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As part of remembering and reflecting on 9/11, the sermon preached by the pastor on September 23, 2001 is reprinted here.
Scripture:
Matthew 5:12-16
Philippians 2:1-11
Revelation 5:1-9
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9/11: A FAITH RESPONSE
Dr. Lynn Bergfalk
Senior Pastor
September 23, 2001
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In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, we want to consider as people of faith how we should respond to these events.
We realize there will be a military response, but that in itself cannot provide a solution. Terrorism ultimately is fueled by hate, and to stop terrorism you have to overcome hate. Military action is necessary to protect civilization from terrorism, but it is like putting a wild animal in a cage. The problem is restrained, not eliminated. Our President has warned us that the war against terrorism will be long and difficult. It will be even more difficult and take even longer to drain the swamp of hatred in which terrorism thrives. In this swamp of hatred, little boys grow up to become terrorists. Don’t think for a moment that grown men can hijack planes full of people and crash them into buildings without hearts filled with hatred.
In the tragedy that befell our nation on 9/11, the world saw the face of terrorism: hatred, violence, a disdain for human life, masked in cowardice – wolves in sheep’s clothing, living unsuspected in our own neighborhoods, biding their time. The war against terrorism cannot be won by military action because it is a spiritual war, and the power of hatred ultimately can only be defeated by love.
The humanity, the compassion, the courage, the tears, the unity our nation has demonstrated in responding to these horrific attacks already has struck a deadly blow against terrorism. The heart of the world has been touched by our tragedy. Terrorism’s pretense of righteous indignation has been exposed as hatred and inhumanity.
While a military response is necessary to protect civilization from terrorism, our response must allow us to remain on humanity’s high ground. We cannot allow terrorism to provoke actions which will cause the world to forget either the horror, or the heroic and very human response to the tragic events of 9/11. Above all, we must be careful not to respond in a way that will only fuel the hatred that feeds the fires of terrorism. Military action hopefully can put a strong cage around those who have declared war on our common humanity, but the only way to ultimately end terrorism is to drain the swamp of hatred in which it grows.
o this morning we want to envision a ‘faith response’ to this tragedy, building on Jesus’ words in Matthew that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. How can our attitudes and values influence our larger society? Can our vision of justice and spirit of love push back the world’s darkness so people would see Christ in us and give glory to God?
These questions demand an answer not only from Christians, but Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists. Every faith tradition, if we’re going to get beyond the bloodshed of the twentieth century, is going to have to unequivocally oppose violence and injustice in this modern world, or forfeit any claim to legitimacy.
I have a young German friend, Michael, who recently graduated from Tubingen University in Germany where Professor Hans Kung teaches. Several years ago Michael took a class from this world-renowned theologian and asked Dr. Kung if he might be willing to speak sometime when he in was in Washington at the downtown church I was pastoring at that time. Michael requested I write a letter of invitation, which I did. Professor Kung sent back a handwritten note on a brochure, saying that while he was unable to accept, perhaps I would be interested in the project described in the brochure.
The ultimate goal of the project was world peace. But Kung said, there will be no peace between nations until there is peace between the world’s great religions. And there will be no peace between religions until there is understanding. And there will be no understanding between religions without dialogue.
Just a week ago, I was talking with a Serbian acquaintance who is a devout Orthodox Christian. She had responded with great personal pain and anger to the attacks by radical Muslim terrorists on our nation. Her feelings understandably were related to the horrible ethnic and, frankly, religious war in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Kosovo in recent years between Muslims and Serbian Orthodox Christians.
Whether Muslim and Orthodox in the Balkans; Palestinian and Israeli in the Middle East; or Protestant and Catholic in Ireland, it is not only a tragedy but a travesty that religion is somehow a continuing factor in some of the worst conflicts in our world.
Kung is right. How can there be peace in our world without peace between religions, how can that happen without understanding between religions, and how can there be understanding without dialogue? This twenty-first century must finally be the time in human history when all the religions of the world renounce in every way and every form violence, prejudice, and bigotry.
Today, in September of 2001, here in American, Christians must be the salt and light Jesus calls us to be. And every religious faith and tradition needs to make clear that prejudice, discrimination or violence in any form is evil, unacceptable, and indefensible. All religious communities must unite in a policy of zero tolerance toward hate. When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” he left no room for hate. There is room for disagreement. There is room when life and freedom are under attack for a military response designed to defend and protect life and liberty. But there is no room for hate.
Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists all recognize the sanctity of human life and its relationship to the divine. Without compromising our differences, all religions for the sake of God and humanity must speak with one voice in rejecting hatred, violence, or bigotry in any form.
I have appreciated Muslims who have stood up and said that true Islam has nothing to do with the evil done by those terrorists on 9/11. I hope the Islamic community around the world will send that message loud and clear to the radical, militant, fundamentalist fringe who have condoned or even encouraged violence against other human beings in the name of God.
