Comfort and More to Say, Sermon September 11, 2011

By The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

10 years ago my sermon began this way;
I am afraid and I am not alone in my fear.
I am sad and I am not alone in my sadness.
I am angry and I am not alone in my anger.

The first duty of the church is to be in solidarity with the suffering, to stand with the fearful, to embrace the hurting and to shield the violated with compassion and kindness.

Today, 10 years later, there may be some people here this morning feeling the trauma of the terror attacks again, people who lost friends or family that day. We must gather here this morning with a word of comfort.  We will observe a moment of silence in our prayers today to honor those who died and those who grieve.

We are gathered here to comfort, and we also have more to say and more to offer.

For the dead we have the comfort of God’s eternal love.  For the living we have the challenge of God’s super-abundant mercy. We have more to say.

We are called to tell the truth, to name evil when we see it.  The terrorist attacks of 9.11.2001 were hateful acts of evil, exactly what we renounce in our baptismal vows when “we renounce all the powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.”

We did not choose to live in this time, and the world is not how we would choose for it to be, but as people of faith we are uniquely equipped to love this world back into wholeness.  The church of Jesus Christ was literally born in hostility, threat and violence, and yet still maintained Jesus’ teaching about loving enemies and praying for our persecutors. This teaching is the heart of our Christian ethical life, the teaching referenced by MLK on the front of our bulletin.

This teaching if embraced, encouraged and practiced makes us uniquely prepared to face down the powers that seem to dominate our times.

Our Gospel challenges us this morning to reflect on forgiveness.  The first thing I want to say about forgiveness is that forgiving does not justify or make right the wrong that was committed.  Rabbi Harold Kushner tells the story of a woman who came to him seeking counsel.

Her husband had walked out on her and her children leaving them with no support and destitute.  Angrily she said to the Rabbi, “How can you tell me to forgive him?”  The Rabbi answered,  “I am not asking you to forgive him because what he did was acceptable.  I’m asking you to forgive because he doesn’t deserve the power to live in your head and turn you into a bitter, angry woman.” Forgiveness is about setting us free so our responses are not controlled or determined or rationalized by whatever wrong was done to us.

In the story Jesus tells it is clear that Mercy is the reality we are called to respond to and the gift we are called to respond with.  The forgiveness of the King is extravagant to the point of absurdity.  One talent of silver equals 130 lbs of silver. It would take a worker 15 years of labor to earn one talent.  To forgive a debt of 10,000 talents is to forgive 150,000 years of income. This absurdity is meant to give us the measure of God’s superabundant mercy, that mercy, that is our ultimate reality.

I talked with my friend and seminary classmate Stephen Harding about this sermon.  Stephen is the Protestant Chaplain for the New York City Fire Department and he will preach here at Evensong in October.  In a sermon last year, Stephen said, those who flew the planes (into the twin towers, into the field in Shanksville, and into the Pentagon) were motivated by hate.  In our response to the terrorists we cannot also be motivated by hate or we will become like them. We will continue the cycle of violence.  To his credit Stephen preached this to Fire Fighters in New York City on the 9th Anniversary of 9.11.

Because the dominant reality in our life is God’s mercy, we are free not to respond from our worst impulses.  The example for me was a 9.11 widow who generously volunteered a day or more a week at my ministry in Trenton, NJ.  Her husband was among the heroes of flight 93, and the terrorists left her a widowed mother of three young children.  From her deep and palpable faith this woman responded to grief and loss with generosity and grace toward the most vulnerable.

We are free not to respond from our worst impulses and we are free from the insidious practice of justifying and rationalizing and enshrining our worst behavior based on the wrong that was done to us.
As St. Paul makes clear today when he warns the strong to respect the weak, and when Jesus tells the story of the forgiven slave who was expected to respond to mercy with mercy for his vulnerable debtors - we are accountable to mercy.

We are accountable to mercy but we are not living in a culture of mercy.  In the last 10 years our culture has become almost absurdly cruel in its lack of mercy.

