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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan...
…and Maren Tirabassi
Maren Tirabassi is a retired UCC minister, extraordinary poet, and a dear friend of mine for over 25 years. She and I have enjoyed leading retreats together, and have co-written a study guide that accompanies my "Artist's Hand" recording and turns the music into Christian Education curricula.
Maren just wrote a poem inspired this week by the tragic and overwhelming fires in the Los Angeles area that are still raging as I write this article. I’ll end my “Few Words…” with her poem.
But those fires in L.A. Wow.
For me, it’s been hard to watch and pay attention. Of course my heart goes out to everyone impacted, and to the earth itself. But in addition to the sadness over all the loss of life, habitat, and property, I’ve been feeling a combination of anger and a bit of foreboding because of the obvious fact that these fires are just one more manifestation of climate change problems.
The anger I'm feeling is just kind of stuck there. If it's directed anywhere, it is just toward “us”— and maybe my generation in particular. I was 12 when the first “Earth Day” was celebrated. We’ve known for a long time where our mistreatment of the earth was likely to take us. And we failed to do what was necessary. And yes there were and are vested interests that STILL don't want us to acknowledge the magnitude of the moment we are in. And now we—and worse, our children and grandchildren—are faced with more and more severe consequences. We failed them. Sometimes that makes me sad. Sometimes angry. But enough of that for now. As always, I'll feel what I need to feel. And then I/we will prayerfully try to figure out what positive contributions we can make.
But thank God for poets like Maren, who can turn their own angst over something like the L.A. fires into a soulful piece of art that speaks to our hearts. She is such a gift.
As you’ll see, she connects some of the questions that arise as to “where God is” or why God lets tragedies—including so-called “acts of God”—happen--to the the story of Elijah in the book of 1 Kings running for his life from unjust political leaders who were after him for calling out injustice and corruption. As you may recall, he finds a cave to hide in. And then he has this somewhat mystical experience of an earthquake and then a great wind passing by the cave. He hears the Spirit say, “God is not in the earthquake or the wind.” And then when all the noise is gone, he somehow senses God speaking to him through a “still small voice within.”
You’ll see where Maren goes with this, but her take is soulful and brilliant. “God was not in the earthquake.” She hears that as saying that God didn’t cause the earthquake. Or the wind. These things “just happen” sometimes. Sure. God set up the physical laws of the universe by which these things happen. We could blame God for that if we want to. But the point is that God’s not making these things happen. “God is not in them.”
I have made peace with the fact that there are some things I’m not going to understand, and some things that God did not deliberately bring about for a specific reason. As Rabbi Harold Kushner stated in his classic book, When Bad Things Happen To Good People, there is some randomness in the universe. We have to deal with that. I agree.
There are times when it would be better to just stay quiet or to admit, “I don’t know why this or that happened” than to attach a cause to something we can’t possibly understand. I remember Pat Robertson years ago claiming that because of his prayers at the 700 club, God diverted a hurricane from hitting Virginia Beach, VA where his TV studios were, and instead caused it to hit New York. I’m sure the people of New York were thrilled with his prayers and his theology.
Ever since that time, I’ve often found myself gently suggesting to people… “I’m not sure God does weather.” Maren might say, “God is not there.”
But where is God? Always in the impulse to respond to whatever happens with love and compassion and action on behalf of those hurt the most. So, as Maren puts it, “God is not there. And God is there.”
God certainly isn’t to blame for the L.A. fires. We're not really sure how or why they started, but the severity of the fires obviously had a lot of help from humans who have acted selfishly and unfaithfully for a long time. But God IS there right now, even as the fires rage, in the courage and brave responses of those fighting the fires, and in the impulses to reach out with love and caring for those who are most devastated. I'm sure the UCC will be responding, and I'll let you know how in the days to come.
Thank God for poets like Maren.
See you in church soon I hope, even if it snows. God will be there…
Bryan
Maren Tirabassi—God is not there, God is there
A prayer for Tibet and California from 1 Kings 19
“Holy One, by all names, for all people,
you are not in the earthquake
in Tibet, Nepal, China,
but you are there
in rescuers and rebuilders –
in those who hold the grieving ones,
house the homeless ones,
care for the wounded ones.
You are not there in the wildfires
or the wind that drives them,
in California,
but you are there,
in rescuers and rebuilders –
in those who hold the grieving ones,
house the homeless ones,
care for the wounded ones.
As you were there
for frightened, fleeing Elijah,
so alone with your still, small voice,
and in his telling the story,
he need never have shared
after all his winds of fear died down,
except for knowing
that assurance of your absence
from the cause
and presence in the caring,
would comfort us all
and keep us from crying ...
"no, it is too much,
too far away or too near home,"
as we accept your gift
of finding a way to be
your rescuers and rebuilders.
amen.”
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