By the Way: Faith alive and well

By Shane Hein on April 13, 2019.

Note: This column was written last September on the heels of the Humboldt Broncos memorial service, which aired live on TSN. It was due to be published shortly after that but, thanks to a communications error, it didn’t make the deadline. However, the Broncos organization held a service last Saturday evening to commemorate the one-year anniversary of this tragedy. It had much the same feel to it as the original memorial service, and so I thought I would take a second shot at publishing this article in memory of those who were lost. (The dates and times refer to the September 2018 memorial service).

Jesus said…”All things are possible for one who believes.”

– Mark 9:23 [ESV].

Last Wednesday evening TSN aired the very first regular season game that the Humboldt Broncos have played since the tragic bus accident of last April, ending the lives of 16 Broncos players and staff, and injuring 13. My son and I watched some of the pre-game coverage, but I had to leave to attend a meeting, so I missed the entire game. I was back home in time to catch the closing ceremonies with my family, during which all 29 victims of the accident were honoured with their own rafter banners bearing their names, numbers, or positions with the team. Each of the deceased player’s banners was adorned with a small cross above their names.

I confess that I found myself much more moved by these ceremonies than I thought I would be. I hadn’t forgotten about the accident, of course, but its effect on my daily life had receded considerably over the past five months. In fact, in recent weeks it has really only resurfaced in my mind when I have been behind someone in traffic whose back window features a Broncos memorial sticker, or during an evening news update on the status of one of the injured survivors.

Everyone had expected that there would be plenty of emotion in the Humboldt arena that night, and there certainly was. As we watched the events unfold, I tried to guess what must be going through the minds of everyone there: the families, the friends, the uninjured Broncos players, the new players brought in to replace those who were lost, the members of the opposing team, the people of Humboldt (or of any of the towns who had lost one of their own in the crash), the first responders, and even the TSN crew and on-air personalities who received this assignment.

What truly moved me, though, was not so much the display of emotion from all those present at the game, as powerful as that was. What truly moved me, actually, was the strong sense of hope that seemed to bring all those present at the game, as well as those watching on TV, together in unified defiance of death.

Hope saturated every part of the closing ceremonies. Hope that the families and friends of the dead and injured will find a way to cope with their devastating loss and so regain some sort of normality in their lives. Hope that the Broncos organization, as well as the entire Humboldt community, will rise up out of the ashes and begin to rediscover the game that they love. Hope that there will indeed be a time when they will all be together again, free from all pain and sorrow.

That kind of hope is indeed possible, but it cannot be created or sustained by sheer human will power. Hope of that calibre is transcendent, and comes to us only through the gift of faith given to us by him who died and rose again for the sake of the whole world. Anyone who believes that faith is dead, or that we no longer require faith, need only witness an event like this to realize just how much we continue to rely on our faith, and just how much power that faith has in the lives of God’s people.

Faith in Christ is alive and well, and was on full display last Wednesday night – live on TSN. This tragedy should have drowned the community of Humboldt in sorrow, and it should have crippled the Broncos organization. But it didn’t. Instead, faith overcame unbelief, and as a result, hope overcame despair. Last Wednesday night the people of Humboldt filled their arena … and their Broncos played! “All things are possible for one who believes.” Amen.

Rev. Pastor Shane Hein is from St. Peter Lutheran Church

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