From Remembrance to Hope - A Sermon on the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

Isaiah 65: 17-25

Philippians 4:4-9

Mark 13:1-8

                Many of us remember where we were the exact moment that the first plane hit the World Trade Center 10 years ago today.  It was a sunny Tuesday morning, the sky was a bright blue and the fall crispness was in the air tempered by the warmth of the sun.  I was working as an accountant for a large corporation in downtown Minneapolis at the time.  It was early in the morning and I was listening to the radio while processing my daily cash accounting. My favorite DJ was reading the news in her usual joking manner but suddenly she stopped, and in a panicked voice she said that a jet had hit a sky scraper in New York.  I stopped working and looked at my radio.  Then my phone rang.  I picked it up and my partner Shelly said that she had just seen on TV an airline jet fly into one of the twin towers in New York.  I was stunned.  I didn’t know what to say.  I tried to get on the CNN but it was overloaded.  I changed the radio station to public radio to hear more news of this situation.  At first I thought it was just some bizarre accident, that someone must have fallen asleep at air traffic control thus causing these planes to fly amuck. Then the towers started to collapse.

            “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”  Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” (Mark 13: 1-2)

As the day wore on, the media revealed that terrorists associated with the group Al-Qaeda had hijacked the commercial airline jets planes and had flown them into the towers for the purpose of utter destruction.

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.  This is but the beginning of birth pangs.” (Mark 13:8)

Then I heard that a plane had crashed into the pentagon.  My panic shifted into high gear because my sister lives just a few miles from the pentagon.  I tried to call her but couldn’t get through because the phone circuits were overloaded.  I then I did something that I hadn’t done since I was a kid, I called my big brother hoping that he had a word of comfort or protection for me.  When we spoke he went into problem solving mode, he guessed that Osama Bin Laden had something to do with these planes crashing.  He deduced that because we were in the Midwest, there was no way harm would come to us, because really what was there that was worth attacking in Minnesota.  When I got off the phone with him I just sat and I worried.  Eventually my workplace closed and they sent us home for the day. 

Shelly and I rode the bus home from work together.  The bus was full but the people were dead silent.  I noticed that the streets were unusually empty in our normally bustling downtown Minneapolis.  The stores had closed early and many of the offices were empty.  The skies were also empty because all planes had been grounded.  I realized that my world had changed instantly in the moments that the planes had hit the twin towers.  I thought to myself that if these massive buildings could come down, then maybe the whole world could come down as well.  Safety was no longer something that I could take for granted. 

            There is something about September 11, that has challenged our core beliefs and perceptions of God.  We know that God’s own name was used by the suicide highjackers before they crashed the planes into the twin towers and the pentagon.  We experienced the raw force of evil, not caused by a mere blow of fate but as a result of a group of men believed in something so much that they forget that there were human beings involved.  How could such things be planned so meticulously, executed so destructively in the name of God. 

For the ancient Israelite people the destruction of the great Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD was their September 11.  History tells us that the temple of Jerusalem was the center of the lives of the Jewish community of which Jesus was a part of.  They came to the temple because they believed that God physically dwelled within the temple in a room called the holy of holies.  The Jewish folk throughout the Middle East made pilgrimage to the temple on Passover to celebrate the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  This was exactly what Jesus and his disciples were doing in this morning’s gospel reading.  

Most Biblical Scholars believe that Mark was able to include the prophecy of the Temple because it already happened.  In trying to make meaning out of this destructive event, Mark writes about the story of the temple destruction by having Jesus prophesy it.  While the disciples marvel at the grandeur of the buildings while Jesus let’s them know that these buildings will be destroyed. 

             Forty years later, the temple of Jerusalem did fall as the Roman Army quashed the Jewish rebellion in the year 70 AD.  All of the Jewish people which included the early Christians were devastated by the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.  They wondered how God’s dwelling place could be so brutally destroyed by an earthly empire.  What does that say about God, what does that say about us who worship God?  This indeed was an uncertain time in the life of the early Christian Community. 

