Family of God Lutheran Church     ELCA

We all were shocked and horrified when we learned of the assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the attempted murder of John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. I remember getting the alert on my phone at five in the morning to be on guard for a dangerous person of interest in our area. Later that morning, the news of what happened came out and the alert was cancelled mid-afternoon. 

There are many reasons to be horrified at this situation: first of all, the outright violence of a shooting of people in their homes. Second, the assassin was dressed as a police officer. Third, we found out later that the assassin had staked out two other homes of targeted people who fortunately were not home. And fourth, it happened in our neighborhood.

Our neighborhood—Brooklyn Park—now on the national scene as the place where these frightening events happened. It always seems that tragedies like this take place somewhere else. The tragic murder of George Floyd took place in Minneapolis, and that was close enough. Daunte Wright was accidentally killed by a Brooklyn Center police officer and that was way too close. And now this. There are people in our congregation who knew Melissa Hortman, worked in her campaigns, and were neighbors to her. On top of the shock and loss of those affected by the killings, the shootings make us feel like our very neighborhoods are not safe from random violence.

We pray the Lord’s Prayer every worship service. Sometimes when we say things too often, we miss the meaning of what we say. When we say “deliver us from evil,” the original Greek word for evil can also mean “the evil one.” 

Why do these things happen? There is evil in the world, and evil powers. A psychological profile of the killer will reveal some things, but the theological answer to why is that there is evil in the world. We believe God gave us government and law and peace officers to restrain the evil in the world. But on our own we cannot eliminate it. 

At Easter, Jesus’ resurrection began the New Creation, where the old sinful and fallen world is changed into the way God intended it. To be a place of love and joy and peace. God’s kingdom comes one person at a time, and while we suffer from evil in this world, we also pray: “Lord, quickly come.” How a world filled with hunger and war and disease and death is overcome is beyond me to imagine. But God’s promise in the Book of Revelation is that one day God will wipe away all the tears from our eyes. 

Until then we live our lives in Christian hope and love with the aid of the Holy Spirit. We cannot wipe evil completely out of the world, but with changed hearts we can be a part of Jesus’ work—to bring that love and joy and peace to all people. 

Dear Lord, deliver us from evil we pray.

- Pr. Paul Burow