9/11 Commemoration - for Sunday at Calvary Presbyterian Church

The following statement will be read during a portion of the morning liturgy devoted to the memory of 9/11 ... at Calvary Presbyterian Church, Hawthorne, CA.

We are Christians, above all else.

Our greatest loyalty is to the kingdom of God.

Our highest hopes are anchored in Christ.

Our daily life is built upon the character of God - God at work in all things, in all things for good … because God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.

September, 2001 … the church I served at the time, St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Livonia, MI, was geared up to celebrate it’s 50^th anniversary on Sunday, September 16 - people, from far and wide, had planned to attend the festivities and give thanks to God Almighty. 

And then, Tuesday, September 11, a day of national sorrow.

Several former pastors and others were unable to attend because of airline shutdowns. What had been planned as a festival became, as well, a time of mourning and soul-searching. In some parts of the country, churches, synagogues and mosques were filled to overflowing, and for some weeks, and even months, thereafter, people sought hope and solace in God’s love.

Ten years later, our country has been shaken by the mortgage meltdown, massive banking failure, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, political gridlock, high unemployment, world-wide financial distress, the Bernie Madoff scandal, the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots, and perplexing questions about our future.

History offers some guidance.

From the get-go, when Cain killed his brother Able, human beings have excelled in the ways of killing. Of all God’s creatures, we are tragically skilled in violence. From Japan’s pillaging of Nanking, Hitler’s Holocaust and the Allied bombing of Dresden - to tens of thousands of starving children around the world amidst the brutal wars of genocide we’ve witnessed in the last 25 years, it is not a pretty picture. We who claim the name of Christ must spend a lot of time on our knees, praying for humanity and praying for the nations, pledging ourselves to be “the children of God,” those who are peacemakers. 

As Christians in America, it’s vital that we remember September 11, but do so with grace and perspective, choosing to live out of our hope and our dreams for a better world.

Ten years after the World Trade Center buildings collapsed into the streets of Manhattan and nearly 3000 people lost their lives in the blink of an eye, we must do several things today:

1. Honor the memory of that tragic day with prayers and hope.
2. Pray for the families who lost loved ones.
3. Pray for the ticket agents, air traffic controllers and air force pilots - the burdens of memory are great!
4. Celebrate the power of human resilience - while the survivors all carry painful memories of that day, so many of them have worked their way through the tragedy to find new life. Their stories of victory and success are a testimony to human courage and an inspiration to us all to never, ever, give up!
5. Recognize the dedication of the first responders - public servants devoted to the public good, who put themselves into harm’s way, because this is their calling, this is their duty, this is their life.
6. Pray for our nation.
7. Pray for all the nations of the world, because God’s love is for all the world, all the nations, and all the peoples.
8. Pray for peace, and devote ourselves to the ideas and behaviors that contribute to peace on all levels of life - family, work, neighborhood, church and school.
9. Remember that we’re a strong nation with deep resources, and we needn’t live in fear. Yes, bad things might happen; no one person, and no nation, is immune to such things. Better to live in courage and trust. Better to know that our lot on earth is far better than many, and that, truly, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
10. Practice forgiveness … and if it has to be raw forgiveness, do it. Forgiveness is always the healing of the soul.
11. Practice what Jesus meant when he said, “Love your enemy” - this is not a sentimental journey, but a decision to do what’s right - to seek reconciliation where possible; to avoid violence and vengeance; to admit wrongs and confess sins; to seek the high road to life.
12. Promise to live for Christ all the more - growing up into the knowledge of God’s purpose and love revealed in Christ - the reconciliation of all the world.
13. Link arms with women and men of faith all around the world - Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus - anyone who does kindness, loves justice, and walks humbly with their God.
14. And with the love of Christ secure in our hearts, love our nation and guide it to the better future.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address ends with these stirring and noble words:

… that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Dear friends, dear Christian friends, walk in the footsteps of the Master - Go forth into the world in peace; Be of good courage; Hold fast to that which is good. Render to no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint hearted. Support the weak. Help the afflicted. Honor everyone. Love and serve the Lord.

And to God be the glory. Amen and Amen!

  

Reflections on 9/11, Osama and World Economy

From my dear friend and colleague, an all-around good guy with a heart for Jesus and a better world, The Rev. Robert Dahl, of Holland, Michigan.

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On Sept. 11, 2001 3,000 people died in the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon. It was a tragedy. 

In the ten years hence, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of lives of American soldiers have been lost and tens of thousands of American soldiers have been severely wounded (saved from death by modern medical technology and costing the US countless dollars for longterm care) and a trillion plus dollars have been spent with more lives and more money to come. 

All this and the US just killed the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.  

Proportionately, was any of this response appropriate?  

Jesus said that we have heard that the law is an "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" but then Jesus tells us not to resist an evildoer.   Elsewhere (Matthew 18:21-22), Jesus, in response to St. Peter, admonishes him to forgive seventy times seven times not just the generosity of seven times  which was a vast improvement on the vengeance that preceded that law of the Hebrews originally taken from the Mesopotamians.  

