Jeremiah 4: 11-12; 22-28; Luke 15:1-10
As I speak to you this morning, my head is still filled with the many images of horror that I watched and that you have watched ever since Tuesday morning. There are so many of them and they are almost too gruesome for words. Although it is not necessary to repeat them, there is also a sense that the speaking of them may help both you and I come to some resolution of the events in order to be able to go on with fresh hope and new vision for life upon our earth, in spite of the many deaths and the tears that will not go away.
There are the scenes of the two planes crashing into the twin towers of lower Manhattan, the third into the Pentagon, the fourth into the ground, somehow its wreck caused by the passengers who refused to let themselves be used as a bomb and so decided to fight back. Then there are the towers falling down, the people jumping from the top stories, the unimaginable death toll that I expect to see go up far higher than is estimated even this Sunday morning.
How vividly the prophet Jeremiah seems to speak to us this morning, as a prophet not only for times past, but as a prophet for today and for all our tomorrows when he prophesies the human condition in these words from the creator of all that is:
For my people are foolish, they do not know me.
They are stupid children, they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.
Yet there are so many other images as well. Images not of the kind of evil we saw on Tuesday, but our response to that evil. The fact that almost 400 firemen and policemen set out to save the people in those towers regardless of the consequences to themselves. The mother telling her children daddy has gone to heaven and the children wondering if they can talk to him on their cell phone, the simple card outside the American Embassy on University Ave. Here in Toronto that says only, "In memory of my twin brother ." And on a larger scale the incredibly and achingly beautiful memorial services held all over the U.S.A. , Canada, and Europe.
People living their lives for both evil and good.
Paul Brand and Philip Yancey in their book "In His Image" differentiate between human beings and animals by taking a new look at the creation story. They say that until God breathed the breath of his spirit into Adam, the creation of people was no different from the creation of the animals. They all had bodies, they all had organs, they were all held together by bones and they all were alive. What made Adam different from a cat or an elephant was this breath of the spirit of God.1
But being a spiritual being comes with a price. An often terrible price. According to cardinal Mc.Garrich of Washington, when God made us in his image he loved us so much he gave us free will. To put that in my own words, it would make no sense to be created in the image of God unless we were made in such a way that we have the freedom to choose between right and wrong. To have no free will is to be worse than a slave. To have no freewill is to be like a chess piece to be pushed around a chess board where the chess piece is nothing but a tool in the hand of the player.
But that is not how God created human life. Out of his love he gave us complete freedom. So we can choose evil or we can choose good. We can love or we can hate. We can see God's love at work in all creation and in all religions of the world, or we can cripple ourselves by insisting that I am right and you are wrong.
The horror of September 11, 2001 is the scale of the destruction, the size of the evil we see, the fear that makes us wonder if it can happen here and how can we prevent this from happening here.
From the beginning of time religion has had the force to do both good and evil. It can give us a unity of purpose, and a sense of belonging together in this world regardless of race and religious background, regardless of class, or colour. It can unite us in a love for all of creation as we explore our differences and are amazed to discover how much we are the same, or we can let our religious faith become the work of the devil, if you like, the work of all the forces of evil that are always lurking just around the corner.
Is there any difference between little Roman Catholic school girls crying their hearts out from fear because their school in Northern Ireland is in a Protestant sector and between the events of last Tuesday? The only real difference is one of scale. The evil is the same.
Yes, it is true, the constant replay of these severe and senseless acts of terrorism in New York and Washington, on the hijacked planes, boggle the mind. It has filled us with sorrow, fear, anger, and also a sense of helplessness we do not feel when we see a little story about Northern Ireland, so remote from our personal experience. Or have we just become immune to the evil we normally see around us, especially when it is far away?
I do not know about you, but I was taught, when I was a child, to cross the street when we saw Roman Catholic children. And as you know, I was born in the Netherlands. I lived in the only country that has ever been honoured by the Jewish people for being a nation of righteous people. How ironic that seems. So the words of Jeremiah speak to me to day because we still have much to learn and it is only as we learn together that we can move beyond this particular September 11 in the life of a nation, in the life of our home, the world.
