On the clear afternoon of May 25, 1979 at exactly 3:02 P.M. American Airlines flight 191 began its take-off from O’Hare Airport on runway 32R headed for Los Angeles. Just at the DC-10 reached rotation speed – the moment when the front wheel lifts off the ground – the number 1 engine and the pylon that connected it to the wing separated from the aircraft. Because the maintenance procedures practiced by American were contrary to what the manufacture specified (they used a short cut that saved 200 man hours per plane) the engine didn’t separate as it should have, falling down and away from the airplane and landing safely away from the craft on the runway. Had that happened the DC-10 could have returned to O’Hare or even flown on to Los Angeles with just two engines.
Instead the poor reinstallation caused the engine to tear away and somersault over the left wing leaving behind a three foot gash in the leading edge. At that second the plane was no longer airworthy and all 271 passengers and crew members aboard were doomed. The plane made it no more than 3,600 feet from the end of the runway before crashing in a ball of fire that could be seen from as far away as downtown. [“American Airlines Flight 191" from Wikipedia.]
Kim Jockle’s parents were among those who perished. Ms. Jockle is currently the vice-principle at the Decatur Classical School in West Rogers Park and when her sixth grade students heard her story two years ago they decided to build a memorial to the victims of American Airlines flight 191 at Lake Park in Des Plaines, the sight of the crash. In one of many reasons why I will never fly American Airlines when the students proposed their idea to the company they “received a curt reply from American Airlines, which, in the opinion of student Ayo Odowu, told them to ‘let it go.’ ‘That letter from American Airlines really motivated us and got us up,’ she said.” [Bob Roberts, “Memorial To American Flight 191 Victims To Be Dedicated Saturday.” Report original aired on WBBM Newsradio78 on October 12, 2011]
In their snippy reply and their desire not to revisit the subject that their eagerness to save a buck in man hours lead directly to the deadliest non-terrorist related airliner disaster on American soil American Airlines forgot one important interpersonal fact – we need to remember.
Dr. Thomas G. Long, in his new book Accompany Them With Singing, says that what we do know is that “the flowers, the beads, the rings and other artifacts [that we find buried with the dead from almost the beginning of recorded history] bear witness to the fact that from earliest times human beings have cared tenderly for their dead and approached death with awe. ]”Thomas G. Long, Accompany Them With Singing:The Christian Funeral. (Louisville:Westminister John Knox Press, 2009), p. 3.
Losing someone we love is perhaps the most difficult thing any one of us has to face. Saint Paul understood this when he took pen in hand and wrote to the Thessalonians about death, and grief, and the need to remember.
It’s not anywhere in the rest of the letter and Saint Paul was never the master of a good transition sentence but I have to wonder if some of those new Christians who had experienced the death of someone close to them weren’t asking themselves the question: “Why does loss hurt as much now as it did before I knew God?” That is not a theoretical question it is an existential question for every one of us in this room. The greatest grief of all comes when you have place someone you love in the arms of God and what Saint Paul doesn’t say is as important as what he does. What he doesn’t say is: don’t grieve.
When someone you love dies grieving is the most natural thing in the world. To remember them with sadness in your heart says nothing about your faith or lack thereof but it speaks volumes about your love for that person. You don’t shed tears over every single obituary in the newspaper – you would never make it through the day. But stumble upon the name of a friend or someone else who shaped your life and you may find the tears flowing. You’re grieving another loss, another reminder that you too are growing older, another example of how, as the hymn writer puts it, “time like an every rolling stream will bear us all away.” And Saint Paul no less says go ahead let the tears flow. Let there be sobs of sorrow if need be. But then he says, don’t let your grief take away your hope. Don’t let yourself believe for a single second that because you are grieving now there will never be anything to look forward to again. Don’t grieve as if the grave will have the last word because it doesn’t.
Here is what I know and it was underscored for me in my recent visit to New York and The World Trade Center Memorial.
It is a powerful place in which two enormous waterfalls and reflecting pools are set within the original footprints of the Twin Towers. Around these unintentional reminders for Christians of our baptism are bronze plaques with the names of all 2,983 men, women and children who died on that day. It was like being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses none of whom I had ever met in this life but who now, in some way, I felt connected too.
There were a few I did know from the news – Todd Beamer, the 32 year old husband and father, who on Flight 93 called a GTE Airfone operator to report a highjacking. He told her he knew he was going to die and, after they recited the Lord’s Prayer together, said “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” And by putting that plane down in a Pennsylvania field saved countless lives. Or Father Mychael F. Judge, Fire Department Chaplain of New York, killed praying in the lobby of the North Tower when the South Tower collapsed. Those were the two names I knew but the others were striking because of their mix of nationalities. There was a clearly Jewish name next to an Oriental, next to a Pole, next to an Irish, next to a Scandinavian, next to a Muslim.