How many times does our nation forgive?  What if we had just forgiven Osama bin Ladin while pragmatically beefing up protection against terrorist attacks?  We held 95% world support in the days following 9/11.  What if we had stood tall and simply had forgiven the evildoer?  Wouldn't we have retained 95% support instead of squandering all that in the years to come?  We have squandered lives and dollars out of fear and false machismo. 

This nation isn't even acting by ancient, humanitarian law.  This nation, by historical standards, is acting barbarically. This nation is light years away from living out the command of Jesus.  And yet, politicians are scrambling to outdo each other on who is the more conservative, bible believing Christian.  

I think that ignoring and violating the laws of God do have consequences. God's law of love, compassion, justice and peace revealed to us in Jesus will not be mocked. This is sort of reverse retaliation.  God's justice will be accomplished which I think means that "love wins."  If that means that we lose, so be it.  

Osama bin Ladin is dead (We all die.); but Osama bin Ladin won partially and almost won totally.  What do I mean?  Osama bin Ladin, for all his boredom and self-imposed house arrest and cache of porno, won.  He got the US to do what he knew would hurt us much more than that initial attack.  He was counting on our all out of proportion reaction to bring our economy to its knees.  The disastrous policy of the last US administration in reaction to 9/11 along with totally misguided tax cuts  and deregulation of the financial market almost took the world economy into chaos; that's the world economy.  That's the world economy.  

The United States, in part, because of the motivation of vengeance coupled with a misguided attempt to confiscate the oil reserves of Iraq for US energy needs, along with totally misguided economic theory of how to stimulate the economy, was on the brink of economic disaster and may yet suffer grievously because of an enormous budget deficit and gargantuan national debt.  

The ultra-wealthy have been enormously greedy, the politicians have been enormously selfish to think primarily of re-election and have pandered to the lobbyists hired by the ultra-wealthy, the elected officials are slaking their thirst for blood and oil in the Middle East and all of them have ignored the impending environmental disaster.

And God is not mocked.  And it isn't nice to try to fool Mother Nature.  

God and Mother Nature will prevail and we will reap what we sow.  

That's not a vengeful God and a reactionary Mother Nature.  That's just the way it is.  

Bob Dahl 

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P.S. Be sure to check out Cost of War.

Keith Oberman - Truth-Teller!

Friend of mine sent this to me - a piece by Keith Olbermann (one of the few truth-tellers left in the intimidated media) detailing how the Repubs have hijacked 9/11 for their own perverted fear-mongering purposes.

It's a brilliant piece - click HERE to read it.

In thanking my friend, I wrote the following:

Thanks for sending this along ... Olbermann is one of the few truth-tellers left in the media mostly intimidated by the right ... so often accused of being sympathetic to the left, they're running with their tails tucked between their legs.

The Repubs have hijacked 9/11 and continue to spread the message of fear ... a message that plays right into the heart of the Republic right now, because lots of Americans know that something is profoundly wrong, but rather than addressing the core issues - health care, poverty, global warming, federal debt - most Americans would rather just shout a little louder, shove a little harder, and go shopping.

McCain and Palin are full of lies ... and many Americans are gobbling it up like pigs with a bucket of slop. I know some folks who are right of Attila the Hun - amazing how skewed their thoughts are - peppered with words like "socialism, communism" and "Obamanation" and "He's a Muslim" - that folks could think this way stuns me.

I was at the opening of Obama's SoCal headquarters last week - lots of fun, lots of energy, and maybe a thousand or more folks ... I said to one young lady, "Glad to see you here. I was worried that Palin would influence too many."

She looked seriously and said, "Not if they think about it."

Let's just hope folks will think about it.

God's Peace and Vision ...

Sharon Stone Sued

Sharon Stone is being sued by 1000 Chinese and a New York attorny for an offhand (?) remark that China's recent earthquake was bad karma for China's stance on Tibet.

Her comments remind me of Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson who blamed Katrina on liberals. They also blamed 9/11 on gays and abortionists.

Fundamentalists are quick to take selected Old Testament passages and pull from them an application to suffering, always locating it in punishment for sin.

Of course, the sin is always "someone else's sin."

Whether it be a Buddhist or a Christian thing, it's just plain foolish to speculate on the mind of God in someone else's suffering.

There is, in most of us, I suppose, a superstitious notion that if our neighbor falls on hard times, they probably deserved it, but if hard times come our way, we're "innocent victims" of fate or someone else's cruelty.

When I teach on delicate and difficult issues, I remind the student, "speak softly on the things we're not sure about, but speak boldly on things we we know. And what we know is this: God is good all the time, and all the time God is good."

I know and trust mercy, grace, kindness and love.

And if there's suffering, what good does it do speculate on it's ontological origins - like, how many angels can dance on the head of a pain - a question that once occupied the minds of the best and the brightest?

If there's suffering, offer help and consolation.
If there's hurt and pain, provide healing and support.
Where there are tears, bring solace and the money and energy to rebuild.

Let God, or the gods, determine the more subtle pieces of the cosmic puzzle.
Our job is simply to be merciful to one another.