Sermon: Preparing for Tragedy

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Preparing for Tragedy

By Charles Rush

February 25, 2007

[ Audio (mp3, 5.8Mb) ]

u recall that on September 11th, we were all engulfed in mass confusion. There was a lot happening, different commentators giving assessments of the broader picture, mostly giving voice to a profound uncertainty. And then, the people that you needed to call you couldn't get through to. As we later learned, the backup phone system for the World Trade Towers was located in the basement of Tower #7 I believe which also went caput. And cell phones were disrupted.

The following Thanksgiving, we had a family reunion. At the time, some of my kids were at home, some were at college. And we had a discussion about what we should do the next time. My kids thought we should have a default plan, so that if there was some kind of nuclear bomb that went off in Manhattan, even if we couldn't reach one another by phone, we would all just know that we would drive to a retreat house in Western New Jersey.

What strikes me today is that this discussion wasn't really an 'if' but 'when'. Today, some of my kids live downtown and more probably will soon. We never did put that plan into action. We probably should. It is interesting, how emotionally difficult it really is for most of us to prepare for tragedy.

Almost invariably, when catastrophe happens, you have the TV anchor people wondering with a tone of moral earnestness why more wasn't done in advance to prepare for the worst. But in our personal lives, the vast majority of us really don't plan like that. We would just rather not think about the possibility.

I think that at it's profoundest level, this is what the season of Lent is all about. It builds into the year, a time to reflect on the spiritual resources that will be necessary for us to deal with the inevitable tragedy that will strike all of us.

One of the most persistent questions that I get asked as a Minister is why bad things happen to good people? Why can't our faith protect us somehow? What is wrong with God that He lets the world be like it is?

I am not in the business of defending the Almighty. I just make introductions and let you take it from there. I, too, have some substantive questions that have not been satisfactorily answered. It seems to me obvious that you can have a relationship with the Almighty and still be very angry with God.

I think of the psalms that bitterly complain about this. Psalm 140:

"Deliver me, O lord from evildoers; protect me from those who are violent, who plan evil things in their minds and continually stir up wars. Their tongue is sharp like a snake and they have the venom of a viper. Guard me from the wicked; protect me from those that are planning my downfall. For these arrogant one have hidden a trap for me and set snares along the road. Do not grant the desires of the evil or further their plot." In other words, why is it that these bastards always seem to win? The psalmist goes on to remind God, as though God needs reminding, that God is supposed to execute justice for the poor and the righteous.

God clearly needs some reminding because God is not doing his job. Why is it that some people who run hedge funds make more money than whole 3rd world nations? Why is it that artists barely afford housing and have to have second jobs? Why is it loud mouthed jerks like Latrell Sprewell make millions a year playing a game -basketball-while our soldiers are laying their lives on the line every day and don't even have proper equipment to protect themselves?

I suspect that many of you think about these things alone in your conscience, and we should because almost all of us gathered here have way more perq's than we. The world is not a just place. Ultimately, I suppose we should blame God, but for more immediate response for questions of social injustice, we might consult those responsible for creating and sustaining the social order as it is-we might talk to the Partners and the Managing Directors of the Banks, the Board of Directors of our corporations, sports franchise owners, our elected officials, and the guy in the mirror… about why perquisites are doled out the way they are.

Beyond the social inequities of the civil order, life remains random. This is why the book of Job is in the center of the Bible. Some kids get cancers that cut their life tragically short for no apparent reason. Great people get hit by cars and die. Tornadoes rip through the countryside in the middle of the night. Tsunami's just smash the whole coast.

Job loses his house and his farm to drought. His kids all get sick and die. He even gets boils on his buttocks so that he can't even sit down without pain. That is a little Biblical dark humor. Job looks up to the heavens and says, "Hey God, what did I do to deserve this?" Of course the answer is nothing. Job has a right to be angry at the structure of the universe for his suffering. Clearly, it is okay to be angry at God when pestilence hits you directly.

Even Jesus, after he was unjustly arrested, after the Romans beat him to a pulp and made him carry his own cross, said, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

We have these assuring passages in the bible, like Pslam 121 that says "Mine eyes look to the hills from whence cometh my help. My trust is in God who has made heaven and earth. He who keeps you, will watch over you. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. He will keep your going out and your coming in from this day forward."

Or Psalm 23, "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." There is a profound power of God that is with us in danger, distress, in death.

But whatever that may mean, it does not mean that we are exempt from the random suffering that is inherent in our world. Of all people, we Christians ought to be fairly realistic about this. We are disciples of a guy that was killed for trying to do the right thing. Not just killed but crucified. The Romans actually sat around and tried to figure out the most painful, slow, horrible death they could inflict on revolutionaries and this is what they came up with. None of us would go through this.

