This morning we are walking in the dust and debris of yesterday. As we heard
the news and watched the images of the buildings collapse, the great cloud of
dust and rubble which rained onto the streets and roofs of Manhattan also dropped
its fallout into our souls. It clutters the roads of our thinking and makes
our progress awkward and slow.
Some of us are sitting. We have no words, only silent groans. We sit in the
rubble unable to speak, and yet we are asked to speak. Say something, pastor!
What is happening? What does all this mean?
I am borrowing some words for help and guidance from others-words offered for
such a time as this-to help us find some way to cope. First, from Ann Belford
Ulanov, in her insightful work The Wisdom of the Psyche (Cowley Publications,
1988. Pp.8,9,55).
Ulanov reminds us that no matter how people are feeling, what they have experienced
during the week, as they gather to worship the church performs a ministry of
housing. This is an offering of hospitality to God who made us and who still
calls us God's own. "Insofar as the church does not bring this transcendent
perspective to bear upon all our world, all of it, and our personal issues,
all of them, it fails in its mission." Our worship this Sunday-or in any
of our gatherings during these days of shock and grief-needs to offer hospitable
space for us to be in the presence of God as we are-with our shock and grief.
You may want to read Psalm 46, followed by offering a little guidance or
reflection:
This week the earth changed for us
Planes crashed, buildings fell, people died
Our nation is in shock and grief
The kingdoms of this world are in uproar
In the silence, be in the presence of God with your grief, your feelings.
Allow some silence, at least thirty seconds, preferably a minute.
Then follow with:
Hear God's invitation: "Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know
that I am God."
Allow another time of silence.
Then begin prayers of intercession for various persons, needs, concerns growing
out of the events and experience of this tragic violence. Bring all of what
we desire to God. Ulanov quotes Augustine. The cry of our heart is prompted
by God's voice within us. Our prayers are a response to God's initiative. Crying
to God is not done with the physical voice, but with the heart." Allowing
people to sit with the grief within their soul helps us to pray with the heart.
This is being open-hearted to God, rather than closed off, and hard-hearted
in God's presence.
What about those who were behind the violence? "The enemy?" Ulanov
writes: "We are painfully aware of the powers of destruction-the violence
leaping up in countries all over the world. The Devil tricks us to collaborate
with him by looking to solve everything cleanly, quickly, altogether forgetting
the Christian wisdom that reminds us that we are flawed, imperfect, always fallible,
not perfectible" We come to prayer with dirty hands and muddy hearts. "the
opposite temptation, also the Devil's trick, is then to withdraw and do nothing,
often, often under the guise of seeking "a spiritual life." The scriptures
call us to incarnation. "Spirit in the flesh is the Christian secret, wrestling
with the realities of power, money, conflict, finite limits, and finite possibilities.
Solving evil or withdrawing from it leads to dead ends. . . . The alternative
is to grasp and to claim the good. . . . good-enough good, which is tough, small,
concrete, real."
Now I invite us to turn our attention to the voice of Jesus. Listen to Jesus.
As we gather in his name, he is in our midst-in the midst of our chaos, fright,
fear, anger, and unknowing just what to do as we sit covered with the dust and
rubble of this awful violence and death. First, Jesus invites us to be with
him as he approaches the city of Jerusalem.
He comes in peace, as prince of peace, but is not recognized or received. He
weeps over the city, and then says, "If you, even you, had only recognized
on this day the things that make for peace!" He grieves along with us,
sits in the dust and rubble alongside us: a ministry of presence, of being with,
of being present to the grief and tears and loss. Here we do little, but listen
well.
What are these things that make for peace? In a sermon early on in his ministry,
Jesus chose a passage from Isaiah to describe the shape and intent of his ministry:
Read Luke 4:18-19. This the ministry that makes for peace. But it also creates
resistance.
Hence the peace Jesus offers is not of this world, is not temporary, or dependent
on the values of this world. Here we as servants of God and the church point
to the transcendent, to a living hope. He went about doing good. Jesus also
calls us to do good to those who hate you, abuse you. This good needs to be
discerned, but this is the invitation.
Second, Jesus invites us to forgive: to forgive the enemy, the one who does
us wrong. Pray for those who abuse you. Forgive others their sins, even as we
ask God to forgive us. We may need to walk in the dust and rubble for some time
before we can truly hear and respond to God's call to forgive and to pray for
those responsible for the violence.
But this is the way of peace, and among the things that make for peace.
May the God of all peace sustain, guide, and give you grace in these awful days.
Wendy J. Miller
Eastern Mennonite Seminary
Harrisonburg, VA 22815
Millerwj@emu.edu