Chapel Talk

We live in small, somewhat insular community, which has been described as the “Wayland bubble.”  Our days are so focused on the work that must be done in the classroom and elsewhere, that it is easy for us to lose touch with the world around us.

But there are times when we must look outside our community, outside the bubble.  This past week, I think, was one of those times.

As many of you know, this past week parts of the Caribbean Sea and the East Coast of the United States were struck by what has been called a “Superstorm:” The violent collision of a tropical hurricane and an another variety of storm called a Nor’easter.  Last week, these two forces of nature combined to great calamity, and as of this morning, over 150 people have lost their lives, and countless more are without basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter.  The economic cost of Hurricane Sandy is estimated to be over 55 Billion dollars.

The natural question to ask is simple:  “why?”

The answer, on the other hand, is far from simple.

We are not far removed from a time in human history when faith was the answer to all questions.  The almost ubiquitous belief in a higher power was used to explain all things, good and evil, a time when health, prosperity, and personal liberty were seen as marks of Divine favor.  From that perspective, a disaster like Sandy would have been seen as punishment for evils committed by evil men.

Few of us, I think, espouse that worldview now.  We frame our understanding of natural disasters in the lens of science, which tells us that storms, floods, earthquakes, and other catastrophes are part of our planet’s natural function, and that catastrophes strike without passion or prejudice, and that while we may pray or hope for calm and safety, we still live in a dangerous and an unpredictable world.  This truth is both frightening and comforting, for while no amount of sin will earn us such punishment, no amount of virtue will truly keep us from it.

What role, then, does faith have in such a world?  What good does it do any of us to profess a belief in any deity, if that deity cannot or does not protect innocent people from calamity?  What role does faith play in a world where there is no apparent causal relationship between good actions and good fortune?  Is a higher power who does not protect innocent people against calamity even worth believing in?

Further, can a Faith-based worldview continue to exist as science reveals more and more about our universe to us?  After all, anthropologists generally assert that religion and faith became a part of the human condition in an effort to explain the inexplicable.  And if the world’s great questions can be addressed with science and logic, what is left for religion to explain?  What purpose can it serve for a rationale mind?

Well, there are certainly those among us who would say….none.  Who would argue that faith is and always has been unnecessary and irrelevant, and who would point to moments in history where people of power have deliberately halted the progress in the name of their faith. 

And perhaps the problem lies there…

Perhaps it is perhaps because of these moments of zealotry that we perceive such diametric opposition between faith and science.

Maybe it doesn’t have to be this way.  Maybe there is a way to address a tragedy like Sandy scientifically, and a separate, but equally valid way to explain through the prism of faith.

There is an idea, which was posited by Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schiori, about the role of faith in a world like ours.  Bishop Schiori has a unique insight on this matter: She is the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, but is also a former professor of Oceanography, a subject in which she holds a doctorate. Accordingly, she is a person with a strong, scientific worldview. 

Bishop Schiori has opined that Science and faith can coexist in a complimentary fashion.  Science, in her view, is meant to answer questions of mechanism: how and why things happen….why storms form and strike, which diseases afflict whom, and so forth. The nuts and bolts, if you will.    

Faith, on the other hand, answers questions of meaning, questions which are decidedly less certain and more personal. 

Now for many of us, faith can be a tricky term.  Often, it connotes espousing one of the world’s great religions, or at least a belief in a higher power.  But, and I’m speaking only for myself, I think that faith can also simply mean a belief in human dignity, or in secular values like justice or liberty.  Like religious deities, these ideals cannot be seen or heard or felt, but we can put our faith in them, and like organized religion, they can help us to find meaning in the world.

Faith cannot answer our questions about how Hurricane Sandy came to be, but it can inform our reaction to it. 

As we sit comfortably in this Chapel, other people, who are our brethren, had their lives turned upside down.  While science can tell us the cause of the disaster, it is our faith that can help us see it as a reminder of life’s tenuousness, and to remind us that a disaster as severe as Sandy could arrive on our doorstep at any time.  It can also inform us that each life lost in any catastrophe, natural or otherwise, is tragic and, accordingly, that each life lived is worth caring about. 

Our faith can move us to awareness.  Certainly, in cases like a Hurricane, that might mean finding ways to help, through charity or volunteerism.  But perhaps more importantly, faith can make us aware that disasters happen every day to everyone, and that, unlike Sandy, they’re often neither public nor publicized.

No amount of faith on earth can undo the damage done by this mighty storm, but our faith can guide to small acts of kindness and compassion, to a kind word to a sad friend, a smile to a lonely stranger, or a quick phone call home to remind our families that we love them.  Such actions are small in scope, but grand in meaning. 

Finally, our faith can move us to a realization of what we have, to a new appreciation of the community in which we live and study each day, and to the families who love us, both nearby and on the other side of our small planet.  It can also move us to care for and preserve these things, which we hold dear.

If our faith can move us to these virtues, then truly, it has served us well.