In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     "People were bringing little children to Jesus, that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But Jesus said, "let the little children come to me, do not stop them, for to such as these belongs the kingdom of God. And Jesus took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them."

     Because I've been traveling a bit lately, I've been able to use the flight time for study and sermon preparation. I came back from my trip to Chicago, with sinusitis and bronchitis, but also with a hand-written sermon for this morning in hand. And it was a powerful sermon about Jesus' teaching on marriage and divorce, and the Church's understanding of that today-and how we have not lessened the content of that teaching, even if we now approach marital difficulties and divorce more pastorally than we have in past generations. It was a good sermon, that will have to be preached another time-because in light of the last section of our gospel lesson for today, and the school shootings of the last couple weeks, how can we not turn to God, for help and guidance as we struggle to deal with the ongoing violence against children in school? And we do need help, don't we? The hostage-taking of female girls in Bailey, and the subsequent murder/suicide was enough and too much-as in Colorado, it was just too close, too reminiscent of Columbine. And yes, it was just one young victim this time-but one is too much. That events like that should happen at all, even if there had been no loss of life, is too much. And then there was Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on Monday-an Amish School not far from Mt. Eden Lutheran Church, where I served a year as a student assistant from seminary, where I had to make sure I got to church early each Sunday, so as not to get caught behind their slow-moving buggies on the way to their services, and be late for our services. I know that area, and those people well. I had Sunday dinner each week with members of Mt. Eden parish, who were the friends and neighbors of the Amish folks we were watching on the news last Monday. The Amish are not familiar with our violent ways-they may hear about such things, but with no TV and no radio, they are isolated from the outside world, and they want it that way. At least, they've thought they were isolated from the outside world, and our guns and our anger and our violence. What this shows is that no one-no one anywhere in the world, is safe from such things. Not the Amish, not the family in rural Iowa, not we who live in our idyllic suburbs with good, upstanding neighbors. But we knew that already, didn't we? We may have grown up thinking we were immune from murder and violence and worries about terrorism-heck, we'd never heard of terrorism when I was a kid. But now, most of us know that Bailey, or Columbine can happen outside our back door, or perhaps, in our house. And now, the Amish are painfully aware of that as well. The word will spread to other Amish communities in Ohio and Indiana and Iowa. They have newspapers that serve the Amish communities in America and the others will learn, that in spite of their supposed isolation, and the lack of violence within their own communities, it can happen to them, too. And so, together, we are wondering, first, why-why is this happening-why are children and schools being targeted; and second, what in the world can we do about it?

     The first question may be the easiest to answer. Why is this happening-and why are children and schools being targeted? It can sound almost too simplistic, but the answer is, "sin". The answer is we live with our own flawed, broken humanity, that causes people to hurt themselves and others. Wars, terrorism, crime and gang violence are all the result of human sin. And unfortunately, we've gotten so accustomed to it, it no longer shocks us, or gets our attention. Wars, terrorism, crime and gang violence just don't seem to get much publicity anymore-or maybe it gets so much publicity, we've gotten so we can ignore it, we've gotten so we can sit at the kitchen table having our dinner, while reports of murderous bombings in Iraq go on unheeded in the living room. And surely that's how we have to deal with it, to continue to live. But as we have chosen to co-exist with violence in our world, those who are trying to call attention to their cause, their hurt, their pain, their needs, through violence have gone on to select more outrageous targets. Plane-fulls of innocent people, crashed into buildings--skyscrapers full of innocent people, falling down upon themselves, that was horrendous enough--but is there any target more outrageous, than children? Innocent, unassuming, uninvolved, children? That-still gets our attention. That causes such emotion and reaction-that children are, tragically, the perfect target, for those who want to call attention to themselves. And that's what sinful people do-they use people as objects, for their own purposes, as was the case in both Bailey, and Lancaster County, as both men appeared to have sexual intentions with regard to these children. Sin causes us to think of ourselves, yes, and perhaps our pain and our needs-- as the driving force of the universe-so that other people are seen as simply objects for our own gratification or desire or wishes. They aren't people, or children-they're just a means to an end. That was the problem in male/female relationships at the time of Jesus-women were merely property, and marriage and divorce in Jesus' time allowed, facilitated men using women, divorcing them for, as the rabbis taught, "any unpleasantness". Divorce in Jesus' time was pretty much a living-death sentence, for the wife. Men went on with their careers, they remarried, they owned land-women often ended up begging, or being prostitutes, because they were nothing more than discarded--used property. And all of this is because of sin-sin causes us to see ourselves as god, and others as inanimate objects for us to use as we please. And sin is certainly rampant in our culture and world today. We sinful people will use, and use up anyone, and anything we can, so long as it furthers our purposes. Even such dark purposes as those of the gunmen in Bailey, and Lancaster County. The "why" is not so hard to figure out-sin is why-self-centeredness-brokenness-objectification of others is why, regardless the particular motivation of the gunmen. But-what can we do about it? That's the more difficult question.

