Tragedy
(Editorial - August 2000)
"Late on the evening of June 12, 2000, while carrying out a typical act of kindness, Bro. Aaron Nathaniel Isaacs (Glen) was gunned down by assassins in a downtown area not far from the ecclesial hall and the Jamaica Science Institute, of which he was the founder and Principal. He was 36 years old.
"It is not widely known that Bro. Glen was one of the most remarkable individuals ever to have borne the Christadelphian name. Born in an area of extreme educational and social deprivation, he was acknowledged to be in an intellectual category that we can only call genius. He passed, with distinction, every subject offered in the high school curriculum and had degrees or various other academic and professional qualifications in medicine, chemistry, physics, advanced mathematics, computer science, education and electronics as well as journalism, film making, literature, music, public administration, management, and advertising design. As a communicator of science he was absolutely unmatched. He led every science student onward and upward until he or she was in awe of the wondrous works of the Almighty. He was also a chartered accountant and auditor, an acclaimed graphic artist, a music teacher, performer and conductor, and the founder and Principal of a tertiary educational institution preparing promising, but educationally deprived, students for careers in science and medicine.
"Ten years ago Bro. Glen lived with Sis. Mary and myself and during that time he wrestled with the direction his life should take. The unbelieving part of his large extended family expected him to go on to America and be world famous. But Glen would remember his baptism on March 23, 1980, and would say to me, ‘I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back’ (Jud. 11:35). Only our Lord knows the pressures he experienced, although we shared many of them.
"The Truth had come to him in the ghetto. It had also come to others in that fearful place, and someone had to have sacrificed to take it there for he and for them to rejoice in it. He studied the words and work of Jesus intently, and was convinced that there was only one course open to him: to follow his Lord where his Lord had gone: ‘the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives...to set at liberty them that are bruised...’ (Luke 4:18).
"There was no aspect of ecclesial life or the Lord’s service to which his immense talents were not totally dedicated: youth fellowship, campaigns, ecclesial organization, spiritual and material welfare, and simple loving care. His exhortations were quiet and powerful presentations of the word of God, for he was a great communicator. For some years he was co-Editor of the Caribbean Pioneer (how we loved that partnership!). And whether given to a handful of poor, illiterate saints somewhere in the ‘bush’ or delivered before a group of distinguished scientists, his words were always meticulously prepared beforehand, usually in the early hours of the morning when the rest of us were fast asleep (as I know only too well!). Most of our many discussions on important ecclesial affairs were conducted long after midnight.
"Glen was a natural musician, largely self-taught, adept on many instruments and a talented choral conductor. We were reminded at the thanksgiving service that if he had devoted his life wholly to the musical arts, he would undoubtedly have been a virtuoso of some considerable status. St. George’s College Choir, appeared at the service, in uniform, and gave an exquisite rendition of a choral work in his honour. But the simple hymn by the Round Hill Christadelphian Choir reminded us that Glen counted musical fame as dross for the greater honor of being the sweet psalmist of a lowly Jamaican Israel.
"The thanksgiving service (funeral, to the world) was held in the Kariem Speid Auditorium, one of Jamaica’s largest. He had often spoken there himself. There were perhaps two thousand five hundred people there, or more. It lasted three hours. It was an emotional and eloquent witness to the power of the Truth. From Jesuit priest and renowned scientist to the ‘poor’ to whom his gospel was preached, ‘all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth’ (Luke 4:22). There were even notorious criminals at the service, lords of the ghetto, conspicuous in their gold chains, flak jackets and noisy motor bikes. They were there to give ‘nuff respect’ to a man whom they secretly admired and whom they knew deep in their covetous hearts would be truly and eternally greater in his death than they will ever be in their brief and nasty lives. Perhaps they learned from that memorial service that it was the love of Christ, not Uzi automatics, that had raised the Isaacs from the dunghill and set them among princes (I Samuel 2:8), that God puts down the mighty from their seats and exalts them of low degree (Luke 1:52).
"The greatest witness that day (as always) was by actions, not words. The unbelieving part of Bro. Glen’s family, those who had looked to him to take the family out of poverty and obscurity to fame and fortune, were visibly overwhelmed with grief and loss. Yet many of the eleven Christadelphian Isaacs and in-laws who share Glen’s faith and dedication to the Truth, were fully involved in thanking God for his life and example, among them Bro. Tony (brother) who was ‘officiating minister,’ and Sis. Dorothy (mother) who was organist (an award-winning musician herself, she gave the performance of a lifetime). The contrast was dramatic.
"After the ceremony, I asked many -- saints and sinners -- what they remembered most about Bro. Glen Isaacs. All the answers were the same: his unquenchable joy. His very name means ‘laughter’. That joy was a miracle, no less. Like another sweet psalmist, Aaron Nathaniel Isaacs lived and worked among, and to save, wild bulls of Bashan, and those whose teeth are as knives. And, as with the Son of God, those whom he served and loved so diligently finally killed his body -- but not his soul (Matthew 10:28). On July 2, 2000, we heard the Lord speak from heaven to us all: ‘If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full’ (John 15:10-11)." (Alan Eyre).
Other tragedies
With the spread of the Truth throughout Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, our community
has become more personally aware of the tragedies brought by civil strife, drought,
flooding, religious persecution and extreme poverty. There have also been two high profile
tragedies in recent months while beloved disciples were in the process of serving their
Lord. In August of last year Bro. Chris Barratt, San Luis Obispo, California, died of a
heart attack while in Jamaica preparing to be link person between Jamaican ecclesias and
the Bible Mission of the Americas. In May of this year, a terrible road accident occurred
in Fiji; the nine-year-old son of Sis. Makereta Komai of Suva, Fiji, was killed; Sis.
Michelle Jamieson of Australia died later of head injuries she sustained and Bro. Matthew
Archer of New Zealand suffered permanent shoulder damage. Along with other young people,
Michelle and Matthew were on a missionary trip to Fiji. Sis. Michelle had earlier been
involved in missionary work in Eastern Europe and Asia and her loss was deeply felt by
those working in that area.
Why these tragedies? Doesn’t the angel of the Lord encamp around those who love God to keep them from all harm? The angels do watch over us but not to keep all the faithful from all harm.
Stephen was one of the best and brightest members of the early ecclesia, exactly what was needed for the new community to thrive. Yet he was murdered because of his work in the Truth. In the course of his missionary activities, the apostle Paul was set upon by robbers, was involved in accidents at sea and suffered fearful treatment from his religious enemies. Throughout the ages, from righteous Abel to Zacharias, slain for his true witness (Matt. 23:35), faithful servants of God have been mocked, scourged, imprisoned, murdered, afflicted and tormented while doing God’s service ("of whom the world was not worthy"). "These all, having obtained a good report through faith" now sleep peacefully awaiting those who would follow "that they without us should not be made perfect" (Heb. 11:33-40).
We don’t know why some experience tragedy and some deliverance. What we do know is that we must remain faithful in God’s service, and, soon, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Don Styles