Here’s
a prayerful reflection in the wake of yesterday's terrorist attacks on the city of Brussels. It was written by Pastor Shannon Diana Keeney,
from First United Methodist Church in Littleton, New Hampshire.
God of Peace, Where Are You?
God
of Peace where are you?
We
ask this question as we watch what humans do.
We
harm, destroy, and fight.
We
look at each other with jealousy and spite
and
yet we ask where you are
isn’t
that bizarre?
Every
day it seems thousands die in a war zone
and
I just flick through the images like nothing on my phone.
The
news says, “Hundreds of Refugees Sink”
and
anymore I barely stop to think.
Yesterday,
it was an attack on the Belgium nation
as
bombs exploded in the Zaventem airport & the Maelbeek station.
Screams,
shouts, fear, and dread
this
is the scene of which I have read.
Toddlers’
squeal while their mother died
How
can we claim to call ourselves civilized?
It
isn’t God that is not there
I
fear it is us that have forgotten to care.
It
almost seems like we are jaded by these tragedies,
too
much loss and too many casualties.
We
say “another bomb”, “another school shooting”
“oh
look there is a city with racial violence and looting.”
I
fear we as a world have turned off our tears
and
replaced them with ignorance and fears.
No
longer do we stop and pray;
hoping
to be inspired to another way.
Instead
it is “I will offer up a prayer at some other time
because
look the grocery store has oranges at 1.49.”
I
worry for myself that I am becoming jaded
that
my global compassion has faded.
Has
something broken inside my psyche or soul
replaced
with a cynical black hole?
Maybe
that is more to my point
I
feel like after a crisis we should feel a sense of disjoint.
For
in each of these massacres
an
impasse occurs
The
World should be at a standstill, a moment of pain.
Where
only silence may reign.
There
is a part of humanity that dies
while
the victims offer their final cries.
So
what can I say to the church that I pastor?
The
truth is there are no human words to address this disaster
only
the heavenly message of Hope and Love.
The
truth of the peace that comes with the Dove.
Only
God can speak
for
humanity is just too weak.
We
are broken and lost.
But
into these moments God speaks Easter and Pentecost.
God
says remember “This is not the end
on
me your world can depend.
I
have watched your revolutions and world wars
seen
your armies and your corps.
Been
at battlefields in Rome, India, and Babylon
seen
the world offer weaponry and brawn.
It
is true I have been present at hangings and beheadings
but
I have also been there at births and at weddings.
Stood
with Friedensengel and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.
Whispered
in emperor’s ears to not be so territorial.
I
cannot stop everything because of your free will
but
do not think I am silent or still.
I
was there in that airport wrapping the dying in grace.
You,
humanity, may look away but for me that is not the case.
I
am there in your terror, in your wars, in your worst
under
the cover of gunfire, I have nursed.
I
challenge you, humanity,
in
the midst of such horror and insanity
to
not get caught up in political outspokenness
but
live in the pain of the brokenness.
Do
not distance yourselves just because it doesn’t make sense
Work
on sharing kindness and openness not building a fence
Emotional
walls are the worst kind
for
all you protect is your mind.
To
be a real change you must face the hurt
do
not let your sense of fear make your eyes avert.
Know
that there is hope somewhere, sometime
because
Love can and will speak even in Wartime.”
~
written by Pastor Shannon Diana Keeney, First United Methodist Church –
Littleton, NH. http://www.fumclittleton.org/
