I saw a “vanity plate” on the back of a car the other day:  H8 NO 1, it read.  Hate number one, I thought?  Sounded like a sore loser.  But after working with the code a little more, I figured out its real intent:  “Hate no one.”

Wow.  A pretty cool message to take with you wherever you go…

…especially with all these shootings that are happening.  Aurora, now the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin.  Myriad other shootings before.  Constant violence in Syria.

It makes me so weary.  I preached a sermon after the Aurora movie theater shooting…my congregation is one of the most compassionate groups of people I know.  But I got a sense of weariness from them, too.  Again?  Another sermon on how to respond peacefully or gracefully or compassionately to an act of violence?

Sigh.  When will the violence end?  HOW will the violence end?

I’m sure I’ll keep preaching about compassionate and faithful responses to acts of violence as long as violence exists.  That’s my job, after all.

But I am so grateful for that other preacher, the one in the car with the H8 NO 1 vanity plate.  That’s the more powerful sermon….and he’ll reach a lot more people.