9-11: Fifteen years later

9/11

Fifteen years have passed, as a friend put it, “in the blink of an eye” It’s hard to believe…

I read a wonderful story about Teddy…from his good friend:

On 9/11/2001 the unthinkable happened. Teddy ran to my daughters school and brought her to my girlfriend's house. My son was home and forbidden to leave the block even though he was 21 years old. A couple of hours later I went home to change and as I started to leave the house, Teddy, standing in the doorway asked me where I was going. I told him I was meeting up with some other paramedics and taking A couple of ambulances downtown to which he replied, "not without me you're not". I responded, "Teddy, I don't have time for this I have to go. They are not going to let you in there because you are not a Member of the service." I agreed to let him drive me back to Mary Immaculate Hospital where two ambulances stripped of all of it's equipment sat waiting for a bunch of us that were going down there for the purpose of recovery. I had a brief conversation with one of my partners outside the bus and when I stepped up into the ambulance There was Teddy, hands cradling the back of his head, chatting it up with four of my coworkers. How the hell did he get into that bus? Needless to say he was right. I was going down there, but not without him.

Teddy

That was our Teddy.

Fifteen years…long enough for a “truther” movement to develop.  (We had to pull the plug on one event scheduled here that turned out to be, frankly, anti-semitic…) One of our leaders has suggested that this is just one more  proof we “Need to move on…” I understand that. And I want  to speak about some of those issues.

I have to first recall that we were who and what we needed to be. Who we were supposed be: a church. We were:

1 a place of prayer and comfort for the community

2 a faith community that responded to human need…

A. we made sandwiches, 1500 pbj's

B. helped prepare food, peeling onions all night at Boulet

C.  went to ground zero

D. served as chaplains

E. were a hub center for 18 months with a social  helping those who “fell between the cracks”

F. hosted over two dozen work groups from around the country coming to our city to help out

G. hosted events seeking to prevent the war

We were named by New York City Presbytery “an angel of 9-11.”

Angel of 9-11

And it was strangely the best 2 years of the last 20 for West-Park. Over two dozen new members, 35 in Sunday School. (We were stopped by the economy …young families leaving the city…and then  our “building project” and the conflicts that process brought out…)

What have we learned?

1 New York City is a resilient city. We  live daily as a collective act of will. This city works because we  wake up and decide it will. We choose it to work.  So when a crisis hits, we start doing what needs the done before anyone tells us what to do. That’s why more lives were not lost.

2 We had a chance to connect to the rest of the world. To understand the suffering of others. What it felt like to  be Berlin, Belgrade, Beirut. But we fell into American exceptionalism. ( And that’s what our elder objects to…and she’s right..) As if our suffering is somehow more special than others. 

A. We have hosted here the annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemorations. Remembering our bombs that claimed over 250,000 in one day. And effects that lasted generations. 

B. My friend from Serbia described experiencing when NATO bombed Serbia for 72 consecutive days. 

C. Gaza, where over 3000 were killed in two “operations”

The fact is we are not special

3.  We opened door to a xenophobia/islamophbia that remains today…even in our presidential campaign. We hosted here a leader of the Sikh community sharing their post 9-11 experiences. 

(There is online a beautiful story from Memphis … how the the Heartsong Church has welcomed and hosted the Memphis Islamic Center… Both communities have found their lives enriched by their neighborly partnership.)

4. The war we tried to prevent (“Our grief does is not a call for war”, the signs said.) has gone on for 15 years. Sadly, there is NO growing protest movement. Isn't because there is NO draft? It’s war by other peoples’ children. It doesn’t touch us. And there are no signs  of ending. It was begun under false pretenses. And the result created ISIS. ( Mr. Trump note: NOT Obama, it began way before that…)

Then gospel speaks of lost coins and sinners…it begins with the courage to face ourselves in the mirror…

The Heart Song community has not been  universally loved and respected. One comment read “Another church throws Jesus under the bus…” Moving interview with a member who had been ready to leave. Angrily confronted his pastor. Told to read the gospels. In tears, he says, I discovered that I was what was wrong with the world. I was the problem…And the joy that has come from hosting the mosque. And his feeling of what he has gained, And of forgiveness. 

