This is the tenth anniversary of the attacks on New York City and Washington D.C. by Muslim terrorists, a day that every adult and older teenager remembers. Each one of us has etched in his or her memory the pictures all of us saw on television that day, and since that day life has been very different as a result of those attacks, not only for people in the United States, but also for many people throughout the world. The United States is engaged in three wars: in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a war on terror in general. Our economy has been greatly affected. And the process of getting through an airport in most places in the world is a far different experience since 9/11.
We have been hearing and reading stories all last week from people who were in New York City or Washington D.C on 9/11. One person here in our parish, who lived in New York City at the time of the attacks, shared some of his thoughts with me, and I’d like to share them with you. “Obviously being a New Yorker I grew up with the beautiful Manhattan skyline my entire life,” he said. “All I had to do was walk one block up a small hill to see the entire city. The understanding of the New York skyline for a native New Yorker is that it is a natural wonder, like the Colorado Rockies, or Niagara Falls. The skyline of Manhattan only grows; it never shrinks. On 9/11 all of that changed. For months we New Yorkers woke up to the smell of burning rubble, fighter jets flying over our air space, and the sight of lower Manhattan smoldering, and also the constant funerals, wakes, and memorial services.” These are some of the thoughts of Chris Wood, our Youth Minister. Sometimes we forget that Chris grew up in New York City, until he opens his mouth and speaks, that is!
Perhaps the biggest change after 9/11 is an intangible one. That is the knowledge that any one of us could be the object of terrorism, from the weakest, most vulnerable of us to the strongest. People in other parts of the world have had to deal with that kind of knowledge all of their lives, but that was not a part of our reality in the United States, as a rule, until 9/11. We don’t understand the mindset of a person who thinks that killing people indiscriminately is not only not terribly wrong, but also is something that, if the killer dies in the process, is eternally rewarded by God. For us, that is a dis-connect of the largest order.
What is the Christian response to this reality? First, belief matters. What a person believes is not only important; it is of the greatest importance. There is a sentimental notion among modern Americans that it doesn’t really matter what a person believes, as long as the person is sincere. Muslim terrorists are sincere in their belief, sincere enough to go to their deaths because of their belief, and their families are often standing right behind them, encouraging them in their belief. Belief matters. Christianity has always taught that belief matters, that there is such a thing as objective truth, and that that truth ultimately is found in Jesus Christ himself. Any search for truth that does not ultimately end in Christ ends in a lie.
Second, acts springing from hatred will not ultimately succeed. What is truly lasting is love. The terrorists did not succeed in their objective. Yes, they tragically killed many people, and they destroyed some American landmarks, but they were not victorious, for they did not kill our spirit. If anything, Americans were made stronger in reaction to this tragedy, and at least for a while, people in this country were more loving, more compassionate, more generous as a result. Whether we realize it or not as a people, the source of that love is God himself, most fully revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ.
Third, we believe that killing is wrong. We believe that God has given us life and that what God has given human beings must not take away. Whenever a human being dies, something of each of us dies. John Donne said it best: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Killing is wrong, and yet there are times when not to kill is wrong. The Muslim terrorists must be stopped, or more innocent people will be killed. War is never good, and it should always be a last resort, but sometimes we do not have a choice between something that is good and something that is evil. Sometimes our choice is between two evils, one being less evil than the other. We Christians need always to remember that the final aim for us is always the peace of Christ. Thus, since we still are in a time of war, I chose to use the color purple for this day of remembrance, for purple is a color which denotes penitence. When in a time of war, even though we believe we fight for the cause of righteousness, we should do so in a spirit of penitence, for killing is being done.
Finally, our faith teaches that our loving God wants all people to be reconciled to him through our Lord Jesus Christ. One of our collects puts it so well: “Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace.” We have convinced ourselves, in our enlightened 21st century minds, that it is wrong to talk about Christ to others. “Different strokes for different folks,” we think. Yet the Gospel imperative is clear, we are to preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. What does it take for us to realize that the world needs Christ? We need to take our Lord Jesus Christ to the world. We need to do it smartly and compassionately, lovingly and with respect to the beliefs and backgrounds of others, but we need to do it. Again, that collect continues in this way: “So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hand in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you, for the honor of your Name.”
The places where the towers stood in New York City have been made into a memorial. The footprints of the towers are now two large water falls, the largest man-made water falls in the United States. Across the way the new towers continue to be built. Chris Wood reflects appropriately, “How amazing is it that the Trade Center buildings are being resurrected, in a glorious new way, made with so much glass that they glisten like mighty angels standing over the city. Yet the wounds that remain are the testimony to what those buildings true function is. Would anyone believe what happened there if they were not allowed to touch the wounds? The resurrected World Trade Center, with the wounds intact. Sound familiar?”
Sermon preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
The 13th Sunday after Pentecost
11 September 2011