Sermon Library
“Believing Is Seeing - II”
Gregg R. Anderson
April 10, 2005
Service Theme: Easter III-2005
Source: Luke 24: 13 - 35
Stanislov Petrov
It was just past midnight, September 26, 1983, as Stanislav Petrov settled into the commander’s chair inside the secret bunker at Serpukhov - 15, the installation where the Soviet Union monitored its early-warning satellites over the United States as protection against any missle attacks from the United States. Then all of sudden, at 12:22 am, that which they had planned for, but never ever expected, really happened - the sirens, alarms, and red flashing lights went off. On the panel in front of Stanislav Petrov was a metallic pulsating button with the word embedded “Start.” Stanislav Petrov was specifically trained to be the one to discern the systems warning and push the button which would immediately launch missile intervention and retaliation. As Petrov described it in an interview later, one of the Soviet satellites sent a signal to the bunker that a nuclear missile attack was underway. The warning system’s computer, weighing the signal against static, concluded that a missile had been launched from a base in the United States. The responsibility fell to Petrov, then a 44 year old Lieutenant Colonel, to make a decision: Was it for real? Petrov was situated at a critical point in the chain of command, overseeing a staff that monitored incoming signals from the satellites. He instantly reported to superiors at warning-systems headquarters; they, in turn, reported to the general staff which would consult with Soviet leader Yuri Andropov on the possibility of launching a retaliatory attack. Petrov’s role was to evaluate the incoming data. At first, the satellite reported that one missile had been launched - then another and another. Soon the system was roaring, he recalled - five Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles had been launched, it reported. The system, his experience, the plan, the technology was all in place for him to push the button now.
But, somehow he did not. Stanislav Petrov was in control because he was one of the original inventors to put such technology in place and knew that there were a few possible gliches in the satellite system that could predict a false alarm. He also knew that if there ever was such a missile attack, it would not be a few missiles launching 30 to 40 seconds apart, but a far more massive and simultaneous launch. There were a number of political and military incidents that were occurring at the time between Russia and the United States, including the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 being shot down by Soviet pilots just a couple weeks before, but not enough to take this warning literally, thought Petrov. He analyzed all other information available to him which included ground-based radar which is delayed by a minute from the satellite signals. There were other factors that he needed to take into consideration within the five minutes of incredible tense decision making to push the red button or not.
It is reported in the Washington Post on February 10, 1999, “In the end, less than five minutes after the alert began, Petrov decided the launch reports must be false. He recalled making the tense decision under enormous stress - electronic maps and consoles were flashing as he held a phone in one hand and juggled an intercom in the other, trying to take in all the information at once. Finally Petrov admitted just recently, “I had a strange feeling in my gut and I did not want to go down in history as making the biggest mistake in the world. I had to make a decision to counter-launch or not.” “I had to analyze all the information and dig deep into my mind, knowledge, and intuition and make a decision within five minutes to report to the authorities.”
This incident went under extreme investigation. In the end, Petrov was neither punished nor rewarded. According to Petrov and other sources, the false alarm was eventually traced to the satellite, which picked up the sun’s reflection off the tops of a very unusual cloud formation and mistook it for a missile launch. The computer program that was supposed to filter out such information has been rewritten several times since.
For several years, this incident has been suppressed by the Russian Government. If the Russian authorities thanked Stanislav Petrov publically for his insight, they would simultaneously be admitting the flaws in their warning system and possible guilt for literally starting World War III. It has only been On May 21, 2004, about a year ago, that the San Francisco based Association of World Citizens acknowledged his courage and peace-making efforts. After that the director of Memorial, Russia’s historical heritage and human rights organization, Arseny Roginsky, congratulated Petrov on behalf of the Association of World Citizens and apologized for not giving such recognition years before.
After Stanislav Petrov analyzed all the scientific and technological information in front of him which should have technically added up to his pushing the nucleur button, he had the intuition, the sixth sense, the belief beyond seeing, that said, “wait.” This really cannot be. Gathering up all the signals before him, his knowledge and insight and feeling within five minutes, he needed to say yes or no to his superiors who were counting on his superior knowledge of the system. Somehow, as he stated only in 2004, he had an inner conviction in the 5th minute to say this is not real and to not push the retaliatory button. In May of 2004 articles were written about him entitled no less, “The Man Who Saved the Word Finally Recognized.”
This story has just recently come across my internet and email. It sounds like a good script for a movie, but it is not. It is a true story. There are many sources for this story on the internet. The source I took this from was the Washington Post. I thought it was significant enough to include in the theme of Believing Is Seeing. In spite of all the technological pieces of information Stanislav Petrov was receiving at that critical moment, he had another premonition and feeling and even certain technological skepticism which told him to trust another realm of comprehension besides the sirens screaming, lights flashing, and red button pulsating.
If his ultimate trust was in “seeing is believing” he would have pushed the red button which would have invariably initiated a war between Russia and the United States, a Third World War. But somehow, he made an extremely incredible global decision based more on what he believed than what he could see. In spite of the computers, sirens, and flashing red lights - he knew in his heart that this just cannot be. He had to use every fiber in his being, his mind, his education, his instruction, his intuition, his heart, his soul, to make a decision which would have affected the world. He knew and felt something and made an incredible decision which at the time could have been right or wrong. He made the decision which happened to be very right and has become known to more and more people as the man who saved the world.
