Yesterday my wife Chris wrapped up her participation in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. From early Friday morning until yesterday afternoon she and about 1,000 others walked 60 miles around western Cuyahoga County.
Many of you are familiar with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, a 5k (3.1 mile) walk each fall that last year attracted about 25,000 people to downtown Cleveland and raises about $1.5 million.
That's a lot of people and a lot of money. I don't know of another "athon" that involves nearly that many people and is as universally respected as the Komen events. They could have easily sat back, patted themselves on the back for a job well done and been satisfied.
But when you think about it, 3.1 miles isn't very far (after all, my dad used to walk that far to school every day, uphill both ways, without shoes, in the snow, and had to hurry to beat the train) and there were those who were able to do more and wanted to do more.
So this past weekend about 1,000 of these brave souls walked together and camped together, enduring the heat and humidity, blistered feet and port-a-potties all in the name of raising money for breast cancer research. And another 300 people volunteered four days, from Thursday through Sunday, to make it all happen.
Oh, and along the way they raised almost $2.5 million.
A group 5% of the size raised nearly twice as much money. There's a really valuable stewardship lesson in this.
How many of our churches take the approach that the Komen folks could have? In our fall stewardship campaigns, we raise enough money to run the church, so we sit back and say "well done good and faithful servant." Sure there are people who could do more if we asked, but we're doing OK, so why bother?
There are those in your church who can give more than they are giving and are willing to give more. We just don't give them the opportunity to do so. If you want to drag them around your county for three days and 60 miles to get the money out of them, that's up to you but I would suggest you take a more simple approach.
Develop a vision for how additional investments in your church can make a difference in people's lives and invite them to participate. Sit in their office or living room and make the case, explain the need, the solution and how their gift can bridge the two.
Focus on a handful of your members, maybe 5 or 10 percent of your giving units and ask them for a one-time gift, perhaps doubling their commitment to the church this year.
Not everyone will say yes and you need to be OK with that before you get started. But by providing this opportunity, you may make a real difference, both in the finances of your church and in the discipleship of your members.
The Komen Foundation has only been around since 1982. In fact I was amazed to read in Betty Ford's obituary that her bout with breast cancer led the way to this disease being talked about publicly and led to a huge increase in the number of mammograms.
For breast cancer fund raising to have come this far in a relatively short time tells me they are doing things right and we should be paying attention.
Let's learn from them, shall we?
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
From Brian Sheetz's Blog
 | Of Casinos and Rain Outs |
Saturday was Faith Day at Progressive Field. So I packed four Sheetzes in the minivan and headed to downtown Cleveland. I paid $10 to park six blocks away, had my game ticket scanned to make sure it wasn't counterfeit, my wife had her purse inspected in search of illicit bottled water and we were herded in to watch the game. Five outs later the heavens opened and we dashed for the cover of the stadium concourse, next to the guy selling hot dogs.
For two hours we heard nothing from Tribe management: no weather update, no prognosis for when they would start, no indication that as they sat in their warm, upscale offices they even knew they had 10,000 paying fans standing in the cold on concrete waiting to find if they would get to see a game that day. Finally the game was postponed and we were told that our tickets, assuming we had not lost them, could be redeemed when the game was made up. If we were not available for the make up date, we were out of luck.
I don't want to sound like the Indians are doing anything different from any other pro sports team. We are expected to build them stadiums (stadii?) and agree to be treated like this.
But as I stood in the cold, wet stadium I thought about coverage in the Plain Dealer that week about plans for the new casino. The developers said they needed to find thousands of close parking places that would be offered free of charge, have valet parking available to those who wanted to feel like VIPs and create a Times-Square like feel when people arrive to lay down their cash in hopes of striking it reach.
When I pay $5.50 for a dog at the stadium, I assure I don't feel like a VIP in Times Square.
Mike Greenberg, morning talk show host on ESPN Radio, points out that if any other company treated its customers like pro sports franchises, they would quickly go out of business.
Yesterday morning I visited a smaller church in the Firelands District to do a planned giving seminar. I showed up a few minutes early for the first service. I was quickly able to figure out which door to use and when I made it to the narthex I was warmly greeted by someone who was not an official greeter. We visited and he showed me to where I would be doing my talk afterward.
