Last night our church building was packed with people,  gathered to celebrate the birth of Jesus. While our evening was filled with laughter and joy and praise, what we didn’t know at the time was that a massacre was unfolding at Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Thousands of Jewish Sydneysiders gathered at Bondi Beach to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. As they welcomed the festival of light, darkness descended as two men dressed in black opened fire.

15 people are now dead, with dozens injured, including 2 police. One of the gunmen is also dead, and his accomplice is critically injured. Police and the NSW Government were quick to announce this as an attack on Jewish people and an act of terrorism. 

I am shaken. I am profoundly saddened. What has become of this nation?

I am angry, really angry. Damn those men to hell. Damn those who cultivate and stir hatred toward Jewish people, and those who excuse growing anti-Semitism in Australia.

Can we say that  Australia is safe for Jewish people? If the answer wasn’t already tenuous, after last night’s terror, it is difficult to say yes.

Melbourne this year has borne witness to Neo-Nazis leading marches through our city streets. A prominent Neo-Nazi has addressed crowds in public. Arson at Melbourne’s Addas Israel Synagogue saw the building severely damaged 12 months ago. Jewish Aussies are regularly subjected to anti-semitic graffiti and verbal attacks on the streets. 

To suggest Australia is safe for Jews rings hollow. It is too our shame.

Stories of heroics are slowly emerging. It needs to be said, given the likely identity of the gunmen, that one hero who emerged last night was a Muslim man who ran and tackled one of the gunmen, almost certainly preventing further loss of life. He in turn was shot twice and is now in hospital.

As hundreds of people came together at Mentone Baptist Church last night, we focused on the God who came. I talked about how hurt and harm naturally produce friction and distance. God knows how deeply divided our cities and suburbs have become. Something counterintuitive happened with Jesus; God determined to come closer. When God saw all the evil in this world and all odious motives and words and deeds, instead of walking away as he had every right to do, he came to us.  He came in the most miraculous and vulnerable of ways. The Son of God didn’t come to take away life, but to lay down his own life so that we might gain eternal life. 

The birth of Jesus was accompanied by such bright light, and the scene was also interrupted by a wave of evil and darkness. The Gospel of Matthew records the massacre of the innocents, when Herod chose violence and murdered the young of Bethlehem in his hunt to rid the world of the prophesied one.

Matthew turned to these Scriptures to echo the horror, 

“A voice is heard in Ramah,

    weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children

    and refusing to be comforted,

    because they are no more.”

Today, there is weeping and great mourning in Sydney. This should not be. Why are we not surprised? We are shocked, and yet who is surprised by the blood soaking into the sands of Bondi Beach? Perhaps the location took us by surprise, but our fractured society is losing coherence as we struggle to find something that keeps us together.

Politicians, stop pandering to groups who advocate this bile.

Religious groups,  expose and expel religious preachers who teach this evil.

How long must we watch city streets clogged with protesters shouting obscenities and anti-semitic slurs, all in the name of ‘freedom’.

This isn’t a left or right issue, for the hatred has its horns on both ends. It is a religious issue. It is an ideological issue. It is a heart issue, and evidence suggests we are not equipped to respond. Violence isn’t the solution. Vile social media posts won’t bring about peace and healing. 

The Gospel of John records Jesus attending Hanukkah. While not one of the Festivals instituted in the Bible, this commemoration of the Second Temple’s restoration in the 2nd Century BC, had quickly found a home in the Jewish calendar. It is unsurprising that Jesus, a Jewish man, participated in this Festival of Light (John 10:22).

A light was snuffed out last night at Bondi Beach, and the light has grown dim around Australia. 

Where will we find light to overcome the darkness? Political muscle and social goodwill have some but limited influence. Who can gaze into the soul? Who can outdo evil?

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Pray for the injured. Pray for the hundreds of victims who were present and witnessed last night’s evil. Pray for our emergency services who today continue to work and protect our streets, investigating last night, and attending to the wounded, both the physically and mentally hurt. Pray for our Jewish friends and neighbours. Check in on them. Assure them of our friendship. Pray for them. 

As Hanukkah continues and Christmas approaches, my hope rests in the One about whom it is written, 

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Lord, have mercy. Maranatha