September 11, 2011
Dr. Steven P. Eason
"A Christian Response to 9/11"
John 1:1-5
* * *
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
* * *
Most of us remember where we were and what we were doing during the tragic hours of September 11, 2001. Some of you were pretty young back then, but if you can remember, would you turn to someone next to you and share that with each other?
I was getting ready for a staff meeting in my church in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina when one of the other pastors knocked on my door and told me what had happened. We went to his office and turned on the television and watched the second plane crash into the towers. And then it was the plane at the Pentagon and the plane at Shanksville, Pennsylvania. We were all concerned that this was going to continue to go on all day long, all over the country. By the end of the day I was a member of a clergy panel on the local evening news, taking phone calls and trying to make sense out of all this. We weren’t successful in doing that.
Today we remember …
- Americans as well as 236 citizens from more than 90 other countries who lost their lives in the attacks.
- There were 2,977 victims including the 19 hijackers who died.
- 246 people were on the four planes:
– 87 aboard American flight 11, which was the first to hit the World Trade Center
– 60 aboard United flight 175, which was the second plane to hit the World Trade Center
– 59 aboard American flight 77 that hit the Pentagon and
– 40 aboard the United flight 93 that went down in Shanksville, PA.
- 2,606 died in New York City, in the Twin Towers and on the ground.
- 125 died at the Pentagon, 55 of which were military personnel.
- 411 emergency workers died, including 342 firefighters, 10 paramedics, 23 NYC police officers and 37 Port Authorities. All of these left families behind who continue to grieve the loss of their loved ones.
On this single day, our nation was affected physically, morally, religiously, politically, economically and psychologically. We were attacked, violated, victimized, traumatized, and at least for awhile, paralyzed.
The chances are that our nation will never fully recover from the events of September 11, 2001. We may heal, but there will always be a scar. The world we knew on September 10th is gone. We grieve its loss – the loss of a sense of safety and security, the loss of economic stability, the loss of our naiveté, and the loss of innocent lives.
For these past ten years our nation, in many ways, has been grieving. We have been in shock, denial, anger and depression; trying to adjust and to cope with our losses. It’s a silent sort of grief that doesn’t often show itself in outward expressions of tears and anguish. It’s the kind of grief that settles into the bottom of the glass and you know it is always there. It’s the kind of grief you feel every time you take off your shoes and go through a body scanner at the airport. We grieve the loss of the world we once knew. We now live in a world where we know that bad things can happen in places where we once felt safe.
Countless words have been poured out over this tragedy, but there is a question before us, in the context of worship; “Is there a Christian response to all of this?” Does the Gospel come to bear upon us in these circumstances? Is there a Word from the Lord for us, in the face or such evil and despair?
The Bible speaks of “forgiveness,” even if we don’t want to hear it. Peter asked Jesus, “How often should I forgive, as many as seven times?” To which Jesus replied, “Not seven times, but…seventy times seven.” That’s just too much forgiveness, unless, of course, you are the one who needs it.
How do you speak of forgiveness on a day like today? How do you forgive those 19 hijackers and the countless people who were behind their actions? How do you forgive your enemy when your enemy doesn’t want your forgiveness? There are those who say they believe that every word in the Bible is true but there are some days when you wish you could skip over some of those words.
Is there a Christian response to 9/11? Paul writes,
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)
Baking cookies for someone who is sick is one kind of good. Doing good in the face of such evil is an entirely different matter. How do you overcome evil with good in this world? Could we skip over those words, too?
Christians, Jews and Muslims can read these words together. In Proverbs it is written,
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.(Proverbs 3:5-6)
Time and time again the Scriptures encourage us to trust God even if the circumstances are bad. We may rather want to question how God can allow such things to happen in the world, but we’ll get no answers to that question. It’s either blind foolishness or bold faith, but the Scriptures call for trust in the sovereignty and providence of God’s love and grace, regardless of the circumstances. That’s not always easy to do either. Where is God and what is God doing? Some people have skipped over the words of trust and moved into skepticism, even unbelief.
At the heart of the Christian response to such a world is sacrificial love. It is a love that is not launched from a political campaign or from a governmental building. It’s not learned in a classroom, discovered in a science lab, invested by a bank, or protected by the military. It’s not a love that can turn a profit or be gauged on Wall Street. At the heart of the Christian response to evil in the world is a cross and an empty tomb. Resurrection – God bringing life out of dead places, not just once, but over and over again. Though the world chose to crucify Christ, God chose to raise him from the dead on our behalf. Resurrection is the Christian response to a broken world.
Without this sacrificial love, I don’t know how or why you would do the forgiving. I don’t know how you would “overcome evil with good.” I don’t know how you could muster up the trust in the providence of God in the face of such tragedy and loss. It’s the cross and the empty tomb that get it done. Humanity’s darkest moment, crucifying the very Son of God, is met with God’s brightest hope, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
It almost seems too trite to say, “I believe in the resurrection.” as one believes in the tooth fairy. We have “experienced” the resurrection, God bringing life into dead places, God overcoming sin with new life. We have experienced the power of God’s grace that overcomes evil with good. It’s not merely a matter of belief, or wishful thinking. It’s a reality. God raises us from the dead, over and over again.
And this is not a soft, sentimental love. The sacrificial love of God does not forgo justice. It does not in any way ignore, condone, adapt to or endorse evil. No. It overcomes it.
The prophet Micah asked the question,
Oh mortal, what is good; what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
That’s not always an easy way to live, either. Some of the hardest work we will ever do is that of seeking justice, while at the same time dispensing mercy. But is that not what God did through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Our response to 9/11, the Christian response is that of hope. Out of a grave of death comes the risen Christ. It happened once but it continues to happen over and over again, God bringing life out of dead places. John said it this way,
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:5)
Thanks be to God. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Congregation: Amen
Comments