There was no shortage of smiles, greetings and handshakes at both services. The words to the hymns were projected on the front of the sanctuary, making it easy to follow along the service. The introduction to the offering was far from heavy-handed and afterward there was again warm conversation.
Although there is no shortage of United Methodists who cringe when I use this analogy, that church gave me the casino treatment yesterday. I got the impression they were glad I was there, made sure I was welcomed and comfortable and in spite of the ridiculously early hour I had to leave home I would welcome the opportunity to go back.
I'm not sure how you would divide the nearly 800 churches in our Conference. But I'm sure that many are Casinos and many are pro sports teams.
Take a look at your Sunday morning operation from the point of view of a visitor? Do you welcome them like a casino or do you do so like a stadium?
Inclusiveness
Exodus 12: 17
Inclusiveness
Communion or the Lord’s Supper was not celebrated in Paul’s time like we celebrate it today. It was a meal that could last for several hours. The best comparison I can see today would be the covered dish supper. We don’t think of the covered dish supper as a sacrament. If it were up to me, we would have a covered dish supper every month and we would celebrate it as the Christians did Holy Communion in Paul’s day. And we would bring people in to sit around the table who otherwise are not found in our churches. We would bring people to the sacred meal, the sacrament, just as Jesus gladly fed all who were willing to come to him.
But would there be an awkward silence at the table if we did that? Would it be uncomfortable to sit across the table with individuals who look different, smell different, speak differently, and maybe think differently? We all hate it when there is an awkward silence around the table. Imagine, there we would be with people we know well, but also with people we don’t yet, and no one would be speaking. It would be embarrassing. There would be that proverbial elephant in the room that no one would want to talk about. His weight squashes small talk.
I wonder how that would work out if we actually tried it sometime. I’m wondering how that’s going to work out when we join Jesus at the table in heaven. Would there be an awkward silence around the table with Jesus in heaven if Northern Irish Catholics had to sit next to Protestants? What if Rwanda’s Christian Hutus were seated next to Tootsies? What if the World War II vets, Japanese, German, American, were all in the same area. Imagine Christians from France and Germany, England, Italy, China and Japan, Russia and Poland, Iran and Iraq, and the United States – all mixed together like a tossed salad?
There is not a body of Christ for blacks and one for whites; one for Mexicans and one for Caucasians; there is only One Body and we are all equally members of it. This was the lesson the apostle Paul was at pains to teach his ethnically mixed congregation in Corinth
Paul said, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
Jesus was a pretty inclusive person and he got in trouble for it. He celebrated the goodness of people others despised, sat down with heavy drinkers, talked at length with prostitutes, spent time with tax cheats, walked beside smelly fishermen, Jesus, in prayer the night before his crucifixion says: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The phrase “in us” means that if we have some kind of status in life that makes us important leave it at the door when we come to Christ’s table. If we feel we are not important, leave that non-importance at the door. Here we are one in Christ. For Paul, Jew, Greek, male, female, slave, free, none of it matters. That is what it means to be a human being and to be in Christ. That is radical. It is hard to believe and hard to do.
Christ prayed that all who believe in him will be one, “So that the world may believe” – the whole world, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of history, regardless of looks, regardless of status. I wonder how today the awkward silences could be successfully avoided. Do we have to wait until we die to share Christ’s table as he prayed we would?
Christ knew that his followers might have many differences but he knew that they all would eat. So he gave us a meal to join us all together. A sacred meal in which all boundaries are erased.
So what are we to do in the mean time? Well, at minimum, we are to live in such a way now that there will not be any causes for awkward silences around that table. We are to live in such a way now that we do not deny our differences any more than we deny that there are dozens of ways to prepare fish. Rather we celebrate our differences as the variety that gives life joy.
The body of Christ is One. We Christians have One Lord, one faith, and one baptism. We have all been sent on the same mission: to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is not our tribal god, but the Lord of all! There will be a day when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. “ No nation can claim him; no social group owns him; he is not the mascot for any political party. Today, on World Communion Sunday, we gather around his table proclaiming, not an idea, not a wish, but the truth: Jesus is Lord.