The Road to Emmaus
There was another man who it has been said saved the world (what a segue) who was not recognized right away either. Today’s text is entitled the Road to Emmaus. The road to Emmaus story is quite an anomaly in the gospel of Luke. Jesus is walking with disciples on the road to Emmaus and they do not recognize him until the evening when they are about to eat. He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them, their eyes were opened and they recognized him. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures.”
Believing is seeing. Even when they did not recognize Jesus they had a sense that this person was unique and had a special insight to share. There is something about the life of Jesus which can make our hearts burn within us. Jesus must have had some incredible charisma to make such an effect on so many lives. And Jesus remains the most interesting person on the planet today. There is an incredible amount of information on the life of Jesus that we may never fully comprehend. We may never be able to put Jesus in a neat, black and white picture, although millions keep trying to do so. To allow Jesus to be mysterious is part of what makes Jesus miraculous. (I am going to say that again.) To allow Jesus to be mysterious is part of what makes Jesus miraculous. I will always love and occasionally repeat the wonderful line of the philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, a well known philosopher who contributed substantially to the “Age of Reason” in the 18th century. He is the one who penned, “It would have been a greater miracle to invent such a life as Christ’s than to be it.”
The Road to Emmaus story is one which inscribes the message of Jesus into our hearts. It is designed to resurrect the story of Jesus for future generations. This is probably the literal understanding of the Road to Emmaus. When I say literal, I mean that the story is not literal, but the meaning of keeping the life and spirit of Jesus as an on-going message for the journeys of all our lives is literal.
There is no historically known town of Emmaus. Emmaus in Hebrew is hammat which means “hot spring.” There are a few towns near Jerusalem which could have been referred to as Emmaus at the time. Nevertheless, the story is filled with symbolic images, particularly the recognition of Jesus with the breaking of the bread. We could consider this story a literal description to insure the resurrection of Jesus. But, what if the insertion of this story which only occurs in the Gospel of Luke, was deliberately added, not to give a literal proof of Jesus’ resurrection, but a metaphorical inscription to remember the life of Jesus and to keep his teachings deep within our hearts and pass the point on from one generation to another?
If one wants to take the Road to Emmaus story as a literal story, one could very well miss the richness of the metaphor. As John Dominic Crossan has pointed out from time to time, the task of the stories of Jesus is not so much to understand what is literal but rather what is real. The life of Jesus is so real, so dramatic, so deep, so profound, so burning, so mysterious that his life and spirit are resurrected in our world and in our lives every day. It is best not to profess a literal resurrection, like a resuscitation, but to profess a daily and personal resurrection in order to come closer to living out the teachings of Jesus.
The Road to Emmaus story may very well have been designed to keep hearts burning about the life of Jesus along the journey of each of our lives that have come after the time and test of Jesus. This story is so symbolic; its richer deeper significance would be greatly lost or at least minimized if it were taken literally. Let the story exist. Let its deeper meaning penetrate your lives. The deeper meaning is that the life of Jesus can make our hearts burn and we realize a new revelation. The deeper meaning is that the life of Jesus is one which can be resurrected every day as we strive to come closer to the kingdom of God, here and now.
Let’s take another passage of Jesus literally for a second. “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The literal interpretation of this passage is that Jesus is clearly speaking metaphorically. It is a wonderful line and image and one in which we repeat regularly. “Where-ever two or three are gathered in my name.” This passage is one which the Jesus Seminar states may have some potential to be an actual statement of Jesus. Undoubtedly, Jesus believed in what he preached and he wanted his teachings to be passed on. If two or three of you are getting together and are talking about what I talked to you about, just imagine me there with you. Such imagination can be powerful. More importantly, Jesus’ spirit lives, plain and simple. It is miraculously obvious today in many ways. Personally, I am grateful.
I am not as worried about explaining everything anymore. I am going to keep seeking meaning, truth and reality anywhere it can be discovered. I want to trust in a bigger picture of life - sort of like trusting in the great flowing ocean of life which seems somehow to give us life and buoyancy. It holds us up even when we cannot always explain how it holds us up.
I have juxtaposed two stories this morning. One is the story of Stanislov Petrov and his miraculous feeling which saved the world from a serious nucleur retaliation. The other is the story of the Road to Emmaus which is about Jesus who saved the world of legalism, moralism, pietism, and exclusivism. Stanislov Petrov had to rely on something greater than computers and red lights. The Road to Emmaus pointed out that there is something more than just the reporting of the events. Both stories are more about feelings from the heart than the rationale of seeing proof. Ultimately, the world is changed not by our seeing to believe, but by our believing to see.
John Dominic Crossan calls the Emmaus road story “the metaphoric condensation” of several years of early Christian experience into “one parabolic afternoon,” and then concludes “Emmaus never happened; Emmaus always happens.” Marcus Borg says, “As an historical report, the story lacks credibility, but as a metaphorical narrative, it powerfully speaks the truth of Easter. The risen Christ journeys with us, even when we are unaware of that. I do not think Emmaus happened, but I think Emmaus happens again and again, every day.” There is so much more to life than seeing to believe. What is more is believing to see. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
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