It might have caused me to lose hope except for two things. It was a windy day and the breeze was blowing the water so perfectly that a rainbow was formed by the water falling into those giant baptismal pools. A rainbow, God’s promise of new life. And then the noise.
The World Trade Center Memorial is in the midst of a gigantic construction site. There are large cranes, and cement trucks, and jackhammers pounding, and guys yelling and the constant beep-beep-beep that you hear when a truck is backing up. Life is going on, people are rebuilding, getting on with the business of living.
You and I don’t have to grieve as others do who have given up hope because we believe something. “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” When we remember we remember in the firm conviction that death doesn’t have the final word God does. When we let people go we let them go to God.
That is what the children at the Decatur Middle School in West Rogers Park understood better than the adults in the PR and legal Department of American Airlines who would rather keep their mistake and the deaths tied directly to it hushed up. That’s why people build and visit memorials. That is why we light candles, and read names, and toll bells on this day. To be reminded of our parents and teachers, uncles and aunts, lovers and spouses, who saw in us what we could not and inspired us to reach deep down inside of ourselves to be the people we are today.
But even more than that, to celebrate a greater idea, the reality that somehow, in the great love of God they live on, and that their love, their inspiration, continues to be a presence in our lives.
For the most part they were ordinary people – like the people on Flight 191 and in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and on Flight 93 that was downed in a field in Pennsylvania – but people whose lives and witness continue to inspire.
We remember them because we can never let them go. But in our remembrance we know that God now holds them closer than we ever could. And that our loved ones now live on in the great love of God is something always worth remembering. Amen.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
"For Show or For Real" -- Saint Matthew 23:1–12
By happy coincidence, many years ago, the College of Preachers was held at the National Cathedral and the National Conference of Managed Care Physicians was held in Washington, D.C. during the week after Easter. This meant that my buddy Scott and I could not enjoy the cherry blossoms that were blooming, the site-seeing in Washington, but also because he is a guy with great faith and his conference had great speakers – mostly from the world of politics, attend sessions of each others conferences. He would come up to Mount Saint Alban’s if we had a great speaker and I would travel down to the Hilton if they had somebody I wanted to hear.
One day, while waiting for him, I needed something from the desk clerk and when we had finished our transaction, I said “thank you.” And he said, “Your welcome, sir. Ooops, I mean Doctor.” Since his was the host hotel, clearly he had been told by management to call everybody Doctor. “Please, I said to him. That title plus a buck-and-and-a-half will get me on the Metro.”
But, I knew where he was coming from because when I was in seminary and the trustees were on campus, the President of the School, Dr. Northfelt, who in private we called Merlyn not only because that was his name but because he was a magic man in raising money, told all of his students that if we were unsure of a trustees title were should always call them “Doctor” because “they just eat that kind of thing up.”
All of you know people who insist on being called by their title. Some of you are socially ingrained to call me pastor, and that is fine. But you also know pastors who will look at you as if you committed a mortal sin if you call them by their first name. Or physicians who make you call them doctor while they unctuously call you by your first name. This happens to me at wedding receptions when people ask: “What should I call you? Father? Doctor? Reverend? Pastor?” To which I always say, gin and tonic in hand, “How about Dave?”
Jesus warning in today’s gospel goes deeper than titles. Titles are just a symbol of a more infectious disease to which all of us can fall prey. You don’t need a title to start to believe that you are the center of the universe.
You can do that when you treat people as your servants expecting things of them that you would never in a million years think of doing yourself. I love the way the new paraphrase of scripture called The Message puts this:
I know most of you may find this hard to believe but there are perfectly healthy, perfectly strong, perfectly capable people, who come to church to be served. They want the church to be there for them and be beautiful, clean, warm and wonderful for them but Sunday after Sunday they just plunk themselves down in the pew, wait it out for an hour, slug down some coffee cake, and go home. If they contribute anything it is framed in the context of: “Pastor, you know what you should do...”
And then Jesus says, there are those who come to church to be noticed. Here is what The Message has Jesus saying about them:
Now Jesus is not talking about those of you who dress nicely for church. He is talking about those who think that dressing nicely for church is all that counts. Or, those who come to church and have to be the center of attention. There are those, you know, who come only when they can sing a solo, or are a lector, or can somehow draw attention to themselves but when there is a Sunday when they are not part of the show they are nowhere to be found.
Oh yes, and by the way, don’t think I am just pointing a finger here at you. If you are ever in a group of clergy who are full of themselves, wearing nicely pressed suits, and fitted clergy shirts, ask them if and where they worship when they go on vacation. You’ll be surprised at the answer because many of them don’t. If they ain’t starring in the show there is no way they are going to be a bit player in the chorus.
