Breathing in April
Last Sunday after I got home from church, I called my parents like I do every Sunday.
“How was your day?” I asked them. “How was church?”
“Church was great,” my mom said. “But we turned on the radio on the way home, and honey, there’s been a bad shooting here in town.”
I turned on CNN and there was the bizarre feeling of seeing my hometown on national news.
“Three shot and killed at Jewish Community Center in Kansas City,” the headline said.
My heart sank. The initial fearful speculations were borne out. It was a hate crime, committed by a neo-Nazi man who was a leader of the Carolina Ku Klux Klan.
I was horrified at what had happened, how these people had been gunned down at a Jewish Community Center right before the beginning of Passover.
The day had begun with violence.
We read the passion play in church, the account of the crucifixion of Jesus.
Now here was more violence intended to kill more Jewish people.
It was a grim ending to Palm Sunday, painfully appropriate to enter into Holy Week, the week in which we contemplate the consequences of sin and the violent death of our Savior Jesus Christ. Continue reading