The great astro-physicist Neal DeGrasse Tyson speaks with
passion about the universe. He says that
when he goes outdoors, he automatically looks up into the heavens to see the
stars and the sky as a reminder to him of the smallness of the earth and ourselves here in the vastness of the
universe. He uses a photograph taken
when our astronauts orbited the moon of the earth in the distance, a blue orb
set in space. He asks his audience that if
we are this small and such a tiny blip on the screen of the universe; then why
can’t we get along with each other? Why do we create wars and misery on this
earth? This isn’t a theological question.
It is asked by an astro-physicist and it is a wonderfully valid question
for all of us to consider with all of the turmoil in the world.
And then
I look at the wonderful collect for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, which
reads:
Let your continual mercy, O Lord,
cleanse and defend your
Church; and, because it cannot
continue in safety without your
help; protect and govern it always by
your goodness; through
Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, forever and
ever. Amen.
The
church sometimes seems to be among the worst places for turmoil. When we were in Jerusalem at the magnificent
Church of the Resurrection, where the tomb of Jesus is guarded by Orthodox
priests and the Armenians worship downstairs, the Catholics are a sideshow and
there are no Protestants at all; I wonder what it is that we are doing as
Christians to show the world anything at all about decency and order. In Bethlehem at one point the monks and the
priests were fighting in the street at Christmas time about how the proper
commemoration of the great feast ought to be celebrated. We look like morons when we do things like
this.
In
recent years, the Diocese of Pittsburgh has split over some issues surrounding
the Anglican versus the Episcopal Church.
Dioceses all over the country are divided over this kind of thing. Again, we look like fools. How on earth can we talk about Iran and Israel
and ISIS versus the rest of the world when we can’t even keep our own house in
any kind of decent order?
Humans
are a curious breed. The image of the Wisconsin dentist killing a beloved lion
in Africa has claimed the front pages recently.
It is hard for me to understand the absolute selfishness and egotism
that brings a man to pay a lot of money to “guides” to lead him to kill a lion
that has become attractive to the people of Zimbabwe. He claims not to know how loved the lion was,
but that is irrelevant. Lions and
elephants are a species in decline.
Killing any of them for “sport” is obnoxious. So is killing unarmed African Americans by
police for minimal reasons. When I look
at what is going on around us, I wonder how it is that we can claim any high
ground for ourselves in such a society.
What are we becoming? Justice is certainly needed, but so is love.
The way forward with all of this, of course is to pay attention to what our Lord taught us. The simplicity of Jesus' teaching is compelling. He told us to love one another; and then he went out to show us what that meant by feeding and healing all of those who came across his path and then sending his disciples out to do the same thing. There are no requirements to receive this kind of love; we simply just have to need it. I know the Jesus love for the Wisconsin dentist is full and true; also his love for the policeman who killed the black driver who didn't have a front license plate. My ministry in the penitentiary taught me that there are no limits whatsoever to God's love for us. It extends from the best to the worst of us and is intended to create harmony and peace on this earth.
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