Burying Tamerlan Tsarnayev

I have been following the news, or sad saga of Tamerlan Tsarnayev's body and attempts at his burial with an increasingly heavy heart.

What Tamerlan did is preposterous and despicable. He turned in on a community that welcomed him, provided for him and his brother. A community into which he married and where his daughter was born. A community that h then marred with his hate, and violence. The great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther was right when he said that sin is a destructive action of turning inwards, destroying ourselves from within, and in effect those we love.

But Tamerlan Tsarnayev is dead now. He is in front of the Creator of the World, the Giver of Life, who judges all. And we should leave his ultimate fate to God's just judgments.

We in Massachusetts are left with his body. His body that is a living reminder of the hate and destruction he visited on us. But also with the uncomfortable truth about human beings, that while we have the most amazing potential to do acts of mercy, and kindness and generousness - we also have the potential to wreck and destroy everything we hold dear. John Calvin and my Reformed (UCC) tradition calls it the doctrine of the "total depravity of humankind."

Now, in the days of old, justice was meted out not just on living people but also on their bodies. They would be dragged, quartered, burned and hanged. They would be displayed for other to see, and mocked, and defiled.

We are not those people anymore. I hope. The evidence for our civilization and culture is not just how we deal with the victims and those we care for - but also how we deal with those who hate us, even after they die.

Tamerlan Tsarnayev deserves a decent burial. If his family wants to bury him here - he should be buried here: where he lived, loved, killed and died. Taking our anger on a dead body befits, honors no one. Not his victims, not us, not God. Let the civic and religious leaders arise, show leadership and call us to do the RIGHT - if difficult - thing. 

Let us bury Tamerlan Tsanrayev with the dignity befitting every human being - even to those, who would deny ours.