The shocking and terrible event of Rev Clive Newman’s murder, early last week as well as the murders of Andrew Reynolds and Constable Chunyiswa Zamani has hit us very hard.
Each tragedy creates its circle of pain and loss and grief and anger, and for many of us, raises big questions of life and death, good and evil.
The shocking and terrible event of Rev Clive Newman’s murder, early last week as well as the murders of Andrew Reynolds and Constable Chunyiswa Zamani has hit us very hard.
Each tragedy creates its circle of pain and loss and grief and anger, and for many of us, raises big questions of life and death, good and evil.
Our hearts go out to all who have been bereaved and who grieve the untimely death of someone they loved and valued.
People often respond to tragedies such as this with saying "It is God’s will" and "His time had come "or "Jesus took him home."
While we can affirm, wholeheartedly, that Jesus has taken Clive home, it is wrong to say that this violent death at the hands of a murderer was God’s perfect will for Clive.
"For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person…" (Matt 15:19-20). It is not God’s will that a person should commit murder.
It is not God’s will that gangsters should shoot and kill, or that people should oppress or ill treat or harrass others, or that people should die tragically, as, sadly, they do during every holiday season.
What we are experiencing is the effects and the consequences of human sin. We live in a broken, sinful, less than perfect world. At times we see all too clearly the effects of evil.
However, it is this world, with its joys and sorrows, in which we live and into which Jesus Christ was born, in order to save and redeem and heal.
We who have been saved by the love of God are given the grace and strength to reach out- as wounded healers, as signs of God’s love and presence- to bring light and hope.
Tragedy and violence and sorrow do come our way. Terrible things happen to us. But as St Paul reminds us: "We are often troubled, but not crushed; sometimes in doubt, but never in despair; there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed.
At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life also may be seen in our bodies." (2 Cor 4:8-10).
We give thanks for Clive’s life. We know that he is at rest in Jesus. Death cannot separate him, or us, from God’s love: "there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom 8:39).
Dean Andrew Hunter