As we come to the table today with the majority of our Christian brothers and sisters in this world, let us envision Christ in front of us, leading us toward a greater unity that celebrates our diversity. We may celebrate in different ways, but we share the same meal. We are truly one loaf, and on this day, we all observe the breaking and sharing of that one loaf. I thank God that Jesus gave us a tradition that communicates so clearly, so tangibly to my soul. As we partake in this meal together today, let us give thanks and pray for the restored unity of the church as we struggle to really be the Body of Christ.
Amen.
Generosity
Proverbs 11: 24-28
Proverbs 19: 17 “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.”
2 Corinthians 8:1-9
Luke 21: 1-4
Generosity
There is the story of a wealthy man who was approached to contribute to a major financial campaign. The urgent need and compelling case were stated, and the call was made for his support. The man responded: “I understand why you think I can give fifty thousand dollars. I am a man with my own business and, it is true, I have all the signs of affluence. But there are some things you don’t know. Did you know that my mother is in an expensive nursing home?” Well, no, we didn’t know. “Did you know also that my brother died, and left a family of five and had almost no insurance?” No, we didn’t. “Did you know my son is deeply religious, has gone into social work, and makes less than the national poverty level to meet the needs of his family?” No, we hadn’t realized. “Well, then, if I don’t give any of them a penny, why do you think I’ll give it to you?”
Several years back, Myrna and I watched a movie, based on a book, called PAY IT FORWARD. It is a movie well worth watching. It is a novel about a 12-year-old boy whose social studies teacher challenged the class to each come up with an idea that could change their world. Trevor, the hero of PAY IT FORWARD, thinks up quite an idea. He describes it to his mother and teacher this way: "You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do 3 each and that makes twenty-seven."
He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. "Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"
Most of 87-year old Oselola McCarty’s life was spent working 12-hour days doing other people’s laundry. That’s why people were amazed when she generously donated $150,000 to establish a scholarship fund at the University of Southern Mississippi. What’s even more amazing is that this represented only 60% of her total life savings of about $250,000. When asked how she did it, she simply said that she lived modestly, saved regularly, and gave generously. Here is a woman who did not live to see how much stuff she could acquire. Here is a woman whose modest life in a dismal job proved to be a blessing to herself and others, because she gave and gave generously. Imagine the joy she felt in giving this substantial sum of money to a cause that she believed in. Surely we all know that the joy she felt was far greater than any joy she might have received from acquiring more stuff with which to clutter her life.
Scriptures remind us that we are truly blessed in order to be a blessing to others. God blesses us for his sake. In point of fact, generosity is the most valid display of any one person’s spiritual health. How generous a person is tells how spiritually healthy they are. Sooner or later we will learn that what we earn and keep for ourselves will ultimately die with us. I think the principle extends to churches as well. Generosity is an essential characteristic of a vital congregation.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul was not suggesting some sort of bizarre economics. Paul was very aware of the need to give generously to God's work, and of the temptation to give a little ungenerously by those who felt they couldn't afford to give. You see there had been a famine in Jerusalem and the Christians there were suffering badly. Paul rallied the largely Gentile churches, which he had founded, to take up a collection for the mainly Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. The church at Corinth was rather wealthy. The church at Macedonia, in contrast, was very poor. Paul holds up the church at Macedonia as an example of how God’s grace worked through the love of the people of Macedonia so that despite their poverty, they were able to give abundantly, out of love.
He urged the Corinthians to give out of their abundance, not so that they too would be poor, but so that there was some equality between their relative wealth and the extreme poverty in Jerusalem. He pointed out that everything we have comes from God. God has given to us abundantly; we're simply asked to give back to God with generosity of spirit. In his argument, Paul used the example of Jesus. “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul tells us that “God loves a cheerful giver”. God wants us to enjoy giving. God wants us to give with joy in our hearts, with a smile on our faces, with delight in our eyes.
And I am afraid that until we feel that kind of joy we will not truly be free. We will not, I believe, be free from the grip of materialism until we give generously and sacrificially of our wealth to God with joy. Joyful generosity makes clear that the dynamic that empowers our lives is not having more but giving more. The dynamic of our lives is not acquisition but sacrificial surrender to the will of God.
