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From the Pastor's Desk

Everything can change in a moment. We know that in theory, but when it happens in real life, we are left stunned. We learned that hard lesson again with the recent air disaster over the Potomac River adjacent to Reagan National Airport. The collision of an American Airlines regional jet and a Black Hawk military helicopter on January 29 led to the loss of all lives on both aircraft. All sixty-four people on the airplane as well as the three military personnel on the helicopter were lost in the crash. And now we are struggling to understand how this could happen. Many innocent lives were lost. Even if we did not know personally anyone among those lost, the bond of our shared humanity and a sense of communal grief affects us all.

Living here in the shadow of our nation’s capital, like so many others in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area, Reagan National is our go-to airport when we travel. It’s a lot closer to where I live than Dulles Airport, the other well-known D.C. airport. Just a few days before this terrible tragedy, my wife and I returned from a recent trip using Reagan National Airport. In fact, the airplane we traveled on was the same aircraft as the one in this collision: a PSA Airlines Bombardier. All of this makes you stop and think. Everything can change in a moment.

For those who have lost loved ones, we offer our heart-felt prayers and condolences. We pray that you may be comforted with God’s saving peace which surpasses all understanding. For the first responders who had the awful responsibility of moving from rescue to recovery, locating the remains of those lost among the wreckage, we salute you. Thank you for your heroism and commitment to help in time of need. For government leaders, we look to you for guidance and direction in your elected or appointed roles for public safety and well-being. We understand that investigations of this magnitude cannot be rushed so that everything can be thoroughly assessed and analyzed. Together with the families of those whose lives were cut short by this disaster, we all want answers so that new protocols can be put into place, ensuring as much as possible that such a disaster will not happen again.

What are we to learn from what has happened? Reflecting upon this, I believe there are at least several things:

  • Life is fragile – Even when we do everything right, even when we take all the precautions that we can to ensure our safety and well-being, things can and do go wrong. Life is fragile. We live in a broken world that is marked with the effects of sin in our individual lives and in our communal life. All we really have is today, and so let us make the best possible use of it. Tell your family that you love them. Mend that broken relationship. Do the good thing, even if no one else sees this or thanks you for it. God knows. None of us knows what may happen tomorrow. Because life is fragile, let us live today to the full in the light and love of Jesus.
  • All things work together for good – One of the great mysteries of the Christian faith is what Paul the apostle writes in his epistle to the Romans: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Sometimes this passage gets misquoted, as I did deliberately in the heading of this section. Notice that Paul does not say “all things work together for good.” What Paul does say comes as an assurance for the believer in Christ when bad things happen in life; when tragedy strikes. Paul says that “in all things God works for good for those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” For the believer in Christ, that means even in the darkest of times God is able to redeem what seems to be only loss and heartache. That is enormously comforting. That promise gives blessed hope to hearts that are weighed down with grief and sadness. Our gracious God, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), is more than able to transform our loss and heartache into blessing as only He can do. I cannot tell you how or when God does this, but God is true to his Word. He will do it.
  • Persevere – In the face of disaster, this can be a hard word to hear. At such times, we don’t feel like persevering. We don’t feel strong or confident; rather, we feel weak and powerless. Everyday tasks seem too much. It’s all we can do to just make it through the day, never mind about next week, next month, or next year. At such times, we need others to be strong for us so that we can persevere and face what is before us. This is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran pastor and martyr, called “the ministry of bearing” in his book Life Together. Within the Body of Christ, and flowing out of what God in Christ has done for us, we are called to “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). The law of Christ is the law of love, revealed in how Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree of the cross. If God would do this for us, ought we not love and serve one another? In the face of disaster, persevering is not easy, and it is not quick. Waves of grief will often feel overwhelming. Let us stand by one another in time of need, being patient and understanding as God in Christ has been with us. And so we will, with God’s help, persevere.

Everything can change in a moment. Although that is true, and it may seem there is little we can do about it, we affirm that our lives are in the care and keeping of the Lord. As we walk through this life, we do not know what tomorrow may bring, but we do know that whatever tomorrow may bring, “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

All of this can be summed up in a beautiful hymn stanza that puts it like this:

What joy to know, when life is past,
The Lord we love is first and last,
The end and the beginning!
He will one day, oh, glorious grace,
Transport us to that happy place
Beyond all tears and sinning!
Amen! Amen!
Come, Lord Jesus!
Crown of gladness!
We are yearning
For the day of Your returning!
(Lutheran Service Book 395, stanza 6)