Light Shining in a Dark Knight

As I awoke to the news of the massacre that occurred at the opening of “The Dark Night Rises” in Aurora, Colorado, I found myself distressed and saddened on many levels.

As the mother of a teen, a shooting like this strikes too close to home. I cannot imagine waiting for her text asking me to pick her up after the movie and instead getting a call from the police summoning me to the hospital or worse.

As a fifth generation Coloradan, my heart is also breaking for my beloved state. Already devastated by wildfires this summer, they now face this horror. Of course, an event like this would shock and disturb no matter where it happened, but when it happens in a place you call (or used to call) home, there is no longer any place to left hide. There is no way to continue to pretend that such tragedies will never strike us. If they can happen there, they can happen anywhere.

However, it is as a Christian and as a pastor that I find myself the most deeply touched. People often ask where God was at times like these. I am convinced that God was in that theater when James Holmes walked in, just as God was in our own Kirkwood Courthouse in 2008 and in the cockpit of flights 11, 175, 77 and 93 on 9/11. God did not cause these tragedies, nor, sadly, did God stop them, but God will redeem them. Paul writes in Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Notice, Paul doesn’t claim that all things are good. No one could call what happened in the Century Theaters good. It was terrifying. It was horrific. It was evil.  However, it is not more powerful than God. God offers to create something new, something good, something hopeful out of even our darkest nights and out of the harshest realities of life.

When James Holmes first entered the theater, most of the audience thought he was part of the entertainment. Then he opened fire and the darkness surrounded them. But darkness was not the only thing to rise up in that theater that night. Light also rose. Jesus, at the beginning of John’s gospel, is described as light and life stronger than any darkness or force of death. “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5, NRSV)  God is present, the love of Christ reaches out and the Holy Spirit is at work. God is working good even in the face of evil. A dark knight may rise, but even in the midst of the darkness, a light shines. Thanks be to God.