that cause and will. Can we also use the free will that our Lord has given to us for the welfare and goodness of others?