The America of 9-12: September 12, 2021

 Year B, Pentecost 16                                                                      James 3:1-12                     

                                Recently one of our parishioners posted a meme on facebook that said, “I would never want another 9/11, but I miss the America of 9/12.”  It went on to explain how unified we were the day after our country was attacked.  I remember that as well—going to give blood and being turned away because the line was around the block.  I recall churches full for weekday services that usually averaged 10-12 people.  We weren’t arguing about politics, at least not nearly as much. There were countless stories of heroism and selfless acts.  Now we argue about masks and we can’t even agree on what news station to watch.  At times it feels almost like a different country.

Occasionally I will hear a person lamenting that they have seen someone’s true character after that person has displayed cruelty or weakness, as if all the good they had previously seen was just a façade.   I have fallen into the same trap—choosing to judge someone by their darkest moment, rather than their finest, or even an average moment.  I thought of all this as I looked at that meme.  Which America is real--the America from 9/12 or the America of vitriolic school board meetings and people insulting one another from behind their computers?

            We are reading from the book of James for the third week in a row.  As I told you the first week, James is perceived as one of the more practical books because of the relatable topics he covers.  In today’s reading, it’s about how important the words we use are.  We all know what it is to experience pain because of the words of another.  Often cruelty is not the intention.  It’s just the result of words that were carelessly chosen.   We’ve heard, maybe even said the childhood quip, “Sticks and stone can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”  Yet both children and adults know that could not be farther from the truth.  The spoken and written word can torment someone far after a physical injury has healed.

            Yet while James warns us of the injury our words can cause, he doesn’t give us any advice on what to do about it.  He admits that no person can tame their tongue. We can try, but even at our very best, we fall short.

            What seems to concern James most about words is not the effect that they might have on another person, but what it means about the person who speaks the words.  In the first chapter of James, he warns of being double minded and thus unstable in every way. He returns to that theme in our section for today, “With (the tongue) we bless the Lord and Father and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.  From the same mouth comes blessing and curse.” James goes on to question whether salt water can produce fresh water or whether a fig tree can produce both figs and olives. No, obviously not.  The implication is that a Christian who praises God cannot be genuine in that praise if that person also curses the person who is created in the image of God.  The question is: which is the true and genuine part of the person?

            Some would say, you can’t be both. You can’t be both snarky and faithful at the same time.  I would disagree. I would say at our best, we worship and serve God as well as loving and serving our neighbor. Yet we also sin and fall short of the glory of God.  However, if we are all created in the image of God, than our true self is always the best of us, not the worst of us.  Therefore, even if we use our mouth to praise God and curse those made in the image of God, our true purpose (our true identity) is praising God.  Yes, we will fall short, we will make mistakes.  And some will veer so far off course that all of their intentions will seem evil.  But no person is beyond God’s saving help.  No person ceases being a child of God. 

            I have noticed that one of the most common things people say of newly born child is that they are “perfect.”  Even newborns who might not be perfect by outside standards, are still perfect in the eyes of their parents.  Now, I don’t know any parents—who while their child is in the midst of a tantrum--- looks at them and says, “Isn’t she perfect.”  Frankly, I don’t think very many people describe others as perfect after infancy.  Because we are not.  Our flaws come out.  We say things we regret.  We do things we regret.  But—we never cease being God’s beloved children. We always have a purpose, not merely as children of God, but as disciples of Jesus.

            Now some of you might be wondering what this has to do with a facebook meme about the America of 9/12.  And for those of you who are new or visiting, this is the first time I have ever highlighted a meme in a sermon.  I believe that our country is still a country of people who care and want to be united.  I believe that we as a nation have made countless mistakes and there continues to be injustice and pain.  But there are even more examples of goodness today.  It’s just harder to see.  So on this day, Sept 12^th, let’s try to find the good in one another as opposed to the flaws. Maybe, more importantly, let’s be the good and compassionate person God has created us to be.  Let’s praise God more than we curse the children of God.  And one day we might find that our default is praise and the other stuff just pops up occasionally. 

Today we had a baptism.  My favorite part of the service is when I put the oil on the baby’s head and say, “Anna you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.” I want us to burn that into our heart and mind so that when we find ourselves judging another, we can also remember that they too are Christ’s own.  They too were once without sin.  They too (hopefully) had a parent who considered them perfect.  They and we will always have a God who chooses to claim us as his own.

September 11: Finding Joy

Year C, Pentecost 17                                                 
Luke 15:1-10 & Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28                         

            Most of us here probably remember where we were when the planes hit the towers on September 11^th, 2001.  It was before smart phones and massive use of social media, but the news spread quickly. I was packing to go to seminary and my brother called us and told us to turn on the news.  It was the most surreal thing I have ever seen.  It seemed like we were watching a movie.  When the 2^nd plane hit, it felt apocalyptic.   There was a sense of losing control, like you could not possibly imagine what could come next. I thought of those moments when I read Jeremiah.  “I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light…I looked and all the cities were laid in ruins.” Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because he tends to be a little depressing…a lot depressing.  One commentary described this text as total despair.  Obviously this text was not chosen because this Sunday fell on the 15^th anniversary of September 11^th, but it seemed appropriate to have a text about total despair on this day.

