Danger can level the praying field

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Blessings,

Chaplain Norris


March 14, 2009

BY NORRIS BURKES
FLORIDA TODAY

There are a lot of jokes that start with "A rabbi, a priest and a Baptist minister walk into a bar."

Well, if you subtract the joke part and keep the characters, you'll have the makings of a recent incident here at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.

It started when the Alarm Red sounded, signaling to base residents we were under an indirect fire attack.

It's called indirect because the fire is indiscriminate and random. For all we know, the enemy is shooting at the moon.

Nevertheless, this alarm, which sounds every bit like a diving Claxton from a WWII submarine -- oooo-ga, oooo-ga -- sent our chapel staff into a flattened position on the chapel floor.

Once on the floor, Rabbi Sarah Schechter, an Air Force captain; Tech. Sgt. Franklin Castro, a chaplain assistant; and I found a cozy spot under a desk.

At first, we found nervous humor in the whole thing.

"Someone lead us in a song," the rabbi quipped. "There must be something we all know."

"I've been known to take an occasional 'shot' from an unhappy reader," I admitted, "but I'm not used to people shooting at me in church."

From beneath another desk, the Rev. Hoang Nguyen, also an Air Force captain, added his signature line, "What up wit' dat?"

We chuckled a few more times. And then we heard it. A boom rattled our chapel building as easily as if it were a structure made from a child's erector set.

Suddenly, the fire didn't seem so indirect. It felt very personal. The enemy momentarily had leveled the playing field by hitting our side of the fence.

It was time to level the praying field.

There's something unifying about experiencing danger in a group. In an instant, the moment became a great time for interfaith prayer since several faiths were represented: a rabbi, a priest and me, the Baptist chaplain.

Lying prostrate on the chapel floor, we said our own brand of prayer -- even if it was just, "Oh, God!" It didn't matter what our religion was; we knew it was time to pray.

Mathew 10:28 says: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul."

Yet we were afraid. This is the first time most of us have been in a combat zone. The old adage "There are no atheists in foxholes" proved correct.

The same verse in the message translation says, "Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies."

This translation best describes what happened next.

From our side of the fence, U.S. forces delivered some heavy return fire.

When the all clear sounded a few minutes later, the event proved to be a temporary disruption without injuries.

There have been a few more incidents since that one, and we've spent a few more times on the chapel floor -- the rabbi, the priest and the preacher. Prayers continue to follow.

And for some reason, the obvious joke escapes us as we ponder the frailty of the human body, ours and those of the service members surrounding us. It's scary, not so much in a terrifying sort of way, but in a sad kind of way.

But at the end of the day, our fear can be set aside as we heed the remainder of the verse from Mathew:

"There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life -- body and soul -- in his hands."

Burkes is stationed at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, through April. E-mail him at norris@thechaplain.net or write him at Chaplain Maj. Norris Burkes, 332 AEW/HC, APO AE 09315-9997.