At the candidate debate at the Reagan Library Wednesday night, the loudest applause came when the execution of 260 prisoners in Texas was mentioned.  Is this who we are? Are we in a culture of denial – where two wars combined with tax cuts balloon the federal deficit, and the poor get the blame and have their programs defunded.  Where a thin slice of the population is asked to sacrifice and fight while the majority pay no price.  Where our society becomes increasingly unjust - not only massively unequal in distribution of wealth but actively destroying wealth among the most vulnerable through massive foreclosure and wage erosion.  Where we have killed well over 100,000 mostly civilian Iraqis and Afghanis with hardly a notice or protest because they are dark skinned, Muslim, far away, and the enemy.

10 years after we need to reflect deeply on what we have become and how we have let our fear, our anger and our sadness distort what is best in us.  We need to turn to God’s mercy to return to the best of our ethical Christian ethical tradition.

I leave you with the following quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. “Upheaval after upheaval has reminded us that modern man (sic) is traveling along a road called hate.  Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival.”

Prayers of Intercession from September 11, 2011

As we give thanks for our many blessings and present our desires and petitions to God for the needs of the Church, the world, and our own community and families, let us say and respond:
We pray to you, O God; we pray in Jesus’ name.

We remember today the awful attacks by terrorists 10 years ago at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  The absolute horror of the burning planes, falling bodies, and utter destruction at ground zero are seared in our minds forever.  We give thanks for the countless acts of individual heroism that day, which helped reduce the loss of life.  We stand in awe of the sacrifices of the police, firemen, and emergency responders who entered buildings to save lives, only to lose their own; of the courage and nobility of the 40 passengers of Flight 93, who,  with a cry of “Let’s roll”, retook the hijacked plane and crashed it in a field in Shanksville, so it could not reach its ultimate destination. .  We remember the families, friends and loved ones of all those who died, who relive the horrors of the attacks every day.  We ask for the grace of your healing power, that we may continue to try to come together in recovery—that we not let the demons of bigotry and hatred consume our grief.  Teach us to heed the lessons read today, that we may forgive the crimes of our brothers, and the wrong they did in harming us, not just once, or seven times, but seventy seven times.  Remind us that while the world changed forever that day ten years ago, we do not live or die to ourselves, but rather to the Lord.  Let us conclude our remembrance of 9/11/01 with a period of silence.
We pray to you , O God; we pray in Jesus name. 

We pray for the welfare of leaders and people throughout the worldwide Church, especially our Presiding Bishop, Katherine, our bishops Charles, Rodney and Edward, and for Armando, Carlos and Virgilio, bishops in our companion diocese of Guatemala, as well as for our companion parishes of San Juan Apostal, La Natividad, and San Marcos.
We pray to you, O God; we pray in Jesus’ name.

We pray for our President,  Barack, for our Governor,  Tom, for our Mayor, Michael, and for all in authority, that they may exercise the powers of their respective offices with wisdom, judgment and vision, mindful of the dignity and worth of every human being.
We pray to you, O God; we pray in Jesus’ name.

We pray for those brave men and women who serve in our Armed Forces, both at home and abroad, that they may be kept safe from harm’s way and return soon to their families and friends.
We pray to you, O God; we pray in Jesus’ name.

We pray for prisoners, refugees, the unemployed, the desperate, the destitute, the depressed and the addicted, and for all those who care for them.
We pray to you, O God; we pray in Jesus’ name.

We pray for deliverance from all danger, violence, oppression, political turmoil, bullying, discrimination and degradation, especially the victims of fighting in Libya and Afghanistan.  We also pray for protection from the devastation of natural disasters, such as floods, wildfires, and earthquakes.  May all who are in their path find shelter and safety. 
We pray to you, O God; we pray in Jesus’ name.

We pray for the aged and infirm, for the sick and suffering, and especially for the following members and friends of our St. Martin’s community:  Joye; Ray; Dorsey, Elton Cannon, and Mary Baumberger.  Are there others?
We pray to you, O God; we pray in Jesus’ name.

We give thanks for the baptism of Jared Mechlin.  May he grow from day to day in the knowledge and love of the Lord.
We pray to you, O God; we pray in Jesus name.

We pray for all who have died, particularly Stephen DeDakis; Bill Stalls, and the 2977 victims of the 9/11/01 attacks,  in whose memory the flowers are given today.  May they and all the departed be taken from strength to strength in the joy of Your everlasting life.
We pray to you, O God; we pray in Jesus’ name.

And now, either silently or aloud, let us offer up our individual prayers and petitions.