Love and Grace

There is peace of mind at last for congregations here in East Texas, at least that is what we have been told after the arrests of two men that are believed to have been responsible for 10 church burnings here in the Tyler area.  Since January 1, 2010 these two individuals have been on an arson spree burning various churches in the area.  Today, they were arrested and the East Texas "church" will now breathe a collective sigh of relief.  I'm glad to hear that this seems to have finally come to an end as well. But here is my question and my real reason for writing about this.  What should our response be to these two young men (they are 19 and 21 by the way)?

For starters, I know that there are going to be people who are angry about all of this.  And that is a justifiable response I think.  There seem to be certain things that you just don't mess with in a persons life, and their church is one of those things.  So I think that one of the first responses will be anger, and wanting to know why?

We will call them "sick" or "deranged" of any other number of things to try and help us understand the why and to make it easier for us to "understand" why they would do what they did.  I guess the question I have is are they?  I do wonder what it is that would cause someone to be so frustrated with the church or with God that they would do this kind of thing, but I wonder about our label of "sick." 

Here is what I think our response should be to all of this.  I think that as the overall body of Christ, as the Church universal, it is up to us to show these two young men the Grace and Love that is in Christ.  Should they have to pay for what they have done? Yes, there are still natural consequences for our sinful actions, even though Grace covers us.  Yet, if we don't extend Grace and Love then we are adding fuel to the fire (no pun intended, I promise) of their already present frustrations concerning the Church. We will talk at length about how we will "pray" for them and that is good.  But what we should really be doing is reaching out to them, showing them this Love and Grace that we have found.

I have no idea why they would do this kind of thing.  From what I read, they attended a church in Ben Wheeler together.  One of them was involved in a Bible club at some point.  And yet somewhere along the way they became disenfranchised with the Church.  I feel like there must have been some kind of frustration there to lead them on this path.  Perhaps they encountered our humanity too often in the church rather than the Grace that we hope shines through us.

What they have done is awful, and I can find no justification for it regardless of what they may have felt about God or about church or organized religion.  What I want to remember and what I want to express here is that now we have an opportunity to really be The Church.  What they took were the buildings that housed a service.  What they have given people is a chance to be the hands and feet of Christ outside of those walls.  It is my prayer that we will take this opportunity and use it to expand the Kingdom of God rather than to shrink it down even further to the idea of us against the world.  Peace and Love.