September 16, 2001
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
On Tuesday morning at 6:33, I was just drying myself off after my morning shower. The phone rang out. Whenever the phone rings early in the morning or in the middle of the night, my heart skips a beat. With our children living in the East Coast, we are slowly getting used to the three-hour time difference. It must be one of them, I said.
The call was from Lauren who had already heard of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. She saw the early videos of the second plane crashing into the South Tower. She was scared and wasn’t sure what to do. She wanted us to wake her up from a terrible nightmare. She wanted to hear a familiar voice.
The events on September 11th are now permanently embedded in our memories and we wish that they would go away. Like the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor or the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, we will remember where we were and what we were doing. You see, our world has changed and the future isn’t what it used to be anymore.
Only three weeks ago, our son Greg and I were driving to the US Tennis Open in Flushing, New York. We were unfamiliar with the highways and exits to get to the tennis center. But as we drove south, we could see the World Trade Center twin towers on our right and we knew that we were close. Joy said that it was like she lost her childhood backyard. Now, what was a symbol of America’s economic power does not exist anymore. Our world has changed and the future isn’t what it used to be anymore.
The Way It Was
The pictures showing planes crashing into the towers, the bellowing smoke from the towers collapsing onto the streets like in the movie, Independence Day, the charred side of one of the five sections of the Pentagon building, the big hole outside of Pittsburgh where my cousin lives are apocalyptic. They tell us that something has come to an end.
Today’s gospel lesson is also about apocalypse. Jesus talks about the destruction of Jerusalem just before his arrest and the end of his ministry. The temple, the seat of national pride and the faith of Israel, is to be destroyed. And the followers of Jesus will be persecuted terribly. What fear must have struck the hearts of the disciples as they heard Jesus speak about a bleak future. Jesus was warning his disciples that their future isn’t what it used to be.
When Joy and I were dating and visiting New York, we went up to the observation floor of the Twin Towers. One hundred and ten stories high. Many of you may have done that too. The one thing that I still remember about that visit was that when a strong wind was blowing, the steel towers could sway as much as 6 feet. For many of us, the World Trade
Center is our national symbol of economic power in the world. It stood for our way of life—investments, securities, and retirements. We can say that the Twin Towers were like our temple, adorned with beautiful stones and gifts and benefits dedicated to God. What happened on Tuesday destroyed our temple and “not one stone was left upon another.” What happened on Tuesday destroyed thousands of lives and these “living stones” are now unable to be built upon the life of shattered families.
Today we grieve with other Americans around our country and people around the world over the loss of so many people. Some of us are still in shock over what has happened. Some of us are angry and feel that when the “empire strikes back, we want to believe that the Jedi will return.” We so desperately want to name an enemy so that we can take revenge. Our world has changed but we still want our future to be like it was before last Tuesday.
Opportunity to Testify
When Jesus told his disciples that they will be living in a disrupted and disturbing time, he challenged them to see it as an opportunity. Jesus told them that the world appears to be shifting and things are being dismantled. But during all of the “wars and insurrections, great earthquakes, famines and plagues, dreadful portents and great signs from heaven,” and even “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,” that this will give you an opportunity to testify.
From the events of this past week, our world is being dislodged, dismantled, torn asunder. But Jesus said then you will have the opportunity to give account for the faith that is within you. When Caesar drags you into court in an effort to silence this Jesus movement, you will use the court as a pulpit to tell the world what is really going on in the world. What we see as chaos, destruction, and the dissolve of the twin towers coming down like melted chocolate, Jesus sees as opportunity, the right time to tell the whole world about God.
We say that we don’t know what to say. After what we saw this past week, we say that we are not sure if we can trust anyone anymore. How can we still love strangers and people who look differently from us because we fear that we might die. We have always thought that the great sea of oceans that kept at bay terrorism and world wars would never come to our shores. But this Tuesday, our world has changed and our future isn’t what it used to be anymore.
Jesus taught his disciples that when they are arrested and persecuted, and handed over to the prisons, and prosecuted before kings and governors, that Jesus will give them “words and a wisdom that none of their opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.” This past week, we too have felt persecuted by faceless enemies, imprisoned within our own borders, and made vulnerable with closures and the entire country on high security alert. What are the words and insights that we can muster up that would end our fears?
What is the witness that we are to bear in this distressing time? What is our word for the future?
God is Love
The word is “God is love.” It’s the same word that Jesus gave his disciples. God is love. This world is God’s. Our hope for the world is not securing our economic power or military might or our systems of security. Our hope for the world is by the sustaining love of God. This is our word for the future.
Immediately after the attacks on America’s national symbols, religious leaders expressed a call to take this opportunity to testify God’s love.
Paul Borden, Executive Minister of ABCW, writing pastors about the opportunity this week to share the Good News of Jesus Christ particularly to those who are seeking God says, “They are coming to hear a word from God (a God they do not even know) that somehow makes sense out of life. Such people need to be prayed for. They need to be treated with honor, respect, and most of all, love.”
Bob Roberts, Interim General Secretary of ABC-USA writes, “We need to pray fervently today for the thousands who have suffered the loss or injury of loved ones. We pray for the caregivers, those who even now work to save those trapped and those who will need to provide ongoing care to those scarred in body and spirit. We pray that the hardened hearts of those responsible for-and supportive of-such acts be softened and reformed by the love that comes only from the God who cherishes and models reconciliation. We pray for swift justice, but justice tempered by appropriate restraint. We pray for shalom-God’s peace-in our broken world.”
