In memorium: Lucas Leonard

All Saints Sunday is fast approaching.  It is a day within the Lutheran tradition (and others as well) that we take a moment to remember those who have joined Jesus in life beyond and those who have joined Jesus in this life as well.  That is, we recognize those who have died and those who have been baptized into the faith.

This year, we approach All Saints Day with the front page news of a church....an avowed Christian Church....who systematically beat a young man until he died....in the name of repentance and, I expect, as a punishment for some sin which he apparently never confessed.

My heart is breaking for the young man, who like the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 was silent before his attackers.  In his memory, I post this passage

The servant grew up before God - 

        a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.

There was nothing attractive about  him,

        nothing to cause us to take a second look

He was looked down on and passed over,

        a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.  

       We looked down on him, thought he was scum

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried -

        our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us

We thought he brought it on himself, 

       that God was punishing him for his own failures

But it was our sins that did that to him, 

       that ripped and tore and crushed him - our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.  

       Through his bruises we get healed.

We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.

       We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, 

                            on him, on him. (Isaiah53.2-6 The Message)

Perhaps you can see why many interpreters apply this description to Jesus, but on that terrible day, it was Lucas Leonard who took the blows that originate in the the great brokenness of this world, the brokenness which lies within each of us.  On that day, Lucas was Jesus among us.

I know Jesus was with him and holds him now, but I deeply wish none of it had happened.  Now, I am left with trusting that Jesus can redeem even this terrible evil, forgiving all.  One day I will need that promise of redemption and forgiveness for myself so today it must be offered to the others.  All the others.  That's Jesus' command to us: to pray for our enemies and forgive those who persecute us.  It's been a difficult week in Upstate NY.