My friends in Christ,
I am sitting in Zale Lipshy Hospital with Marlane, my wife (so far three days during this stay), awaiting a healing of her neck pain and arm numbness that she has suffered for the past five weeks. It’s been a tough ordeal for her especially since she has a high threshold of pain. I know that I would be curled up in the fetal position, whimpering, and wanting to be sedated to the maximum possible, but not the case for Marlane.
As we await the new procedure – injection of steroid into her spine, and the known associated risks of internal bleeding, infection, and paralysis – I am reminded of Psalm 46:1-5 in The Message:
God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in sea storm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains. Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, GOD of angel armies protects us.
River fountains splash joy, cooling God's city, this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe, God at your service from crack of dawn.
Oh how important it is to know and remember and proclaim that God is ever present within our storms. As the song “Praise You in the Storm” recorded by Casting Crowns states:
Praise You in This Storm
words by Mark Hall/music by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms
I was sure by now, God,
You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain, "I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God
who gives and takes away.
Chorus:
And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm
Marlane and I have shed many tears in this storm and we are saying our Amens. It is my hope that you can do the same. Also, even in the moments when we seem to not be able to praise Him in the storm, we know we have the rest of the Body of Christ to do the praising for us. Lord, thanks for catching our tears and being a safe place to hide. Amen…again, again, and again!!!!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
what do we make of it
My friends:
It's been some time since I wrote in this blog. And here it is the week of the masaccre at Virginia Tech. Listening to the testimony of Mr. Ryan Clark of his giving heart and smile that could make everyone smile. Ryan was a senior with a 4.0 GPA, three majors, and pursuing a PhD. He gave his life to his fellow students and gave to children at Camp Big Heart, reaching out to those special needs campers. Ryan gave his life when he encountered the gunman in his dorm. He gave his life but it is so raw and so hard to deal with such a tragedy.
I know that many of us are affected by such an incident and we all want to go into lockdown. I am especially aware of those of you who have you children away at college, hoping it is a safe environment, wanting to bring them home, and yet, know they need to remain at school. I am keenly aware of those of you from my generation who are having flashbacks concerning similar incidents on our college campuses. It just doesn't make sense and we are all crying out in some way, "WHY?"
I believe it appropriate to share some encouraging thoughts from Timothy Merrill, executive editor of Homiletics.
GOD LEFT THIS PLACE A LONG TIME AGO
What happened at Virginia Tech was very technical, methodical, very precise.
But the aftermath was anything but. It was very human, very non-technical, very passionate.
Henry Brinton, Senior Minister at Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Virginia, and past Senior Writer for Homiletics and still a regular contributor, says that his congregation has seven VT students-all unharmed-and a number of VT grads among their members. They are shocked.
And so are we.
T.S. Eliot said in The Wasteland that "April is the cruelest month, breeding/ lilacs out of the dead land."
It would appear he's right. This incident occurs within days of the 8th anniversary of Columbine. We couldn't have imagined that after Columbine we'd be pulling dead bodies out of the dead Blacksburg ground yet again and in such awful numbers.
There's a scene from the Oscar-nominated film of last year, Blood Diamond that's provocative. The movie is set in 1999 Sierra Leone while a civil war rages fueled by conflict diamonds which are sold to pay for weapons. Leonardo DeCaprio plays Danny Archer, the anti-hero, a mercenary with something of a conscience, who-along with good guys and bad guys-is hunting for this huge pink diamond. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) meanwhile, is leveling entire villages, chopping off the hands of some so they can't vote in elections, and snatching young boys to become soldiers in the rebel army.
In a quiet moment of reflection while mayhem explodes around them, Danny Archer chats with a journalist, Maddy Bowen, and reveals that his "Mum was raped and shot and . Dad was decapitated and hung from a hook in the barn. Sometimes I wonder . will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realize. God left this place a long time ago."
When events like the carnage at VT happen, it shatters our peace, it intrudes upon our consciousness, it interrupts and irritates and saddens and shocks, and we wonder if indeed God hasn't left this place a long time ago.
To get at this question, let's go over a few things:
1. WHY ARE WE SURPRISED?
One online media resource splashed the word WHY? over the web page pictures of the horror. The bigger question is "Why not?" Why wouldn't this sort of thing happen from time to time in our culture?
It's happened before: Columbine, which was followed by other schoolyard shootings in subsequent years around the country. Amish country last fall, postal shootings, workplace violence, the McDonalds massacre a number of years ago, the Texas clock tower murders of 16 passersby by Charles Whitman, the Manson murders, and more.
Judy Muller on NPR's "Morning Edition" (it will be on their web site later today once they have cycled through their West Coast broadcasts) recalled a remark made to her following the Columbine shootings. A woman at the 'makeshift memorial' of flowers and teddy bears that appeared almost immediately said, "The really sad thing is that we already know what to do." Muller went on to talk about all the public rituals and so forth that we now know must follow such events. We've done it before. We've buried our children.
