THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY by Rev. Chase PeeplesAs I write this column today, my mind is on the mass killing at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. The news reports and video footage is disturbing and it provides no satisfying answers for why such an event could happen. I find myself having to stop my imagination from going too far in thinking about thirty-two students and professors cut down while going about their normal schedules on campus. I have to rein my thoughts in, because if I dwell too much on this horrible act then the world begins to seem too frightening and no place seems safe.
This shooting has struck me a little bit more deeply than other such acts of violence in the news. After growing up in Grandview, MO, when I was sixteen, my family moved to Richmond, VA where I graduated high school. It seemed like half of my graduating class went to VA Tech. During my college years in east Tennessee and seminary years back in Richmond, I had several occasions to be in Blacksburg, where VA Tech is located. Although the university is large (23,000 students), the town is not (only about 16,000 residents besides the students). The location of the school in the mountains of Virginia and the small town atmosphere make the murders seem very incongruous with its location. I find myself thinking that if it could happen there then it could happen anywhere—even in a place like St. Joseph.
On a day when I have so few answers, it feels appropriate to revisit the name of my weekly column in our church newsletter. I have titled it “Through a Glass Darkly” because this is the phrase that the apostle Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 13:12 to describe our imperfect understanding of reality. More recent translations say, “For now, we see in a mirror dimly”, but I prefer the earlier language for its poetry if not its clarity. No matter how it is translated, Paul writes here about the fact that this side of Christ’s return we see only a hazy reflection of how the universe operates. I chose it as the title of my column, because I am always aware of how limited the answers are that I as a minister attempt to provide. Today, the events at VA Tech surely remind me of how incomplete my knowledge really is.
Paul was writing to a church in the Greek city of Corinth. Among that community were some believers who claimed to have special insight from God as manifested in spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues. Thus has ever been the case in religious circles, especially among Christians. Someone will always claim to have a superior connection to God and then dare to speak for God, usually to gather power and wealth for themselves. In the aftermath of September 11, there were many TV preachers and religious leaders who claimed to know why God allowed such a tragedy to happen. Similarly, I predict that from pulpits this Sunday, on web sites of conservative Christian interest groups and on TV and radio programs of evangelists, this particular tragedy will be a means for demagogues who claim a superior relationship with God to advance their particular agendas.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul refutes such spiritual arrogance by pointing out that in the present era before Christ’s return, we know only in part. Even dynamic spiritual experiences only reveal a small part of the big picture. He writes, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” On the day that we meet God face to face things like senseless tragedies will be made clear, until then we must operate by faith and believe that God is still at work in our violent world.
It is important to note, however, that Paul is not advocating that we should give up trying to make sense of our world, far from it. His writings are the evidence of his own attempts to make sense of God’s activity in the world. Paul is saying that all of our attempts to understand the deep theological mysteries of existence must be matched with humility. When we claim that we have all the answers, we in essence claim to know as much as God. Through the grace of God we may make some sense of our lives and our world, but we must always remember that our insights are bound by our limitations as humans. Imposing our worldviews upon others, especially in times of tragedy and grief, tends to reveal our own limitations rather than our knowledge.
The blogs and articles I have looked at over the last 24 hours since news of the murders at VA Tech broke have offered a variety of viewpoints on why God allows such events to occur. Some writers have emphasized the cross as evidence that God shares in our sufferings. I appreciate such writings, because as I mentioned in my Easter sermon, one of the things that helps me to look at myself in the mirror each morning and still honestly claim to be a Christian is the knowledge that at least God knows what it feels like to suffer as humans do. At least, thanks to the cross, God cannot be accused of remaining distant from our pain. This is a comforting thought for me, but it is not an answer.
Some writers claim that such events are God’s will. I bristle at such views, because I believe they fail to consider the compassionate love of God. Any God who wills that dozens of college students be shot is not a God I want to believe in.
Other writers offer some variety of explanation based upon free will. They offer the idea that God cannot intervene in each and every circumstance, because doing so would undermine the free will God has given us as humans. The amount of intervention God can do without undermining free will varies from thinker to thinker. I guess that if I had to be nailed down on my own understanding of why God allows evil in the world, it would be something along the lines of this type of view. I tend to believe that God is constantly negotiating between demonstrating compassionate care to God’s creation on the one hand and allowing for us humans to be free to love or not on the other hand. I certainly do not have the mechanics of such a theology worked out in any concrete sense. My understanding of God’s interaction in the events of our world is truly a dim reflection.
When Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians about our limited understanding as humans, he emphasized that more than knowledge we should pursue love. I would offer that trying to demonstrate love to others and to God is the only true way of gaining any knowledge worth having. As we seek to live out our own faith right here in St. Joseph, our actions and our words should be guided by love and humility. As we speak with one another about tragedies like the one at VA Tech, we should do so without rancor or simplistic accusations. As we reflect upon the grief in Virginia and then turn to those who grieve for other reasons right here in our own community, our first priority should be trying to listen to people who are hurting rather than trying to explain away their pain. As we reflect upon the terrible actions of one disturbed young man, we should reach out with more determination to people in our own community who are the “loners” or the “strange ones”, the kind of people who are in need of acceptance and inclusion.
Our understanding of tragedy may be incomplete, but we can be certain that God wants us to be a church that acts with loving humility rather than hurtful arrogance.
Grace and Peace,
Chase
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