PROPER 28C - Malachi 3:13-4:2a, 5-6; Psalm 98:5-10; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19 -

18 November 2007 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

A Profoundly Different Perspective

 

INTRODUCTION - Frank Bingham

 

I would not want to trade places with Frank Bingham. Mr. Bingham was featured on the front page of The Sunday Denver Post, a week ago today. Mr. Bingham is a modern-day Job. Perhaps you remember the heart-breaking story of Frank Bingham. Just a over a year ago, on November 10, 2006, Mr. Bingham, his wife of six years, Rebecca, and his two children, 4-year-old Macie and 2-year-old Garrison, were walking across the street at 15^th and Arapahoe in lower downtown Denver when they were all struck by a drunk driver, who had run a red light. The two children were killed instantly. Rebecca Bingham died a short while later in the hospital. Mr. Bingham was injured and was hospitalized, but survived. Just like that - in an instant - Frank Bingham’s family was gone.

 

I remember reading about this tragedy in the newspaper when it first happened. I remember Julia and I talking about how awful it was. And now, a year later, The Post has told us how Frank Bingham is coping.

 

At the time of the tragedy, Mr. Bingham was eight weeks into his first year of law school at DU, and director of the University of Colorado at Denver’s Colorado Principals’ Center. If you were in his shoes, what would you have done? Would you have been tempted to quit law school? Mr. Bingham didn’t quit. In fact, by the end of his first year, he had won two awards for being an outstanding first-year student.

 

Would you wallow in depression, and find it hard to get up in the morning? Well, lest we try to paint this picture with colors that are way too bright, Mr. Bingham has wrestled with depression. Here are two quotes from the article. “I am no longer a husband. I am no longer a father. And sometimes I feel as if I am only a shell of what I once was. Despite the many family members and friends who have drawn close to me during this horrifying experience, I mostly feel alone.” And this: ‘Two out of every three days is - getting out of bed, I don’t want to exaggerate it, but it’s a mental struggle of, ‘OK, this is your life, and you’ve got another day of it to face. You’re going to drag yourself up out of bed and deal with whatever it brings.” (The Sunday Denver Post, November 11, 2007, pages 21A and 1A, article written by Colleen O’Connor)

 

What has helped Frank Bingham get through this, besides his friends and relatives? The article mentions one of the biggest things -“ the support of strangers he has met who, like him, have lost multiple family members.” (page 21A) The article also mentions therapy. Mr. Bingham said, “It’s really helpful for me to know I have a regularly scheduled time with my counselor to face emotions that, on a daily basis, are sometimes more healthy for me to suppress or put away. If another good, healthy opportunity for dealing with heavy emotions does not come up, then I have that time there, so things don’t get stuffed away permanently.” (page 21A)

 

And yes, there is one other major thing that has gotten Frank Bingham through - his faith.

 

Mr. Bingham happened to be a Christian before all this happened. He sang in a Christian a capella group, had run the sound board at his church, and read Bible stories to his children. Would going through something this tragic challenge you in your faith? Like Job’s friends advised him to do, wouldn’t you be tempted to curse God and die? Mr. Bingham put the challenge this way:

 

“Early on, I tried to take a really deep assessment of which side of this you come down on. Does this experience raise questions that you want to try to answer but that doesn’t change your basic underlying belief? Or is it something that can take a lifetime of believing and living with a foundation of faith, and say that it all gets tossed out?” Frank Bingham made his choice. “I had to say, ‘This definitely creates questions and uncertainties around things you’ve never had to face up to, and perhaps have never really been forced to take a close look at.’ But the underlying faith is still there.” (page 21A)

 

Mr. Bingham does more than go to law school and direct the Colorado Principals’ Center. The writer of the article put it this way: “Because Bingham wants to be better, not bitter, he focuses on goodness, gratitude, and giving.” He remembers and honors his wife and children by giving to others on their birthdays and on his anniversary, and gives others the opportunity to give, as well. He created the Rebecca, Macie, and Garrison Bingham Memorial Fund out of mostly individual donations from people who heard the Binghams’ story. Here is some of the giving Mr. Bingham has done in the past year.

