Awaken me, Lord to your love, Open my heart to your indwelling.
Awaken me, Lord to your life, Open my mind to your abiding.
Awaken me always, Lord to your purpose, Open my will to your guiding. Amen. (David Adam)
These words are from retired bishop Steven Charleston: “In Alaska I used to meet them when I traveled around the state, the smokejumpers and the hotshots. They were the men and women who fought the wild fires. Many of them were very young. As I pray for all the people devastated by the fires that have been raging in California I think of these young faces. The courage to stand between the inferno and the lives of strangers is a rare kind of bravery. It is a testimony to the best in human nature. It reminds us that no fire can destroy the spirit of compassion that motivates one person to help another. That bond, that willingness, that love is stronger than any fire and it can rebuild hope even in the midst of ashes.”
I find his words particular moving for us on this Sunday as our prayers continue for all those affected by the wild fires (missing, displaced, dead, & more). I also thought of his words as I saw a picture of a lone firefighter standing before the burning hills and mountains.
It looked like hell. The firefighter silhouetted against the fire and the dark hills, who looked ready to get to work…
“The courage to stand between the inferno and the lives of strangers is a rare kind of bravery.”
It reminds me of the courageous white helmets in Syria who despite the terrible war, attempt to help those in need in Syria. I think of doctors without borders who go to places of epidemic and try to save lives.
I also think of the staff at Nursing Homes who got their patients out, often times in their own cards from the fast moving fire. Teachers doing the same at schools…
Our first reading from David – that the archangel Michael will be with us even in anguish, there will be deliverance, reminds us that God and God’s messengers will be with us in our endeavors even at the worst of times. I think of how many people by the grace of God were able to escape those flames. The stories are incredible…
In the Gospel, Jesus talks about how the beautiful temple will be cast down. But more than the building, Jesus talks about a time of suffering that is to come.
Jesus then tells his disciples not to allow themselves to be lured or seduced by their desire into the world which others will want to create. All other messiahs are false. Wars and rumors of wars have no sacred meaning at all, and the one who is looking at what happens through Jesus’ eyes will not be frightened of these things, not driven by them in any way.
We can relate to such earth-shattering events in our own lives around sudden, unexpected loss. Death, illness, job loss, can change one’s world forever. So, can natural disasters (earthquakes, famines, & fire). It can seem at first as if the sun has fallen from the sky and no longer shines. Nothing is quite the same and yet there will be redemption. As Christians, we are called to walk the way of love of Jesus even at the worst of times, to believe in redemption & deliverance.
What is hope our then? What will redemption & deliverance look like?
(Brazilian theologian) “It is the suspicion that the overwhelming brutality of facts that oppress us and repress us is not the last word. It is the hunch that reality is more complex than the realists want us to believe. That the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual. And that in a miraculous and unexpected way, life is preparing the creative events which will open the way to freedom and to resurrection.
But, the two, suffering and hope, must live from each other. Suffering without hope produces resentment and despair. But hope without suffering creates illusions, naivete, and drunkenness. So let us plant dates, even though we who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. This is the secret of discipline. It is a refusal to let our creative act be dissolved away by our own need for immediate sense experience. And it's a stubborn commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined love is what has given saints, revolutionaries, and martyrs the courage to die for the future they envisage. They make their own bodies the seed of their own highest hopes.” ~ Rubem Alvez b. 1933 (Tomorrow's Child)
I think Ruben’s idea fits with what Jesus and the scriptures are saying to us today & those firefighters embodied. That even in the midst of fire, sorrow, and suffering, we live in hope. We plant dates. We plant hope knowing we might not see the results.
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” Martin Luther (400 years before Alvez)
We plant not knowing what it will be but we live in hope. And we live by love.
“Love laughs at the end of the world because love is the door to eternity and he who loves God is playing on the doorstep of eternity, and before anything can happen love will have drawn him over the sill and closed the door and (at the end) he won’t bother about the world [burning] because he will know nothing but love.” - Thomas Merton 1915-1968 (The Sign of Jonas)
The signs of trouble are all around us. The signs of hope are there too. We are called to walk in that love, to be a hopeful people, that stand on the edge of the fire, the edge of the rain as our own Aimee Tabor put it.
“Sometimes suffocating in that small gap between hope and heartache - gratitude and grief – resilience and reluctance. Sometimes we’re keenly aware that the rain is as vital to life as the sun. It quenches our thirst for perspective and renews our appreciation for life and all it can offer. Other times, we are content to quietly retreat to our respective shelters and just wait out the storm.” (Aimee Tabor)
There will be storms in our lives. There will be war, earthquakes and fires too. Sadly, this is part of life on planet earth. But our response is what will mark us as followers of Jesus.
Whether we seek shelter or stand at the edge, let us be a part of that love that is stronger than any fire and rebuild hope even in the midst of ashes. Amen.
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