And in our Christian art, this theme is developed around Jesus and the Madonna, there is regularly a subtle hint at his destiny towards suffering and death. In Leonardo's depiction of the Madonna with child, Jesus is about 1 1/2. His beautiful young mother is holding him playfully. He has in his hand a spindle that mothers across Italy used to spool wool. The spindle is a great play toy and Jesus is twisting it playfully like a toddler would. And as he does, it makes the outline of a cross. There is this tiny foreshadowing of the destiny that awaits him. Even as we celebrate the wonder of the birth of a baby who intends salvation, we must look forward also to the unjust suffering that is the end of the story.

In the gospel of Matthew we get this foreshadowing with the story of the wisemen, a very Roman story. When Herod finds out that the Messiah might have been born in Bethlehem, he sends a legion of soldiers to kill every child in the region. It was a wanton imperial ruthlessness which fit his reputation. These two peasant teens and their baby escape under the kind of providential miraculous intervention of the divine that seems to accompany genuine movements of God, where the powerless and the poor evade being crushed by evil power. But make no mistake, evil power is all around us and intends us harm. Occasionally, organized power is unable to be effective, despite it's overwhelming advantage… Occasionally… But in our story, the Roman Governor gets the last word in pronouncing a death sentence.

Herein lies the real profundity of the season of Lent. We know that we are all going to die. We know that we are going to live through sickness and tragedy in our extended families and with our friends. We know this is the case and Christians hold this up on Ash Wednesday. For 40 days, we build into the year, a chance to focus on that thing in us that needs to be strengthened in order to endure tragedy and come out spiritually whole on the other side.

It is not about giving up something stupid like chocolate because you need to lose a few pounds. It is about focusing on our whole character, and intentionally getting in spiritual shape to deal with hardship, loss, and our own death ultimately.

I just recently turned the corner onto the back stretch of my life. I'm more than half-way done. I've been reflecting on that quite a bit for the past year. Interestingly, three times in that year, I've seen Frigate birds… First time in my life… I took it as something of an omen. You rarely see Frigate's because they are out over the ocean almost all of their lives. Each time I saw them, I was in a very remote place, at the beginning or the end of the day, all alone after a long walk with no one else around. They are majestic and also hauntingly alone.

I got to thinking about how much I've loved life and how much I love the blessings I've been able to share my life with- family, friends, you all. And I was thinking how much more complex the second half is going to be. The first half was all about the future, all about developing a future career, teaching children to become mature. And there is more of that ahead. But it is also going to be more about loss. It is likely to be lonelier. I'm looking up at those birds and I'm thinking that I need to get into that kind of spiritual and physical shape to sail across the ocean for long periods of time… This will be more about being alone. I was thinking that death is one of those things that you may be blessed to be surrounded by family and friends, but ultimately, it is a journey that you make all alone.

This is the hard part. Because the longer you live, the more profoundly that you love, the more difficult it is to let go, the sadder the grief. Grief is the price we pay for the privilege of love.

On one level, there is no way that we can actually prepare for the particular tragedies that befall us. Some of you have lost friends, children even… some of you have lived through some very awful events that were shocking and that still reverberate in your soul. You have wrestled with a demon and you have a spiritual and emotional limp from it that will never entirely be healed it has etched on you that much.

Most every morning, I start my day walking through an AA meeting. The people in AA that get it, get it. Every morning, they meet with their peers, put on their game face, get support from each other, get themselves pointed in the right direction, and work on getting stronger, one day at a time.

Career is important. Success is important. Money is important, no question. But they can pale in comparison to the substantive spiritual challenges of death, tragedy, unjust suffering. A well rounded person is able to respond in all these arenas, not just one or two. Spiritually speaking, we need to be like these Navy Seals that have conditioned themselves on all different fronts to be ready to take on whatever challenge comes at them.

Lent is the time when we can focus on one or two things that we need to make stronger because we know we are going to need to be stronger. 40 days. The tradition comes from the Gospel of Mark. Just after Jesus was baptized, he got a sense of what he was to be about. He must have sensed at the same time how difficult it would be. The first thing he did was go to the desert for 40 days to fast and pray, find those inner resources of character that he would need to be successful. And during that time Satan came and tempted him.

During any serious training, the Adversary comes to tempt us. During any serious training, we come to realize just how weak we really are, how insubstantial our character is when tested. That is part of it. And it is about picking yourself up, enduring that difficult gaze into the mirror, starting again with support from your peers, putting on your game face, getting pointed in the right direction, and working on getting stronger, one day at a time. Amen.