The following was published in severa including The Presbyterian Outlook It was written by Presbyterian author, speaker, and activist Shane Claiborne, co-director of the organization Red Letter Christians. It expresses my thoughts so much better than I could, so I thought I would share it with you here in this space – PT
I’m glad Donald Trump is alive, and I’m quite confident God is, too But my understanding of Christian theology makes me certain that God did not save the former president from assassination
Apostle Paul wrote, “All the law is summed up into this command — Love. Love God and each other.”
Scripture also makes it clear that love is kind and good and gentle. Love always protects and forgives and makes room for mercy and grace. Love advocates for life and human flourishing.
Nearly immediately after word of the shooting broke, pastors and politicians took to social media to thank God for saving Trump. “God protected President Trump,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio posted on X. Franklin Graham chimed in. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, said it was “a demonstration of the power of Almighty God,” calling it “inexplicable apart from God.” Jeffress, a longtime Trump supporter, went further: “I believe God spared Donald Trump’s life for a purpose … for the purpose of calling our nation back to its Judeo-Christian foundation ”
Theology the attempt by our finite minds to try to make sense of a God who is infinitely bigger than our imaginations can be tricky But in this case it’s not that hard to see that there is something wrong with a theology that says God intervened to save Donald Trump, which implies in an awful way that God redirected the bullet into the person who was killed at his rally, or the two people who were grievously injured.
One of the few things we can say definitively about God is this: God is love. This idea is at the heart of the Christian faith. The New Testament says, “No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another God abides
If God is love, and I’m convinced God is love, then God certainly wants all of us to live and flourish, and it breaks God’s heart every time we hurt or kill one another. Murder is always wrong, going all the way back to the inaugural murder of Abel by Cain. With this in mind, we can be sure that God did not save Donald Trump but not the person killed by mistake. God did not save Trump, for that matter, but not the kids at Sandy Hook or Uvalde. God did not save some of the Israeli hostages but not the others. God does not want thousands of kids in Gaza to die.
God is not a monster. God did not want people to be killed on Oct. 7 or Jan. 6 or last night in Butler, Pennsylvania. God is the author of life, and God is on the side of life. God wants us to live and flourish. If the final product of our best theological attempts to make sense of the world leaves us with a version of God that is less kind, less loving, less just, less compassionate than we are, then there is something wrong with our theology.
If our theology lands us with a version of God that hates all the same people we hate, excludes all the same people we exclude, kills all the people we want killed and saves all the people we want saved, there is something wrong with our theology. That kind of thinking recalls the old saying, “God created us in his image, and we decided to return the favor.”
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Any theology that puts God, rather than sinful human beings, behind a gun or a bomb is bad theology.
I believe this is precisely why Jesus came to show us what God is like and what love looks like … with skin on, in the flesh. Jesus is unmistakably nonviolent. Jesus is the greatest champion of life that has ever lived He enters a world full of violence and exposes, absorbs and subverts it at every turn If we don’t conclude that God saved Trump on Saturday, what lesson should Christians take from Saturday’s attempt on Trump’s life?
The nonviolence of God doesn’t get much more clear than when Jesus interrupts the violence of one of his own disciples. As the story goes, as the authorities come to arrest Jesus, Peter impulsively pulls out his sword and cuts off the ear of one of the soldiers sent to take him into custody.
Jesus’ response is brilliant First, he scolds Peter, telling him to put his sword away: “Live by the sword, die by the sword,” he says. Then Jesus heals the man’s ear. The message is crystal clear: The way of Jesus is nonviolence, even toward those who are violent to us We do not return harm for harm We overcome evil with good.
The early Christians got it They understood that for Christ we may die, but we may not kill Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, said, “When Jesus disarmed Peter, he disarmed every one of us.” If ever there were a case to be made for justifiable violence, even to protect the innocent, Peter had it But Jesus made clear there is no such thing as redemptive violence, even to protect the Messiah himself. Violence is the problem, not the solution. Violence is the disease, not the cure.
There is no place for political violence in America from any quarter, but especially for any of us who choose to follow Jesus. Jesus shows us another way than the sword or the bomb or the gun a way to interact with evil without becoming evil Peter learned, and any of us who dare follow Jesus must also learn, that we cannot carry a cross in one hand and a weapon in the other. We cannot serve two masters
The recent assassination attempt should cause us to consider how combustible our country is right now, so divided, so angry, so fearful It should cause those of us who believe in God to take a closer look at our theology.
If our theology does not make us more loving, then we should question our theology In the words of theologian Barbara Brown Taylor, “The only clear line I draw these days is this: When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor Jesus never commanded me to love my religion ”
Grace and peace
SERMON TEXTS & TOPICS
During August we are continuing our 2nd summer sermon series, Obscure Characters of the Hebrew Bible. The name kind of says it all! We are looking at stories in the Hebrew Scriptures featuring characters that you likely have never heard of or maybe don’t know very much about!
