Boston Interfaith Service: Sorrow in Abundance, Grace Without End


I am watching the interfaith service for the victims and heroes of the Boston Marathon bombings and I am grateful for the chance to share this memorial.  Yet, time and again, I find myself recalling the first church service I attended after the Newtown Massacre.  I am a teacher, the daughter of a teacher, and the mother of a teacher.  I can not speak of education without internalizing it; so when the Newtown killings occurred I had a face and a name to go with each child and each teacher.  The first solace I felt after than horrible day came in church.  My pastor at First Lutheran Church in Edinburg, Texas did not try to explain how or why such wickedness could be visited upon truly innocent children.  She did not try to offer an earthly explanation for an unearthly sorrow.  Instead, she reminded me of the one unalterable fact that I needed to hear.  I can remember the words at the close of her sermon, “…and God was there, in that classroom, with those children.”  The weight of these words almost brought me to my knees.  Without even knowing it, that was what I needed to hear.

            God worked through Pastor Grant to give me a personal message of comfort.  That comfort became the rock on which healing began.  Not for the first time, I was reminded that I am a child of an ever present, ever powerful, ever loving God.

            I do not know how nonbelievers deal with the big picture of these soul-shattering events.  It is certainly their right to turn to temporal hope, and I neither fault nor demean their choice.  I simply know that I could not rely on Earthly signposts to find my way through this morass of fear and anger.  If nothing else, I need God’s love to calm me so I can proceed with intelligence and purpose.

Then, just as one unspeakable fear started to fade into the hazy gray of memory, the bombs went off in Boston.

            It is so easy to give in to anger instead of seeking strength.  It is far too easy to give in to hate instead of remembering love.  And it is always (always!!!) too easy to give in to vengeance which is swift but ugly instead of seeking justice which is slow and beautiful. 

            I will applaud the apprehension and punishment of the people responsible for this act of terrorism.  What we learn from this crime, both forensically and psychologically will make us safer.  We live in the world and have to deal with its realities.  Evil is ever present.  But the perpetrators of these deeds have nothing to rely on but brute force and their own limited intelligence.   Yes, we will have to deal with this kind of sorrow again, on personal and national levels.  But we do not have to face it alone.

            “Be still my soul; the Lord is on your side.”  This is the first line of hymn #510 in the Lutheran hymnal.  It is sung to the tune of Finlandia by Jean Sibelius with words by Catherina von Schlegel.  Time and time again, throughout my life, I have whispered these words or found them running through my head to remind me of who I am, what I am, and what should guide my hand. 

            “If God is for us, who can be against us?”   Keep the faith. 

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