It will prove to be a watershed event
for a generation

Yet - I promise -
the most important history
which will be written
has not yet been played out.

We have yet to make that history.
We have yet to show
in all of this
who we really are.

I was born in the shadow
of the Great Depression
and was a little boy
during a world war.

My parents lost everything they had
in the bank failures of the 30's
and lived in a rude war-time government house
on a Corps of Engineers' Explosives Plant
in the Alabama cotton fields.

Yet, I never heard a complaint.

That generation never expected
nor thought they were entitled
to an easy, prosperous life.

They knew the world as a difficult place,
a dangerous place;
and, in response,
they proved to be a great generation.
We also have that capacity for greatness.
We have that hope.

Now, after 30 years of blissful ignorance about the world
we know, for sure,
that the world is an unfinished mass
of dangerous molten rock
with enough sin and short-sightedness,
hatred, and mis-use of power
to make it a difficult place
in which to live in justice and peace.

Where does one find healing for such a disease?
What balm exists?

In the first reading
the Old Testament Prophet, Amos,
is speaking to a people
in a calamitous time,
and he is saying
that for those who have not dealt fairly
with one another
and the stranger at the gate,

there is no point in running round
from sea to sea
seeking the Word of the Lord,
for they will not recognize it
should they draw near to it.

That is my great fear
that we will become so lost in the dust
of vengeance and fear
that we will not recognize the Word of God
should we stumble across it.

We are now faced with a challenge
and an opportunity.

How will we react as a people?
How will we react as a Christian Community - here
from within the midst of the crying
and pain and grief?

On one level
this has to do with the response
of our Government,

and I do believe that, somehow,
those individuals responsible
must be held accountable for their evil;

But, in the manner of so doing
we have to decide who we want to be
and what kind of world we want
for our children's children.

I don't want our hearts to be poisoned
by retribution, fear, and anger;

and I don't want to be seen that way
by the world,
especially the Muslim world.
for such would be to poison
our own pond.

It is easy to launch missiles,
it is harder to kill the right people with them;
but, it is impossible to use them
to kill an idea.

One response we ourselves might make
is to refrain from demanding a quick solution
to this world-wide problem,
and thereby give our leaders time
to act in considered
and perhaps more effective ways.

Martin Luther King said
"Violence can kill the liar
but not the lie.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness," he said;
"only light can do that,
only love."

In today's parable of the dishonest steward
the man was dismissed by his master
but showed great creativity and dedication
in dealing with his new circumstance.

We are called by the Lord telling the parable
to go to great lengths
to exercise dedication and like creativity
in being children of light
in all our spheres of influence.
- especially now.

This travesty, this terror
can be a cause of our seeking and finding God
in the rubble of Manhatten
and in our own broken lives at home,

for it is in broken-ness
when we no longer pretend to have any control,
that God is most easily found.

Kathy Schwarz sent me a message
that is an answer to our cry
of how and where is God
in all this pain.
The author is unknown. Here it is:

I know you are mad at me right now. That's all right. People have been mad at me before and will be again. My Son got mad too. I don't blame you, but I really can't protect you all the time, (says God.)

I can't protect you because I want you to be free to decide when to dance and sing. Free to determine when you will come to me in faith and hope. Because you are free, some of you choose not to dance or sing. Some of you select hatred over love, revenge over forgiveness, bombs over a helping hand. As you choose, I watch. I do not disappear. I listen to both the songs and the bombs, and I always remember.

Where was I that awful Tuesday, you wonder? I was there. I whispered in the ear of a little girl, "Don't be afraid, for I am with you." I held the hand of a business woman as tightly as she clutched mine. I cradled a pilot against my shoulder.

Amid the paralyzing fear, I was there, as I was there with my Son in the garden amid the unbearable pain. I was there with him as he realized that life was ending too soon, and as he hung on the cross and asked, as you do, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

I had not forsaken him. I did not forsake them. I was there as they fell, and as they rose to eternal joy. I listened to their anger, answered their questions, and told them why they had been created: not to end life that way, but to live with me forever.

In an instant, they came into existence, as you did. In an instant they left this world, as you will; but beyond that last instant, I kept my promise… a little girl dances, a business woman sings, and a pilot soars forever.

There is a vision of God here I find powerful and true.
It is a vision of a God who does not cause pain
but rather cries real tears with us
and walks with us through the Valley
of the Shadow.
and in that view of God
I find a call to be different from the terrorist,
indeed, different from the world.

So, how are we to respond?
We respond with God;
and, at our best,
we respond like God.

Today's first letter to Timothy
is an interesting study.

It comes from Asia Minor, long after Paul's death.
and it is a manual
for how to be a Christian
in a calamitous world.

In that world
the kings and governors were pagans.

Paganism, by my definition,
is a religion designed to support
the dominant culture.

and the 2nd century
saw huge persecutions of the church.

It was then, for instance,
that Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna
was burned at the close of the governor's games,
just for the fun of it.

So, how should they deal with that capricious power?

The Christian's duty, said the letter,
was to pray in every place for those leaders
holding up holy hands
without anger or argument,
so that those in power
might provide peace
for all men.

Our task, brothers and sisters
in the face of this new time
is to get to know God and to pray,

and to use this unstable world
and incomplete humanity as a stage
on which to act out faithfulness;

and to do that
every day, any time
and in a thousand ways;
and not out of fear,
but with a vision of a better world.

Did you hear about the idiot
in the Mid-West
who intentionally ran his car at 80 mph
entirely through the walls of a mosque?
We owe those people a sign of God's love.

Yashir Borhani is a Muslim.
He travels to Iran
each Summer.

Yashir and his family
have already been visited by the FBI
He is a student at Saint James Academy.
That's one little guy we can reassure.
We owe him a sign of God's love.

Kathy Schwarz has a patient
from an Arab country
who was urged by her embassy to go home.
Her name is the same
as that of one of the terrorist.
We owe her hospitality
we owe her God's love.
Or, are we going to offer her something else?

One prayer I received this week proclaimed
that skin color has been covered
by the ash of burning buildings.

How we act toward individuals
defines who and whose we are.
We have the God at hand
who would have us rise to new life.

We are to be those who pray,
get in touch with our God
hold onto one another,
welcome the stranger among us,
and live faithfully before God;
especially when terrorists of whatever kind
try to make us stop.

And, we are to be a people
who hold as our goal
neither the taking of Vengeance
nor the acting in Anger or from Fear,
but rather, ultimately,
the making of peace for all peoples.

Our leaders will respond
to this dastardly attack
I hope with restraint
and much cooperation around the world,

but, the real history of this new time
will be written to describe

who we decided
to be.