Tomorrow, Sunday, some of us in Lewes will stand in the line again, as we do every Sunday, in a Silent Vigil against the War. It is now two years and nine months since we began this witness. A group of between 10 and 50 folk week in, week out. We remember the dead and the wounded and those forgotten civilians who die in the war that drags on with more dead each day. This month almost 100 US military personnel have died and still some days left. Many more wounded, and many many more Iraqi civilians killed. The total numbers this week are : 3346 US military dead, 24912 US wounded, and 68,593 Iraqi civilians killed (and that number is just an estimate).
There are no magic numbers, there is only a growing list, a list that can only bring sorrow.And after the sorrow, what? Where are we to go with the anger and the rage against the machine? Who knows?
An then there is this message in a song. I don't know if it is the right one, but it at least knows that "the road I must travel, the end I cannot see."
There are no magic numbers, but there is the rage against the death machine, and pilgrimage.....
In last week's sermon (about Va. Tech) and again this week, I described the mission of the Church as "fishing for people" and "breaking the kingdom of death" (from the refrain of "hail thee festival day").
ReplyDeleteThank you for this bit of ongoing witness, Mark. Life has the last word.