Reaching Critical Mass

October 6, 2002

Matthew 21:33-46

Have you ever visited the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington? It is very moving. It makes me cry every time. One reason I think it makes me cry is that Vietnam was the war of my generation. I grew up with it. Like I grew up with the Beatles. It was as much a part of my childhood as any story. It was reported on daily in the news. It was a political debate for years. In high school I faced the lottery and the chance that I would be called to serve my country in that war. I remember walking home from a friend’s house when I was fifteen or so. It was a beautiful spring evening and I realized that in just a few years I might be asked to go to war and kill. It seemed incongruent to every part of my life to that point and inconceivable that it could happen. Friends and acquaintances were facing the war and I knew that for me it was not far away.

Perhaps that is why I get so emotional at that wall. Also those names are of my generation. They watched the same silly television shows and experienced the same American childhood having hopes and dreams just like me. But unlike me the war got in their way. It destroyed everything for them.

Ominously, the wall starts out just like that war did. It is hardly anything to step down and see the few names inscribed on that first slab of black stone.

I don’t know if anyone remembers anymore but that is how the war began for us. We sent advisors our commitment was minimal. And the losses were going to be, in the words of Robert McNamara, “tolerable.” Whatever that means. And it seemed important to the lawmakers and the president and the people of the time to stop the communist threat in Southeast Asia. You might remember the “domino principle.” If South Vietnam fell to the communists then the rest of Southeast Asia would soon be communist too. The theory turned out to be completely wrong and filled with misunderstandings of what we were really facing in Vietnam.

But at the time it seemed very important and vital to us especially after August 4^{th 1964 when they attacked us. That is at least what was reported by the president (Lyndon Johnson) and every media outlet across the country. It was the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. To this day we do not know the extent or seriousness of that attack. Historians are not even sure there was an attack. And if there was it was at best a small inconsequential event, or could have been if cooler heads had prevailed. But air strikes were ordered and the congress passed the infamous Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7th. That gave the President authority to wage war. On the flimsiest of evidence and based on a theory that was historically wrong we went to war. But as I said it began with only small steps and few consequences. Vietnam in the beginning was no more significant than that first step down at the war memorial. Innocent enough it should have been nothing. But it became a national tragedy. It became a national tragedy because too many times bad decisions lead to more bad decisions.}

If you walk thirty feet down the path at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington something happens. What was just a small step down becomes a wall filled with the names of the dead. Deeper and deeper you go until you have to look up to see all the names and it overwhelms you. And it goes deeper and deeper until it is unimaginable. All those names are lives cut short, futures that never were. And all of them have people who loved them and nurtured them and held them as babies and saw their first smile. All those names had people who waited for them and then had to morn them and live with a big empty whole in their lives.

They served their country. God Bless them for that. But it bothers me. It bothers me because they gave so much for what amounted to a pile full of wrong ideas, bad opinions, and wrong headed decisions. Today again we have people who are willing to make the same commitment for the safety and future of their loved ones and this country, again God Bless them for it but we owe them more than a parade when they die. We must be responsible enough to make only the best decisions with the commitment they have made.

And there are ways to help make better decisions than we did in 1964 and forward. I think the process that Jesus goes through with his listeners in the story today is a valuable little exercise. And we should listen before committing precious life to another war. Jesus tells a story. It is a story that is skewed. It is told to get the listeners mad and reactive. It is told to get them mad and reactive so as to reveal something very basic in their souls. Jesus does this not to condemn them or fight with them but rather to get them to reflect on what does motivate them and then perhaps to think about what should motivate them.

It is a story about injustice and hurt. After Jesus tells a story where there is obviously someone who has done something wrong and deserves punishment he then turns to his listeners and asks “What should be done?” And together they angrily and absolutely call for revenge against the perpetrator. They have revealed what is in their hearts. “He will put those wretches to a miserable death.” Is what they say and so Jesus tells them that because of their longing for retribution and their hatred and their enthusiasm for violence they will not experience the fruits of the kingdom. If that truly is their way and they act upon the evil in their hearts then Jesus says “the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing fruits of it.” (Matthew 21:43)

What a story for today. The kingdom of God is given to those who find a way to mercy, reconciliation, forgiveness, generosity, hope, and faith. It goes for nations and people. All of us are better off when we live by the fruits of the kingdom.

Jesus is warning against bad decisions made hastily and in anger. Jesus is warning his listeners that being reactive usually leads to more hatred. In 1964 the country reacted quickly and in anger. They wanted retribution. That led to a national tragedy that we feel even to this day. If you don’t think so ask some of those who lost someone, or ask someone who was there.

I think that we as a nation face the same kind of decision today. If we let our reactivity, (our fear, our anger) get the best of us it may bring a critical mass that we cannot control and we certainly don’t want. Jesus says that there is a better way. I pray that we have the wisdom to find it.

I have written to my Senators and my Congress person time and again in the last few weeks. Sue Kelly sent me a letter defending her position. She supports the use of military force. The explanation that she gave was that Iraq is stock piling chemical weapons and wants to procure or build weapons of mass destruction. In the letter she admits that these reports are unconfirmed. She also notes that Iraq is in violation of U. N. Security Council Mandates. This in my mind doesn’t even add up to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Should we take such a grave step?

It is true in every decision you will ever make. Reactivity never helps you think things through. It often leads to bad decisions and it makes problems out of annoyances and tragedies out of problems. Fights escalate most times because people are not thinking straight. For not thinking straight enemies are made and enmities deepen. Wars come for the most irrational reasons. For irrational decisions people die. Fifty five thousand Americans in Vietnam. How many this time? Is it worth it?