Thursday, December 20, 2012

Facing Evil and Hope

I heard  a report recently  by the BBC about Syria and the devastation it was experiencing due to the war that has been going on there.  The reporter interviewed some refugees who had crossed the border into Turkey.  Most of these people had never experienced anything like this before.  Many of them had jobs, houses and a stable life prior to the war.  Now they were experiencing total instability and loss of both loved ones and all they'd known of normalicy.  These are real people whose lives have suddenly been "thrown to the wind" and who now live in uncertainty and fear.  Not too long afterwords I heard something tragic  that was closer to home.  Young children got to their classrooms and had just settled in for a normal day at school.  Many had thoughts of the Christmas break soon to come.  Others were thinking of gifts they'd get.  Some may even of been thinking of the school subject at hand!  But none were expecting death at the hand of a stranger who came like someone armed for a war.  Twenty of these children died with their expected hopes of the future, of home and of Christmas still in their minds.

It might be likened when your hiking in the mountains and the clouds suddenly blow in and you have no chance to run for cover.  They surround you, envelop you and what was once a bright and lovely day suddenly turns black, fierce and terrible.  These dear children had a couple minutes of warning and then they were enveloped by the blackness of a creature whose purpose was to kill and destroy.  Like a black hole in space, he hated his life and was determined to suck as many into his darkness as he could.  Six heroic teachers gave their lives in this storm of death, trying to save the defenseless.

What do we do when violence becomes increasingly present more and more around us? I've thought of the parents of these little ones who must now endure the holiday and the years ahead in pain, sorrow and a deep emptiness.  The most precious to them has been taken this Christmas season and somehow they must keep going.  I've never felt so sad and emotional for any news report in all my life as I have for this one.  Repeatedly tears came to my eyes when I heard of the events of this story from a small, "safe" town in Connecticut.  We  are suddenly faced with the stark reality that this black cloud that has so long permeated other countries through war and crisis, is over us too.   The chill of fear and despair that so many people today feel needs to be talked about.  It touches all of us, similar to a country at war where no one feels safe.

There are the policy issues that loom like easy access to guns, the crisis in mental health and health care in general. Our culture is one that entertains itself watching violence.  I participate in this. And there is our history and the way we took this land long ago, and things that have born fruit as a result. Each of these things need looked at.  I think that our history and current identity is a larger issue than we might think and needs to be discussed. 

But we must not forget those we've lost and those who must try to carry on.  Perhaps some of the answers will come when we just stop and allow ourselves to feel?  Allow ourselves to ask the Giver of life why. I confess that we in the church too many times just give shallow answers and put a happy face on things so we don't have to weep with those who weep.  I don't know the answers, but I don't think that our optimism and pragmatism solve things. Nor does our technology. Distractions can't blot out what has happened and is happening around us.  We need and must feel the pain and sorrow and bleakness.  We must not simply "move on"  because in moving on we are simply ignoring the blackness and pretending it will just go away.  We must move beyond this thinking and be mature.  Evil doesn't just go away.   In facing uncertainty, fear and instability we can realize that  all our vast resources and strengths cannot deal with what is upon us now.  When we can acknowledge the truth that this thing is bigger than us, we'll see that our hands are empty.

In our emptiness, and sorrow and pain God can speak.  The God of all comfort can bring healing.  He can bring peace and perspective.  But not simply one who will solve all our problems or give us all the answers.  He does promise to walk alongside us.  "I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you."  A good part of the Bible deals with God's people while in exile.  Displaced and surrounded by a world they don't recognize.  The world they once knew and had embraced was totally changed.  What once brought security and comfort was gone.  In this emptiness they turned to the One who embraced them, wiped their tears and filled them with his undying love.  Before anything else, we need this.  Its not abstract religion.  Its not doing more.  Its being connected to Jesus who came into this world to comfort and love the broken hearted.