There was a study done a couple years ago in which the researchers analyzed the generosity of our nation. The percentage of our gross national product channeled toward charities, including the church, began to rise significantly during the Great Depression. This trend continued through the World War II. In fact, the generosity of our nation rose undisturbed until the 1960s. In that decade, something subtle happened. Our decline in generosity has continued every consecutive year along with decline in church attendance. We have become much more affluent than our grandparents, but we have not matched their generosity.
Generosity is not just about money. Sometimes—too often—money is given as a substitute for a commitment of time and capability, when those would do far more than the money.
The late comedian George Carlin wrote something that a few years back that gives us reason to think carefully: "The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy less. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life, not life to years.”
“We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We've done larger things, but not better things. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships."
Trevor’s idea in the movie PAY IT FORWARD is a powerful idea. But is treating people with love regardless of whether they deserve it such a new idea? At one point in his ministry, Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs to do the same things he had been doing. He sent them out to preach, teach, and heal, and gave them the power to do so in his name. To the twelve disciples who without any merit on their part had been endowed with the powers of the Spirit as he himself had, Jesus instructed, “Freely you have received, freely give.” The disciples were to pass forward the fruit of the blessings they had received.
God pours out His love toward us through Christ. God actively pursues our welfare even though we do not deserve it. Through His grace God can raise us up out of death itself to eternal life. Once we have been transformed by the love Christ, what are we to do?
What a tremendous opportunity we will have to tell them about and show them God's love and how God wants his people to pass forward his love. Best of all, we are not limited to three times—we can do it every day, as often as the opportunity arises to help out someone else even in some small way. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Golden Rule restated. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Only Jesus inserted the command to do it lovingly.
God pours out His love toward us through Christ. God actively pursues our welfare even though we do not deserve it. Through His grace God can raise us up out of death itself to eternal life. Once we have been transformed by the love Christ, what are we to do?
What a tremendous opportunity we will have to tell them about and show them God's love and how God wants his people to pass forward his love. Best of all, we are not limited to three times—we can do it every day, as often as the opportunity arises to help out someone else even in some small way. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Golden Rule restated. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Only Jesus inserted the command to do it lovingly.
Generosity generates generosity. God's generosity to us should generate our generosity, which is shown as we give of our time, our energy, our love, our attention, our praise, our nurture, our joy, our money --- in fact, our whole beings. In Christ, every one of us is rich enough to be generous. Every one of us can pay it forward, with love. Amen
Labor
Exodus 20: 8-11
2 Thessalonians 3: 6-10
Matthew 11: 28-30
Labor
A Labor day is celebrated in many places around the world, most times in May (May Day) and it is a day to celebrate the achievements & strides made by workers & labor unions. The first Labor Day observed in the U.S. was in 1882 in NYC, but it wasn’t made a national holiday until 1894, just days after the horrific Pullman Strike in Pullman, IL.
A Labor day is celebrated in many places around the world, most times in May (May Day) and it is a day to celebrate the achievements & strides made by workers & labor unions. The first Labor Day observed in the U.S. was in 1882 in NYC, but it wasn’t made a national holiday until 1894, just days after the horrific Pullman Strike in Pullman, IL.
Employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company, who made railroad cars, went on a wildcat strike after the company drastically decreased the employee’s wages because of diminished sales caused by the Economic Crisis of 1893. This strike caused a shutdown of practically all railroad transportation west of Chicago to a halt.
Within 3 days of Pullman employee’s walking off the job, 40,000 railroad workers walked off the job as a sign of solidarity. It rippled across America.
President Grover Cleveland sent in U.S. Marshals & 12,000 soldiers to break up the strike. Of course, this controversial move is still debated as to its constitutionality, but never the less . . . the strike was broken up. 13 strikers were killed, 57 wounded and over $6 million of property had been damaged. In the wake of the Pullman Strike, Cleveland, wanting to bring some reconciliation to the workers involved in the strike, had congress fast track Labor Day as a national holiday and six days after the end of the strike . . . we had ourselves a national holiday.
One can only imagine the horror, blood, tensions, pain, suffering of this event, but as a result many people in our country don’t have to work tomorrow and . . . as far as I’m concerned . . . that’s a good thing.
