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Reflections On A Tragedy | Lamentations 1.1-4 | September 16, 2001 |
Suffice it to say I have no answers. This will not be a comprehensive analysis of the situation nor a sermon with much good news. Trumped up good news is a mockery of faith and as misleading as incorrect answers. You will have other ideas to add to this, and I look forward to discussing these in the weeks ahead. I hope rather to reflect on the situation as it relates to people of faith to in some way encourage us to move forward.
We have been fortunate to avoid war on our own soil. For that we are thankful, but our good fortune has birthed an arrogance of privilege which we think we have earned and deserve. Our visceral response is ‘how dare they; we’re the USA, the super power of the world.’ We have fostered a certain complacency and for some a certain expectation that we are protected by the right combination of belief in the right God and our own military savvy. Much of the rest of the world has lived with terrorists and war for thousands of years; lives have been lost and the landscape continually altered. One television reporter from Israel, when asked about a word to the U.S. from the people there, commented: ‘Welcome to the front line.’
Countries across the world have had to endure tragedies like this on a regular basis. And some of it perpetrated by our own nation. It doesn’t lessen our tragedy one iota, but it does put it into a certain context.
God never promised our nation protection; that is our assumption. God never promised to be exclusively on our side, personally or as a nation. There are some who have said God delayed them in traffic and thus spared them being in the building when it was attacked. Does that mean that God didn’t like the ones who got to work on time and were killed? If singing ‘God Bless America’ is meant as a prayer to bless us and no one else, it is blasphemy. It is unity and community that we should be seeking if we are to align ourselves with God’s calling, and if we are to be called by Christ’s name, Christian, we are compelled to see every human being as brothers and sisters created in the image of that God. There are religions in the world that are thousands of years older than ours; claiming exclusive rights to God is the spark that ignites the fire of war.
The issue here is extremism, and it is evil when it manifests itself in an exclusivity that promotes an agenda that isolates and vilifies those on the outside. Every religious groups has their extremists, whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Atheist. Osama bin Laden nor Hitler speak for the majority of people on the earth. Christian extremists like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson do not speak for the whole of Christianity when they claim this tragedy is God’s punishment for allowing “pagans, abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, and the American Civil Liberties Union.” “God Almighty is lifting his protection from us,” they say. This is the stuff of hatred that incites violence and prejudice. It is not the word from the Christ of the bible.
I fear our own extremism. I don’t know what the answer is to retaliation, for my initial human reaction is to get even. But I fear its repercussion in escalating rather than squelching the rage. Justice should prevail on those who perpetrated this travesty. But I am dismayed at the large number of people who want revenge and they want it yesterday. For them, it doesn’t matter who we strike against, they just want to strike at someone. The image that comes to mind is from Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ where the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, in an attempt to stop the magic broom from carrying the buckets of water that are flooding the house, chops the broom with an ax. Now there are two brooms carrying even more water. When he chops those two in half, there are four brooms carrying water, and the disaster is compounded exponentially.
The crisis for us all is the crisis of faith. Our faith is sometimes in the wrong things. We have believed in the American economy, but it is fickle at best. We have believed in the U.S. as number one super power, and it has created friction around the world. We believe that God stands for the things we stand for; we have faith that God is on our side and no one else’s side. The enemy, here, is our need to be right, and our willingness to inflict our idea of what is right on others, and fight to the death to do so. Who declares us right? Every religion in the world, though diametrically opposed, believes God is on their side. No one draws the line of God’s chosen with themselves outside the line; we always see ourselves included on God’s side.
Our faith is in a God who is on everyone’s side and who is on no one’s side, exclusively. God is on the side of humanity, on the side of justice and peace. Does God condemn extremists who crash hijacked airlines into buildings more than countries who set up military operations on other countries’ religious sites in the name of our own religion? I don’t know, because I tend to be biased. Like most people, I can justify anything I do as rational and purposeful. But it is a question with which I struggle. Our faith should ultimately be in something that transcends politics, that spans religions, that is both blind to and all-embracing of people of any race, creed, sexual orientation and income.
In all of this, there are things for which we are thankful. Though thousands were killed, many more thousands escaped. And like all tragedies, the community rallies in the form of rescue workers who put themselves in harms way to help others; in the form of herculean efforts to provide food and medical help and blood; incarnate in people by the millions offer prayers and gather in cities across the globe; expressed in the tears of those removed from us by half a continent who feel our pain and offer their love.
I conclude by reading two pieces that were sent to me this week by a Jewish friend. First these words from Rabbi Zoe Klein:
On Shabbat we would light two candles,
one for remembering Shabbat
and one for observing Shabbat.
Tonight we light two candles:
this one for Building One,
this one for Building Two;
this one for the Pentagon,
and this one for Pittsburgh;
this one for the hundreds of firefighters,
this one for the hundreds of police;
this one for all the men,
and this one for all the women;
this one for all the girls,
and this one for all the boys;
and these candles for the husband and wife
who leapt out of the tower holding hands;
this one for our luck running out,
this one for the New York skyline;
this one for the walking wounded,
this one for the critically wounded;
this one for the survivors,
this one for the dead;
this candle for Building One,
this candle for Building Two. (Rabbi Zoe Klein)
And this excerpt from Anne Frank’s diary:
It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the approaching thunder, I can feel the suffering of millions, and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come out right one of these days; that this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals for perhaps the day will come when I shall be able to carry them out.
–Gary L. McCann
PASTORAL PRAYER
Joe Dunham
In Psalms 46 we read,
“God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake
in the heart of the sea . . .
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our
Refuge.”
O God, enable us to affirm this with the Psalmist.
We are still in the shock of stunned disbelief.
We gather here to express our prayers.
We pray for those whose lives have been taken from them receive them into your presence.
We pray for those who grieve. Comfort them.
We pray for those who are injured.
We pray for those who await word about missing loved ones and friends.
We pray for those who work in exhaustion but in hope of finding someone to rescue.
We pray for those police and fire fighters who have lost colleagues.
We pray for those doctors, nurses, social workers and counselors who have labored long hours in hospitals, shelters, information centers to give aid and comfort to victims and their families.
We pray for children who no longer have a father or mother.
We pray for children who are frightened.
We pray for those who have been targets of prejudice in this time of upheaval.
We pray for all who have been victimized by the tragic events of this week. Surround them with your peace and with the comfort of others.
We pray for wisdom for our leaders.
Give the people of this nation patience in this time. Take from us hatred and prejudice. Preserve this land in justice and honor. Bless the
leaders of the world who work for concord and reconciliation where now there are divisions and strife.
Bless the members of this community of faith that we may be more deeply aware of our duties and responsibilities as citizens of your realm.
Help us to be instruments of your peace and messengers of hope.
Bless the children who begin a new year of Christian education here this day. Be with their teachers that they will foster in them the spirit of
love and service.
Hear all our prayers for hope and healing we ask in the name of the Prince of Peace. Amen
| Copyright © 2001 by Gary L. McCann. All rights reserved. |