Final Thoughts on Virginia Tech

With the media feeding frenzy having run its course, those of us who do not live in Blacksburg, Virginia, can finally allow the busyness of our daily lives to distract us from thinking about what happened on the campus of Virginia Tech a couple of weeks ago. There is always Iraq to remind us of the senselessness of the organized killing of large numbers of people, of course, but the daily quality of news reports from that corner of the globe has a certain numbing effect.

Of course, not far into the future, there will be another horrific act for us to gawk upon. Whether it is planes flying into buildings, gunmen mowing down classrooms full of students, or armies and insurgent groups waging bloody conflict in cities half a world away, the moral depravity of human beings and human society ensure that the incident in Blacksburg will be repeated again (and again). When that happens, survivors will marvel that they came out alive, victims' families will beat their breasts and cry out to God, and the rest of us will watch from afar, thanking our lucky stars that it didn't happen to us.

Without a story that counters such tragedy, the best we can hope to do is remain stoic in the face of others' (or our own) suffering. We have to accept it as a part of the natural order of things, a byproduct of what it means for over 6 billion people to live in relatively close proximity on the same planet.

Thank God that we do have another story, one that offers us hope rather than simple endurance. At a prayer vigil on Duke's campus on the day following the massacre, Dean Sam Wells reflected on the terrible insight Virginia Tech gives us. He said that, in such terrible moments, we are able to see the world as God sees it: full of wonder and complexity and beauty, but also terribly deformed and mutiliated and full of evil. When we see it in an isolated event, it breaks our hearts. God sees it all the time, and it breaks God's heart everyday.

Because such events are tied up in the world's sin, and because God loves the world so much, we know that Jesus Christ has become incarnate in the world in order to break the power of that sin. It has happened, it is happening, and it will happen in fullness. We must claim this story not only because it is true, but because it offers the world the one real hope of overcoming Virginia Tech, or Iraq, or Darfur, or the disease and starvation that threaten so many of God's children in the world, or the ecological devastation even now wrought upon God's earth, or our own broken lives.

Story of Cain, Story of Cho, Story of Christ

Like most of us, I have really struggled the past few days to come to terms with what happened on April 16th on the campus of Virginia Tech. I have also tired of the endless media coverage. I found myself reading the new Newsweek this afternoon, taking in yet another account of the terribly sick mind of one young man and the tragic ending of 33 lives. It is overwhelming.

In my most recent UM Reporter column, I try to offer one way in which the story of Jesus counters the stories of Cain, Cho, and all the other senseless acts of violence human history has witnessed. I don't know if it will help you at all to read it, but it did help me to put it into words.

The stress of the end of another semester has undoubtedly compounded the mental and emotional funk I am experiencing right now. I would be interested to hear how your communities of faith have dealt with the recent events.

A prayer in the wake of terrible violence

Almighty God, in your keeping there is shelter from the storm,
and in your mercy there is comfort for the sorrows of life.
Hear now our prayer for those who mourn and are heavy laden.
Give to them strength to bear and do your will
Lighten their darkness with your love.
Enable them to see beyond the things of this mortal world
the promise of the eternal.
Help them to know that your care enfolds all your people,
that you are our refuge and strength,
and that underneath are your everlasting arms.

U.M. Book of Worship, p. 164

On this day of senseless violence, I pray that the families and friends of the victims at Virginia Tech University would be comforted by the promise of resurrection. May the peace of Jesus Christ be with them.