Some things never change

But they definitely must!

Yesterday’s assassination of Charlie Kirk is tragic for several reasons. A person made in the image of God was killed by another person made in the image of God. A story as old as Cain and Abel. Yet even more tragic is that Charlie left behind a wife and two small children both under the age of three and they will only remember their dad through the memories of others.

We live in a world where these events are becoming almost “every day” news. Yet I want to say that some things never change. I was eleven years old in April of 1968, living in a South American country at a boarding school for English-speaking children of missionary parents. One day at recess, our teacher interrupted our play to announce the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I having lived in the interior (tropical rain forest without TV or newspaper) of that country for almost five years, knew nothing of the American political scene or what was happening in those challenging days of the late sixties.

However, one of my schoolmates knew. Upon hearing the news he began to cheer. I was startled. How could one person cheer the death of another person so callously. Very appropriately the teacher laid into him and told him that his response was totally out of place, and that instead we should pray for Dr. King’s family and the nation.

More than 50 years later I still cannot imagine hating anyone so much that you would cheer at his or her death! But allow me to go further. I am just as troubled when people have to give all the reasons why they don’t like a person or agree with them and then add, “He didn’t deserve to die” or “He shouldn’t have died in that way” or “We don’t see eye-to-eye about these issues.” Is that clarification much better than my classmate who laughed at loud? And of course many people are doing that too!

For some one made in the image of God expressing something about another person made in the image of God, there really is only one appropriate response: “May he or she rest in peace.” That is true for someone I love or someone who would consider me his or her enemy. Rest in peace Charlie Kirk. Christ died for you and He is your judge not me nor anyone else. And that’s the bottom line.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.