A chill went up my spine when I got home from church on Sunday and heard about the shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, just a few miles from where I live. I was stunned because the shooting was taking place just as I was preaching at Elmbrook Church on Psalm 46:9: “He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.”
I had said: imagine if today the suicide bomber’s detonation device shorted out, all tanks and artillery stopped working, all AK-47′s in the world (75 million of them!) were suddenly jammed. All M-16′s and M-4′s turned to dust. In the light of future judgment when God brings all violence to an end, how can we not commit ourselves to being peacemakers in whatever ways we can?