Emmanuel Church, Bungay, Suffolk

The Minister's Sermons

"In the Aftermath of Beslan" by Revd Bruce Waldron - 5th September 2004
As I was putting my thoughts together for you late last week, the Beslan situation erupted, conveyed with all of television’s usual delicacy and sensitivity, and I knew that I must, in some way, address this today.
Why weren’t people’s prayers for the children’s safety answered?
What is the relevance of our faith to the awful tragedy unfolding in Russia?
The tragedy in Beslan didn’t happen simply because evil people took over a school. It happened because there have been nearly two centuries of oppression and hatred, of atrocity and reprisal, of persistent villianizing of one side by the other and as a result, a festering, flourishing lack of compassion and humanness about the way people are treated. Chechnya has experienced terrible things at the hands of Russia and whilst nothing justifies what happened on Friday, nothing justifies what Chechans have been through at the hands of Russia.
Beslan did not happen in a vacuum. The human being is unique in that we not only experience events, we conceptualise what we have experienced. We sit on it, we think about it in order to try and make sense of it. One of the ways we make sense of it is by allocating blame and by allocating fault, and then by allocating reciprocal evil, what we sometimes rather generously call justice.
When an animal is hurt it simply re-acts. If something causes it pain it lashes out in defence and then it stays away from the cause of pain. Humans are a lot more inventive. When we are hurt we too want to lash out. But the lashing out doesn’t take away the hurt, its only a defensive instinct. As humans, we take a simple defensive response of lashing out when we are attacked but because of the way our minds have evolved we often conceptualise that simple defensive response into planned reprisal.
Jesus knew this and he taught and exampled, in every circumstance, how important it was not to get caught in the tit-for-tat world that can only have one outcome, the escalation of pain and destruction. It is such a simple concept, so obvious, and yet still we humans persist in this fruitless business of holding onto injustices so that we can commit our own. Jesus knew that there was no end to this cycle. He knew that healing, that which he spent his life doing, could never occur through hitting back, through becoming like the very thing that was hated. He taught us to forgive, as illogical and difficult as it seems. And even at the most tragic, unjust and cruel moment of his existence, he showed that he not only believed it and taught it, but practised it, even in the most difficult place possible, on the cross, as we have heard this morning.
In Jesus way of living, there is no possibility of the sins of the father’s being passed onto the children. There is no way for the cycle of hatred to be re-run. Jesus said, “The pain stops here. Whatever the evil of the other person, I will not participate in it. I will not let my soul be infected by it. I will not move from the presence of the God of love and dwell in the presence of hate and bitterness". That took enormous courage and great commitment, but it is what Jesus showed us was the way, the truth and the life.
His followers heard his message. Listen to the words of Peter. Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called.- that you might inherit a blessing for: and here he quotes from Psalm 34 “those who desire life, and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit; let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer”
What we saw on Friday is the worst face of the tragedy of Chechan and Russian relations; two communities infused with the result of a time and place where those words have been forgotten. What can we pray for Chechnya and Russia? Perhaps that there will arise a leadership that will remember that people are people, that will seek to heal the horrible wounds of two centuries of horror. That there will be someone with enough charisma and courage and goodness to break the cycle that stands behind the utter heartbreaking tragedy of Friday.
What can we pray for ourselves. That we will have the faith in Christ to deal with our own angers and hurts in a way that will be faithful to the one who, even on the cross, would example what it was he preached, which is contained in the prayer we say almost every Sunday.
If we can pray for the Russians and Chechans to break the cycle of hatred and reprisal, then how much easier it is for us to be faithful in this matter of forgiveness. We must never imagine that the small matters requiring forgiveness, and a letting go of anger and unforgiveness, are insignificant. It is faithfulness in the small things that leads to faithfulness in the larger battles of life. One leads directly to the other.
What happened on Friday was not a result of God not hearing what people asked of God. It was a result of people not being prepared, over a long period of time, to hear what God was asking of people.