This morning I preached at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ on Mark 7:24-30, and on how Scripture illustrates for us a way to live free from the acts of violence we saw on September 11, 2001, in the U.S. invasion of Iraq - and in the continuing war there.
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Want to read the text of the sermon? My incomplete notes are below:
If you are anything like the typical American - and I count myself to be in this group - the events of September 11, 2001 profoundly affected you. If you cried on that day your tears were joined not only by your fellow citizens but by people across the globe. If you raised an American flag in your yard you were one of tens of millions of Americans who did so. If you bowed your head in prayer on September 11th and cried out to God "Why!?" your prayer was shared by Christians, Jews and Muslims in every corner of the world.
Most of us notice differences long before we ever notice what we have in common. We divide ourselves up into racial groups, economic groups, gender identity groups and religious groups. But for at least a brief moment on that dark day the grief we felt united us as a people. In my experience there has never been a moment like that before. The violence unleashed by the terrorists brought out the best in our people.
As Christians, we reach back to Jesus for guidance in moments of crisis. How would Jesus react to the divisions we now experience in our world? Our New Testament reading from Mark offers one of the most important and interesting stories in Biblical literature.
Jesus, as we read, is confronted by a woman, a Greek no less, who asks that her daughter be healed. His response is upsetting. Jesus snaps at her and suggests that she is no better than a dog. This isn't the behavior we expect from Jesus but don't be too surprised. Women were considered to be unclean in Jesus' world, nearly subhuman compared to men, and she was a foreigner. A person in her position should have kept quiet and never approached Jesus.
But this woman did something amazing: she argued with Jesus. She wouldn't take his insult lying down and challenged his statement. Even dogs get treated better then you are treating me, she said to Jesus.
Jesus, confronted with a good argument, did something equally amazing and backed down and healed the woman's daughter. New Testament scholar Steve Patterson writes that this is "the only story in the New Testament in which Jesus loses an argument, and learns something in the process."
There are two important lessons we can draw from this story. First, we are reminded here and throughout the Gospels that Jesus broke down barriers and associated himself with those that no one else would. The human differences we create for ourselves are unimportant and irrelevant where God's love is concerned. For Jesus, God's love knew no bounds. Even this non-Jewish woman of Greek origin was deserving of God's love. The equivalent today might be a Christian minister asserting that God's love is there for Iraqi Muslims no matter their faith.
The world would be a different place today if those men who hijacked the planes could have understood this lesson. Instead they let hate consume their hearts and followed a path that dishonored God.
The second lesson here is that we should not be so stubborn as to ignore new ideas or evidence even when it shakes our beliefs. If Jesus could change his mind and admit that he was wrong we ought to be able to do the same.
In the aftermath of 9/11 the United States and the rest of the world had choices to make. Would we respond to violence with violence, to division with more division, or would we walk a different path?
Days after the terrorists attacks over three thousand religious leaders in the United States, representing a broad spectrum of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, issued a statement offering advice to our nation from a religious perspective. In my capacity as a staff person in a United Methodist church, I was one of the signers of the letter which read in part:
We share the deep anger toward those who so callously and massively destroy innocent lives, no matter what the grievances or injustices invoked. In the name of God, we too demand that those responsible for these utterly evil acts be found and brought to justice. Those culpable must not escape accountability. But we must not, out of anger and vengeance, indiscriminately retaliate in ways that bring on even more loss of innocent life. We pray that President Bush and members of Congress will seek the wisdom of God as they decide upon the appropriate response.
..we face deep and profound questions of what this attack on America will do to us as a nation. The terrorists have offered us a stark view of the world they would create, where the remedy to every human grievance and injustice is a resort to the random and cowardly violence of revenge - even against the most innocent. Having taken thousands of our lives, attacked our national symbols, forced our political leaders to flee their chambers of governance, disrupted our work and families, and struck fear into the hearts of our children, the terrorists must feel victorious.
But we can deny them their victory by refusing to submit to a world created in their image. Terrorism inflicts not only death and destruction but also emotional oppression to further its aims. We must not allow this terror to drive us away from being the people God has called us to be. We assert the vision of community, tolerance, compassion, justice, and the sacredness of human life, which lies at the heart of all our religious traditions.
After five years and two wars we have some distance on which to judge our national response. Have we been the people God has called us to be?
On Friday, I drove down to Salem for a meeting to discuss homelessness in our state. NPR is always my travel companion and that morning they broadcast a story about a woman whose ex-husband, a young businessman, called from the World Trade Center to tell her that he was about to die and to ask that he pass on his love to their children.
