I.N.I.

A sermon to be preached at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Fishkill, NY on 16 September 2001, the first Sunday after the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attack, and based on St. Luke 24:13-19, [20-26], 27 (the Emmaus disciples)

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Maybe you can tell where I’m going with this text, but let me start someplace else. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I was talking to a friend of mine – as all of you certainly were, too – about the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In our earlier phone and email conversations, she mentioned that it was an almost chance conversation with a friend that morning which had alerted her to what was going on here in Manhattan. She usually doesn’t have the TV and radio on in the morning. And she had been thinking about going out to a nearby mountain to watch part of the hawk migration which, if she had done that, would have meant that it would have been late afternoon before she was aware of the tragedy. We thought she could have been the only person in her Pennsylvania town who didn’t know about it – except maybe for the old order Amish folks out her way who don’t use electricity, and I imagine that even they heard and passed the word along from farm to farm.

It’s hard to imagine how anyone in our connected world could not have been aware of Tuesday morning’s events. I thought that this text from St Luke’s Gospel illustrated that point these two disciples were leaving Jerusalem on Easter, still deep in grief over Jesus’ crucifixion and torn in disbelief over the reports of his miraculous resurrection. And their first words to Jesus – whom they didn’t recognize – were “Are you the only one living in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have happened there in these days?” Can you imagine someone in New York City this week not knowing about the World Trade Center? That’s how Cleopas and his fellow disciple felt about this stranger apparently not knowing about what had happened to Jesus in Jerusalem.

We know all too well what happened in both cases. We’ve seen the pictures from Manhattan, the videotape, of the horror played over and over again. We’ve read the reports. We’ve been glued to our radios and Internet news sources. If we’d been in first century Jerusalem we wouldn’t have had the media outlets, of course, but there’s a good chance we would have passed by the crucifixion hill, or – as disciples – we absolutely would have heard an account of what had happened to Jesus. We would have known, as we know now. We would be able, as we are able now, to tell others the course of events.

But what we probably would NOT have known in Jerusalem, just as we can NOT now easily explain, is why these events took place. Why? Just as it would have been real unclear to us why in the world the authorities would have wanted Jesus dead, we have to ask what murky political objective could possibly have been important enough to kill thousands of innocent people without warning? What economic goal could have been worthy enough to destroy so many lives, so many businesses, so much property? What religious or philosophical or ideological concept could have been holy enough to create so much chaos, to incite so much anger, to bring about so many calls for retaliation? It doesn’t seem clear and obvious that there are any.

What good could come out of what has happened here in America this past week? At first, probably late Wednesday, I was thinking that the only good thing so far was that I wasn’t hearing about Congressman Gary Condit every time I turned on the television. But then on Thursday I realized than there was great good coming from the creation of community. When we saw rescue workers from all over the country working shoulder to shoulder with our New York City crews, that was community. When we learned about people from so many walks of life sharing their time and resources in the rescue efforts, that was community. When people all over the country flooded blood banks to the point that they had to be turned away, that was community. When we heard and saw memorial services with standing room only crowds in and outside of churches in European cities, that was community. When agencies like our Lutheran Social Services in Manhattan had to evacuate its offices because they were so close to ground zero that chunks of building debris were falling through their roof, but then set up shop in a Lutheran church uptown in Harlem and went right back to work, that was community, too. Community is a good thing, a Godly thing.

What is clear to me is that our response to the terrorism of this week, the response of faith, has got to be the one that our Lord Jesus used to point the Emmaus disciples toward the truth. It says here in Luke’s Gospel that “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” This turn, away from our own pain, toward Jesus is the only one that makes sense. This turn away from our own loss, and grief, and shock, and dismay, toward Jesus is the only one that will help guide us toward recovery.

Now, of course, I’m not saying that the Bible points specifically to these events. (One of our eager beaver pre-seminary students told me on Tuesday that he was looking in Daniel and Revelation for scripture about this.) But what I know for a fact is that when we follow the example of our Lord and look in the Scripture for Jesus, we will find comfort and peace. Even in the midst of horrible tragedy, Jesus is by our sides to comfort and console. Even when our world seems to change in an instant, and change for the worse, Jesus is rock solid, immutably reliable. Heaven and earth can pass away, but God’s love for us not change.

When terrors overwhelm us, we turn to God’s Word for our comfort. When rumors of wars flit across our consciousness, we turn to the promises of the Scriptures for our peace. When sudden death stalks our cities, we know where to look for eternal life.

The unspeakable tragedy resulting from terrorist attacks speaks to us about our need to be ready at all times. Those of us left alive for now have a chance to strengthen our relationship with God through prayer, Bible study, and the use of the sacraments. We can strengthen and support each other by intentionally involving ourselves in community relationships built around forgiveness, peace, and love.

Whether it’s a community built of our family, of our church, of people in our town, of fellow volunteers at the Red Cross or some other helping agency, or wherever it is, you and I as Christians know that our strongest and most fruitful community relationship is the one that ties us back to Cleopas and the other Emmaus disciple. That’s the relationship that we speak about in the part of the Communion liturgy where the pastor ends the Proper Preface with the words “therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn.” This community cannot be broken by terrorist activity. This community cannot be splintered by talk of war that will mainly lead to more death and more destruction. This community is strengthened by suffering. “Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 5:3-5)

That’s the good word that we Christians can bring to our world in the weeks and months following the 11th of September. Those many, many, many pointless deaths have a point after all. The agony to be visited upon mothers and their babies in Afghanistan and Libya and wherever else our military strikes won’t be without an ultimate message. The prayers of the widows and orphans left by this past week’s deaths in our own country will be answered. All that anguish, and terror, and loss, and pain, all that suffering is swept up together in the open arms of our Savior Jesus Christ. His love overwhelms it all.

The Emmaus disciples asked themselves “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Today your hearts can burn within you when you let Jesus open the Scriptures for you, and allow his love to pour into you by the Holy Spirit. That’s where you can discover a point to the events of this past week. That’s where you can find comfort for an uncertain future.

In the name of Jesus, the most merciful. AMEN

And may the peace of God which passes all human understanding fill your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. AMEN

S.D.G.