Early this past Monday morning shots rang out on the Samson reserve half an hour north of us. Someone shot at two homes, a couple of hours apart, and while most of the bullets lodged in walls, one of them struck five-year old Ethan Yellowbird in the head while he slept, killing him instantly.

No one has yet been charged with the death, so it would be presumptuous of me to ascribe one cause to this event, but many of those who live in Hobbema believe that Ethan is a casualty of gang violence. Hobbema has the highest per capita concentration of gangs in the country. At one time there were thirteen of them battling for control of the lucrative drug trade pipeline to Fort McMurray. In April 2008, 23 month old Asa Saddleback was also hit by a stray bullet while her family were eating dinner. She survived and made a full recovery, and the shooting mobilized the community. Three hundred joined a march to take back the community. Dozens of volunteers turned out to pull trash out of the bushes, build flower planters and put up new signs. They got local businesses to donate paint and painted over gang graffiti. The community effort, combined with additional police presence, forced national gangs like Redd Alert and Indian Posse to pull out. Even so drive by shootings are common on the reserve and there are an average of 800 attacks on people every year.

In honour of Ethan and his family and all those affected by gang violence, I thought I would talk today about gangs, about the hunger for honour that finds expression in gang activity, and about the church's role in meeting that hunger in a more responsible way.

Gangs are not a new problem. One of the biblical judges, Jephthah by name, was the leader of a gang of outlaws that raided the area of Tob, east of the Jordan River in what is now Syria. Jephthah, the story goes, was the son of Gilead, but his mother was a woman of poor reputation, and so he was illegitimate. In earlier times, there were harsher words to describe his situation, but I won't repeat them here. Gilead had other, legitimate sons, born to Gilead's legal wife, and when they came of age, his half-brothers drive him away. Illegitimate and rejected, Jephthah earns a reputation as a mighty warrior, and outlaws gather around him. They form a gang.

Today, we tend to use the word gang to refer to groups of adolescents who are engaged in criminal activity, but gangs are the extreme end of a continuum that starts with school cliques who define themselves as a group with clear boundaries and exclude outsiders. There are gangs in nearly every city over 200,000 and many smaller ones as well. Gang members are most commonly youth and young adult, but range in age from ten years old to early forties. Gang members come from many ethnic and socio-economic groups, but often define themselves on racial lines. Affluent gangs from the suburbs tend to be racist skinheads or neo-Nazi groups and engage in hate violence against non-white individuals, but they don't usually last more than two years because teen members disperse when they reach college age. Poor gangs tend to be focused on a specific neighborhood but occasionally will develop networks of gangs in different cities and even across borders.

People join and leave gangs for a variety of reasons, but base their decisions on rational calculations of what they think is best for them given their situation. What seems most common is that gangs are a means of gaining respect for young people who have experienced shame, dishonor, disgrace or humiliation. People join gangs because they receive little respect and are hungry for honour. Most affluent people from racially dominant groups have other means of gaining respect and honour. It is those who are continually disrespected for being poor or native, or black or Asian, who are most attracted to gangs. It is people who experience overwhelming shame who feel the need to assert their dignity by violent means.

One scholar asked male prison inmates why they had assaulted someone, and found that the answer was pretty consistent: "Because he disrespected me." The scholar asked a usually inarticulate prisoner what he wanted so badly that he would sacrifice everything else in order to get it. The inmate was confident in his response: "Pride, dignity, self-esteem… my life ain't worth nothin' if I take somebody disrespecting me." People living with overwhelming shame have a sense that they are viewed as nobody, that they are viewed by others as little more than insects. For such people, acts of violence provide an alternative means of gaining respect.

Kody Scott was a Los Angeles gang member who looking back on years of gang life and prison, wrote his autobiography. When he was thirteen, a man he was mugging tried to escape, and Kody stomped him for twenty minutes, putting him in a coma and causing permanent disfigurement. Police at the scene said that whoever had done that was a monster, so Kody took "Monster" as a moniker. He took respect from being known as Monster. But as Monster, he had to live up to that name, becoming ever more vicious. The purpose of being a gang member is to develop a reputation, both for yourself and for your gang. Kody Scott was thirsty for a reputation, and the reputation he developed was that of Monster. His reputation grew with every act of violence, every gun that his gang acquired, and everytime he successfully recruited another gang member. And as his reputation grew, he was viewed by others in the gang with greater and greater respect.

Respect and honour are often perceived as scarce. The more respect a rival has, the less I can have, so there is a constant struggle for honour. That is true in many spheres of life, from the struggle for advancement in the corporate world to the friendly competition to have the best lawn, the nicest house and the best Christmas display in the neighborhood. Among people dealing with overwhelming shame, the struggle for honour can become desperate, and violent.

Violence, of course, is a lousy way to gain respect. While gang members may gain respect among their own gang for their violence, the violence leads the rest of society to look upon them with contempt, and leaves the perpetrators of violence with troubled consciences and traumatic stress. So the very acts that increase their stature within the gang, also increase their sense of shame.

In the story from the book of Judges, Jephthah has reached the pinnacle of his gang of outlaws. Rejected by his brothers and cast out from his community, his shame has led him to be known as a mighty warrior, a monster with a reputation for violence. But there comes a time when the community needs someone who is good at violence to protect them from the violent onslaught of their enemies, and so the community eats humble pie and goes on bended knee begging for the help of the very one they had cast out. They had rejected him, but now they need him. They need to restore him to the community. They need to help him find a way to move from shame to respect, from the rejected to the accepted, from a nobody to somebody, from humiliation to honour.

In the same way, we need to find ways to restore the shamed youth of our community. We need to help them to find respect, honour and dignity in ways that do not set them against the community but as constructive members of it. One of the most successful programs combatting gang violence is the cadet corps, which has an average attendance of 200 on an evening. The cadet corps teaches drill, archery, shooting and self-defence, but most of all they teach discipline, which breeds pride and self-reliance.

Does the church have a role here? Can we help young people living with shame to find respect and dignity? Can we offer them an alternative way of developing respect than that of violence? Can we help them see that honour is not scarce, that we can gain honour by serving others even better than by attacking them? Can we reach out to gang members with the good news of an unconditional love? Can we help gang members overcome the shame of poverty and racism with the good news that they are created in God's image, that they are God's beloved children? Can we see beyond the swagger and veneer of rage to see a fragile child struggling for respect in a society that treats native children and poor children as little better than insects?

Is there a role for our youth ministry to reach out beyond the kids of our own congregation to those others who need the good news of God's love? I think there is. But it will not be easy. It cannot be just words. Like the Cadet Corps in Hobbema, like the Boy Scout program and the Girl Guide program, it has to involve kids in learning life skills and building relationships. It will take imagination and patience and perseverance.

And it will not be without failure. Let me illustrate what I mean by coming back to the story of Jepthah Even after his restoration to the community, even after he had achieved a place of honour and respect, Jephthah still carried demons from his violent past. He made a rash vow, that if he was successful against the Ammonites he would sacrifice whatever first came out of the door of his house on his return, as a burnt offering. Perhaps there were chickens and ducks and geese and goats that went in and out of that door all day long. But when he came home after his victory, it was his daughter, his only child who came rushing out to meet him, dancing around him in her joy at his safe return. And his honour required him to keep his vow. The restoration of gang members to constructive members of the community will not be easy and it will not be without pain. The only thing we know for sure is that the restoration of those children of God who respond to rejection and shame with violence will require a grace that goes beyond human generosity and a power that goes beyond human strength. It will require the transforming power of God's amazing grace. Let's sing of that grace now.