The message from a Chilean mine rescue

by Rich Docekal

It was a message from hell. It was hell. It felt, looked, tasted, and smelled like every hell I’ve ever imagined. That was what all the news reporters said. Over, and over since August 5th, I’ve been hearing about how terrible life was for 33 miners in San Jose, Chile following a structural collapse. They were trapped, and initially feared dead. Each night I wondered what was happening. What was everyone thinking there, down below, deep and apart, and alone? In hell.

The initial hope was for a Christmas rescue. I started planning the sermons. Maybe a series? No, that didn’t seem right. Hope has a way of taking control and defeating our limited vision of what could be.

Two-thousand years ago, in the region of the world known for instability, hatred, bigotry and hope, an infant was born. In the midst of that humanity, came one Man whose life personified hope. He was hope in a bundle of blooded swaddling, who grew to become hope alive, yet grey with death, swaddled now by the arms of his mother, naked from the cross.

Hope reared its head with the Easter Sunrise to a world dark with despair; made real in the promise who is our Saviour, Jesus.

The rescue in Chile came off without a hitch. Sooner than later live coverage treated us to images of men; thin and weary, coming into the light. Stepping from hell. Like that message; the one from Ariel.

Ariel Ticona Yanez was, on September 14th, deep beneath the surface. His wife, Elizabeth Segovia, was giving birth to their daughter, who was to be named Carolina. Ariel had a different plan. From the hell of his place, more than 600 metres below the surface, when the outside world knew that 33 miners were now alive, he sent this message: “Our baby is to be called Esperanza.” The name means “hope” in Spanish. Her father rode a rescue plan into the light of his family. And Hope changed the world.

And I was hoping for a Christmas rescue.

Rev. Rich Docekal is pastor of All Saints Lutheran Church in Edmonton, Alberta and is a frequent commentator on spiritual matters for Global Edmonton News

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