This was not the first time that the Temple had been destroyed.  In the year 587 BCE, Jerusalem had been invaded by the Babylonians who destroyed the first great Temple built by Solomon.  The older testament text we read this morning from Isaiah was written just as the ancient Israelites were beginning the difficult task of rebuilding their community in a time where people were cynical about their future.  There was hardship all around them, their lives were difficult.  And yet Isaiah was able to say with confidence “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth, the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.” (Isaiah 65:18)  Isaiah had confidence that the God who created heaven and earth does not seek to destroy but rather seeks to build upon the original creation and transform it into something new.[i]  But how does a community move from remembering the destruction of the past to a new hope for the future.

This morning we participated in a litany where we made this very transition.  We began with lighting a candle in remembrance for all who suffered and died on September 11 and ended with lighting a candle of hope for a new world of unity and peace.  We moved from remembrance to hope through lighting a candle of penitence, where we acknowledged our shadow side, the times when our anger, hate, rage and indignation have caused us to dehumanize others who are not like us.  In so doing, we begin to repent, we make a commitment to towards God and choose to do “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable.” (Phil 4:8) 

I want to end this sermon with a note of hope, let us remember that while there was much planning behind the terrorist acts of September 11^th, 2001, the kindness that poured forth in the immediate aftermath was not planned.  It was seen in the tender acts of kindness that people gave to one another not only in New York but all over the world.  It was seen in the reverence of the search teams that meticulously picked through the rubble of ground zero to recover the remains of those who perished in the disaster.  It was seen in the unity of our body politic as the members of congress sang “God Bless America” on the steps of the capital building.  On that day there was no democrat or republic, there wasn’t even the designation of liberal or conservative, there was only a group of our nation’s leaders praying together for God’s blessing on our nation in our time of need while the whole world prayed for us. 

Yes, ten years later, we are still fighting the war on terrorism and our world polarized and divisive.  But if we can remember the small ways that patience, love, kindness, compassion and forgiveness were given and received in the days after 9/11, we can keep doing the things we’ve learned from that time and the peace of God will always be with us.  May it be so.  Amen.

           

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[i] Mary Eleanor Johns, “Isaiah 65:17-25: Pastoral Perspective.”  Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year C, Vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 290.

“The End of the World? What Do We Take Seriously but not Literally.”

Revelation 21: 1-6
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Mark 13: 24-37

     This Sunday we are ending our church’s Pick Your Own Sermon series with a sermon about the “End Times.”  Quite ironic really, but truth be told, I was supposed to preach on this topic last week but the worship service was cancelled.  First came an earthquake up and down the East Coast earlier, then came the threat of hurricane Irene.  It made me wonder if these cataclysmic events were a mere coincidence or if the sermon that I was supposed to preach, “The End of the World?? What's up with all those Billboards?” was part of the signs of the apocalypse.  This week I am supposed to preach about why we take the Bible seriously and not literally and so I am combining these two sermon topics by studying literalism and the Book of Revelation.

            The book of Revelation has been “captured” by the end-of-the-world folks, who read John’s vision as part of a biblical blueprint for the final days of life on earth, which are understood by to be close at hand.  “According to one national poll, 62 % of Americans (not just American Christians mind you) have ‘no doubts’ that Jesus will come again.  Another poll reports that one-third believe the world will end soon.”[i]  Books such as The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey and the popular Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins fly off the bookstore shelves because they claim to be able predict the end of the world through a literal reading of the Bible. 

Recently, Family Radio president Howard Camp used passages from the Bible coupled with mathematical calculations to proclaim May 21^st, 2011 as the veritable Day of Judgment.  As we all know now Howard Camp was wrong.  He now claims he miscalculated and has changed it to October 21, 2011.  But how can Howard Camp and others like him make such predictions.  As we heard Jesus say in the gospel this morning, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32)

The majority of mainline Christians are reluctant to acknowledge the troubling text of the Book of Revelation, considering the imagery of this text to be too bizarre and surreal.  We don’t like to recognize the four horses of the apocalypse, the harlot of Babylon and the seven headed dragon as part of our tradition.  We are reluctant to think about God destroying anything, most especially the world.  No, we don’t take this text literally, but in avoiding it, we are not taking it seriously either.  

