BLESSED
Makemie Presbyterian Church
January 30, 2011
For the past several days, the media has been talking about the 25th anniversary of an American tragedy:
The loss of the space shuttle Challenger, and the loss of 7 lives, the astronauts and teacher who were on that fated flight.
Most of us can probably remember where we were when we heard the sad news. Some of us saw the instant replay on TV. In fact, I remember thinking that I wished they would stop playing that video over and over again. It seemed morbid, to watch the death of seven people again and again – even if it was so far away that we couldn’t really see anything but smoke. It was real, not science fiction. I remember thinking of the loved ones who were in shock and disbelief of their loss. What must they have thought of a nation of gawkers who watched the video of that explosion over and over? And yet, that video has been played over and over for the past 25 years, especially this past week.
Blessed are those who mourn……
There are lots of stories related to that disaster that have been told many times. I’ll tell my current favorite story. Carl McNair is the older brother of astronaut Ron McNair, who died in the Challenger accident. Carl recorded a story from his childhood about Ron for Story Corps on National Public Radio. When Ron was nine years old, in 1959, he walked a mile to the Lake City S.C. public library, picked out a couple of books, and stood in line to check out. When it was his turn at the counter, the librarian informed him that the library did not serve ‘colored folks.’ Ron replied that he would like to check out the books. The librarian told him that if he didn’t leave right away, she was calling the cops. Ron replied ‘I’ll wait.’ He sat up on the counter and waited.
Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness….
The librarian called the police and Ron’s mother. As she raced to the library, Mrs. McNair prayed, ‘Oh, Lord, don’t let them arrest my son.’
Blessed are the poor in spirit……
The police arrived, and asked ‘Where’s the disturbance?’ The librarian explained the situation. The police told the librarian to check out the books to the 9-year-old boy. Ron’s mother said that she would pay for the books if Ron did not return them in good condition.
Blessed are the peacemakers….
When the librarian handed the books to Ron, his mother said to him ‘What do you say?’ Ron said to the librarian ‘Thank You, M’am.’ Blessed are the meek….
Today, there are over 20 schools named for Ron McNair, the major street in Lake City is Ronald McNair Boulevard, and yesterday, the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Life History Center was dedicated in the building that was the Lake City public library in 1959.
Blessed are those who are persecuted….
The Challenger mission was scheduled to be McNair’s last mission as an astronaut. After retiring from the space program, he was going to be a teacher. He spent many hours visiting schools and encouraging students to study Science. Little did he know that the Challenger flight would be his last for a very different reason than he had anticipated. Ron’s widow, Cheryl, and Ron’s brother, Carl, continue to carry on Ron’s legacy of inspiration to students.
Blessed are the pure in heart…….
Ron McNair is not the only story of inspiration to young people that we hear of from the Challenger crew. Probably the most famous person on that flight was not even an astronaut. She was Christa McAuliffe, a Teacher from Concord, NH who called the anticipated Challenger mission ‘The ultimate field trip.’ After her death, her parents worked with Framingham State College to establish the McAuliffe Center for Education. Her son became a marine biologist and her daughter followed in her mother’s footsteps to become a teacher. There have been movies, documentaries, and books produced about her dedication to inspiring students.
Blessed are the merciful…
If there is anything that a disaster teaches us, it’s how frail we are in this temporal body, this temporary life. Humans commemorate disaster almost as much as we celebrate joy. And we do so in order to continue teaching lessons to generation after generation, especially lessons of mankind’s inhumanity to mankind. We also remember the victims of natural disasters and we wonder how to avoid such tragedies in the future. And we think of ourselves as truly blessed if tragedy doesn’t touch us personally. But at some time in our lives, we are all touched by tragedy. The shocking thing happens, and we are forever changed. But how are we changed? Some people become bitter, never able to let go of the pain and suffering. Some people turn tragedy into opportunity. It helps them heal, and it blesses others in ways they may have never imagined.
The blessings of the scripture we call The Beatitudes can be puzzling on the surface. I don’t know how you have always interpreted the Beatitudes, but there a couple of things that occur to me. It’s always bothered me that, at least in the English translation, the present tense is used in ‘Blessed Are,’…..while the blessing appears to come in the future, with the words ‘They shall be…’ Most of us would use the word ‘Blessed’ as the people in biblical times probably did – to mean ‘provision,’…as in ‘I am blessed because I have enough of what I need…..water, food, shelter, family, friends, faith….’ But Jesus indicated that those who don’t have all of those things are the ones that are blessed, because they have needs. And he intended for us to fill each other’s needs, and in providing blessings for others, we ourselves become blessed, not because we’re praying in public so that all the world can see, but because we take on a mantle of humility when we put ourselves in someone’s else shoes, or when we carry on a legacy that was started by someone who inspired us.
Tradition holds that once a blessing is bestowed by a person in power, it cannot be withdrawn. The most famous circumstance is of Isaac, who was tricked into giving his patriarchal blessing to Jacob rather than the first-born twin, Esau. Even after the deception was revealed, he could not take back the blessing that Jacob would found the tribes of Israel. In today’s society, whenever there is injustice, or deception, we feel entitled to compensation. We file legal suits against anyone and everyone who has wronged us. Jesus wanted us to turn the other cheek, to carry the Roman soldier’s gear an extra mile, to love God and neighbor…..to be a blessing to others and a tribute to our Heavenly Father. Even when a blessing is given by mistake, or stolen by deception, it is still a blessing. God shows his omnipotent power in how even a mistake or a tragedy can be the catalyst for blessings. There was no prophet Micah predicting the Challenger disaster and its consequences, good or bad. Micah spoke centuries earlier of how God wants his people to walk humbly with Him: To do justice and to love kindness. Ron McNair and Christa McAuliffe were in the prime of life when they died, planning new endeavors, blessing others with their lives as their parents had taught them to do. It was up to those who they left behind to carry on those blessings.
After the worst of the pain has passed, we find ways to go on with our lives, and when we take the focus off of ourselves and put it into others, we find ways to honor the lives of those who have gone before. That’s why there so many educational programs, roads and buildings named after the Challenger crew members who inspired others. Those are blessings that carry on the legacy of people who blessed those around them. Twenty-five years after the disaster, new blessings are being delivered and will continue, teaching lessons and inspiring others.
A few days after the Challenger disaster, President Ronald Reagan delivered a very short State of the Union address. In it he quoted a WWII sonnett: "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."