August 4th
August 11th
August 18th
August 25th
September 1st
Judges 4:1-23
2 Samuel 16 & 17
2 Chronicles 20
Proverbs 31:1-9 Nahum 1:1-15
Obscure Characters of the HB: Deborah & Jael
Obscure Characters of the HB: Shobi, Machir & Barzillai
Obscure Characters of the HB: Jehoshaphat
Obscure Characters of the HB: King Lemuel’s Mother
Obscure Characters of the HB: Nahum
Happy
Kathryn
Taylor
John Penmore
Patricia Bailey
Betsy Foster
Craig Hendrix
Caroline Buckner
Teyah Young
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11 SUNDAY, AUGUST 11 5 - 7 P.M. 5 - 7 P.M.
WELCOME BACK WELCOME BACK
ICE CREAM SOCIAL ICE CREAM SOCIAL
Join us for an ice cream social at 2PC as we head into Fall!
The church will provide ice cream, toppings, and drinks; all you need to bring is a picnic supper. We will be meeting in the gym. A fun inflated "bounce house" will be available for kids, as well as a cornhole game. Even if you have other dinner plans, feel free to stop by and enjoy some delicious ice cream.
Visitors and guests are always welcome!
Mark PW on your calendar for the second Tuesday of each coming month beginning in September 10th, 2024.
Plan to join with PW in their coming study year. If you are looking for a thought-provoking nonfiction book for summer reading, try A Place Called Home, a Memoir, by David Ambroz, published by Legacy, c. 2022, 368 pages. Ambroz describes his and his family’s experiences as homeless on the streets of New York City as he and his siblings and their mentally ill mother try to survive in poverty and in foster care.
The GO Team is responsible for extending the ministry of 2nd Presbyterian beyond the church both locally and globally through financial donations and volunteer activities. They rely on the congregation's generosity to fund their efforts and welcome recommendations for donations and volunteer opportunities.
The team welcomes new members who wish to serve. The next meeting is Thursday, August 1st at 6:30 pm in the Barbour Room.
Disbursements:
Presbytery of East Tennessee - $1,100
UKirk at UT - $1,000. Four Wednesday night dinners for students during the upcoming academic year.
Lonsdale/Tremont - $1,000 This helps fund an overnight trip to Tremont for 5th graders from Lonsdale Elementary For many Lonsdale students, it is not an exaggeration to characterize the Tremont excursion as a life-altering experience As an urban Title I school, the challenges faced by students and their families often preclude Lonsdale
Volunteer activities for July:
July 15 – Five volunteers served lunch at KARM.
July 7- 14 Volunteers assisted the First Seventh Day Adventist Church in hosting 4 unhoused families by helping to prepare the house and providing dinner on one evening.
Going and Serving in 2024 – Watch for upcoming volunteer opportunities at VMC, KARM, Love Kitchen, West View, and others in upcoming weekly newsletters Coming up in August – KARM, West View, and VMC.
WEST VIEW WORKDAY- AUGUST 3
SIGN UP by clicking the link in Friday's E-news.
West View Request for school supplies for the upcoming school year: Paper Towels, Tissues, Dixie Cups (8oz or 10oz ), Ziploc bags of different sizes, hand sanitizer, and JUMBO Crayons (size not quantity). Bins are located in the Atrium
WEST VIEW WORKDAY- AUGUST 3 8
John Lasater served faithfully as the organist here at 2nd Presbyterian for just over two years and as interim organist for several months before that Shortly after his installment into our worship team, both he and his son, Jay, joined the church family by membership. During this time, John was a joy to work with and a blessing to our church. He chose beautiful arrangements to play during worship services, accompanied our hard-working choir, volunteered his time to play hymn-sings for Presbyterian Women meetings, and he performed every task with a humble spirit and a good sense of humor.
His time here at 2nd Presbyterian was celebrated on June 30 (his final Sunday with us), both during Worship with a Service of Recognition for Departing Members, and afterwards at a reception in his honor. Both John and Jay will be missed by their church family here in Knoxville, and we wish them the best as they get accustomed to their new lives in Alabama.
We are seeking a few experienced gardeners to help with landscape maintenance. Ideally, we’ll form a few teams of 3-4 people, so each team’s work session is only about an hour. Neal will organize each workday and provide tools as needed. Communication with the team would be through Realm, making it easy to reach everyone quickly. If interested, please get in touch with Neal Peebles at fnpeebles3@gmail.com or 865-384-8741.
PARKING LOT USAGE
Be advised that the UTK Sororities will be using our parking lot from August 6th through August 12th for activities related to rush. This is an annual occurrence and we are very used to this by now, we just wanted to make sure everyone was informed of when it would be.
