Community Church Sermons
Year C
September 12,
2010
Pentecost 16
The View From the Bottom
Psalm 51:1-1
1 Timothy1:12-17
Rev. Martin C. Singley, III
Today, one day after the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we all hold 9/11-related images in our minds. We can visualize once again the horrific scenes of jetliners being flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. We still hold anguishing mental images of the collapse of the towers, and the terrible devastation that resulted. We remember the plane that was crashed in Pennsylvania, killing all aboard, and we memorialize the nearly 3,000 souls who perished that day. The memories of 9/11 are excruciatingly painful and difficult to look at again.
Sadly, other 9/11-connected images have lately risen to positions of prominence on news shows and in newspapers: people shouting back and forth at each other about the proposed building of a mosque near Ground Zero – arguing about who’s right and who’s wrong; a Florida pastor threatening to burn copies of the Koran, the sacred scriptures of Islam; people in other parts of the world rioting and burning Bibles and American flags in response to the proposed Koran-burning.
To be perfectly honest with you, I think these more recent 9/11 images are graven images. They are blasphemous images that obscure the human heroism and self-sacrifice that took place that day as Americans and foreigners, Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, Democrats, Republicans, women, men and even children stepped into the terrifying moment to help others and – in many cases – lost their own lives doing so.
Yesterday on CNN.com there were side-by-side pictures related to all this. On the left was a photo of Terry Jones, the Florida minister whose Koran-burning plan has caught so much public attention. On the right was a picture of Gary Box, a man you and I never heard of, but is one of the true heroes of 9/11.
The very fact that Gary Box’s picture was shown is something of a miracle – especially to his family. Gary was one of the New York firefighters killed that day responding to the attacks. His body was never recovered. His family grieved not only the loss of their son and brother, not only the fact that there was no body left to bury, but also that they had no idea of what he was doing in the last minutes of his life.
It was last year – on September 11, 2009 – that Gary’s sister Christine came across a picture at the National 9/11 Museum of Brian Bilcher, a member of Gary’s squad. That discovery led Gary’s dad and mom – Judson and Helen Box – to spend endless hours scouring photographs uploaded to the 9/11 Tribute site. And then, one morning, there it was – a picture of a firefighter under the load of his equipment running past stopped cars through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel toward the towers.
It was Gary.
“I was out of control emotionally,” said Gary’s father, “thanking God, being so happy that I had something to see.”
The photograph had been taken by a Danish businessman by the name of Erik Troelson. He was driving through the tunnel when the first plane hit and suddenly the traffic came to a screeching halt. A car up ahead had a flat tire. When the fire engines arrived, they couldn’t get through. So Gary Box and his fire squad hoisted their equipment onto their shoulders and hastily ran past Troelson and the other stranded motorists into the towers where they laid down their lives.
Pastor Terry Jones. Firefighter Gary Box.
Which image do you think best represents the heroism of 9/11 – the beauty of human dignity – the expression of God’s grace and love for the world?
Which image do you think looks most like Jesus?
To me, the sad thing going on in our country and our world today is that we have exchanged the image of God for the false image of fallen creation. We have turned our back on the God of justice, mercy and peace, and made gods of ourselves with our own little self-made rules of righteousness by which we divide the world into saints and sinners, right and wrong, some worthy of being loved and others unworthy even of respect. We have turned away from the Gospel of peace and taken up instead the false gospel of pitting people against each other. We SO want to be right, and prove others to be wrong.
And so we fly airliners into buildings, carry the equivalent of “shame on” banners against whoever we disagree with, and burn the sacred scriptures of others for…what?
Peace?
A better world?
The kingdom of God?
Way back in the day, when the early Christians were struggling just as we are today with how to respond to a self-righteous world that pits people against one another, a saying attributed to St. Paul was circulated and eventually recorded in the little letter called First Timothy. Listen:
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy – because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
You see, we are all sinners, falling short of the righteousness of God - even St. Paul when he was still known as Saul! But God’s grace found Saul – the man nobody believed God wanted anything to do with! And God not only found Saul, but called him to a great ministry.
And now, as Paul the forgiven sinner, he sees the world differently than he used to. Listen again:
“Here is a trustworthy saying that is deserving of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I AM THE WORST. For that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me – the worst of sinners – Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”
Have you ever noticed that there is a difference between the view from the top and the view from the bottom? When you look down at the world from on high, you see people for all that they are not. You see their faults, their flaws, their failures, their sin – and you see yourself as different, as better, as above them.
But when you look up at others from below – when you see yourself as the greatest of all sinners, you begin to see the majesty of God’s amazing love that would reach out to redeem such a bottom-feeder as me – or you!! And you will come to believe that, if God loves such a one as you and me – the worst of all sinners – God certainly loves everybody else and can bring new life and redemption to them just as God did to us.
Our Christian faith tells us to see others as better than ourselves, and to get down off our high horses to serve rather than be served. And when this happens, the world inches forward into becoming the world God wants it to be.
Nine years ago yesterday, Gary Box was running through an underground tunnel because people in the towers above needed help. It didn’t matter who they were, what they believed, or what they had done with their lives. They were worth the sacrifice of love.
The view from below puts others first – it is the view of one who serves – and it is the view of one willing to lay down their life for others.
Pastor Terry Jones.
Gary Box.
Which one best describes YOU?
Which one best describes Jesus?
I have to say that I am a bit of a news junkie. My TV remote control knows the way through all the 24-hour news channels. The “Favorites” in my computer’s web browser largely point to sites where I can find out the latest of what’s going on in the world. And I have a whole band on my car’s satellite radio dedicated to news talk shows.
But do you know what? Listening to all the talking heads, the radio and TV personalities, and even our political leaders, I have yet to hear one idea expressed that offers the hope of saving this world.
What I hear mostly is self-serving hate-speech, expressing ideas that seek the destruction of others and not their well-being. To listen to some Christians, it becomes clear that the way to a better world would begin by somehow getting rid of the 1.57 billion Muslims that represent 20% of the world’s population – and if not them, their sacred scriptures. To listen to radical Islamists, the way to a better world will be by violent jihad against all the “infidels.”
Which way do YOU think the world will be saved?
I believe the answer to that question is in THIS book where we learn of One sent to be the Savior of this world. He lived among us, healed our sick, mended our broken, and taught us to love one another as He loved us. Out of obedience to God’s will, and love for all people, He laid down His life. And He called you and me to take up our cross and follow Him.
I don’t suppose the firefighting equipment Gary Box bore on his shoulders that day looked much like a cross, but that’s what it really was. The cross is anything you carry to the aid of another. The cross is the love and devotion you bring to the needs of others. The cross is the sacrifice you are willing to make to redeem even the worst of all sinners like Saul.
Bearing the cross is not as popular or newsworthy as crashing airplanes into towers, or burning Korans, or finding ways to hate people who are different. Those who do those things have their pictures all over the front page.
But every once in a while, someone finds a lost photograph of a firefighter rushing to the aid of people he doesn’t even know.
And that picture touches our hearts because we know we are seeing grace at work.
We know we are seeing Christ.