You can probably remember as if it
was yesterday where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news.
Our staff was puttering about the church office, putting together a list of
those who needed hospital visits. A church member came through the door with a
stunned expression on his face. “A plane just crashed into the
Five years have now gone by, and we are still dealing with the aftermath of 9/11. There have been more terrorist attacks against innocent civilians, and foiled plots of unimaginable horror. There have been wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and arguments among nations, governments and citizens about the wisdom and success of such responses. Our lives have changed. We are less likely to travel freely to some areas of the world, and when we do, we cannot even bring a tube of toothpaste on the plane for fear it contains a liquid explosive. The fearful fallout from the events of that morning is the universal backdrop against which we all live our lives today, one day shy of the five-year anniversary of September 11th.
This being the start of the political season leading up to the mid-term Congressional elections, much attention is today being focused on the debate about what our government should do to respond to the threat of terrorism. That’s a legitimate debate, and it is important for all of us to participate in it. But there is another dimension to this that you and I need take hold of. Yes, what the government does is important, but an equally crucial question is, “What should CHRISTIANS do?”
If we have learned anything from the experiences of the past five years, it must be that the human family is torn apart, and divided, and at war with itself. And – like it or not - running through the center of our family’s destructive dysfunction is religion. Yes, there are many socio-economic and political reasons that cause people to mistrust and even hate each other. But today those frustrations find expression in man’s violent inhumanity to man, and that inhumanity is given voice, legitimacy and even justification by religion. Today’s world is full of people it seems – young educated Muslims, old orthodox Jews, born-again Christian politicians and many, many others who all claim that what they do is done in the name of and for the sake of God.
So what should Christians do in such a world? What can WE do help bring healing to the family of God who made us all?
Tim and I are preaching a series of sermons during September on the theme of healthy Christianity. What does it take to make one a healthy Christian? Last week, we talked about the idea that healthy Christians have healthy religion – and healthy religion is religion that is built upon the foundation of the goodness of God. If God is good, then life is good, and people are good, too. Healthy religion appeals to that goodness of God in all creation, and produces good people who replicate that divine goodness in their own lives, and in the world around them. It’s really very simple, you know. Healthy religion is not about being able to understand pre-millennial, mid-tribulational dispensational eschatology and being able to share it with all your friends and neighbors! No, healthy religion is about becoming a good person – the kind of person God created you to be!
And today’s theme flows naturally from there. Healthy Christians, having healthy religion, build healthy relationships.
Lee Whiston,
who was a dear friend of my family when I was growing up, used to say that the
That’s a simple way to understand the Gospel message, but there is a problem here for many of us. We American Christians especially have so personalized the Gospel that when we think of building healthy relationships with others, our thoughts turn immediately to our families and those closest to us. Go into any Christian bookstore, and you will find countless volumes on building healthy marriages, having healthy families, growing healthy kids, and becoming healthy people ourselves.
But you won’t find a lot of books in Christian stores on building healthy relationships with the WORLD – with Jewish people – with Muslim people – with the human family that lives beyond our homeland, beyond our culture, beyond our religion, beyond our exposure, and sometimes beyond our understanding. And yet the need of the Church to address these relationships with those who live outside our circle has now become painfully evident since the tragic events of 9/11. God’s family – the human family – is at war against itself.
What can WE do – even in our small and limited ways - to help build healthy relationships among the children of God, and contribute to the healing of this broken world?
Today’s reading from the epistle of James, wrestles with a similar problem that existed in the early Christian church. It must have been a fairly common problem because not only James, but also Luke and Paul address it on numerous occasions. James describes the problem this way:
“My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
Now you might wonder what a passage like this has to do with living in our post 9/11 world. And I will grant you that the circumstances of James’ day are very different than the circumstances of ours. But the underlying principles are the same:
When you see some people as better than others, and treat them that way, you sow the seeds of division. And when you relate with people in terms of their differences rather than in terms of our common humanity, you create an environment that ultimately leads to mistrust and hate.
