This sermon written after the Columbine Shooting incident.

In the first semester of seminary, I remember one of my professors saying something like this: "During your ministry, there will be weeks when your cup overflows with joy and you feel a keen awareness of the presence of God. The sermon will not be quite as difficult to prepare then. In fact, there may even be times when it just seems to write itself, and you are finished with it by midweek and you cannot wait for Sunday to arrive so you can stand before the gathered church and proclaim the glory of God. Preaching will be an absolute joy at those times, and it will feel like the most natural thing in the world to you. There will be other weeks when images of death and destruction seem to appear everywhere you look. A great sadness wi…