The interpretation of the Bible, the Book of Revelation being one of the most controversial texts of interpretation is one of the things that divide the Christian Church.  We are all passionate about the Bible because as biblical scholar Marcus Borg states, “The Bible has been foundational for Christianity for many centuries.  How one sees the Bible and how one sees Christianity go hand in hand.”[ii]  On one side of the divide are those who believe that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible word of God and thus the Bible has ultimate authority and truth.  For these folks allowing any non-literal translation of the Bible opens the door to evading the Bible’s authority and watering down the word of God.[iii]  Then there are those who read the Bible as a human product of two ancient communities - the Old Testament coming from the ancient Israelites and the New Testament coming from the early Christian communities.[iv]  Reading the Bible through this lens does not deny the inspiration of God in the scriptures, but rather it recognizes that God’s inspiration comes through human minds and hands.  That even as the authors work in concert with the Holy Spirit, they are still influenced by their culture, their life experiences and their worldviews. 

            Looking at the Bible as a whole, we see that the stories of the Bible are trying to answer questions which center upon God’s relationship to humankind.  Questions such as:  How and why did God create us?  Why is life a struggle?  Why does evil exist?  How does God interact with us?  How are we to interact with God?  What happens to us when we die?  Using the knowledge that they had in their time and place, the authors of the Bible attempted to answer these questions.  In his book Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally Marcus Borg states, “I see the Bible as a human response to God.  Rather than seeing God as scripture’s ultimate author, I see the Bible as the response of these two ancient communities to their experiences of God.  As such, it contains their stories of God, their perceptions of God’s character and will, their prayers to and praise of God, their perceptions of the human condition and the paths of deliverance, their religious and ethical practices their understanding of what faithfulness to God involves.  As a product of these two communities, the Bible thus tells us about how they saw things, not about how God sees things.”[v]

            Does this make the scriptures irrelevant to us, absolutely not!  The Bible is relevant to our Christian faith because it shows us that God is real and knowable, shows us how our lives can be made whole by living in right relationship with God and God’s creation and proves to us that God is a God of justice and compassion.  As Borg puts it, “God cares about suffering, and the single greatest source of unnecessary human misery is unjust and oppressive cultural systems.”[vi]  Knowing this we realize that the Book of Revelation was not written as a predictor of the end times but was written as a protest against the oppressive cultural system of the Roman Empire.

            Many believe that John of Patmos wrote the book of Revelation in the last days of Emperor Domitian 95 years after Jesus’ life and ministry on earth.  History tells us that the Roman Empire dominated the world through a combination of power, wealth, seduction, intimidation and violence.  A small elite class controlled all the production of wealth, resources and land in their own interests and declared the order they imposed to be the will of God.[vii]  The Emperors of Rome were deified as gods and the people that they ruled were expected to worship them as such.  The Book of Revelation was written to stand over and against the supremacy of the Roman Empire by stating that there is only one God and that one day God will make things right on earth.  Some note that John was not giving his readers a fantasy of the future, but rather he uses metaphors to recognize the struggle of his time and give his readers a portrait of life as God intends for all to live.  It is an expression of the human longing for God to heal the world from the harm done to it through the human sinfulness of domination and greed.  In the midst of loss and tears John preaches the promise of a new thing, a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem.  He unveils for all who hear his message “worship God alone and become the people of freedom and joy that God has been calling throughout history.”[viii]

            Knowing this about the Book of Revelation we can apply it to our time and place.  It becomes a text of hope for those who are oppressed by our modern day empires and it serves to keep domineering nations on notice that ultimately God is in charge and God will make things right. 

            So how do we determine what to take seriously in the Bible, hear the words of Paul to his protégé Timothy.  “Remember Jesus, Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—That is my gospel… Remind them [your congregation] of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.” (2 Timothy 2:8, 14)  We are to remember that Jesus life and ministry is our bottom line as Christians.  We are to remember how Jesus preached and lived the good news of God’s grace freely given to all.  We are remember these words that Jesus preached about the gospel, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and .you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  (Matthew 22: 37-40)  That my brothers and sisters in Christ is what we need to take seriously!  May it be so.  Amen!

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[i]Borg, Marcus J. Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally. (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2001), 265.

[ii] Ibid., 11

[iii] Ibid., 4

[iv] Ibid.,

[v] Ibid., 23

[vi] Ibid., 300

[vii] Ibid., 286

[viii] Wes Howard-Brook, “Living in New Jerusalem, the Bibles celebratory vision of what the church is to be.”  Seasons of the Spirit Congregational Life Lent, Easter RCL Year C (2007), 114Ibid., 114.