We who are Christians must attend to our own house and avoid any hypocrisy. The medieval Crusades, the Inquisition, colonialism, the exploitation and even genocide of native peoples, the slave trade and over two hundred years of slavery in America have no more to do with Christ and true Christianity than this month’s terrorist attacks had to do with true Islam. But all of these violations against humanity in one form or another have been condoned or justified by religious people. This must change, for humanity cannot survive the twenty-first century if we allow that which is intended to save us to be perverted by hatred, violence or prejudice.
Today I invite you to consider not the military response, necessary though it be, but the FAITH RESPONSE to what has happened to our nation. So far the response of faith communities and our American people as a whole have been wonderful, compassionate, and courageous. There have been only a few sour notes, acts of prejudice against some Arab and especially Muslim friends and neighbors. With one voice, our President and our political and religious leaders have made clear there is no room for such actions or attitudes.
This tragedy has opened a window of opportunity for the church of Jesus Christ to reach out with hope and healing to a society struggling with grief and many unanswered questions. Again, this has been done in a beautiful way with but few discordant notes, notably unfortunate and well-publicized comments by Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson. It may be they intended only to remind America that tragedy should humble us before God, not only in dependence but also in repentance, and that we should be honest about the failings of our society. But whatever their motivation, the message was tainted with prejudice and insensitivity and a narrowness that rightly called forth a public rebuke. This must be a time for people of all faiths to rise to higher ground, and I make no apology for saying that Christians should lead the way.
Let us first of all make it clear that those terrorists who haunt our history with white sheets and burning crosses, or any Neo-Nazis or white supremacists, or any other hate mongers who sometimes use the Bible – let us make it clear that while they are allowed the free speech protected by our constitution, they are denied any legitimacy by those who follow Christ. Evil can’t be whitewashed; it must be called by its name. Let us also make sure, whatever our personal views may be, that as Christians we defend human dignity and protect the rights of those in our society who suffer discrimination and sometimes even hate crimes. I’m talking about those who are gay or lesbian as well as people who may be discriminated against on the basis of culture, ethnicity, national origin, or some other mark of identity.
In an open society, we have the right to disagree, not to discriminate. As Christians, we have an unconditional command to love all people. And as a global village, the time has come for people of all faith to join in draining the swamp of hatred in this world. That means, of course, not simply proclaiming zero tolerance for terrorism, hate, bigotry, and violence in any form, but the hard work of overcoming poverty, hunger, injustice, and oppression. Only then, and only with God’s help, will we be able to drain the swamp.
The biblical book of Revelation is hard to understand. We read today from chapter five about a scroll which contains the destiny of the world – judgment upon evil, and the triumph of goodness and truth. But in this vision no one could be found who was worthy to open and unroll this scroll of destiny – except the Lion of Judah (5:5).
The next verse is one of the most remarkable in the Bible, as our gaze is directed to the throne of God in heaven. What do we see? Not a lion – but a lamb, looking as though it had been sacrificed. When this Lamb takes the scroll from the hand of God, all of heaven falls to its knees and sings:
YOU are worthy to [open the scroll] because you were slain, and with your blood, you did redeem men and women for God from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is a picture of Christ, which says the Savior who hung on the cross now reigns from the very throne of God and that the destiny of the world is in His hands. And that the victory He won over evil came not through our human understanding of power and might, but through the sacrifice of love. Philippians 2, which we also read this morning, helps us to understand this victory was won through the willingness of the King of heaven to throw aside his glory, power, and privilege, and come into this world in the lowly form of a servant – who then became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, this scripture says, God highly exalted Him, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, and every tongue.confess that He is Lord.
Everything I have said this morning is based on this central teaching of scripture – upon truths that are at the heart of the universe – that victory over evil, over hatred, over terrorism ultimately comes through sacrificial love; through a mighty Lion who was willing to be sacrificed as a Lamb. Faith affirms that love is stronger than death, that the life which comes from God cannot be destroyed, that the Risen Christ has the power to transform any human being into a child of God, that ultimately love will conquer evil.
Someday this world will be changed. We understand only dimly a future when Christ will come in all of his glory and there will be no more sorrow or suffering or death, when God shall wipe all tears from our eyes. Someday this world will be changed – but we don’t have to wait to be changed by the grace and forgiveness of Christ. The apostle Paul put it plainly, ‘If anyone is in Christ, he (or she) is a new creation; the old has passed away, the new has come’ (I Corinthians 5:17).
A ‘faith response’ to the 9/11 tragedy involves people of faith living in this new creation, rather than in the old world of division and conflict. It means refusing to be defined by the hatred and violence of our enemies, but choosing to love them as human beings. As the light and love of Christ flow through us, we become salt and light – a powerful antidote to the darkness and pain of the present, and a promise that the future is indeed one of hope and redemption. The images of scripture are vivid – it is the devil who prowls the world as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8). But it is Christ as the sacrificial lamb who overcomes darkness, death, and evil. Whatever military response may be necessary, in the long term violence, hatred, terrorism and extremism will be overcome through years of love, forgiveness, reconciliation, and service to human needs. Those who so live are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
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