“Amazing grace”..indeed.

As Mary Gauthier sang,  “We all could use a little mercy now. Yeah, we don;t desire it but we still need it anyhow..”

Fifteen  years later,we can begin by facing clearly who we are. And be willing to be changed by God’s grace…

Gospel Luke 15:1-10

1Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

3So he told them this parable: 4"Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

8"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

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Remembering, Angel of 9-11, Every day counts

9/8

Angel of 9-11

Lots on our minds today. It’s the Jewish New Year. Congress is going to debate bombing Syria. A primary election is coming up. And the 12th anniversary of 9-11.

We begin with Jeremiah 18: 1-11. The potter and the clay passage. John comments as to how sometimes God has to throw out what doesn’t work and start over. I comment as to how in Genesis, we were created from earth, from clay. And the Holy Spirit breathed into the clay and life began. But we remain earth and to earth we shall return. And it takes fire to turn clay into pottery.  I have a visual aid. The baptismal font cover thrown by Dan’s mom Sheryl. How hard it was to be able to throw a ceramic lid 18 inches across. And how it cracked. How she thought maybe she should start over and then decided, No, this is what we do. We heal the cracks in people....And so the crack remains  preserved in the beautiful ceramic cover. And then we sing Change my heart, O God...

And after fire we have....

Change my heart oh God,
Make it ever true.
Change my heart oh God,
May I be like You.

You are the potter,
I am the clay,
Mold me and make me,
This is what I pray.

We talk about Philemon 1: 1-21. How Paul’s letters speak  to a particular issue at a particular place and a particular time. Or as in Hebrews (not necessarily Paul) general moral exhortation. Or, as in here,  a letter to an individual. The shortest letter in the New Testament. 

The topic is a slave named Onesimus. Was he a runway? Or (more likely)sent by his owners to tend to Paul in prison? It’s not clear.But what is clear, Paul is sending him back to his owner as a brother, a full partner in the faith. His name, Onesimus, which meant useless,  shall now be useful. And we note that when the church split over slavery this passage was used by both sides. It can be read as support for slavery as a natural condition or a critique of slavery.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         What is undebatable is Onesimus is now to be accepted as a brother.

Finally, the gospel. Luke 15: 1-10. The seemingly radical  saying that one must hate mother, father, brother...Followed by the strategic, calculated assessment of the need for a strategic plan for building or battle. Don't start what you can’t finish. Good words for us. As we near the end of our journey. Or at least this phase of it. Stephen says that Jesus has  been very angry lately. As a man, he has to feel that. It’s part of being fully human. And that radical discipleship requires radical choices. But Luke also calls us to strategic thinking, no romantic martyrdom here.

We finish by reflecting on 9-11. Last year, Marsha challenged us to think forward. It’s too easy to fall into American exceptionalism. Other countries have suffered so much more. I think of my Serbian friends. The 78 consecutive days of NATO bombing. But still, we need to remember, because what we did as a church  is part of who we are...

1. We gathered that afternoon and called every church member
2. We had a prayer service that night for the community. A reporter from France showed up and wrote home about being with us.
3. That weekend,we made 1500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
4. We went to Ground Zero and served food all night to workers
5. A man from Tennessee who’d previously been with us in a summer work group came back and joined us as did a student from Ohio
6. We peeled onions  all night long at Boule and other first class restaurants serving the workers
7. We received letters and banners from all over the country
8. We had a social worker with us for 18 months to work with those whose needs  fell between the cracks.
9. We hosted two dozen work groups from around country

Remembering

For all this, New York City Presbytery names us an

 Angel of 9-11

We share out memories. Pat wanted to donate blood but was told there was no point. Others recalled tear stained faces of workers. Jamie seeing the burning towers fall from New Jersey. And my son Dan remembers a day of play, extended recess in his school. And I feel a twinge of guilt. Everyone else’s parents came to pick them up. His teacher mom and minister dad left him there unti the end. And so it was. So it is.                                                                

We light candles to remember.

Following services, session meets. Approves the contract for a lease with a long term partner. We prepare to start again. Begin again. 

We learned: every day counts....