September 8, 2002
The Rev. Marlene Wagner Pomeroy
"The Security of Faith"
Psalm 23
 
Today's scripture reading is a departure from the lectionary cycle.  It was recommended by the UCC National Staff as an appropriate text for the remembrance of 9-11.  When I think of Psalm 23 I have two very strong associations - first, it was the Psalm I had to memorize and recite to the congregation when I was in 3rd grade to receive my Bible.  Little did I know at the time what important theology was portrayed within those words.  I can still recite it and I still stumble at the very same place in the recitation!  The 2nd association I have with the 23rd Psalm is hearing it read at funerals.  It is a beautiful psalm, a well-known and comforting psalm that soothes the hearer during a time of loss.  Walter Brueggemann, a UCC biblical scholar, writes that this psalm, and others, allow our difficult emotions to rise to the surface.  Through engagement with psalms, he writes, we create the opportunity for our deepest feelings to be validated and transformed (UCC resource "O God, Tender and Just" Bible Study, p. 12)
 
How fitting then, for all the above reasons, to be guided in worship today by this text.  Jim Wallis, peace activist and Christian, wrote a chapter in a book titled In the Aftermath.  In it he writes about his reflections on 9-11.  He says that he visited the site of Ground Zero a few months after Sept. 11th.  Like many who have seen it, the site of Ground Zero is striking.  One of the things Wallis comments on is the various groups of fire fighters who came from around the country and were at the site when he was.  Then he stopped and wondered what they were doing and he figured it out:  "They were pilgrims visiting a holy site... We don't visit holy sites just for the ritual; we go to be changed.  How will the events of September 11th change us?"  Wallis asks.  "Will they change us?" he asks (Ibid. p. 143) Wallis says that he believes the tragedy of Sept. 11th 2001 "could either become a doorway to transformation or it could set up back for years." (Ibid)
 
I, like the rest of you, have been hearing and reading about a variety of responses to 9-11, especially in the past few weeks.  People have voiced fear, hatred, and desire for vengeance, hopelessness, and relief.  People have also been overwhelmed by their feelings and have chosen to stop processing and reading about this event because they have reached saturation point.  As in all grief, everybody reacts differently as every one processes, through the prism of their life, what this event means for them.
 
Of all the writers and commentators I've come across, one of the most interesting responses for me came from Jim Wallis - activist for the homeless and marginalized, Evangelical Christian, social justice advocator.  He writes that the murdering of almost 4,000 people in one day last year is to see the "stark face of evil." (Ibid)  He says that "our post modern and politically correct world has a hard time naming evil, but Christians shouldn't be reluctant to name it." (Ibid)  He writes that two natural paths emerge as a response to this horrific crime:  First is a path that speaks the language and spirit of justice, invoking the rule of law to bring the perpetrators of terrorist acts to accountability. (Ibid)
 
The second path "uses the language of war and invokes a spirit of retribution and even vengeance."  As a veteran of 30 years of peace activism, Wallis chooses the path of justice rather than war, and he hopes we will do the same.  He makes the point that we seldom see destruction and pain of this magnitude in our own country - we saw it in Oklahoma City and we are seeing it again in post 9-11 as we watch and listen how this violent event has affected families, relationships and perceptions of our own safety and freedom.  Wallis hopes and prays that this "collective experience of terrible pain" will help "our nation's (continuing) response to be born of our best selves, and not our worst impulses." (Ibid-p. 145)  What he is articulating is that our ongoing response should rise out of our deepest values and not out of the "standards of the terrorists." (Ibid)
 
Jim Wallis has a few suggestions for us to accomplish this and I'd like to share them with you this morning.  First, as people of faith, we are urged to carry out a prophetic ministry of telling the truth.  Part of that truth is that our global dominance and policies have consequences. We aren't always the good guys.  We have backed ugly regimes that have poor records of human rights, we have been reluctant to advocate for equality soon enough in places like South Africa and Israel, and our role in the Persian Gulf has repeatedly been influenced by our own oil interests.  We have also spent billions of dollars on military and nuclear capability and yet have not spent a fraction of that on the study or implementation of peace.  We have role models for social movements that have not resorted to war - Gandhi and his work in India is one prominent example - but it doesn't come about without intentional education, planning and commitment to explore an alternative way.
 
Part of the truth telling that we must do, however, is to not draw a straight line from some of our American policies to the terrorist attacks.  No policy that we have had nor any of our flaws on the international stage cause us to deserve the day of evil that was meted out to us one year ago.  Truth telling is being honest about the reality that the Al-Qaeda network is run by "well-educated, well-financed and coldly calculating ideologues."  We cannot allow ourselves to be naïve about what happens when terrorists run countries and networks:  women have no rights, girls don't go to school, men are assassinated, and religion is perverted and used to justify fanatical extremism. (Ibid, p. 148)
 
Let me be clear here - the "root of the terror attacks is not a yearning for economic justice for the poor and oppressed of the world."  (Ibid)  It is the ambition for regional and global power that sets up new oppressions.  It must be stopped.
 
Though we are not the cause of this rise of terrorism, our sin is in not seeing that injustice is "the breeding and recruiting ground for terrorism. Grinding and dehumanizing poverty, hopelessness and desperation clearly fuel the armies of terror." (Ibid)  So then, as we learn more about the conditions that people live in, and the injustices that they have had to live with, any help that we offer must be viewed as an attack on "terrorists' ability to recruit and subvert the wounded and angry for their hideous purposes." (Ibid)  If we help to build up people's economic independence and work toward peace in troubled regions we will be helping to "drain the swamps of injustice that breed the mosquitoes of terror." (Ibid)
 
So, our response should be shaped by our willingness to tell the truth, know what we are dealing with from the terrorists, and thirdly I would say as Christians would be to allow our faith to shape our perspective.  God demands our allegiance in all things.  We don't set our Christianity aside while we eradicate terrorism.  We allow our faith to shape our perceptions and our response.
 
Look at the example of Jesus in the face of fear and violence.  He was caught up in a violent and punitive squabble with his own life.  He was arrested, tried and put to death because of fear and anger of those whom he threatened.  But he never backed away from his principles, his mission or his faith.  He never resorted to the methods of his opponents and he held onto the hope that his life and teaching legacy would far outweigh the tragedy of his death.
 
I've said very little about Psalm 23, but I urge you to read it today - perhaps read it every day this week.  Memorize it again!  Listen for what it tells us about who God is.  Listen to what it teaches us about how to live in the face of fear.  Allow it, and other powerful passages of the Bible to inform our characters and shape our faith as we prepare for the anniversary of 9-11.
 
For Psalm 23 speaks of a God who provides for all of our needs; a God who restores life and guides us in right ways.  A God who is with us at every moment and one who liberates people from oppression and suffering.  Psalm 23 speaks of a God who sets an abundant table of peace for all people - both our friends and our enemies.  Psalm 23 speaks of a God whose love pursues us and a God who invites us to dwell with a God who already dwells with us (Walter Brueggemann in "O God, Tender and Just" p. 15).
 
However you choose to commemorate Sept. 11th this year, I pray that your faith will be the bedrock of your hope that peace and justice can be achieved if we are God's peaceful instruments in this world.  Amen.