Anniversary of 9/11--A Pastoral Response

"Fear is the mood. People are bringing the shutters down from their attics and putting them back on their windows. Fences are appearing where children used to stay freely from backyard to backyard. Locksmiths are working overtime. Once we parked our cars with the keys dangling from the dashboard, and a dog could sleep undisturbed in the middle of the street. No more. Fear reigns."            
      --John Updike, Museums and Women and Other
           Stories


We are all thinking of the same thing on this anniversary weekend of September11th. The old wounds we thought had healed slowly begin to surface once more. We remember where we were that day. We remember the fear and confusion and the terrible losses. Nine years later what are we to say about all the turbulence of the last few years?

I keep thinking to that wonderful story in Matthew 8. 23-27. Jesus and his disciples got into a boat. Jesus had worked so hard that he just collapsed into sleep. And while he was asleep a great storm came up. The waves shook the boat, the water lapped into the boat; it was a scary, scary time. So they woke Jesus up. “Lord save us, we are perishing.” And Jesus roused from sleep said words we need to hear this weekend. “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he rebuked the winds and the sea and everything was a great calm. In amazement the disciples wondered out loud: “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

And so the church kept the story. They told it again and again. When times were hard, when the waves of so much lapped too high. When the clouds of so many things darkened the sky. When it looked like the little boat in which they sailed would just break apart and they would be lost. And when they chose their first symbol of the church—remember what it was? It was a ship. A boat. A vessel that sailed the stormy seas. I do not know a better metaphor for the church or the nation or maybe the world than this symbol: a boat sailing on a stormy sea.

What better Scripture for us to ponder this day than to recall this story? Doesn’t it feel to you like a ship with waves that toss and clouds everywhere? We do not know what the future holds. And like those disciples we wonder if will perish. The dark swirling waters and the terrors of September 11th have left none of us untouched. That terrible day nine years ago we joined the rest of the world when the safety we have always felt was pulled out from under us.

FEAR

Let’s look at the story. First point: Jesus question to his disciples that stormy night. Why are you afraid? And if there is one thing that travels like a virus around this country that touches all of us it is this word: fear. We are afraid. We are afraid we will sink. We are afraid we will perish. We are afraid of loss of control. We are afraid of the uncertainty of what is to be. We are afraid for our children and our grandchildren and just about everything.

We understand that, don’t we? I have had seven Interims since I retired in 2000. And do you know the central problem that I have had to deal with in every single situation. Anxiety—free-floating anxious. People scared. What’s going to happen to our church? Will people leave? Will the money hold out? Will people quit joining?
But this word anxiety or fear infects all we do. Our whole foreign policy is based on fear. Much of the stance at every level of our lives is a defensive stance. We are desperate for answers and we are desperate for comfort. And it does not matter if we are talking oil or terrorism or the war or companies moving out of every town we know or just scared to let our kids ride the school bus or play outside.
We know about fear. We know about boats that rock and waves that come and the terror that grips all our hearts. I have just finished reading a two-volume biography of Adolph Hitler. The question underneath all those pages was how in the world did he do what he did? At the end of that war 51 million people had died and this does not count the river of grief that was left behind for those who lived. Six million Jews were killed, not to speak of the old and the broken and the weak and the gypsies and the homosexuals that were put to death. How did he do this? Fear. He fed the fears of the people and it swept through the country like a virus. Propaganda was his number one tool. If you say it long enough and hard enough people will believe anything. Fear makes us lose our perspective. Fear forces us to do black/white thinking. Fear cannot tolerate difference. Fear is desperate for comfort and the right answers. Fear points fingers at somebody else as the problem. Fear blinds us to reality and distorts our thinking. Fear festers in the darkness. Fear produces sameness under the guise of closeness. You must be like me or else you or not my friend. Fear sees no way out. Fear is powerless. And maybe the worst of all: fear is as contagious as any virus ever was—maybe more so.

This was where the disciples were. They were in the middle of the sea and the waves rocked and the boat shook and they were afraid. They saw nothing clearly. No wonder they woke Jesus and said, “Lord save us! We are perishing.”

After September 11th I was terribly touched by the response of people around the world. We joined hands and hearts. We had been attacked and we drew together. Almost every country reached out to us in one way or the other. We were one in this rocky ship called the earth.

I don’t know when it changed but it did. One of the responses to grief is fear. And maybe this was one of the things that slowly separated us from one another in this country and around the world. Why we are trying to build a wall between us and Mexico—it’s impossible. We have tightened our borders to people in many countries. Islamaphobia is a new word we have coined for a very old problem: fear. It gripped us like it did those fishermen that Jesus had called. They knew about storms. They knew about squalls. They knew how to handle a boat even in rough water. And knowing all of that these strong men were terrified. This is where we are today. But this is only half of the story.

FAITH

The second word in the story comes from Jesus’ question to those in the boat: “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” If the first word today is fear, the second word is faith. All the way through the Old and New Testaments we hear these same words spoken over and over: Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Old Abraham starting out on a journey in a land he did not know with a wife that did not particularly want to move—heard: Do not be afraid. Moses called to Egypt and to stand before Pharaoh and to try to set his people free was told: Do not be afraid. And when they sent the spies out and they came back with the report that there were giants over there and they were just sure their enemies had Nuclear weapons—remember the minority report. Do not be afraid. Remember that verse in Psalm 46.1-2a: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore we will not fear…” Skip on down to the New Testament. In those early pages when the angels came to Mary and to Joseph and to Elizabeth with the words of a new baby —the angels said: Do not be afraid. And when the Shepherds heard the angels singing the old scruffy Shepherds heard them sing: Do not be afraid. And all the way through the book we have these same words. When the women came to the tomb that Easter morning—weeping as if their hearts would break—the angels this time said: Do not be afraid. And if that were not enough John told the early church in First John: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…”(I John 4.18)

The early church told the story about the boat and the disciples’ fear and Jesus speaking peace to the winds and the waves to anyone who was or is anxious. This does not discount the troubles of our world. It does not push under the rug the difficulties of our time. But it does say the Christian’s stance is not fear but faith. And we know, you and I that the faith journey is long and hard. Sometimes it is two steps forward and one step backwards. Sometimes it is two steps backward and one step forward. Like the disciples we, too, will find our hearts failing us for fear again and again. But we won’t stay at this dark place. For we remember that we are not in the boat alone. Christ is here and Christ will be with us. And he uses that wonderful word: always. He will be with us always.

Osama Ben Laden will win this war on terrorism if we move through our lives with fear. We Christians have been given another way. “Why are you afraid, you of little faith,” Jesus said. “Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him.” Thanks be to God.

(  You might be interested in Jim Wallis' take on the annivdersary of 9/11. Good. http://blog.sojo.net/2010/09/09/what-have-we-learned-since-911/#disqus_thread)