Recognizing our stupidity in not learning how we should live together as God's people, I realize there is little sense in crying out "Why, Lord, why?" We know the why of it. The why of it is the evil we have always known and ourselves all too often carry out for all kinds of equally stupid reasons. September 11, 2001, if nothing else, tells me the reality of all hatred not just that particular act of hatred.
Across the street from lives a family that is obviously from the Middle East. It is an extended family, with a grandfather and grandmother, two sons, one son's wife, two children, one boy, one girl. This past winter I plowed out their driveway a couple of times, and so got to meet a few of them. Warm people, grateful people. All summer we have smiled at each other as we come and go our own ways, have talked on the lawn, sometimes wave, the usual small stuff that does not seem to mean much yet is so important if we want to live in harmony.
It is not surprising that since Tuesday morning I have not seen any of them. They leave for work in the dark, come home in the dark, and the grandparents and children have become totally invisible. How hard it must be for them to know that at this time, no matter how much they are Canadians, they suddenly feel like foreigners again, strangers in a strange land.
Their invisibility tells us that all hatred is only fueled by our own ignorance, by our own stupidity as we refuse to look around us at the work of God in creation and give praise for all of creation's diversity and all of the wonders that diversity can bring into our lives.
We are indeed a foolish and ignorant people whether we be Christians or Jews, Arabs or Russian, or whatever. And yet, we can be so much more! Instead of focusing on the evil we can focus on the good.
The parables that Jesus tells in the Gospel today are about finding that which was lost and then rejoicing. We know that in these parable Jesus is not just talking about a lost sheep or a lost coin but about the love of God which is like that of a shepherd who only cares about the lamb that has gone astray. How deeply God cares for us and loves us!
When I think of the pictures that have been presented to us on TV all week
and then in the Gospel face the picture of Love that God has for us, I am reminded
of one of the most beautiful little books ever written. It was a response to
the horror of World War II. Written by William Saroyan, and set in Ithaca, California,
in about 1943, The Human Comedy describes the heart rending details of a teenager
who must deliver to his mother the message that his own brother has also been
killed in the war, after delivering that message to countless other families.
Homer, the boy, does not know how he can go and deliver the telegram, until Spangler his boss at the telegraph office, says,
I am not going to try and comfort you, I know I couldn't. But try to remember that a good man never dies. You will see him in the houses, in all the places of the town. In the vineyards and orchards, in the rivers and clouds, in all the things here that make this a world for us to live in. You will feel him in all things that are here out of love, and for love--all the things that are abundant, all the things that grow. . . Love is immortal. And makes all things immortal. But hate dies every minute. Are you any good at pitching horseshoes? 2
And then Spangler takes Homer and they pitch a game of horseshoes before dark until Homer can go home and tell his mother.
Spangler does not just talk the talk, he walks the walk. His love not only speaks, it also does something to provide comfort and love to Homer.
We have the freedom of will to choose evil or do good, to choose hate or to go on a path of love.
We will never fully understand what kind of hatred produced this American tragedy felt around the world. But we can go on by putting our love of creation, our love of God into action. Next week bring an extra can of food for the food bank. When you get home today, say hello to your Chinese neighbour. To your normal every day routine add an extra prayer for peace in the world. Take a minute each day to send out love to all around you, making your mind a most powerful source of the light of life that dwells within each of us.
Look beyond the picture of the terrible disasters that strike human kind and see the face of Love. See the Love at work beyond the falling twin towers, beyond the people jumping from the buildings, the planes crashing into the sides of the building, and see the gift of Love that God has for each of us to take hold of, to share with those we know and love and even hate. For peace on earth is only possible if our love becomes great enough to see beyond our differences the light and presence of the one who tells us that the Good shepherd never loses even the smallest sheep but goes after it until it is found.
The grace, love and peace of God that passes all understanding be with each of you today and always. Amen.
1. Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey, In His Image, page 22
2.William Saroyan, The Human Comedy, page 280
Rev. Nico VanderStoel
Riverdale United Church
Toronto, Ontario, Canada