One more time we face the question: why? Why did a young man make a bomb and blow up a building? Why did he then take a gun and kill and wound people? Why is destroying property or killing or wounding someone else the perceived answer to our frustration, despair, loneliness or hatred?
One more time we face the question: how? How do we respond to an action that makes no sense to us? We know how to pray for those killed and those wounded, but how do we pray for the young man and for his family?
One more time we face the question: what? What are we, thousands of miles away called to do in response? Shrug our shoulders and say “that’s too bad”? Be secretly glad it wasn’t us this time?
Our responses and reactions can seem pretty shallow to this life-changing event. What was once perceived as a safe place to live and to visit is not quite so much, anymore. Is anyplace safe anymore?
Our initial response that this must have been the work of extremist Islamists says something interesting about our standard “bad guy” today. To have the initial reports suggesting the bombing and the shootings were the work was of a single Christian conservative man is shocking to many. Hatred, regardless of ideology – right or left- is evil. Hatred which leads to action against others is evil.
Does the Bible give us any answer to these and other questions as we reflect on the events in Oslo and at the youth summer camp last week? The very fact that we’re here today means the answer to that question is: yes.
The Collect acknowledges that God is the protector of all who trust in God and that only in God do we have strength. We are dependent upon God’s mercy to pass through the things of this life without losing the hope of and for eternal life. When events like this happen, it can be hard for us to live a life in response to the commandment of Jesus that we love one another. We want answers that don’t seem to be forthcoming. We want to blame someone for not following up on the purchase of 6 tons of fertilizer when we know that fertilizer is a prime component in bombs. We are uncomfortable believing that evil exists in our 21st century world.
The shortest verse in the Bible is “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Jesus is weeping over the bombing and shootings in Norway. Jesus is weeping with the families of those killed. With those wounded and their families. And, Jesus is weeping with the alleged bomber and shooter and his family, too. This tragedy was not caused by God nor sent by God. Evil exists in our broken world.
One more time, we face the question: how do we live in such a broken world? What does scripture tell us at times like this? N.T. Wright, Bishop of Durham, England, in his book Simply Christian [(San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2006), 187] says that living with the authority of scripture “means we are called to be people who learn to hear God’s voice speaking today within the ancient text, and who become vessels of that living word in the world around us.”
If you recall one thing from reading the Bible, it is that life is not, as Erma Bombeck once said, a bowl of cherries. Life is tough. God is God and we are not. God does not always answer our prayers in the way we wish. The rock of scripture, the rock of tradition, the rock of the Christian community. Each of these can provide support when our world is shaken. When “bad things happen to good people.” Empty-headed, empty hearted, attendance at worship gives God no pleasure. Faithfulness is measured by acknowledgment of God’s love for us. But after that acknowledgment of God’s love for us, outward witness is critical. Faithful proclamation flows from a genuine relationship with God. A genuine relationship requires that one trusts the other. Trusting God when life appears to have gone very wrong can be hard.
Paul, in his letter to the church at Rome, and in particular in the readings from Chapter 8 today, pleads with them – and with us- to trust in the goodness and the mercy of God, and most especially when life appears to be out of control. Verse 26, which opens our reading this week is translated in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible as: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” There are other translations that are perhaps better, especially in times like these. Among them: “We know that in all things God works for good.” We may not know how. We may not know why. We may not know when other than it doesn’t appear to be right now!
God is acting, though, not a removed spectator. God is present even when we do not know how or why or what. However, this past week is one where I imagine even God might be saying: “maybe the deist philosophy has merit.” Deists, generally, believe that there is a creator, a god, and that the universe was created by god. However, once god created the universe and all living things, god decamped and is off doing something else. God is not active in the world-much like a clockmaker who winds up the clock but then goes about other business without further thought or checking up on the clock until it is time to be wound again. A God standing far off, perhaps not even aware of what has happened and the lives irrevocably changed by one man’s act – one man’s apparent hatred for others. This isn’t the God that Paul sets before us.
The end of chapter 8 is often read at funerals and can bring much comfort: For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (8:38-39). Nothing can separate us from God. We may have times when we don’t feel God’s presence in our life. We may have times when we are really mad at God for things that happen. But God is present regardless. Paul’s own experiences told him so and he told the church at Rome and he tells us today.
In our prayers each week, we ask that God be made known to all those who are in any kind of trouble, who feel themselves lost, alone or in despair. We pray this because we believe in the midst of things we cannot understand. We pray for the forgiveness of sins both ours and those of others. We pray for forgiveness for things done and for things undone. And we trust in the communion of saints and in the resurrection to life everlasting. Sometimes, going on in the face of what we have no ability to change, in the face of deep grief and loss, is what God sets before us.
MKW Heicher tells this story and offers us this advice [ in Carol M. Noren In Times of Crisis and Sorrow (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2001), 174-175]: Up in the highlands of Scotland, a little group of people were talking about heroism; They were saying that everybody had sooner or later to practice some kind of heroism. A young man turned to an old woman; She looked so ordinary and so serene. He did not know that life had been for her a series of tragic things. ‘And what kind of heroism do you practice? he said with an obvious air of thinking that he did not believe there could be any heroism in a life like hers. ‘I’ she said. I practice the heroism of going on.’ There is great need for us, especially at certain times, to practice the ‘heroism of going on.’
Go on in faith. Go on in love. Go on in hope. And know that God is with you. Amen.
Share