One can only imagine the horror, blood, tensions, pain, suffering of this event, but as a result many people in our country don’t have to work tomorrow and . . . as far as I’m concerned . . . that’s a good thing.
This is the Labor Day Weekend. Labor Day is a strange holiday. While we call it "Labor Day," we try to do as little labor as possible and most working people have the day off. Nobody has wished me a "Happy Labor Day". We didn’t get any Labor Day cards. We don’t decorate the house, or give Labor Day gifts. The florists and greeting card manufacturers haven’t found a way to capitalize on it.
It’s a bad weekend for church attendance because everyone wants to take time away. But, Labor Day is different things to different people. To the factory or office worker, it may be a day off. For policemen, who deal with extra traffic and alcohol abuse, it’s a tough day. To farmers and ranchers, it’s just another day to feed the cattle and work in the fields. For preachers, it is an opportunity to talk about work.
Work is a very important part of God’s will for people. God gave us Sabbath as a day to worship, A Christian cannot separate his every day activity from his spiritual life. He has no right to act differently Monday through Friday. The Christian does not live for self alone. If you’re a Christian, you’re a minister of God, a servant of his. We are not just Christians on Sunday morning, and then someone else during the rest of the week. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we are to be servants of God. We have his work to do, every day. And, everything we do, every day, affects someone else, either positively or negatively.
It’s a bad weekend for church attendance because everyone wants to take time away. But, Labor Day is different things to different people. To the factory or office worker, it may be a day off. For policemen, who deal with extra traffic and alcohol abuse, it’s a tough day. To farmers and ranchers, it’s just another day to feed the cattle and work in the fields. For preachers, it is an opportunity to talk about work.
Work is a very important part of God’s will for people. God gave us Sabbath as a day to worship, A Christian cannot separate his every day activity from his spiritual life. He has no right to act differently Monday through Friday. The Christian does not live for self alone. If you’re a Christian, you’re a minister of God, a servant of his. We are not just Christians on Sunday morning, and then someone else during the rest of the week. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we are to be servants of God. We have his work to do, every day. And, everything we do, every day, affects someone else, either positively or negatively.
It is interesting to me that when Jesus chose his closest disciples, he chose everyday working men. He knew they could relate to the average people to whom Jesus wanted to spread his message. They knew hard work, long hours. But when Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” he was not talking about giving his followers time off from work. He was talking about a different kind of work, or a different attitude toward work.
Notice that he follows this statement with, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” You all know what a yoke is, and the image of a person with a yoke on their shoulders is not an image of someone at rest. What Jesus was saying is not that his followers would not work hard. Instead they would find the work they were doing for him to be more fulfilling. It would feed their soul and give them joy. And the reason is, he, Jesus, would be with them in all they would do.
We all work. Some may not work for wages now, but work as volunteers, or around home. Everything we do at our work, and whatever that work may be, affects others. When we approach whatever work we do with the attitude that we are serving God not ourselves, and we do our work well, God will give us fulfillment. Serving God is how our souls find rest.
I have another story for you.
The U.S.S. Astoria was the first U.S. cruiser ship to engage the Japanese during the Battle of Savo Island in World War II. It was a night action fought August 8th and 9th in 1942. Although the Astoria scored two hits on the Imperial flagship Chokai, she was badly damaged and sank shortly after noon on August 9th. About 2:00 that morning, a young Midwesterner, an Ohioan, Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples, was swept overboard by the blast when the Astoria’s number one eight-inch gun turret exploded. Wounded in both legs by shrapnel and in semi-shock, Staples was kept afloat by a narrow life belt that he managed to activate with a simple trigger mechanism.
At around 6:00 that same morning, Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples was rescued by a passing destroyer and returned to the Astoria, whose captain was attempting to save the cruiser by beaching her. The effort failed, and Staples, still wearing the same life belt, found himself back in the water.
Close to 12 Noon, Navy seaman Staples was picked up again, this time by the U.S.S. President Jackson. He was one of 500 survivors of the battle who were evacuated to Noumea. Safely on board the ship, for the first time, Staples closely examined the life belt that had served him so well. It had been manufactured by Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, and it bore a registration number.