So James is teaching us to look
past the differences! And I think the most wonderful statement of all is the
one James makes in
“Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
Do you hear that? Judging people on the basis of their differences will never create the kind of world we want to live in and raise our kids and grandkids in. Much better than judgment is mercy!
You and I know this to be true in our own lives. Affirmation and love is much more effective in raising good kids than constant criticism and judgment. Working at making friends rather than finding reasons to not be friends creates a better community. Listening to people of other faiths is more effective in establishing dialogue than preaching at people. James is right: mercy triumphs over judgment!
My former colleague Andrea Gouze learned this firsthand in the days following the
crash of Egypt Air Flight 990 off the coast of
How can such differences be overcome?
“Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
I think mercy is the act of bonding with another on the basis of our common humanity. I think it is loving your neighbor as yourself. It is to do unto others what you would have them do unto you.
“Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
So putting the distinctions of religion away, and setting the judging aside, Andrea wrapped her arms around Muslim mothers and fathers, and wept with them. Later, she would eloquently describe how the differences in culture, religion and language were overcome. She wrote:
“Everyone cries in the same language.”
Phil and Joyce Carnock in our church have a beautiful daughter who is married to a handsome young Muslim man. Together they have a daughter – Joyce and Phil’s granddaughter! She is the most beautiful grandchild in the world after my grandson Ryan! Joyce and Phil’s family frequently come to worship with us, and the Muslim son-in-law usually comes to Sunday School when he is here. He doesn’t say much, but he listens. I like him a lot. What I especially like about him is what we have in common. Not our religion so much, although I will venture to say that our beliefs are probably closer than either of us may realize. But what we have more in common than our religion is this: he loves his daughter, and I love mine – he’d lay down his life for his little girl, just like I would for mine – and, like me, he wants to make the world the kind of place where his daughter can grow up in peace and become all that God created her to be.
Don’t we ALL want this for our children?
So what can we do to contribute to building this kind of world?
Well, I think the main thing is to learn how to set aside our judgments of people, and learning how to practice mercy toward everyone. It is to discover the person behind the differences of race, culture or religion, and then finding where we relate to each other as fellow human beings. It is to stop judging and to start practicing merciful love toward each other.
I don’t know if this is true or not, but the story is told of a particular city on the Gulf Coast of Florida. In that city was a diverse religious population. There was a Jewish synagogue, a Muslim mosque, a Hindu temple, and a Christian church. These institutions, of course, all had their own versions of what they believed was the true Faith, and though they would never say so out loud, each of them thought of the others as slightly deficient. The Christians especially loved converting members of the other groups because this proved the supremacy of their faith over the others. And sadly, there was so much mistrust among them all that they could never get together to address the increasing problems of the people of their city. They were even powerless to do much of anything about the crime that was becoming more and more prevalent in their beloved city where sat the Jewish synagogue, the Muslim mosque, the Hindu temple, and the Christian church which, by now had split into four denominations. I’m thinking this is probably not a true story, but I hope it makes the point.
Well, one day a hurricane blew in off the Gulf, and along with many homes and businesses, the horrific winds destroyed the Jewish synagogue, the Muslim mosque, the Hindu temple, and what had now become fourteen Christian denominations. After the storm was over, the people came to see the damage. You could not tell the difference between Jewish rubble and Muslim rubble, Hindu rubble or Christian rubble. It was all just rubble, mingled together. And as the people of those faiths wandered through the debris, they began to weep and to wail. And without any prompting at all, people spontaneously began joining hands together. They formed a great circle of humanity, and no one even knew anymore who belonged to what religion. They were simply all together in the experience of life. They wept together. They prayed together. And they turned to God together. Then they joined their lives together to start rebuilding the city. And that is what they are doing to this very day.
It has been five years since 9/11, almost to the day.
Isn’t it time we begin rebuilding the city?
If you believe it is, then take home with you those powerful words of James. Learn them. Live them. And say them one more time with me:
“Mercy triumphs over
judgment.”