Jesus would say:
Think of our friend Linda Campbell. She sang in the choir and did solos. She served our council and gave of generously of “herself, her time and her possessions” but there was no fan-fare, there was no “Hey! Look at Me.” It was done quietly and under the radar. She was herself and her life counted for plenty.
What you do in life should never point to yourself but should point other people to Jesus. He is the one who life is all about, all of scripture leads us to him, all of scripture directs us to him, he is our model for how we should live our lives. And his life was a life of service as he went about healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, strength to the week, and in the end, giving his life for us.
I‘ve talked a lot this morning about all the things you shouldn’t do. All those things that make your faith just for show. And you may be asking yourself, “Okay, then what should I do? Don’t leave me hanging here. Give me some guidelines.” I won’t because most of the time I’m the biggest failure of all in squaring what I say and what I do but Scripture does:
First James, the brother of our Lord, gives us the only definition of true religion in the bible when he writes:
Or, as the prophet Micah put it long before James:”the Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.”
That’s is all God wants us to remember. God says: “Keep those words before you and your faith will not be just be for show but will be for real.” Amen.
One day, while waiting for him, I needed something from the desk clerk and when we had finished our transaction, I said “thank you.” And he said, “Your welcome, sir. Ooops, I mean Doctor.” Since his was the host hotel, clearly he had been told by management to call everybody Doctor. “Please, I said to him. That title plus a buck-and-and-a-half will get me on the Metro.”
But, I knew where he was coming from because when I was in seminary and the trustees were on campus, the President of the School, Dr. Northfelt, who in private we called Merlyn not only because that was his name but because he was a magic man in raising money, told all of his students that if we were unsure of a trustees title were should always call them “Doctor” because “they just eat that kind of thing up.”
All of you know people who insist on being called by their title. Some of you are socially ingrained to call me pastor, and that is fine. But you also know pastors who will look at you as if you committed a mortal sin if you call them by their first name. Or physicians who make you call them doctor while they unctuously call you by your first name. This happens to me at wedding receptions when people ask: “What should I call you? Father? Doctor? Reverend? Pastor?” To which I always say, gin and tonic in hand, “How about Dave?”
Jesus warning in today’s gospel goes deeper than titles. Titles are just a symbol of a more infectious disease to which all of us can fall prey. You don’t need a title to start to believe that you are the center of the universe.
You can do that when you treat people as your servants expecting things of them that you would never in a million years think of doing yourself. I love the way the new paraphrase of scripture called The Message puts this:
They talk a good line, but they don't live it. They don't take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It's all spit-and-polish veneer.
[They load] you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help.
I know most of you may find this hard to believe but there are perfectly healthy, perfectly strong, perfectly capable people, who come to church to be served. They want the church to be there for them and be beautiful, clean, warm and wonderful for them but Sunday after Sunday they just plunk themselves down in the pew, wait it out for an hour, slug down some coffee cake, and go home. If they contribute anything it is framed in the context of: “Pastor, you know what you should do...”
And then Jesus says, there are those who come to church to be noticed. Here is what The Message has Jesus saying about them:
Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery...
Now Jesus is not talking about those of you who dress nicely for church. He is talking about those who think that dressing nicely for church is all that counts. Or, those who come to church and have to be the center of attention. There are those, you know, who come only when they can sing a solo, or are a lector, or can somehow draw attention to themselves but when there is a Sunday when they are not part of the show they are nowhere to be found.
Oh yes, and by the way, don’t think I am just pointing a finger here at you. If you are ever in a group of clergy who are full of themselves, wearing nicely pressed suits, and fitted clergy shirts, ask them if and where they worship when they go on vacation. You’ll be surprised at the answer because many of them don’t. If they ain’t starring in the show there is no way they are going to be a bit player in the chorus.
Jesus would say:
"Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”
Think of our friend Linda Campbell. She sang in the choir and did solos. She served our council and gave of generously of “herself, her time and her possessions” but there was no fan-fare, there was no “Hey! Look at Me.” It was done quietly and under the radar. She was herself and her life counted for plenty.
What you do in life should never point to yourself but should point other people to Jesus. He is the one who life is all about, all of scripture leads us to him, all of scripture directs us to him, he is our model for how we should live our lives. And his life was a life of service as he went about healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, strength to the week, and in the end, giving his life for us.
I‘ve talked a lot this morning about all the things you shouldn’t do. All those things that make your faith just for show. And you may be asking yourself, “Okay, then what should I do? Don’t leave me hanging here. Give me some guidelines.” I won’t because most of the time I’m the biggest failure of all in squaring what I say and what I do but Scripture does:
First James, the brother of our Lord, gives us the only definition of true religion in the bible when he writes:
Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
Or, as the prophet Micah put it long before James:”the Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.”
That’s is all God wants us to remember. God says: “Keep those words before you and your faith will not be just be for show but will be for real.” Amen.
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