            Within hours of the destruction of the towers, the news started covering stories of heroes, people who risked their lives to save others.  Between the destruction of the towers and the attack on the pentagon, there were countless stories of heroism.  Often it was the first responders, the firefighters, police officers and the military, but sometimes it was just ordinary people. The news could have just reported the people who had died, the suspects who had committed this heinous crime or the bombs that were being dropped in retaliation. They did report that, but they also reported stories of courage and sacrifice—which gave us a little hope for humanity, hope for a God who had not abandoned us.  

It seems as though each year after 9-11, we hear new stories of heroism. I read several over the last few days.  The ones that were the most compelling to me were the people who kept going back into the towers to look for more people who needed saving.  There was one story about a chef who worked on the 96^th floor of the South Tower.  He was credited with saving hundreds of lives by bringing people to safety. He too would have made it to out but he stopped to help someone in a wheelchair.  They never found his body.  He left five children.  While I was deeply moved by his bravery and selflessness, I could not help but think about those five children.  If only he had not stopped to help that one person.  He still would have saved hundreds.  He would have still been a hero.  His mother said that he had been a Marine and Marines are taught never to leave anyone behind.[1]

            Our Gospel story is much more uplifting than Jeremiah.  It is more suitable for Kick off Sunday and dixie land music.  We hear about the Scribes and Pharisees who were mad because Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors.  These people weren’t sinners in the way that we are all sinners.  They were sinners who were known by the whole community as sinners.  We might call them notorious sinners.  What upset the Pharisees was not that Jesus was merely talking to these sinners, but that he was sharing a meal with them.  According to Jewish law, observant Jews were not supposed to eat with notorious sinners.  Jesus was not just an observant Jew, he was recognized as a leader in the Jewish community.  This act was scandalous. 

            In response to the grumbling of the Pharisees, Jesus told three parables.  We heard the first two a couple of minutes ago. The first was about a shepherd who left 99 sheep to find the one who got away. The second was about a woman who lost one coin and while she still had 9, she looked fervently for this one lost coin until she found it. When both the shepherd and the woman found the sheep and the coin, they called all their friends and had a party. They were so happy they had found the one thing that they had lost. 

Being pragmatic, I always wonder about the shepherd who left 99 sheep to find the one who went missing.  Sheep are not bright animals.  My concern is that by the time he got back with that one little sheep, a bunch more would be missing….and that is assuming that he even found that one missing sheep.  Yet these stories are not about pragmatic people. They are about people who care deeply about the one thing that is lost.  Jesus wanted everyone to understand that this was exactly the way God was…the way he was.  He cared so much about every person, every child of God--that he would risk everything to find that one lost sheep—that one lost person. These stories are not about the one missing sheep or the one missing coin.  These stories are about a God who would was reckless in his pursuit of his lost children.  Sometimes (often) the people who were most lost, most in need of finding, were the very sinners he was eating with.



            Days and weeks after the towers fell, rescue crews were still going through the rubble.  It was a horrible task because almost everything and everyone they found was destroyed.  Anyone could have gone to Ground Zero and used Jeremiah’s words, “I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light…”  But these people who were still looking days after the attack maintained slivers of hope, even if it was finding a dead body that would provide closure for a loved one. On September 13^th, a weary excavator found something that gave him a shard of hope.  He called for a priest who was on site working with the first responders and blessing the remains of those who had died. He said to the priest, “Father, you want to see God’s House? Look over there.” A reporter described the scene this way, “Against seemingly insurmountable odds, a 17-foot-long crossbeam, weighing at least two tons, was thrust at a vertical angle in the hellish wasteland. Like a cross.”[2]  

            In the end of our very depressing reading from Jeremiah, God says, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.”  A lot of people have debated what that line means.  I think it means that in a hellish wasteland like Ground Zero someone can find a cross and describe it as God’s house.  It is God saying, I am not giving up on you and you cannot give up on me. For a year that priest held a service at that cross every Sunday, where sometimes hundreds would gather at God’s house. 

            Sometimes, the things and the people who are hardest to find, become the most precious to us.  God is that chef who kept going back into a collapsing building and died trying to save one more life.  God is the shepherd who recklessly searched for one lost sheep because he knew that sheep needed to be found.  God is the excavator who found a crossbeam in the midst of death and chaos and declared it to be God’s house.  God never gives up on any one of us even after we have given up on him.  Not only that, but God rejoices when just one of us finally hears his call and comes out of our hiding place.

            It is the 15^th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in the history of our nation. It is not something to rejoice.  But we rejoice in the people who sacrificed their time, their health and sometimes their lives to help others, to provide hope in a place that appeared to be a wasteland.  We rejoice in the people who were found. Today is our kick off Sunday.  We are kicking off our Christian Formation. It is a day when our children, youth and adults come back together to learn about Jesus on Sunday mornings.  We welcome people back who have been a way for a week, a month, a year, maybe longer.  We welcome people who we have never seen.  We rejoice in each one of you because whether you know it or not, you are here for a reason. God has found you and no matter how far you wander, God will never stop looking.

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[1] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/11/the-story-of-an-unsung-9-11-hero.html

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/911-memorials-the-story-of-the-cross-at-ground-zero/2011/09/07/gIQA2mMXDK_story.html

Picture from   http://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/crossinrubble.jpg