     Right away, we people of faith say, "all we can do is pray-for the families of those children, and for an end to violence." And pray, we must. We say prayer is powerful. We say prayer changes things. But if you think about it-it's not our prayers that change things-our words and thoughts, even expressed to God, are not all that powerful. But prayer works, because it is prayer to God-who is alone, powerful, and capable of changing hearts, and lives, and the world. We need to remember, prayer is an act, simply of our faith, our trust, our calling upon the one who can truly make a difference in this troubled world. God doesn't act, because we pray-but prayer opens us to God's actions. Prayer is not a good work, as if the more prayers we send up, the more blessings God rewards us with. Prayer is our acknowledgement, our confession, that we can't do it...we can't control all of life...we can't save and redeem the world. If violence and murder and victimization of others ever ends, it will be because God has intervened-because God is bringing peace and harmony and unity to our world, as finally, everything in heaven and earth will be put in subjection under Christ Jesus, when finally the world comes to see Jesus Christ alone, as Savior, who died for the sins of the world. We need to pray fervently for this to come about; for peace to come to our world. But, as one of my seminary professors used to tell us, then, relying on God's power and faithfulness-realizing we can't do it ourselves-then, let us do what we can. For example, while we are praying for God to be with our neighbor who is struggling, we can go to our neighbor, to sit with them, and hold their hand, and support them with Christ's love. In the same way, as we pray for peace-let us also seek peace and pursue it, as the Scriptures say; let us in our own way, in our own little corner of the world, be agents of peace, ready to do whatever we can to end, anger and violence and abuse of helpless victims.

     And yet, that's the hard part, isn't it? It's easier to just pray, and do nothing. What's more difficult, is for us to seek peace, ourselves, to seek ways that we can be, peacemakers, as Jesus instructs us to be in the Sermon on the Mount. What's harder is for us to do small, seemingly insignificant acts, hoping against hope, that it will make a difference. And yet, isn't the first, most obvious thing we can do-to care for these little ones, ourselves? Bringing them to Jesus, that He might touch them and lay hands on them? Isn't the first, most obvious thing to do-to bless the children, and encourage the children, and support the children? For instance, we say we are a child-friendly church, but do we go out of our way to make sure all children feel welcome here-even and especially, the ones who are having a hard time in church, being a little more noisy than we'd like? Do we watch out for the children in our neighborhood, as guardian angels, keeping an eye out for them when they are at play, or on their way to school? And most of all, are we careful not to relate to children in anger; do we calm ourselves so that they won't feel threatened, and deal with them as gently as possible, because they are inheritors of God's own kingdom? It's easy to get upset with kids, and to become impatient with kids, and to raise our voices to our kids-often, not because of what they've done, but because of what's happened to us, today. To stop violence against children, we have to commit ourselves to only dealing with them, ourselves, in controlled, patient, helpful ways-never ever abusing children, or becoming violent with them, or causing them fear or harm. We all know the saying, "charity begins at home", but it is also true that peace begins at home, and ending violence against children, begins at home. And from the home, God gets hold of it, and spreads it out, into the world. From the Christian home, where we deal with our pain, and face up to our objectification of others, and let the love of Christ rule in us richly-from the Christian home, God sends forth, the love of Christ-out to our streets, our neighborhoods, and yes, perhaps even our schools. One of the first things we can do, to make a difference in our world, for peace...is--we can pray to God for peace, trusting, in faith, that He is working to end violence and war and terrorism. And then, we can be agents of peace, his instruments of peace, beginning with us, in our homes and families and churches and neighborhoods.

     On October 4th, we remembered Saint Francis, who wrote a prayer for peace that acknowledges how you and I can be agents-instruments for God's peace, as we pray:

     Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

     Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

     where there is injury, pardon;

     where there is doubt, faith;

     where there is despair, hope;

     where there is darkness, light;

     and where there is sadness, joy.

     O, Divine Master,

     grant that I may not so much seek

     to be consoled as to console;

     to be understood as to understand;

     to be loved as to love;

     for it is in giving that we receive;

     it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

     and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

     May God give us peace, and may God grant us all, to be instruments of that peace, now and always.

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.