We hear stories like that and listen to people cry about lost loved ones on this fifth anniversary of 9/11 and we want vengeance more than we want justice. But we know that is not where God is calling us. We are being called down a more difficult path of being reconcilers and peacemakers.
Our national leaders, however, did not heed the advice given by religious leaders in the days after 9/11.
Did you know that somewhere around 40,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the U.S. invasion? We were told at the time that Iraq was involved with 9/11 and that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and if we did not invade we would be inviting another terrorist attack. We know all that now to be false. At the time the Vatican and the World Council of Churches implored the United States and Britain not to invade Iraq. Christian religious leaders have been nearly united in opposing the Iraq war. But even now when confronted with evidence that our government invaded based on lies and false information our leaders refuse to change course.
Before we spent too much time attacking our leaders for the path they took it is worth remembering that our response to 9/11 may have been the most human response possible: we sought vengeance and struck out wherever we could.
We thought of our enemies as people separated from God's love - much as Jesus seemed to do when he called that woman no better than a dog.
The result has been to create a world more dangerous.
We have to ask ourselves now how long we will continue to allow vengeance to rule our world. The terrorists wanted war and chaos. The terrorists wanted Christians and Jews and Muslims to be separated from one another. The terrorists wanted us to think of one another as no better than dogs - to be people separated from God. Unless we allow ourselves as Jesus did to repent and be transformed the terrorists will have won the day. If we truly believe that we are all God's children we cannot let this war go on. If we truly believe that we are called by God to be peacemakers we need to address the inequities that divide the rich world from the poor world and we must address the conditions that help allow terrorism and war to foster.
God is still calling us to seek peace.
On this 5th anniversary of 9/11 please join me in doing what came so naturally to all of us as we watched the Twin Towers fall and bow your head again in prayer. As we offer this prayer to God, written by our national church staff for this day, remember those lost on 9/11 and all those lost in wars since.
Let us pray:
O God, you have been our dwelling-place in all generations.
We come before you on this day of remembrance, seeking your presence. What we have, we bring: our memories and our pain; our hopes and our fears; our doubts and our certainties. Hear now the prayers of your people:
O God, you have been our dwelling-place in all generations.
We lift up before you a generation ravaged by war and injustice, and brutalized by the rage these both breed.
Long ago your people heard that peace and justice should nourish the lands like an everflowing stream. Forgetting this, we have substituted swords for plowshares, power and privilege for justice. Righteous God, in your wisdom reveal to your children not the path of power and might, but the hard road of servanthood and sharing and sacrifice.
O God, you have been our dwelling-place in all generations.
We lift up before you a generation that struggles at the brink of despair.
Long ago you led your children Abraham and Sarah, and their children, and their children's children, on a wilderness journey, sustained by the promise of a future free from wandering and wanting. Forgetting these things, your children today fear even to begin the journeys to which they are called, knowing how far there is to go, and how dangerous the path. Companion God, befriend us on our many journeys, encircle us with your everlasting arms, and keep our eyes on the prize you have promised.
O God, you have been our dwelling-place in all generations.
We lift up before you a generation in search of leadership.
Long ago you sent the world a savior, whose life of love showed us a better way. Forgetting his example, your children have placed their trust in violence and empty promises. Loving God, in your gentleness free us - and all who are in positions of authority - from the need to control and dominate, to be first and strongest, lest we come to believe such things are both good and possible.
Lord, you have been our dwelling-place in all generations.
We lift up before you a generation that by many different names calls itself the people of God.
Long ago your Son called all the people to become one. Forgetting his prayer, we have by fission and fracture lifted up our own narrow visions as final. Triune God, in your wholeness make us whole, and empower this rent body to work for the glory and peace of your realm.
God of the past, and the present, and the future,
We in this small corner of your vast globe lift up before you our selves.
Long ago your Son commissioned those whom he loved to be lights in a faltering and broken world; and they went forth with joy. We are not one generation, but many; we are not one race, or nationality, or faith, but many. Yet we share common cause in our desire to be yours. We have not forgotten what our forebears knew well: that the greatest joy of all is to do your work, and to discover your loving will. Holy God, grant to us the costs and joys of true discipleship.
Now we ask your blessing and your commissioning as we face a future that is both shadowed with ambiguity, and fertile with possibility.
If we are anxious, may we recall your assurance.
If we are lonely, may we feel your presence.
If we are confused, may we trust your Word.
Be for us, we pray, the strength in our hands, the compassion in our hearts, the wisdom in our minds, and the love empowering our lives.
In Jesus' name, and through his holy grace, we pray. AMEN