Robert Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ writes, “We condemn these vicious attacks in the strongest possible terms. Even as our national sites are under attack, we call on all people to manifest the best of our national spirit. At such time as this, we must hold together. We call on people of faith to reach out to one another.
We especially urge churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship to join in prayer and practical help. We must stand united against the temptation to retaliate against innocent persons.”
And from Rev. Riad Jarjour, General Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches, he writes, “A letter to our American Brothers. Dear friends, our brothers and sisters in the United States. I wish to express to our friends in the United States our profound condolences for the loss of loved ones. In gathering after gathering in America, Christians will lift up their hearts in prayer. We assure you that we too are gathering, and our prayers join yours. We ask for healing beyond understanding, we pray for courage beyond our outrage and fear. We ask for grace, the steadfast poise of faith, to stand with integrity and minister in an ever more dangerous world.
In the name of all the member churches of the Middle East Council of Churches, in the name of our presidents and staff, I stretch out to you our love and compassion in Christ’s name and for his sake. We break one bread and are one Body. Holding to that reality with a firm grip, you will rise above this tragic moment and, with you, we too will rise. Let us together seek the healing of the nations, and overcome this and all evil with good.”
Jesus’ word to the disciples was “God is love.” His word for us today is “God is love.” It has not changed. Although we feel that the future isn’t what it used to be anymore, the word that we are to testify and bear witness and proclaim to the whole world is “God is love!”
We all feel right now that the perpetrators and murderers who declared war on the United States must be brought down and punished. Our anger and hate are beyond words. But the word of Jesus is “God is love.”
What Time Is It
We can all describe what time it was and what exactly we were doing on September 11th when America was under attack. But the question before us now is “What time is it right now?” Is it a time to die or a time of being born?
Some people estimate that between a third and one half of the marriages formed in this decade will end in divorce sometime. With these astonishing circumstances, the government would surely ban it immediately. But marriages happen over and over again. It’s time to be born.
New York City Mayor Guilliani told New Yorkers to return to their normal routines and businesses. He said, “Go out and eat in restaurants.” It’s time to be born.
Our airports are open again and stranded people like Lana Tom and Jackie Hui are home with their family and friends. It’s time to be born.
One of the spookiest sights this week was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge in the afternoon and seeing no one walking, taking pictures, riding their bikes or jogging. Soon the bridge is going to be opened for pedestrians again. It’s time to be born.
We are dying when we begin to scapegoat and blame innocent Arab Americans for what happened this week. We are dying when we begin to become afraid of our neighbors. We are dying when we think we can lessen our pain and suffering by bombing the hell out of some people!
While the things of our world are being dismantled, Jesus helps us to see this time as not of death, but of birth. The birth of God’s promise is for a new heaven and new earth. Our faith in God enables us to face the future unafraid.
The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be
One of the most often heard statements after September 11th is “America has changed forever.” I think that is true. But I also think what is true is that when apocalyptic tragedies happen to God’s people, God gives us an opportunity to testify. In our faith in God and God’s providential care for the world, we testify that “God is love!”
Today as we gathered as friends at church, we believe in God’s love for the world—the whole world; all the people in the world. God created everything here and declared it is all good.
In St. Augustine’s The City of God, he described a delightful diversity of the complexity of the world. Our world is good and is always being born again.
Augustine thinks about the sheer over-abundance with which God has enriched the earth. So many different kinds of food and taste to satisfy our developed palates. And think of all the colors. Consider the sheer range of birds, and flowers too. We could have been satisfied with far less. And yet, the sheer richness of the earth, its diversity and plurality is one of the consolations God has given, a consolation not only to the righteous and the blessed, but to every human being. It is all a delight to the eye, a hedge against boredom and care. Think of all the different colors in the ocean. We are astonished by the action of tiny ants and bees, fascinated even more than by the movements of huge whales. Even when it is stormy, we are fascinated by the power of the storm. What if the weather was the same. Think of the welcome alternation between day and night, the soothing coolness of breezes, who could give a list of all these natural blessing?
Only God. For God is love!
Today we came back to church having been changed forever. We are not the same people we were last Sunday. Although we may now see the world differently, we are also more resolve to have this opportunity to testify to the world that “God is love.”
There’s no doubt that the future isn’t what it used to be anymore. There will be more security at SFO. When we hear a jetliner overhead, we might look up. And the next time we visit New York, there won’t be the Twin Towers to guide us around.
But also the future is not what it used to be anymore because we are resolved to testify that “God is love!” Jesus said that when we bear witness in Jesus’ name, our family may betray us, some of us may be put to death, people will hate us.
But at the end, Jesus said, “Not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.” The future isn’t what it used to be because God is love especially when our world seems to be in chaos.
John at Patmos said,
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth
had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” (Revelations 21:1-4)
Go from this house of worship knowing that God loves you and loves the world. The future isn’t what it used to be anymore because “God is love” yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Amen.
O Precious Lord God, we pray for our resolve to respectfully and sacredly care for the victims and grieving families of this past week’s tragedies. We pray for our resolve to work for peace and not war. We pray for our resolve to treat every person with dignity and love. We pray for our resolve to proclaim in the midst of chaos that you, Lord is the God of love! Amen.