We Are Children of God and Citizens of the World
September 16, 2001
Douglas S. Long
North Raleigh United Church
Matthew 5: 43-48
Sometimes, many times, when I was officiating at a funeral in my previous congregation, I found myself conducting a memorial service for someone who had lived to a ripe old age. Now, even still, there is a somber mood in such an event… someone has died. Yet, almost always, at some point during the service, we were able to elicit a memory, tell a story, that would joyously celebrate that person's life and in such moments there were almost always smiles …and often laughter. You can celebrate a life with joy, even in the pain of losing that life. Laughter at a funeral is almost always a very good thing. It is a blessing in the midst of the pain and grief.
But today… today… there is no laughter among us. Today only the most insensitive of us 'preacher types' will be telling jokes. Today we face a tragedy heretofore beyond belief. Last week, at this time, from this spot, Denise and I were speaking about "Original Blessing." Who could have thought the unthinkable then? Who would have imagined that this day, which for many was supposed to remember the tragic events of Hurricane Floyd, would harbor a new tragedy so horrific Floyd would be all but forgotten? Who could have convinced us that the paper today would report no football scores, that churches would have been filled many times over this past week, that life would become more precious for us… because thousands of our fellow citizens would lose their lives on an ordinary Tuesday morning that developed into one of the most extraordinary times of our lives.
Hundreds of rescue workers fearfully entered two of the world's largest buildings, on fire from terrorist attacks, to search for trapped office workers even as hundreds of the workers scrambled out… and then, the burning buildings collapsed.
Something died in me… something died in all of us when those buildings fell.…and the stories that have surfaced of those chaotic hours… cell phone conversations of persons on the doomed planes calling their loved ones... husbands in the doomed buildings calling their wives… brothers trapped beneath the rubble calling their sisters… innocent passengers on unsuspecting airliners becoming the missiles by which more innocent persons would be destroyed… The human suffering is absolutely staggering. …and we grieve beyond description for those who have died, and their families.
We have had several days to begin processing that grief… and no small part of it has turned to anger and the desire to find the persons, the group, the country responsible for this unspeakable act.
I've heard God blamed too… mostly by persons who claim to believe in God. Some have done so innocently. A young woman, perhaps in her 20's on a major network Wednesday night tearfully exclaimed… "God has taken 5,000 people and we are so sad." (I whisper to myself when I hear such statements and others like it… "I want no part of her god.")
Of course, many of you have heard some of the more blatant ways that God has been blamed. John F. Harris, Washington Post Staff Writer, reported words from Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson in the Friday edition:
"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," said Falwell, appearing yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club," hosted by Robertson.
Then Falwell broadened his blast to include the federal courts and others who he said were "throwing God out of the public square." He added: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.' "
In a related Associated Press account:
"We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God's eye," Robertson wrote. "We have insulted God at the highest level of our government. Then, we say, 'Why does this happen?"'
" I'd say this is a wake up call from God," Falwell told The Associated Press. "I feel our spiritual defenses are down. If we don't repent, then more events might happen in the future."
I want no part of that god either…. and I tremble to think of what is spoken from some pulpits across our land today. There is a dangerous mood developing in our land that is mixing God with patriotic zeal, preparing to crush any who disagree.
Like you, I was stunned by the events of the week and sought outlets to ease my soul. I found myself Friday at noon, at a mosque, wanting to express my concern for the Islamic community in our midst. I had never attended noon prayers at a mosque before. The security was tight. I could not enter with my pocketknife. (I left it with a security officer.) It was an interesting and somewhat disquieting feeling being the one with a different shade of skin, different cultural background, and because of that …suspect. Still, my welcome, and that extended to the handful of others of us clearly unfamiliar with the traditions was sincere. The Imam himself made his way over… He took my hand. "I am Isan, " he said, extending to me his first name, "Most welcome."
I had taken off my shoes. I took a place near the back, trying to be supportive but unobtrusive. Someone brought to me an English translation of the Arabic prayers I would soon hear. I was surrounded by faithful, peaceful people.
And I was almost overpowered at the opening confession, so similar to the 'Call to Worship' in my own tradition:
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.[112.1] Say: He, Allah, is One.
[112.2] Allah is He on Whom all depend.
[112.3] He begets not, nor is He begotten.
[112.4] And none is like Him.
I listened intently to the words of Imam Bagby.
"We are a people who do not believe in violence to the innocent. We in no way express solidarity with the terrorists who have committed this act. We want to help identify them, for they hurt the cause of humanity." He went on to explain that, out of ignorance, there were threats to the wider Islamic community.
