"Stories of Remembrance, Prayers of Mourning, Meal of Hope"
I’d like begin by inviting you to turn to the person next to you and share where you were on the morning of 9/11/01…
· (I was in Thousand Oaks, watched all day with my new friend who was a Russian immigrant fleeing political persecution, and seeking US citizenship)
· How many were here in CA?
· In a different state?
· Out of the US?
· Any in NY, DC or PA?
· Any lose a family member or friend on that tragic day?
It’s so painful and sad to go back to these memories, but on this day of mourning and hope I wanted to go back to the day-of for a moment, because the experience of the day of and few days after 9/11 was much different than the mood—even just weeks—later, when our deep sorrow morphed to a thirst for vengeance and blood.
Lutheran pastor on the East coast reflects: “I remember the first Sunday after 9/11, a deeply painful day when churches everywhere were filled to capacity with brokenhearted people grieving and praying and hoping for a faithful word from brokenhearted preachers. But that season of crisis and public mourning was brief, and strong cultural forces were soon at work coaxing the national mood out of its rhythm of lament.”
Today is a day of lament, but we live in a culture that doesn’t really do lament, a culture that’d rather “power though” our grief in—what Barbara Erinriech calls—the “relentless pursuit of happiness”. We just want to be happy again. But the day itself of September 11 was so sad.
It was a time of brokenhearted people grieving and praying and hoping for a word from God. And that word today is “Fogiveness 7x70”. How shall we 10 years later put the brakes on our tendencies to race through our sorrow and get on with life?
I think one thing that could help us slow down and lament is to rely on Christian community—we have to learn and relearn how to grieve, this is a role of the church to be a Community of Lament, this is what our prayers of intercession every Sunday are all about—because the pressure is pretty great to just get happy again—and consider at least for a moment what Jesus has to say…
As we think about 9/11, there so much to be angry about…and everything in my human heart says we should be seeking revenge, that we are justified in our seeking revenge.
But everything in my Christian heart, that is my human heart that has been infused with the divine, as week after week in ingest the Body and Blood of Jesus the Divine One…everything in my Christian heart tells me that we should be about the work of forgiveness…together (we can’t do this be a community of forgiveness alone, just like we need one another’s help to lament). It’s what we should be about because we’re rooted in Jesus and forgiveness always begins with Christ.
And it’s a matter of survival. OT text – Joseph and brothers
o Joseph – beaten tortured thrown into a pit – sold into slavery – years and years to fume and
o He gets this opportunity to get revenge – execute them immediately, and yet he chooses to forgive
o I believe he had already forgiven them long ago because otherwise his anger would have eaten him alive
o forgiveness is a matter of survival
We must be able to forgive one another in our church–actually it starts before that…in response to forgiveness of God – self, friends, family, church, church catholic, in our nation, beyond our nation’s borders, members of this human family…if our species is to survive.
Our unwillingness to forgive will eat us alive.
John Chrysostom in 407: The evil of remembering past offenses is twofold: it is inexcusable before God, and it serves to recall past sins already forgiven and places them against us. Nothing whatsoever does God so hate, and turn away from, as cherishing remembrance of past offenses and fostering our anger against aother. If we must remember offenses, let us remember only our own. If we remember our own sins, we shall never store up the sins of others. I shall make bold to say that this sin is more grievous than any other sin. Let us be zealous in nothing so much as in keeping ourselves free from anger and from not seeking to be reconciled with those who are opposed to us. Neither is this my word only, but the word of that God who shall come to judge us.
I’m believing more and more, in my ministry and as a baptized child of God, that forgiving one another is our greatest cross to bear. In part because…it is so countercultural:
It is a uniquely religious behavior. In a world that is becoming less and less religious, communally religious, I’m afraid forgiveness is becoming less and less. “Forgiveness” is not a word that I I’ve seen or heard much building up to today, and I wonder if you’re going to hear much today beyond these doors. It is uniquely religious, that we would even dare to read these texts aloud.
And mercy/forgiveness is not for the faint hearted; I think it’s important to be reminded of this. Because often, I think forgiveness, showing mercy is a sign of weakness. I remember I used to play the game “mercy”, bending back someone’s knuckles until they couldn’t take it…
But in this life, in fact, the opposite is true—those who forgive are the strongest. It is a vigorous activity…that takes practice, we have to start at least considering forgiveness because our time will come.
I’ve been accused of being “out of touch with reality” when I talk about forgiveness, loving each other, loving our enemies. And maybe that’s true. Hunkering down in my sanctuary of church life. You don’t know what it’s really like out there pastor. You’re too young. You’ll see. I do feel like my time is coming to be tested, because I do like to seek revenge, everything in my human heart says that’s a sensible thing to do. It’s realistic. So I have to start at this young age, talking about forgiveness, preparing for the test that comes over and over.
Everything in my Christian heart tells me that we must learn and learn again how to forgive. This is our cross to bear.
The first step in forgiveness is admitting how hard it is. To say, “I think this is impossible.” And then just try.
And I believe we’ve got it in us at least to try to forgive ourselves and any who have wronged us...because Christ first forgives us. AND because I know that the Spirit is present in this place. And the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. God’s Holy Spirit comforts us as we seek to be a Community of Lament and nudges us as we seek to be Community of Forgiveness. Being confronted by such a challenging text on this anniversary of 9/11 is the nudging and work of the Holy Spirit.
And in our forgiveness, there is redemption, there is healing, there is maturity, there is new life.
In our forgiveness, no longer are we slaves to our anger, to our fear, we are free.
In our forgiveness there is Jesus Christ—broken, terrorized, tortured, buried in the dark, and finally resurrected.
It’s a 3-day affair. This forgiveness doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process…forgiving is a long process…of being broken in half. Suffering. It’s a process of sitting in the darkness. And finally emerging. Alive. We die to our sin and rise with Christ. And in that is true joy. For now we are free! AMEN.
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