Given home leave, Navy seaman Staples told his story and asked his mother, who worked for Firestone, about the purpose of the number on the belt. She replied that the company insisted on personal responsibility for the war effort, and that the number was unique and assigned to only one inspector. Staples remembered everything about the lifebelt, and quoted the number. It was his mother’s personal code and affixed to every item she was responsible for approving. Do you suppose Mrs. Staples was glad that she had performed well on the job?
As Christian’s it pays to do our very best at whatever work we have in front of us.
As Christian’s it pays to do our very best at whatever work we have in front of us.
Nine Eleven
Lamentations 4: 17
Romans 14: 1-12
Romans 8: 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Matthew 18:21-35
Nine Eleven
This is a poem that has been read on TV this week, and written in stories commemorating 9/11.
"God hath not promised
Skies ever blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives through;
God hath not promised
Skies without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.
"But God hath promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labor,
Light for the way,
Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love." - Annie-Johnson Flint
Today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. It is also the first day of official NFL Sunday afternoon football. I confess to you this morning that I am not up to the task of giving you words that will address the horror and heritage of 9/11 in any way that is consoling or convincing.
With all that has been, and will be, on TV this past week and today about 9/11, with many replays of the crashes, the collapses, and all the various services and specials and interviews, it would be redundant to show any slides or video clips. And, for many of us, the images are indelibly imprinted on our minds. If you are like Myrna and I, you have already shed tears for those lost, not only on that day, but also in the wars since. I really do not want to see any more video or photos of the crashes, or the falling towers, or the burning hole in the ground in Pennsylvania. I don’t want to open Time Magazine and look at the photos and read the stories there about how terrible it all was.
What has stayed with me the most however, is not the images of destruction. It is the images of the first responders. It is the courage of those who moved toward the danger, putting their lives out there to help others. So many came in on their time off when they heard the need. So many died doing so. Many, many would have died if they had not done so. And the passengers on Flight 83, who chose to respond, willing themselves to die if necessary to avoid that plane killing hundreds more.
Not all who died that day were Americans. Citizens from 90 countries died in those horrible attacks. Not all were Christians. Some were Muslims, along with many other religions. And all socio-economic levels were among the dead. There were persons in $1000 suits, and persons in jeans. Waiters and stock brokers and janitors, soldiers—so much diversity. And there were homeless persons, who lived in the tunnels under the Trade Center. But what strikes me most about that day, and those first responders is they did not distinguish between any of those victims. To the first responders, it made no difference, they were all human lives, all equally deserving of life, of rescue if possible.
To the first responders, they were all persons in need. They saw them the way Jesus sees us all. God does not make distinctions the way we tend to do every day. Nine eleven brought the nation together for awhile. The churches were full. We were unified, and the world was with us. Briefly.
In the decade since we have become a nation divided. We live in times of violent words, violent actions, all of our own making. Last year Americans murdered five times more Americans than all the people who were murdered by Al Qaida on that day. So soon we forgot. So soon we became divided, more than ever.
In Romans Paul tells us that God can bring good out of all tragedies and terrible incidents. But God works through us, those of us who believe in Christ, accept his teachings, and live according to his commands. We are told by Paul in his writings that we are the body of Christ, his hands, his feet, his voice. Are we?
In Matthew we have the words of Christ, telling us we must forgive. Does he really mean we are to forgive those who brought destruction to us on 9/11? We recite the Lord’s Prayer, saying “…forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us….”. Do we understand what Christ is teaching us in that prayer? What Christ teaches but we do not understand, is that forgiveness is not condoning the actions. Forgiveness is not for the sake of those we forgive. As Christ said, they along with us will all answer to God. Forgiveness is for our sake, because it lets us let go and move on and live our lives forward on God’s path, rather than dwelling in a past we cannot change. If we do not forgive, we are the ones likely to be destroyed. Do we believe Christ?
Today is a day to remember all the innocents who died on that horrible day. Do we honor the memory of those victims and those first responders who died saving lives by the life we live, by living as Christ has taught us? Christ forgave those who put him on the cross. Christ died for you and me. Do we honor what he did for us by the way we live?
Do we truly remember?
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