Death in Freeze-Frame

Death in Freeze-Frame

Sunday, March 12, 2000
| 1 Peter 3:18-22

When the public experiences a public loss, such as the death of the Challenger astronauts, Princess Di or John F. Kennedy, Jr., it goes through public mourning rituals that create a collective solidarity in a manner no other event does. Likewise, the death of Jesus marks history as a guidepost, an event that links believers to each other.

Some events happen to us that seem frozen in time.

One can easily suppose that in the street markets of Jerusalem about A.D. 60, peddlers and thieves, buyers and sellers were still talking about the crucifixion of Jesus. Most, if not all, could still remember the precise moment they heard the news. They were squeezing pomegranates, sacking olives or quaffing a draft of red wine when they got the news.

It's happened to us, too. We remember, depending on our age, the moment we heard that JFK or RFK or Martin Luther King had been assassinated in the 60s. Perhaps the death of Elvis was a defining moment. Or the Challenger explosion. Or Princess Diana. Or the young JFK last year.

A public figure dies, and we find ourselves frozen in time, and curiously connected to our community. We remember the scene as if it's a freeze-frame or a photograph - sharp, colorful, haunting and surreal. This is no phantom phenomenon. It's powerful, predictable and even profound. There is a recognizable ...






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