Where is Our Comfort?
Year Delivered or Published: 2007
Author: The Rev. Jeff Douglas
Author's Faith: Christianity
Date Submitted to Inspiration and Issues: April 27, 2007
Topic: Theology
In the midst of life, we are in death; of whom may we seek for comfort, but of you, O Lord From the Burial Office, Rite 1, of the Book of Common Prayer
It seems my Easter "Alleluias!" have been sucked out of my voice, my lips are as dried as a potsherd and my heart is heavy, darkened and sad. After one of the most horrific weeks of violence and death we have witnessed in this new millennium, I, and perhaps you, along with millions of Americans, am in grief for our nation and our world. I am grieved that so many young lives have been taken and others changed forever in the hail of bullets that rained down in the rampage of a depressed and deluded young man at Virginia Tech. As heart sickening as this bloody massacre is, we must remember that this latest blow from our eternal enemy, Death, is merely the latest front and center scene in a play that is being directed on a much larger stage. The spectacle of Death from Baghdad in which over 200 were killed and wounded in a marketplace came just as the shock waves of Virginia Tech rolled over us. The tsunami of Death, the blood, bombs and bullets and the hatred from which they grow threatens all our hopes and dreams for peace.
Tears have been my food day and night, while all day long they cry to me, "Where now is your God?" Out of the Deep, have I called to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice! Psalms 42 & 130
It is not easy to speak words of comfort and reassurance amidst the dark cries of those who mourn and the tears and fitful sobs of those who grieve such heavy losses. It is difficult to reconcile a God of love, who creates out of love, and who loves his creation and calls it very good, with a creation drenched in so much blood and with so many creatures that have blood dripping from their hands and still in their hearts. Comfort seems nowhere to be found. I cannot hear it in the trite and insipid platitudes about "God's will" or "plan." There is no comfort in "God never gives us more than we can bear." Many times, I have been confronted with unbearable losses. In those times, the walls close in, darkened chaos shutters the sun, and the cries of my inner child surface as the whimpers of wind, whispered in the midst of a cold desert night.
I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come? When shall I come to appear before the presence of God? Psalms 121 & 42
My comfort is found not in words but in the Presence. My peace is not in words that are too quickly spoken and immediately disperse in the breath from which they are born. Like the Psalmist and Job, as much as I demand answers to my "whys", what I desire more and what sustains me through the night until the stars fade in the rising tide of the light of dawn, is Presence. I need someone. I want to know that I am not alone and that I am real to another being.
My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord; my soul and my flesh for the living God. Psalm 84
I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you… Job 42:5
Being with one another not only in times of grief and distress; but also in times of joy and happiness, being together is what counts. God has come to me, not only in prayer, but in the tear filled eyes and warm embrace of friends and neighbors when I have been in grief. And through this I know, that God is there when I do the same for others. Emmanuel - God with us, in tears of grief and happiness, our strength in times of need, our laughter in times joy, God is truly with us. And is this not the promise of Jesus and the power of Pentecost that has broken the power of Death and the Gates of Hell? "I am with you always, even to the end of time." (Matt 28:20 paraphrased)
Alleluia!
