The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?  Jeremiah 17:9

***

A white supremacist rally turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. One person was killed when a driver plowed into a crowd of people. …  http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/white-supremacist-rally-turns-deadly-in-charlottesville-virginia/

Charlottesville.  It is an unspeakable horror.

And the desperate cry is because it is not alone.

Nice.  London.  Belgium.  9/11.  Orlando.  San Bernardino.  Ferguson.  Dallas.  Sandy Hook.  Ukraine.  Syria.  Auschwitz.

This list goes on.  And on.  (Some will be offended on what is left out.  Don’t be offended; add to the list.)

Geographic names have become pseudonyms for terror and evil.

O God, do not remain quiet;
Do not be silent and, O God, do not be still.
² For behold, Your enemies make an uproar,
And those who hate You have exalted themselves.
³ They make shrewd plans against Your people,
And conspire together against Your treasured ones. Psalm 83:1-3

“The human heart is deceitful above all else, and is desperately sick.  Who can know it?”  We are knowing and experiencing this universal human infirmity all too well.

The horror invokes passionate response, as well it should.

Passion is a wrenching of the soul.  A cry.  A scream.

Passionate response is not always well focused.  Such is the nature of passion.

Thus says the Lord,
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
She refuses to be comforted for her children,
Because they are no more.”  Jeremiah 31:15;  Matthew 2:18

***

In Genesis, Rachel dies giving birth while on the road to Bethlehem. In the midst of her suffering, the midwife tries to comfort her with the news that she is having another son. In this way, her child is both her cause of weeping and her hope for the future.

In Jeremiah’s day, Rachel weeps over her children once more, this time because they are being led into captivity and exile near the very spot where she is buried. She is then comforted with the promise that her children will return. Once again, her offspring are both her cause of weeping and her hope for the future.

In Matthew’s day, Rachel weeps yet again: this time over the slaughter of the children at Bethlehem. No words of comfort are given her in Matthew, but the very next verse speaks of Herod’s death and the return of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus to the land of Israel. Just as in Jeremiah’s day, the situation seems bleak, but the hope of salvation lives on.

David Lang, https://www.accordancebible.com/Why-Is-Rachel-Weeping-At-Ramah-Part-3

This is not the time for words of comfort.  This is not the time for comfort.

This is the time for anguish.  For weeping.  To refuse to be comforted.

Nor is it the time to lash out.  To respond with hatred, vitriol or vile.

This is the time for lament.  For sorrow.  For grief.  To suffer loss.

Lament does not want answers.  Lament has no capacity for answers.  All attempts at answers seem cheap, trite, shallow, even if correct, and no matter how well-meaning.  Lament wants only to wail.

So I lament.  I lament the loss of life.  I lament racism, hatred and bigotry.  I lament the utter lack of reasoned, civil discourse.  I lament the blame casting, stereotyping, and accusatory cacophony.  I lament our inability to coexist, let alone constructively engage, with people with whom we disagree.  I lament the misuse of technology and media tools to fracture and attack rather than meaningfully engage.  To build bunkers rather than communities.

The universal instinct is to fight back.  To right wrongs.  Never again.  But will unbridled response, merely passionate response, unfocused response, work?  Will it diminish evil, or add to it?  Increase peace, or hatred and acrimony?

Not to say we are to be complacent in the face of evil.  But that a better response comes from a deeper place.  A place of “gentleness of wisdom.”  Rage begets rage.  We need something better.

¹³ Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.  James 3:13-18

I lament that there are not more peacemakers, and that I have not done more to be one.