Brown's Daily Word 2-24-10

Good Morning.

We are bracing for a possible mega winter storm. They are forecasting heavy snows and wind for the region beginning late tonight. Tom and Jessy, the newlyweds, returned from Panama yesterday, safe and sound. Praise the Lord. Many of you have asked for wedding pictures , we will be sending some of them on your way very soon.

As we journey with Jesus, our Lord, to Jerusalem we see Jesus weep on two occasions. He wept with Mary and Martha as He shared their grief over the death of their brother Lazarus. He wept over the city of Jerusalem. He is the Man sorrows who is acquainted with our grief.

The father of one young woman who belongs to our church was killed by his housemate this past week. A young man was arrested in another setting for killing another young man in the city. . We see the random violence all around the world and all around us.

Dr. James Gilligan has written a fascinating book and study, titled, "VIOLENCE: A RISING NATIONAL EPIDEMIC". Dr. Gilligan works at the Center for the Study of Violence, located at Harvard University. Dr. Gilligan’s primary thesis is that our culture has become addicted to violence. Just as individuals can become addicted to heroine or cocaine, so also cultures can become addicted to violence. He cites the evidence that among the industrialized democracies of the world, the Unites States has two to twenty more times the rate of violence than these other advanced nations. He asks the question, "Why? Why is America so violent?" His answer is that we have become addicted to violence. Most of us know that the first reaction of an addict confronted with his or her addiction is denial. “That’s not me. That’s somebody else.” I believe that we are a society that has become addicted to violence, desensitized to violence, and in denial of our cultural addictions. Why is it that we watch TV news and programs that are interlaced with violence? It is because of our addictions. The reasons for a high levels of violence on TV news and other programming is that violence sells in America to a society that is addicted to violence.

I have in my library the collection by Will and Muriel Durant called, "THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION". The Durants made reference to Seneca, a Roman philosopher. Seneca was born in 4 BC, the same year when our Lord was born. Seneca is remembered for many of his sayings such as “all gutters lead to Rome.” But he also contrasted the games for Athens, Greece with the games of Rome, Italy. The Athenian games featured great athletes throwing the discus, the javelin, and the hammer. These great athletes were running and jumping, in Olympian style. On the other hand, the games in Nero’s Rome in the year 65 AD featured 400 wild bulls, wild elephants, and wild tigers thrown into the same ring. The animals would fight each other until there were pools and rivers of blood and the last animal standing would win. The crowd went wild in their cheering. Here was a culture of the distant past that had become addicted to violence just as our current American culture is addicted to violence. Like most addicts, we continue to deny how extensive this addiction is and how it is ruining our lives.

It has been reported that crime rates in America are going down such crimes as larceny and robbery. For many crimes, America is as safe as at any time since the 1950s. However, the rate of any crime associated with drugs is going up. Some experts in our modern culture report that there are two drugs in particular that are destroying our society: crack cocaine and methamphetymines. Crack cocaine is the drug of preference for the black culture; methamphetymines are the drugs of preference for the white culture. Both drugs are lethal, and both drugs are associated with paranoia, agitation, and then violence. It takes twelve to eighteen hours for a person to come down from their drugs highs, and when a person comes down from these drugs, that person is very dangerous. It is as if they have no conscience. They become excessively violent, and would kill their own grandma to get these drugs. Because they often drink alcohol as they come down from their drug high, the public may think that their fighting is from drinking though the real culprits are the drugs. Crack and meth are enormously dangerous and contribute to the rising tide of violence found in American society.

We read in Luke 13 that Jesus wept over the holy city, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning the messengers from God. Behold, your house is forsaken.” We can imagine Jesus weeping over our city, our nation, and our world which has become so deeply addicted to violence as a means of solving conflict. In this Lenten season let us become intentional, determined to forget ourselves and concentrate on Jesus alone and let us invite both young and old to come to Jesus and live. May Jesus heal our land and turn us back to Him.

In Christ,

Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjZEDg9ZGKQ