I don’t remember who said this (maybe Barry Sanders) but a football player was asked why he didn’t celebrate when he scored a touchdown and he said, “I act like I’ve been in the end zone before and like I plan to be there again in the future.”
The events of the last 36 hours have left me feeling sad about what we have chosen to celebrate. I wish we had the class and wisdom of that football player. Let me start by telling you a bit about my day yesterday …
I was asked this week if I could fill in for a minister who had just had retinal surgery, and having had a detached retina myself 26 years ago I know you can’t put off that surgery until it’s convenient. The odd twist to the preaching assignment was that the pastor of the church that asked me is also helping a vacant church in a community about 20 miles away from here. So I literally preached and ran from the first place, leaving before the service was even over to get to the second place, which I made with two minutes to spare. That’s not exactly a leisurely Sunday morning.
I will resist the temptation to repeat my sermon here – it’s bad enough for me to have heard it twice yesterday (and yes, I’m going to preach the same sermon again at still another church in two weeks). Suffice it to say it was on the parable of the Good Samaritan, and one of several points to be made about that story is that Jesus surprised his listeners by telling them their neighbor (who they should love as they love themselves) was the person unlike them instead of the person like them. The sermon was titled: Be Careful Who You Look Down On.
Then it was time to head to Davenport University’s commencement exercises to celebrate our son Jesse’s college graduation. It was a long ceremony – they called the name of every graduate and I didn’t keep count but there had to be around 1000 of them! Our family followed that with a nice celebration dinner and by the time we got home at the end of the day I was plenty tired. I should have gone to bed when I got home but I was just plain curious to see if the Detroit Tigers had broken their losing streak so I went downstairs and wound up watching the Phillies and Mets on Sunday Night Baseball for a while and then was just going to go to bed when I flipped the channels once and saw the news about Osama Bin Laden. My first thought was, “Nobody can hide forever” and my second was, “I hope this doesn’t cause more violence in the Middle East.” My third thought was, “I hope this somehow helps the families that lost loved ones on 9/11.”
When I got up today I’d forgotten about the Bin Laden news until I opened the morning paper I read online and then I had a major shock. How come I didn’t anticipate the flash mob celebrations about Bin Laden’s death outside the White House or Ground Zero? I was stunned. And frankly, I was appalled. As I read about our celebrations I seriously wondered for the first time in a year if I’d made a mistake by moving back to the US from Europe. All I could think of was how good it was to celebrate my son’s graduation -- which is a celebration of his completing college but more than that a celebration of him, of his life, of his dreams and of his future – and how our family celebration of life was muted compared to this spontaneous celebration of death. The other thing I thought of was how discordant the celebrations were in light of the words I had spoken Sunday morning – to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. And in case you think Osama wasn’t your neighbor, that’s why Jesus went to the lengths he went to in telling the story of the Good Samaritan. The neighbor isn’t the person similar to you that you’re already inclined to like, the neighbor is the person you’re inclined to despise.
I’m not saying the military operation was wrong. I understand the quest for justice for all the perpetrators of the horrors of 9/11 and believe Bin Laden and others like him have dishonored Islam and made our world a far more dangerous place. But should we dance and exult in his death? I don’t think so. What do you think?
In the late 90's I wrote a paper for a church history class arguing that civil religion was dead in the U.S. (which I thought was great), and the only thing that would bring it back is some sort of significant event, like a war. 9/11 was that event. Obama's death (and celebration)is the continuation of the civil religion that was revived ten years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad on - for many reasons.
I was just about to turn off Facebook out of disgust for all the things being written about this when I decided to give yours a chance. It's the last one I'm going to read because it's the first one that hasn't made me mad or sad or disappointed. Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteMy fear is that the ugliness surrounding this event will create/strengthen hatred and violence in a way that makes Osama look like a nice guy or maybe creates 20 more just like him.
And I understand what you mean... I'm pretty happy to be living in Europe today.
I agree with your musings Jeff. The thing that bothers me, is that we are now celebrating this like it is a family birthday...instead of what it is...something that may have been necessary - but it's still a death. It's sad that the only answer to all that's happened since 9/11 is to kill a child of God, who now has no opportunity to repent of the sin he perpetrated on thousands of innocent people. What bothers me even more is there are people with whom I attend church who are once again making snide political comments as if that has anything to do with it.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a line from The American President after he's made the decision to bomb Libya. One of his aides tells him the decision was very presidential. His response was "this is the least presidential thing I do."
I remain convinced that America has not learned the lesson and we will continue to do the things that help create more Bin Ladens.
Thanks, Jeff, for carrying on the minority voice out there in our culture. Thanks for your sermon on Sunday, and pointing to Jesus. It's enlightening: that the plethora of messages coming from "Christian" cirles in the past two days rarely- if at all- refers us back to Jesus.
ReplyDelete"Love your enemies." Who said that?
Jesus entire life, death and resurrection points to this abundant life in the Kingdom which is this "upside-down Kingdom."
Thanks, Jeff.