DISCIPLESHIP: "Time for a Sit-In"

Some time ago, I met an old woman, a disciple.  She'd been confined to a wheelchair for some time, and her eyes were bright with curiosity and hope.  She described to me her own particular witness, her way of shining light in a dimming age: "For many years," she said, "I've called a cab every Monday morning.  It takes me to a gunshop 45 minutes away.  I sit there, with a sign, and ask customers to do the right thing.  I remind them of all this violence.  What they can do to stop it.  And, along the way, just by being there, I insist the shopkeepers do their thing to end the madness."

Isn't time--maybe long past time--for every one of our churches and every one of our synagogues and every one of our mosques to 'adopt' a gunshop (or a sporting goods store or a Walmart or anywhere these terrible weapons are sold)?  What if every one of our communities did this and scheduled a rolling vigil at these businesses?  What if we took our faith to the streets, to the racks where these assault weapons are offering grim satisfaction to lonely, hateful young men?  What if we said: "NO MORE.  NOT IN OUR TOWN."

Would you do that in rural New England?  Would you find such a shop in California's Central Valley?  How about Dallas, Dayton, El Paso?  Find a gunshop in town, make it your mission field?  For too long we've limited our spirited speech to Facebook and Sunday morning pulpits.  Maybe it's time to take it to the streets, to contest the space there.  "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."  Monday morning?