The Means Are The Ends

A sermon by the Very Rev. Bernard J Owens on Palm Sunday April 2023.

If your means are violence, coercion, intimidation, or any other instrument that fails to respect the dignity of every human being, then you will be hard pressed to find any ends that truly justify the means.
Our means – our actions – say far more about our ends than any manifesto or vision statement. Choose your means wisely, then, for they determine not just your path, but your destination.
Suffering cannot just be cut away: we must go through it, we have to walk with one another when they are going through it. If we can’t move towards suffering, then we’ll just push it off onto others, and ultimately make it worse for ourselves.
Live by the sword, die by the sword. Live by the gun, die by the gun, he would say to a nation willing to set human sacrifice on the altar of the second amendment. Six more in Nashville, 3 of them children. How Long, O Lord, How Long?