"Identifying all Muslims as terrorists," he continued, "would be as appropriate as identifying all Caucasians as Timothy McVeigh or white supremacists. No one suggested," he said, "when Oklahoma City was bombed by McVeigh that all persons who had ever spoken to him be killed. No one suggested bombing his home town, the state he resided in, or even flushing out and killing all white supremacists in our land. No one suggested it because it was ludicrous.
Why are such thoughts, such statements, not seen as ludicrous now?"
He reiterated the words of the Koran that call for justice, peace, and love for all humanity and ended the service: "May the Salem of Allah be with you."
May the peace of God be with you.
We just heard words from our holy book, words from Jesus.
"You have learned how it was said: You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…"
Does this mean that the terrorists should be forgiven? I don't think so.
Does it mean we should somehow pray for them? I am sure it does.
If we are truly followers of the Christ, I do not, for one moment, doubt that our primary identity is as children of the one God, and citizens of the one world. We are all brothers and sisters… Muslim-Christian-Jew. Therefore, any other citizenship that we claim
that diminishes our oneness,
is not only secondary, such a citizenship, at the point that it calls for hatred of humanity, is a sacrilege…. a sin against the God of Jesus who makes us one.
that divides our humanity,
that denies that we are all children of God,
Am I proud to be an American? Absolutely… but America at its best, not America as a rallying cry for unmitigated vengeance… not an America that glibly speaks of 'collateral damage' …not an America ready to retaliate with possible nuclear strikes and the devastation of whole cities …not an America, in the words of Ellen Goodman, in which hate is easily confused with patriotism and revenge confused with justice.
Why? Because an America such stated betrays my primary identity as a citizen in the realm of God in which we are all children of God and therefore siblings of each other.
Listen to the words of Deepak Chopra, who reflected on Tuesday's events in an email to any who would listen:
All this hatred and anguish seems to have religion at its basis. Isn't something terribly wrong when jihads and wars develop in the name of God? Isn't God invoked with hatred in Ireland, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine, and even among the intolerant sects of America? Can any military response make the slightest difference in the underlying cause? Is there not a deep wound at the heart of humanity? If there is a deep wound, doesn't it affect everyone? When generations of suffering respond with bombs, suicidal attacks, and biological warfare, who first developed these weapons? Who sells them? Who gave birth to the satanic technologies now being turned against us? If all of us are wounded, will revenge work? Will punishment in any form toward anyone solve the wound or aggravate it? Will an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and limb for a limb, leave us all blind, toothless and crippled?
I know these are difficult words in times of great grief and loss… but I would be untrue to my God and my Christ if I did not share them with you this morning:
All that we do, all that we say, all that we are, must come from our groundedness as children of God, and citizens of the world.
There is a short work, published post humously by Mark Twain, entitled, The War Prayer. I have mentioned it before. In a preface to the piece Twain explains "only dead men can speak real truth." His family pleaded that the prayer not be published for fear of reprisal. Today, despite the fact that some may take offense, it bears hearing. Twain wrote it almost 100 years ago.
[For a full rendition of this short work, see http://www.lone-star.net/mall/literature/warpray.htm]
The setting is {a time of great excitement. The country was up in arms, a war was on. In every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads of roofs and balconies a fluttering of flags flashed in the sun; Sunday morning came; the church was filled; The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, and poured out that tremendous invocation -- "God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!"
Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was that an ever--merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory
- [When…]An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending … to his shoulders. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and touched the preacher's arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and the stranger took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes; then in a deep voice he said}
"I come from the Throne-bearing a message from Almighty God!"
The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention.
"He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd and grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import-that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of-except he pause and think."
"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of His Who hearth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this-keep it in mind. If you beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it."You have heard your servant's prayer-the uttered part of it. I am commissioned by God to put into words the other part of it-that part which the pastor, and also you in your hearts, fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory-must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle-be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
(After a pause)
"Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits."
Twain finishes his piece with this single sentence:
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
People of God, people of the one God, who some know as Yahweh, some as Elohim, some know as El Shaddai, some know as Father of us all, some as Mother of the Universe, some as Allah …
People of God, let us grieve with all of humanity this morning.
Let us pray for ourselves… and our enemies.
Let us pray for wisdom.
Let us pray for guidance.
Let us pray that our political and military leaders might not blindly seek revenge.
Let us pray for all people, in all our world… for we are one.
Amen.