2. IN THE AFTERMATH OF THIS VIOLENCE, WE CAN EMPATHIZE WITH OTHERS WHO LIVE WITH VIOLENCE EVERY DAY.
Not to minimize, but to place in perspective, consider those who live with violence that even exceeds what happened in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Monday. In Baghdad, the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, the West Bank, Darfur, the Sudan, and elsewhere, children of God suffer and die on a daily basis in human-generated violence.
3. WE CAN'T SHIELD OURSELVES IN ANY ABSOLUTE SENSE FROM RISK.
Americans, perhaps more than any other people in the world, are a risk-adverse people. We try to protect ourselves from EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING. You can review the examples-some ridiculous-here. This impulse tends to overlook the luxury of being able to protect ourselves from what are sometimes innocuous dangers-compared to the real horrors we too frequently ignore or to which we turn a blind eye-that our fellow human beings endure incessantly.
4. PARENTS ARE THE POWER.
We must remind our parents that they HAVE THE POWER. We must ask fathers to be men and develop a spine and backbone. We ask parents to love each other and to love their children, even if that means saying NO to them-and believe me, it does.
Granted, some psychos and cold-blooded killers come from good homes and loving parents. Some people are born without a conscience, and others, for reasons we don't really understand, manage to bury it, despite loving homes.
Yet nurture IS an important component. This is an opportunity, not to blame parents, but to empower parents to be: PARENTS. The Virginia Tech shooter was a student from Centreville, Virginia, just a few miles from Brinton's church. "It appears that he was the classic loner-a mystery to everyone," says Brinton. "Parents are not doing their jobs when they allow their children to withdraw from a community of support and accountability."
5. WHAT WOULD JESUS HAVE US DO NOW?
The answer to this question is in the Gospel [John 21:1-19] text for this Sunday.
It's Eastertide. If you're feeling like "God left this place a long time ago," you're right. It's Eastertide. The tomb is empty. He left THAT place, only to visit us in a NEW PLACE.
The opening verse of the Gospel reading says that "Jesus showed himself again to his disciples."
THAT'S what Jesus wants to do this Sunday morning with your congregation: To show himself again to his disciples. The text goes on to say, "And he showed himself in this way."
So WHAT WAY is Jesus going to show himself to us?
Peter's response in verse three is to say, "I'm going fishing."
That's often what we do in situations like this. We simply want to get back to what we were doing before: fishing or shopping.
Jesus says, "Feed my sheep."
That's all we can do right now. But is there anything else?
But we're called to be feeders. Henry Brinton is working with his staff to gather Virginia Tech students, along with their families and friends, for an evening of conversation and prayer. It's so important to respond to these events as a community and to look for where God is at work and to look for where God is at work in the aftermath of violence and death. "We need to affirm that God always gives the gift of new life," he says, "and that God can reclaim Virginia Tech as a place for kids to grow in knowledge and faith."
God has left the tomb already, and God is with us now. Amen.
There will be a special time of remembrance this Sunday for the victims of Virginia Tech and for our lives and society at all three worship services. Jesus is Resurrected!
Grace and peace,
Jack
It's been some time since I wrote in this blog. And here it is the week of the masaccre at Virginia Tech. Listening to the testimony of Mr. Ryan Clark of his giving heart and smile that could make everyone smile. Ryan was a senior with a 4.0 GPA, three majors, and pursuing a PhD. He gave his life to his fellow students and gave to children at Camp Big Heart, reaching out to those special needs campers. Ryan gave his life when he encountered the gunman in his dorm. He gave his life but it is so raw and so hard to deal with such a tragedy.
I know that many of us are affected by such an incident and we all want to go into lockdown. I am especially aware of those of you who have you children away at college, hoping it is a safe environment, wanting to bring them home, and yet, know they need to remain at school. I am keenly aware of those of you from my generation who are having flashbacks concerning similar incidents on our college campuses. It just doesn't make sense and we are all crying out in some way, "WHY?"
I believe it appropriate to share some encouraging thoughts from Timothy Merrill, executive editor of Homiletics.
GOD LEFT THIS PLACE A LONG TIME AGO
What happened at Virginia Tech was very technical, methodical, very precise.
But the aftermath was anything but. It was very human, very non-technical, very passionate.
Henry Brinton, Senior Minister at Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Virginia, and past Senior Writer for Homiletics and still a regular contributor, says that his congregation has seven VT students-all unharmed-and a number of VT grads among their members. They are shocked.
And so are we.
T.S. Eliot said in The Wasteland that "April is the cruelest month, breeding/ lilacs out of the dead land."
It would appear he's right. This incident occurs within days of the 8th anniversary of Columbine. We couldn't have imagined that after Columbine we'd be pulling dead bodies out of the dead Blacksburg ground yet again and in such awful numbers.