 

On Garrison’s birthday, the gift went to the Wild Animal Sanctuary near Keenesburg. Becca was a nurse in the cancer unit at Children’s Hospital. On her birthday, he joined her friends to sort medical supplies at Project C.U.R.E., which aids people in over 100 countries. Recently, on Macie’s birthday, he gave two gifts - one to the Denver Dumb Friends League, where Becca had helped raise kittens for adoption, and another to Urban Peak, which helps homeless youth become self-reliant adults. He has also created an annual scholarship at DU, to help students at the law school pursue careers in either children’s advocacy or animal rights. (page 21A)

 

But the generous giving is not the end of the story, either. What about the “f-word”? Forgiveness, I mean. The man who killed Bingham’s family, Lawrence Trujillo, recently pled guilty and was sentenced to 48 years in prison. Mr. Bingham talks about the challenge to forgive. “I’m very conscious of it being a major priority for me. I feel like I’ve already made some progress with it, although it may be a lifetime process to be able to say that forgiveness is complete. If you look at the biblical example, forgiveness is like the sin never occurred. Whether humans are capable of that level, I don’t know, but I think I can aspire to it.” (page 21A)

 

I’ll point to two more quotes from Mr. Bingham. “I believe there’s a whole lot about our lives and our existence that we don’t understand. I find myself thinking about signs and indications that there may be something bigger and unseeable going on that has some positives in it.”

 

It seems to me that Mr. Bingham’s faith in action - his example for the rest of us - is clearly one of those positives. He says that from the start he wanted his loss to inspire others. This is how the article ends. “If they can look at a person as generous, kind and giving as Becca was, and if they can think about their own place in the world, then from that perspective we might be able to be better people.” (page 21A)

 

Chalk me up as one of those people. I am inspired - incredibly inspired - by Mr. Bingham.

 

A FAITH PERSPECTIVE

 

It seems to me that Mr. Bingham is a living, breathing example of what it means to be faithful - through thick and thin. Faith is getting up in the morning and putting one foot in front of the other, and paying attention to where God will show up, paying attention to what God would have us do next. Mr. Bingham is doing exactly that.

 

Our reading from Malachi today contrasts those who are only out to make a profit - “What do we profit by keeping [God’s] command...?” - with those who understand that they are the Lord’s special possession, who are called to revere God’s name - who speak well of Him and love and serve Him. (Malachi 3:14, 16-18)

 

Advent is almost here. Christmas is approaching. Can these words from Malachi speak to us this Advent? I think they can.

 

The stores are already stocked with many things, enticing us to buy, buy, buy - have more, more, more. Some of the stores have been stocked for well over two months now. We have a choice. We can go through life saying “This is mine and I want that and that and that to be mine, and if I don’t have those other things I won’t be satisfied. I won’t stop until I have all the things that I want, and until I give my children all the things that they want..” This might be called the “It’s mine!” perspective on life.

 

Malachi reminds us that there is a profoundly different perspective available to us. It is a perspective where we don’t seek more and more possessions, but one where we come to understand - on a deep, deep level - that we are the possession. We are the special possession of a holy God. What does that mean? It means that our lives are to be grounded and centered in God. It means that we make ourselves available for God to use us as God chooses, no matter what circumstances might come our way. In this perspective, we understand that we are here to love and serve God, and to love and serve others. It is the oppositive of the “It’s mine” perspective. It’s the “I am the Lord’s” perspective. And it is the perspective of faith and gratitude.

 

I have never met Frank Bingham. But I can tell, from Colleen O’Connor’s touching and inspiring newspaper article, that after all he has been through, Mr. Bingham still has this perspective - the perspective that he is the Lord’s.

 

In today’s Gospel lesson from Luke, Jesus talks to his disciples about being faithful and unafraid during the terrifying time to come, when the temple would be destroyed. He predicts that they will be arrested and persecuted, and says his disciples will be given “an opportunity to testify.” Jesus assures his disciples that He will give them “words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.” (Luke 21:13-15) At the end of the passage, Jesus says, “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” (verse 19)

 

CONCLUSION

 

Through this interview with Ms. O’Connor, Mr. Bingham was given an opportunity to testify. We discover that Mr. Bingham has done more than just endure. He has continued to love his family, even after they have died. He has been generous and lived from a stance of gratitude, despite all that he’s been through. He is striving to forgive the man who took away his very life - life as a husband and father. He had as great an opportunity as anyone has ever had to say his faith was all for nought, and become an unbeliever. But he has not taken that route. He has become instead a living, enduring, loving example to all the rest of us - of what it means to keep the faith, of what it means to live with the perspective that we are the special possession of God.

 

Paul writes to the Thessalonians and says he has given them an example to imitate. The one we are ultimately called to imitate, of course, is our Lord Jesus. But it seems to me we also need some examples to imitate who are living right among us. Perhaps Frank Bingham can be one of those people for us. Perhaps Colleen O’Connor’s article is meant to serve as a modern-day letter to the Ambrosians. Maybe we can think upon Frank Bingham’s life and faith, as we approach the Advent and Christmas seasons. Truth be told, I am humbled by this man, and his response to all that has happened to him.

 

But you know what? You and I can inspire others, too, by the way we live our lives, by the things we do once we get out of bed every morning. May it be so, with God’s help. And thank you for all those things you do, in faith, that inspire others - others like me.