Under the bridge
22/10/14 04:32
The press release from the Rapid City police department was brief and didn’t contain many details. Police have confirmed that a body was found under a bridge the night before last. It was about 5 p.m. and two people were walking in the area under the West Chicago bridge. They investigated a pile of blankets and clothing that was lying under the bridge and saw what they thought were human remains. They were right. But the remains were fairly badly deteriorated. Initial investigation indicates that the death may have occurred as long ago as last winter.
I guess we know how often we get around to cleaning up the litter beneath our bridges.
More seriously, I can’t help but wonder at the story of the person who died beneath that bridge. Apparently no one went looking for that person. No one filed a report and got the police to go out and cover the territory searching for the person. You read of masses of volunteers who turn out to assist when someone goes missing. But it appears that there is at least one person who can go missing and not be missed - not for a long time.
Somewhere, sometime that person was really something. The moment of his birth must have been as powerful and miraculous as the birth of any human baby. That is the way we come into this world. There must have been a time in that person’s life when she or he was loved and treasured.
I know it is silly, but somehow, since I officiated at a funeral yesterday, I got to thinking about what I might say if I were asked to officiate at a funeral for the person who died under the bridge. What stories could I tell? What lessons could we learn? What of that person remains in the lives and memories of others?
God knows.
Seriously. God does know. Whoever it was that died there, probably alone, in a place that could have been very chilly and dark and dirty and lonely, it is a person who is known and beloved of God. It was a person who was created, as we all are, in the image of God.
But I don’t want to think of the image of God deteriorated and beset with insects and scarcely recognizable under a pile of blankets and old clothes under a bridge. It seems such a long way from the posters and paintings that we put on the walls of our church. It seems so long a way from the sanitized images of God that we form in our mind. The tears that were cried by that particular person have long ago disappeared into the ground and into the air around us. Do you suppose that they were mixed with God’s own tears on that fateful night when death came? And I don’t even know if death came at night. I suppose you could die under a bridge during the day and not be discovered, if you could lie in the place of your death for months without anyone noticing.
Our community is truly a lovely place with many deeply caring people. I have witnessed great acts of generosity and outreach to others. I know that there are many who devote much of their lives to feeding and sheltering those who do not have sufficient resources to provide for themselves. I have eaten with the people served by the mission and visited the rooms of those who are temporarily sheltered by its walls. And I have met some of the people who find it harder to obtain services. I’ve shared lunch with people who were too intoxicated to be served anywhere but city/county detox. I’ve wandered about our city, walked under its bridges and looked at the piles of rags and blankets.
But I wasn’t there for this particular victim. I didn’t look at the right place at the right time. And the same is true of a whole lot of other caring and understanding people in our community.
I wonder how many other people walk in our midst every day that we are unable to see. I wonder how many become so invisible to us that we wouldn’t notice if they were taken from us. I wonder how many deaths go unnoticed.
It is an unsettling thought.
And all we really know is that there was a body under the bridge and it appears it had been there for some time.
So, once again we will say what we believe:
“We believe that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and we know that in everything God works for good with those who love God, who are called according to God’s purpose. We are sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, no things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (from Romans, adapted by the UCC Book of Worship)
Of course God doesn’t need us to read the familiar lines of scripture. Neither does the man who once walked our streets, who died under a bridge and who now rests securely in the arms of a loving savior. But we need the scriptures. We need the prayers. We need the understanding. For one day, through the grace of God, we will be reunited not only with those we have known and loved in this life, but with all of God’s children.
Anticipating that day, we pray:
“Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your child, the man found under the bridge, unknown to us, but known by you. Acknowledge we humbly pray, a sheep of your own flock, and a son of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the company of the saints in light.” (also from the UCC Book of Worship)
I guess we know how often we get around to cleaning up the litter beneath our bridges.
More seriously, I can’t help but wonder at the story of the person who died beneath that bridge. Apparently no one went looking for that person. No one filed a report and got the police to go out and cover the territory searching for the person. You read of masses of volunteers who turn out to assist when someone goes missing. But it appears that there is at least one person who can go missing and not be missed - not for a long time.
Somewhere, sometime that person was really something. The moment of his birth must have been as powerful and miraculous as the birth of any human baby. That is the way we come into this world. There must have been a time in that person’s life when she or he was loved and treasured.
I know it is silly, but somehow, since I officiated at a funeral yesterday, I got to thinking about what I might say if I were asked to officiate at a funeral for the person who died under the bridge. What stories could I tell? What lessons could we learn? What of that person remains in the lives and memories of others?
God knows.
Seriously. God does know. Whoever it was that died there, probably alone, in a place that could have been very chilly and dark and dirty and lonely, it is a person who is known and beloved of God. It was a person who was created, as we all are, in the image of God.
But I don’t want to think of the image of God deteriorated and beset with insects and scarcely recognizable under a pile of blankets and old clothes under a bridge. It seems such a long way from the posters and paintings that we put on the walls of our church. It seems so long a way from the sanitized images of God that we form in our mind. The tears that were cried by that particular person have long ago disappeared into the ground and into the air around us. Do you suppose that they were mixed with God’s own tears on that fateful night when death came? And I don’t even know if death came at night. I suppose you could die under a bridge during the day and not be discovered, if you could lie in the place of your death for months without anyone noticing.
Our community is truly a lovely place with many deeply caring people. I have witnessed great acts of generosity and outreach to others. I know that there are many who devote much of their lives to feeding and sheltering those who do not have sufficient resources to provide for themselves. I have eaten with the people served by the mission and visited the rooms of those who are temporarily sheltered by its walls. And I have met some of the people who find it harder to obtain services. I’ve shared lunch with people who were too intoxicated to be served anywhere but city/county detox. I’ve wandered about our city, walked under its bridges and looked at the piles of rags and blankets.
But I wasn’t there for this particular victim. I didn’t look at the right place at the right time. And the same is true of a whole lot of other caring and understanding people in our community.
I wonder how many other people walk in our midst every day that we are unable to see. I wonder how many become so invisible to us that we wouldn’t notice if they were taken from us. I wonder how many deaths go unnoticed.
It is an unsettling thought.
And all we really know is that there was a body under the bridge and it appears it had been there for some time.
So, once again we will say what we believe:
“We believe that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and we know that in everything God works for good with those who love God, who are called according to God’s purpose. We are sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, no things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (from Romans, adapted by the UCC Book of Worship)
Of course God doesn’t need us to read the familiar lines of scripture. Neither does the man who once walked our streets, who died under a bridge and who now rests securely in the arms of a loving savior. But we need the scriptures. We need the prayers. We need the understanding. For one day, through the grace of God, we will be reunited not only with those we have known and loved in this life, but with all of God’s children.
Anticipating that day, we pray:
“Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your child, the man found under the bridge, unknown to us, but known by you. Acknowledge we humbly pray, a sheep of your own flock, and a son of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the company of the saints in light.” (also from the UCC Book of Worship)