There's a scene from the Oscar-nominated film of last year, Blood Diamond that's provocative. The movie is set in 1999 Sierra Leone while a civil war rages fueled by conflict diamonds which are sold to pay for weapons. Leonardo DeCaprio plays Danny Archer, the anti-hero, a mercenary with something of a conscience, who-along with good guys and bad guys-is hunting for this huge pink diamond. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) meanwhile, is leveling entire villages, chopping off the hands of some so they can't vote in elections, and snatching young boys to become soldiers in the rebel army.
In a quiet moment of reflection while mayhem explodes around them, Danny Archer chats with a journalist, Maddy Bowen, and reveals that his "Mum was raped and shot and . Dad was decapitated and hung from a hook in the barn. Sometimes I wonder . will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realize. God left this place a long time ago."
When events like the carnage at VT happen, it shatters our peace, it intrudes upon our consciousness, it interrupts and irritates and saddens and shocks, and we wonder if indeed God hasn't left this place a long time ago.
To get at this question, let's go over a few things:
1. WHY ARE WE SURPRISED?
One online media resource splashed the word WHY? over the web page pictures of the horror. The bigger question is "Why not?" Why wouldn't this sort of thing happen from time to time in our culture?
It's happened before: Columbine, which was followed by other schoolyard shootings in subsequent years around the country. Amish country last fall, postal shootings, workplace violence, the McDonalds massacre a number of years ago, the Texas clock tower murders of 16 passersby by Charles Whitman, the Manson murders, and more.
Judy Muller on NPR's "Morning Edition" (it will be on their web site later today once they have cycled through their West Coast broadcasts) recalled a remark made to her following the Columbine shootings. A woman at the 'makeshift memorial' of flowers and teddy bears that appeared almost immediately said, "The really sad thing is that we already know what to do." Muller went on to talk about all the public rituals and so forth that we now know must follow such events. We've done it before. We've buried our children.
2. IN THE AFTERMATH OF THIS VIOLENCE, WE CAN EMPATHIZE WITH OTHERS WHO LIVE WITH VIOLENCE EVERY DAY.
Not to minimize, but to place in perspective, consider those who live with violence that even exceeds what happened in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Monday. In Baghdad, the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, the West Bank, Darfur, the Sudan, and elsewhere, children of God suffer and die on a daily basis in human-generated violence.
3. WE CAN'T SHIELD OURSELVES IN ANY ABSOLUTE SENSE FROM RISK.
Americans, perhaps more than any other people in the world, are a risk-adverse people. We try to protect ourselves from EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING. You can review the examples-some ridiculous-here. This impulse tends to overlook the luxury of being able to protect ourselves from what are sometimes innocuous dangers-compared to the real horrors we too frequently ignore or to which we turn a blind eye-that our fellow human beings endure incessantly.
4. PARENTS ARE THE POWER.
We must remind our parents that they HAVE THE POWER. We must ask fathers to be men and develop a spine and backbone. We ask parents to love each other and to love their children, even if that means saying NO to them-and believe me, it does.
Granted, some psychos and cold-blooded killers come from good homes and loving parents. Some people are born without a conscience, and others, for reasons we don't really understand, manage to bury it, despite loving homes.
Yet nurture IS an important component. This is an opportunity, not to blame parents, but to empower parents to be: PARENTS. The Virginia Tech shooter was a student from Centreville, Virginia, just a few miles from Brinton's church. "It appears that he was the classic loner-a mystery to everyone," says Brinton. "Parents are not doing their jobs when they allow their children to withdraw from a community of support and accountability."
5. WHAT WOULD JESUS HAVE US DO NOW?
The answer to this question is in the Gospel [John 21:1-19] text for this Sunday.
It's Eastertide. If you're feeling like "God left this place a long time ago," you're right. It's Eastertide. The tomb is empty. He left THAT place, only to visit us in a NEW PLACE.
The opening verse of the Gospel reading says that "Jesus showed himself again to his disciples."
THAT'S what Jesus wants to do this Sunday morning with your congregation: To show himself again to his disciples. The text goes on to say, "And he showed himself in this way."
So WHAT WAY is Jesus going to show himself to us?
Peter's response in verse three is to say, "I'm going fishing."
That's often what we do in situations like this. We simply want to get back to what we were doing before: fishing or shopping.
Jesus says, "Feed my sheep."
That's all we can do right now. But is there anything else?
But we're called to be feeders. Henry Brinton is working with his staff to gather Virginia Tech students, along with their families and friends, for an evening of conversation and prayer. It's so important to respond to these events as a community and to look for where God is at work and to look for where God is at work in the aftermath of violence and death. "We need to affirm that God always gives the gift of new life," he says, "and that God can reclaim Virginia Tech as a place for kids to grow in knowledge and faith."
God has left the tomb already, and God is with us now. Amen.
There will be a special time of remembrance this Sunday for the victims of Virginia Tech and for our lives and society at all three worship services. Jesus is Resurrected!
Grace and peace,
Jack
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