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Wayne's Word Death In Cambine
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“In the midst of life we are in death.” These are the words I used
to begin the 400 funeral or memorial services I have conducted throughout my career as a United Methodist pastor.
Known today as “A Service of Death and Resurrection,” the death of a friend of family member gives an opportunity
to pause and reflect on the meaning of life, mortality, the existence of God and what will happens to us when we die.
Last month Jack Lalanne – the American fitness, exercise and nutrition expert – died at the age of 96.
His death should at least remind us that no matter how well we eat and exercise we have mortal bodies with finite life spans.
We may cheat death and add a few years or even decades to our time here on earth but eventually we all follow the same path.
We received news yesterday that Laura, a 15 month-old girl at the Caroline Beleshe Orphanage in Cambine, Mozambique,
died after a two-week illness and hospital stay. The other children, staff and all those who work with the orphanage
are saddened with this news, and we grieve her life cut short. The exact cause of her death is unknown, although potential
culprits include malaria, HIV / AIDS, cholera, Typhoid Fever or any other virus, bacteria or disease that are known killers
in the Global South. But in a greater sense we know exactly what caused her death: she died as a result of extreme poverty.
An estimated 10 million children die daily around the world from conditions of extreme poverty – an average of 26,000
per day. These children die because they were born into regions where there are not enough resources to sustain them.
This is an ongoing tragedy, a heart-breaking catastrophe that can be stopped: what we are lacking as a human family is the
will to end this ongoing disaster.
The United States spends over $1 trillion per year on the instruments of death
and destruction – its military – industrial – political – religious complex. This spending breaks
down to $2.7 billion per day, $112 million per hour, $1.8 million per minute or $300,000 per second. The decision to
place our trust and security in the military is in essence a moral choice: in a world of limited resources, money allocated
to the war industry is money spent to build weapons and train soldiers to kill other human beings: capital spent on life enhancing
capacities provides for food, education, housing, and health care initiatives that improve the human condition.
Dwight Eisenhower recognized this reality. Just over 50 years ago he spoke these powerful words:
Every
gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger
and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat
of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
Here is the reality: the
policies of this nation, through the sins of omission and commission, lead directly and indirectly to the death of millions
and millions of persons annually, including the estimated 10 million children already mentioned. But as the people of Egypt
are showing, we have the power to change our policies. “We the people of the US . . . ” have the power,
authority and ability to shape our future, to build a world of peace and justice, to care for the widows and orphans and move
away from outdated paradigms of an us verses them, a friend and enemy worldview that leads to conflict, war, death and destruction.
We must embrace peaceful cooperation before a cataclysmic world confrontation takes place: war waged by governments, sanctioned
by religious leaders, supported by the populations and fought with weapons of mass destruction. We are ignoring Einstein’s
prophetic warning: “I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the
Fourth – rocks!”
Listen – I would have been honored to conduct a Service of Death and Resurrection
for Jack Lalanne – he lived a long and full life and had many wonderful experiences and opportunities. His passing
no doubt brought grief and sadness to his family and friends – but his service would also have been a celebration of
life, a tribute to what he has left behind. The death of Laura was of a profoundly different nature – a stabbing
at the heart of sadness and grief coupled with anger at the injustice of our world.
Joseph Stalin (yes, that
Joseph Stalin!) once quipped: “When one person dies it is a tragedy: when thousands die, its statistics.”
Laura’s death is a tragedy, a life cut too short. It is easy to discount the annual death of 10 million children
as statistics – nameless anonymous numbers who fall outside of our spheres of influence. But each child is precious
in God’s sight – each with family and friends who experience grief and sadness at their loss. Let us not
be immune to these statistics: God cannot be fooled: "Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him
it is sin." (James 4: 17) Creator God, forgive us our sins. In peace- Wayne
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