"Unspeakable Fear, Immovable Faith"
Preached on April 25, 1999
by
The Reverend Dr. Thomas C. Sheffield
The extraordinary days through which we have lived have
brought back to my memory the title of one particular book. It succinctly
says how people are feeling as they have been stunned by scenes and
words and reports of a world terrorized and violated. It is Cornelius
Plantiga's book ... Not the Way It's Supposed to Be.
People who have lived for generations are not supposed
to be uprooted from their homes. They are not supposed to be threatened,
murdered, tortured, and forced to live with unspeakable fear.
It's not the way it's supposed to be. Children are not
meant to be separated from families and left to fend for themselves.
They are to be protected, cared for, loved. They are not be hated and
cleansed, that word that itself has been cleansed of its horror, because
they are part of a particular group of humanity.
It's not the way it's supposed to be. Youth are supposed
to filled with the joy of emerging life, getting ready for college,
for jobs, for adventures. They are supposed to be trying on new ideas
with freedom, and learning how to make use of the unfolding gifts of
their lives. They are not supposed to be filled with such hate and misery
that they would force others again to live with unspeakable fear and
make the final decisions for life and death as they did in Littleton,
Colorado. They are not supposed to be so overwhelmed by resentment and
feelings of self destruction that they would seek out those different
from themselves to destroy them. Schools are to be safe, protected places
that bring out the best in each and ready them to be the shapers of
the coming world and century. They are not supposed to be battlegrounds
where simple survival would be the greatest hope for a school day. It's
not the way it is supposed to be. It is a week that once again has turned
everything upside down. Our children are to follow us in death; we are
not supposed to be burying our children and we are not supposed to be
weeping over their graves.
We do feel that it is not the way it is supposed to
be and quite honestly I don't want us to lose that feeling. I want us
to hold on to it and be appalled and angry and worried about everything
that has happened. It is easy to get used to such violence. It is easy
to let it become part of the landscape of our lives. It is easy to begin
to ignore and shut it out and pretend it isn't happening, it can't happen
to us and it has no meaning for us. It's not the way it's supposed to
be can easily become well, I guess that's just the way it is.
It is easy to give up in the face of such horror and
hate. It is easy to despair and become paralyzed in the presence of
such constant violence. It may be easy. But it is not the way to which
we are called. We are called, said, Paul to be steadfast and immovable.
We are called said Jesus to disciples even in the face of fear to keep
faith and claim the peace that Christ can bring. We are called to persevere
in that peace and hold fast to the faith we are given.
How would that be? What would that look like?
A few weeks ago Kathy and Sara and I were able to spend
time in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With our friend, the Rev. Douglas
Baker, we viewed the remnants of violence. We saw the signs of lasting
hate as we passed from Catholic to Protestant sections of the city.
Giant posters warning of reprisal and claiming victory framed that section.
Huge walls, lined with barbed wire and broken glass, defined each area.
For generations they have hated and marched and sometimes killed one
another. Doug told us about the ingrained economic, political and military
systems that keep the violence and the hate alive and the way intimidation
and torture prevent advances in peace from being felt in individual
lives and families.
The next day we drove northward to a small village overlooking
the sea. There we visited the Corrymeela Community. For more than thirty
years the people of Corrymeela have been bringing small groups of Protestants
and Catholics together to talk to one another in many cases for the
first time in their lives. Year after year, person by person, group
by group, school by school, child by child they communicate a different
way of life, one defined by respect and love and one gripped by the
possibility of peace. They teach new ways to talk to one another and
new understandings about each other. They demonstrate through living
together in this place that it is possible to live together in peace
in all places.
The dedication of Corrymeela reads this way: "We dedicate
this house to You and Your work as the God of peace. May it be a place
of joy, laughter, and freedom. A place of renewal and refreshment for
those who are weary. A place of hope for those who are disillusioned.
A place of healing and comfort for those broken and hurt. A place of
forgiveness for those who seek a new way. A place of encouragement for
those who long for peace and justice. May this house be inspired by
faith, maintained by love and enlightened by hope. May its doors be
so narrow as to shut out all dissension and mistrust. May they be broad
enough to welcome the stranger and the lost. May they be high enough
to receive all that is true, honest, lovely and of good report."
Now the question might be asked: "Is Corrymeela successful?"
And from many levels one would could say that it isn't. After all the
hating goes on, the violence erupts with painful regularity, the walls
still seem to be intact in every way. Yet, there they are, undaunted,
unyielding, refusing to give up or give in, keeping the peace in the
way the world is supposed to be.
Christ calls us to that life. Christ calls us to restore
hope when it begins to disappear. Christ calls us to keep working when
despair starts to take over. Christ calls us to love exactly at that
moment when everyone else is hating.
It is not the time for us simply to shake our heads
about the way things are supposed to be and the way things have become.
It is time to hold our children more tightly, listen more carefully
and speak to them again of peace and hope and love more clearly. It
is time to assure our children that knowing God is with them and believing
that they are held in God's love they do not need to be controlled by
fear or live by fear's rules. It is time to see that all children, regardless
of what part of the earth they live, are given what they need for their
life's journeys and given a just chance to become all they can become.
It is time, not simply to critique our schools, but to pray for them
and work with them. It is time to recognize that teachers and counselors
and administrators have an enormous task in our day and do need those
prayers and our words of encouragement as they seek to reach our children.
It is time, too, to give thanks for the children and youth who are part
of this church and it is time to see that they continue to be welcomed,
cared for, celebrated and loved in every way in our congregational life.
It is time to question all areas of our common life
that glorify violence and it is time to question those who would make
the right to carry a gun greater than the right of a child to have a
life. It is time to remain horrified at the unspeakable acts committed
against Kosovars and the atrocities of war inflicted on all innocent
people. It is not time to become cynical or hardened, but to become
energized and infused with a compassion that is transformed into acts
of giving and care. It is time to act in ways that offer them ... all
... each ... hope for a new tomorrow, that God already is making for
all creation.
All of that is hard, daunting, thankless, uphill daily
work. It is work that fewer and fewer will do. Others will turn away
and walk away. Others will find easy answers by finding out whom to
blame for what has gone wrong and that with self-satisfaction let themselves
off the hook. Only a handful will speak the words that are filled with
an awareness of complexity and, at the same time, a compassion for the
cries of life. Only a few will have the strength or courage to keep
praying for an anguished world. Yet, remember Christ calls you to remember
and speak and act and pray. Christ calls you now. Yet, even in this
time. Remember, Christ calls you. v
