Only the Good Die Young

          Spoiler Alert!  She was innocent and idealistic.  She was courageous and adventurous.  She was compassionate and true to her convictions.  And they killed her off.  I’m referring to Sybil, the Earl of Grantham’s daughter, and wife to Tom, “the chauffer,” as he is called by the Dowager Countess.  If you are clueless at this point let me explain that these are all characters in the wildly popular Masterpiece Theater drama, “Downton Abbey,” an “Upstairs, Downstairs,” kind of British soap opera which is in its third season on local public TV stations.

          Sybil was my wife’s favorite character in this drama which has seduced us.  The dynamics of relationships between the downstairs servants and the upper crust nobles who reside in the sprawling environs of the Abbey continue to compel our viewing in a way no American drama seems able to do.  When Sybil died in childbirth last night we were shocked.  My wife is in mourning.  It’s almost as if we feel the need to attend the funeral. 

          Mostly, Sybil’s death struck me because it seemed unfair.  There are so many flawed characters in the show, some just foolish, others despicable.  Why couldn’t have they killed off one of the more dislikable crew?  I suppose that wicked characters help the plot move along in interesting ways.  But there seems to be so much injustice in the world, I suppose I would like my TV entertainment to pamper me at least with the illusion of justice.

          Something within us hungers for justice.  My wife remembers in childhood reacting to parental decisions by yelling out, “I protest!”  I remember our daughter having a keen sense of justice growing up.  In an upside down world we yearn for things to be right side up – for the poor to have dignity, for the good to thrive, for the wicked to perish.

          I am grateful that I can still feel the outrage of Sybil’s death, even if it is all a fiction.  The sense of outrage makes me realize that I have not become numb to injustice.  When there is so much out of balance in our world and the wicked seem to thrive it is tempting to cave in – to throw in the towel and give up our integrity.  The fact that any of us can still feel anger about something that strikes us as wrong gives me hope that maybe we’ll do something about it.  I think it was Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for the good people of the world to do nothing.” 

          I can’t do much with the scriptwriters of “Downton Abbey,” and their decision to end Sybil’s role in the drama, but I can allow my anger to lead me to thoughtful action in response to real injustices I witness in the world around me.  Such anger might be called righteous.  Be grateful if you still can still feel it.  

          

To Russia with Love

I was taking a look at my blog statistics this morning and was surprised to discover that in the past month I had one third again more page views from Russia than from the United States.  Imagine my amazement.  I don’t fool myself into thinking I have a wide readership.  I write as much as a way of keeping a personal journal of my reflections which just might be of interest to a half-dozen people or so.  Little did I realize that people from Russia might be tuning in – the wonders of the internet! 

The internet is a mixed bag.  Or a garbage bin.  You can find everything out there, and it is mostly trash.  But if you are a “bin diver,” as some people are, you can indeed find some treasure in the midst of all the trash out there.  Some of the obvious trash includes porn, viral videos, ranting blogs, etc.  But some of the trash is less obvious, including much religious content. 

For every conceivable religious perspective there is a website for it.  For every possible Biblical interpretation there is a blogger in support of it.  For every opinion there is justification on the internet to be found.  Therein lays the danger.  “It must be true because I found it on the internet,” is a damning indictment of internet limitations. 

And yet, I find many helpful resources on the internet.  For me it is a great tool.  But I find that the voice of reason and Christlike interpretation of Biblical passages often crowded out by those who shout the loudest, often in strident, self-righteous tones.  How do I help people find the jewels in the garbage?  How do I help people hold fast to what is good when there are so many conflicting and contrasting voices out there?  

Ultimately, I think that the truth – The Truth – is validated less by what we say than by what we do.  And that is perhaps the greatest limitation of the internet, and this blog.  Most of my readers in Russia cannot know if my life’s practice matches the words that I write.  So, I write with some sense of humility, realizing that some will never know whether these words carry the weight of authentic living.  

 

To my readers in Russia – may God lead you in the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  And thanks for reading.  I’ll try to offer my best.

 

 

How Long, O Lord?

Several years ago, in an effort to show the power of the book of Psalms as a resource for prayer, I wrote out prayers based on the various psalms and shared them on my blog.  I hoped to help people claim the ancient psalms as a still relevant and contemporary “school of prayer.” 

If you have spent much time in the psalms you will note that roughly three-fourths of them are rather melancholy.  As I sought to share deeply the emotional honesty of the psalms through my own prayers, some of my congregation who read my blog-prayers became concerned for me; that perhaps I was going through a crisis of faith.  They could not bear to think that their pastor might honestly identify with a psalm like Psalm 13: 

            How long, O Lord?  Wilt thou forget me for ever?

            How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

            How long must I bear pain in my soul,

                 and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

            How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 

Well, maybe these parishioners had never had a moment’s doubt about the omnipresence of God.  Maybe they had never experienced any delay in God’s answering of their prayers.  Maybe they had never been perplexed by the presence of so much evil in God’s good world.  Maybe they had never been disappointed with God.  Or . . . , maybe they simply were living in denial. 

Phillip Yancey, in his book, Disappointment with God, deals with three questions: Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden?  The conclusions he reaches are not neat and tidy.  We are still left with the question, “Why?”  But what the book of Psalms does is give us permission to ask those questions and let them linger.  The psalms give us license to express our doubt, our disappointment, our anger, even our hatred, and leave all those emotions in the hands of God.  Even when the psalm seems to imply that God is distant and unresponsive, in the very act of praying the psalmist is nevertheless expressing faith in God. 

So much that has been in the news lately – mass killings, ugly politics, devastating weather – may leave us wondering if there’s a God who cares.  Before we Christians rush to the defense of God, perhaps we need to listen to the questions people ask, questions that have been asked in the form of prayer by God’s people long ago, “How long, O Lord?  Wilt thou forget me for ever?”

 

Perhaps there is something to be learned in allowing time for lament and expression of doubt and pain.  Perhaps only after such honesty can we then move to the conclusions of Psalm 13: 

            But I have trusted in thy steadfast love;

                 my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

            I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.