This week was a rattler.
The bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon sent a ripple through our nerves, through our families and communities.
I heard from people whose children were there, a block or two from the finish line, heard the explosions, ran for dear life. Walked miles and miles to get home.
One parishioner wrote that her sister-in-law took a huge hunk of shrapnel to her leg and is already on surgery number two. Another wrote that her niece, a ballerina in college, had her legs cut out from under her at the finish line. Four surgeries and the doctors are worried about amputation.
Everyone’s asking Why? We’re all back to that same place, wondering how humans are capable of such barbarity, wondering what kind of world we live in, what kind of God we’ve got.
I wonder all those same things. I have no answer. Here is all I know:
Hatred never wins. Alleluia.
Violence never triumphs at the last. Alleluia.
Forgiveness always, always dissolves bitterness. Alleluia.
Mercy trumps revenge every single time. Alleluia.
The weakest blessing overturns the strongest, loudest curse. Alleluia.
And here is the last, best thing I know:
Fear is no match for love. Alleluia.
Don’t live one moment outside the kingdom of love. Life, as we know by now, is way too short for anything less.
“love covers over a multitude of sins.” I’ve been thinking a lot this week about how to extend love to the people around me, not just the ones I know, but the ones I may never see again. I’ve been mulling the extension of that love to places like Boston and West, TX as much as to Syria. We live in violent times but as you said before, love is stronger than fear and love has the power to change the world for good.
Thanks David. When I and others I know learned that the second Boston suspect was captured alive, we had a sense of relief. This man is a horrendous murderer, unforgivable in normal terms, yet is a child of God. He will be subject to the most rigorous punishment allowed by justiice, yet we hope that in some as yet unimaginable way he will experience for a portion of his life ahead some form of restoration to the good in creation.
David thanks agai. The Christian life is not necessarily easy but the final payoff is worth it It is in forgiviing that we are forgiven and love conquers all clark
thank you for this, David. I am so sorry to hear of parishioners with wounded loved ones–hope they all heal well.
Once upon a time there was a gardener. And when spring came that gardener worked very hard and planted flowers and vegetables. All summer the gardener played and swam and waited for God to make her garden grow.
ii. And in the fall the gardener went to her garden and BEHOLD the flowers were scraggly from neglect and had dried up. The green beans had produced mightily but since no one picked them the beans had become hard and brown. The only tomatoes that were left were rotted on the ground. And the gardener was sorely disappointed with God.
And the gardener complained to God that he had not cared for the garden. She complained about the flowers-though in fact they had been quite beautiful but were now a mess due to neglect. She complained to God about the beans-though in fact there had been plenty enough for her and the whole neighborhood had they only been picked regularly. She complained to God about the tomatoes but the creatures of the garden, the rabbits and the ground squirrels, were full and so chirped happily. But God was silent.
I hope someday I am able to forgive these two barbarians but it won’t be today. I watched a female runner breaking down, blaming herself that her Mother and friend were wounded because they were there to support her. It breaks my heart and in many ways I want this twerp burned at the stake. For now, I will get down on my knees and try to pray for him, well after the victims, and see where that gets me.
Thanks, David. Alleluia.