Sermons

September 10, 2006

9/11

The Rev. Rob McCann
Interim Rector, St, Matthew's Episcopal Church

As one writer wrote, September 11 will always "recall our recoil from evil." We are - in some strange way - still numb from the experience of viewing that initial presentment on television of two self-destructing planes crashing into the twin towers.

Here we are - five years afterwards- still mesmerized by that unbelievable devastation brought on by years of planning and pent-up hatred by the perpetrators.

It's clear that only endless introspection, a deep reading of history and the 9/11 Bi-Partisan Report can give us a better picture of that reality.

Evil has a way of driving us to respond like our adversary - or, to rise to another level.

The personal question is - How do I find healing in a time of such terrorism and confusion?

May I tell you how I got through some of the impact of 9/11?

Some of the time was spent in being moved by so many people of heroic proportions stepping forward and offering their services.

I speak of people from here and across the country responding to a great tragedy.

I know of a number of our own lay and clergy in the Diocese of California who literally took off from here to respond to need.

I think of Trinity-St. Paul's Chapel, NY, that made us proud to deliver responsibly so much immediate and continuing help and service.

I'm was delighted this past Friday night, to hear the interview of an Episcopal priest - The Rev. Janet Vincent - who spent endless hours in the rubble and who appeared on the Leherer News Hour. She dealt with the experience of anger, how she felt at first and how she began to redirect it by prayer and involving herself.

(She has been called to be the new rector of St. Columba's in Washington, DC, where Bishop Swing took a struggling church into one of the successful ones there.)

The great theologian Reinhold Niebuhr remarked that "the proper attitude toward evil is anger." But he goes on to say: "We must avoid anger's twin temptations: hatred and vengeance, and instead allow love, justice and integrity to shape our response in the face of evil."

In the fall of 2001 I began an interimship (surprise!) at All Saints in San Leandro. It was obvious to me that the 9/11 tragedy was a great inter-faith teaching moment and one that also needed information and the personal stories of those who had compassionate experience to share.

So I called together a group of stalwarts in the parish and started to cull the directory. (And you thought that a call to your home was a random one!)

As we went from Aardvark to Zebra, the picture of a number of people came into focus. We selected three parishioners who could bring something quite special to the congregation

a professor at Mills College whose doctoral thesis centered on ISLAM, having spent a few years of valuable post-doctoral research in Aleppo, Syria. So I asked him to lay out a lecture on the wisdom found in Islam and to point out its boundaries, obviously being interested in the genesis of the martyrdom complex. It was informative and wonderfully delivered.

a Deacon who originally came from another Christian tradition, who, along with her husband had spent 20 years as lay missionaries in South America and who, on their return decided to become Episcopalians in that church, along with their children. There is a longer story here.

She had asked for a leave of absence from her Hospital position - to go for a month to New York and assist. A record of her ministry has been published as part of a wider presentation.

a former Peace Corp Volunteer in Afghanistan who did effective work there teaching and developing a school.

He not only shared with us photos of great price and insightful stories of his time there, but also pulled together some Afghan recipes for us to get a flavor of that Islamic civilization.

The fourth speaker was Iftekar Hai, head of the Islamic Center in OAKLAND, who is also a member of United Religions International (URI). His presentation was informative and centered upon encouraging us to listen to a heritage which is not ours - an occasion of meeting the other.

Down deep, however, what we really wanted was a word from God.

We began with that familiar kind of murmuring that moves into questioning whenever there is tragedy. Why did this happen? How could God have allowed it?

Billy Collins, former poet-laureate suggested that Now is the time to select a psalm from our Psalter - for these 150 prayerful vignettes represent three thousand years of personal and communal anguish. With such a prayer we are capable of reaching into our very fiber! May I suggest that we take on that challenge?

Most of the time, however, it's the silence of the unexpressed-word that we take in.

There is something that we can learn in the silence of our own hearts. Psalm 48 says it -

"Be still, then, and know that I am God.
That, in spite of everything, God is still in charge."

Psalm 49 says:

"Why should I be afraid in evil days, when the wickedness of those at my heels surrounds me? We can never ransom ourselves or deliver to God the price of our life.

As a Christian community we habitually turn to Scripture to read and to wait and to respond - to try to understand "What does the Lord require?"

The last verse of our Gradual hymn -lays out the direction as we sit in the midst of mystery. This question from Micah, from which our hymn springs, provides us with guidance and depth.

What does the Lord require?

How shall my soul fulfill God's law so hard and high?

Let Christ endue our will with grace to fortify.

Then justly, in mercy we'll humbly walk with God.

What we learn quickly is where not-to listen for a word.

Not in the Falwells and Robertsons' declaration that the terror came from God's displeasure with the "secularists" among us. I love it when troublesome clerics speak with such authority for God! It's reaching to the heights of presumption!

Their only regret, and hardly an apology, was to say much later - " We regret our timing on such statements."

What we learn quickly is where not-to-listen for a word.

Not in places that promote Islam in a twisted way.
The Chronicle last Sunday published an extensive article on stereotypes - entitled "Typecasting Muslims as a Race." Actually they come in all colors, shapes and sizes.

The people of Islam are unfortunately linked to a long history of stereotypes -
Like German, Italian and Japanese -Americans of WW II.
Like "Irish need not apply" of a former era.
Like the on-going expressed prejudice toward people with whom most of us have had little if any contact.

What is a genuine word from God in our distress and outrage?

If we don't make time for thought and prayer in the face of this inexplicable hour, then we have not begun to draw on the ready resources of our abiding faith.

Jeremiah says: "I am the Lord, I exercise steadfast love, justice and integrity on earth - these are what please me."

Healing, also, demands that we name the horror, give it meaning, bring it into the narrative of our lives.

The events of September 11 will always resist our attempts at full interpretation because their magnitude represents innumerable histories unique to each person's perspective- whether victim, mourner, defender, fire fighter, doctor and nurse, chaplain and perpetrator.

September 11 will always come to us as an annual reminder at the dawn of the school year and at the sunset of the summer rest.

Then comes the slam with the sledgehammer that "all is not right with the world" - that prayer and vigilance is the work of each and every day.

Our prayers count.
Our prayers comfort.
Our prayers confess that we need each other as together we reach out to God.

Sermons

September 10, 2006

9/11

The Rev. Rob McCann Interim Rector, St, Matthew's Episcopal Church

The Rev. Rob McCann
Interim Rector, St, Matthew's Episcopal Church