Sermon for September 16, 2001

Pastor Gunnar L. Anderson

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

"Where have all the flowers gone?" An Anthem from another time and another war. But did you see what at first glance might have seemed an inconsequential news report in the unbearable aftermath of this week's devastation? The reporter had gone to a little florist shop in a small town where many New York City police and fire personnel had made their homes. The woman proprietor said she couldn't keep up with the requests for flowers to be arranged as tributes and memorials!

Folks, we come here this morning with emotions running very high! We are grieving We are angry! To speak personally, I am so angry that I cannot be comfortable with my regular life! We are uneasy, even fearful! We are shocked, dazed! We are all the victims of the most vicious violence! "The most audacious terrorist attack in the history of the world!" someone exclaimed. We are lost! And I had planned, even written, a sermon based on this morning's Gospel story of the Lost Sheep. It was a good sermon because it is not only about being lost, but about being found! Maybe I'll save it for another time. However, on Friday morning I received a call from the social worker at the McCutchen Nursing Home around the corner. Would I possibly come over? The elderly residents were upset. Perhaps I could talk to them? How could I do anything else but go? I did. And I'm glad. For me, the overwhelming events and emotions of this despicable week had been locked inside my head and heart, thus far only extending to the typed page. Off the cuff, visiting the nursing home, all of a sudden I had to articulate. I had to talk. It helped. My ideas changed. So, I very much hope you will bear with me if I alter my thoughts, my theme, and my title. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

Because other stores that couldn't keep up with the demand this week have been flag companies! Everyone wants an American Flag as a symbol of nation, defiance, and of triumph! And I began to think of all the famous pictures we hold in our minds and memories of the American Flag: The Marines erecting the flag on Iwo Jima; in the days of exploration, Admiral Byrd and others trekking to the North and South Poles and planting the flag; Neil Armstrong's "giant leap for mankind" as he planted the flag on the very surface of the moon!

And on Tuesday of this week, September 11, 2001, a date which will live in infamy, after sitting transfixed in front of my television screen all day, and before I came over to church to open up St. Peter's for the evening for any and for all who might need to talk, or cry, or pray; I took a walk around my neighborhood. And I was struck by something. In those first early hours of numbing calamity, one homeowner, and then another, and several up ahead, had put out their American Flags, or planted them in their lawns! I kicked myself! Why hadn't I thought of that? Well, the flag now hands proudly before my home as, I suspect, it does before yours!

But, you know, folks, the more I watch the continuous news coverage of this tragedy, the more I listen to the commentators, the experts and the ordinary people involved, the more I stare at the picture of that pile of World Trade Center rubble, what I see firmly planted there is the Cross!

I see the Cross on that mound of debris as it once stood planted on Calvary's hill! In the very midst of planes crashing, fires burning, and huge structures collapsing, I see Jesus, spikes driven through hands and feet, hung on the Cross, bleeding, suffocating slowly to death! I see Jesus hanging, dying, bearing upon himself with untold agony your sin and mine, and all the sin of all people for all time! Yes, we rightfully and righteously condemn the dastardly acts of these murderous terrorists, but, at the same time, as the Bishop says, "we acknowledge that we ourselves struggle daily to overcome our own sinful agenda for the sake of God's purpose," As I stare at that pile of rubble with, in my mind's eye, the Cross firmly planted therein; I see the clear evidence of our sinful world and I am very grateful for the honesty, and the faith, and the witness of the Apostle Paul for this morning: "I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence - the foremost of sinners..." But, Paul reminds us as well, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Yes, we are all sinners needing to be saved, but this morning we really need to hear the first part: "Christ Jesus came into the world..."

I see the Cross! The Cross planted in that pile of rubble is God's presence with us, it is Christ meeting us always at the point of our deepest need. It is Jesus Christ, whose own pain and suffering is more than we can ever know, understanding, identifying, and standing with us in order to help, and comfort, and guide, and heal! It is God's answer to our prayer: "Lord, help us...Father, Jesus, sustain us!"

Jesus tell us this morning of "The Lost Sheep," scared, and alone, and helpless (sound familiar?); and of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to come after just the one, till he finds him. And we know Jesus is the Good Shepherd who comes after each one of us when we are lost, all the way to the Cross, all the way to this pile of rubble, all the way to your grief and loss!

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake...
though the mountains tremble
with its tumult...

Psalm 46 sounds like a newspaper editorial written for us and all Americans this very day! "...in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us," writes the Apostle Paul in language that seems so fitting, "...for I am sure that neither death, nor life...nor principalities...nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The Cross planted firmly in that pile of rubble reminds us once again that it's gonna be okay! Even unto dearth itself, which Jesus turns into life, it's gonna be okay! To hear that nothing can "snatch," and that is a violent word midst all this violence, that nothing can "snatch," tear, tug, or pull us out of the Father's hand, as scripture assures, is telling us that from this very day, through no matter what else comes upon us, even unto our own eternal life, that we are in God's good and strong hands, and that, folks, is "the peace of God which surpasses all understanding!"

Merdardo Gomez reminds the Church that "in the worst of times God is powerfully present." Bishop Riley adds, "In the midst of suffering and even in the shadow of death, God is with us as refuge and strength and help. Moreover, the One who was crucified and raised from the dead knows our suffering and sorrow, and is able to carry us into God's future." President Bush comforted the nation by quoting the Word of "a Higher Power," that now sing to us across the ages: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

I see the Cross! I see the self-giving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I see the Christ-like heroism of fire and police and emergency workers; of doctors, nurses, and volunteers; some who have given their own lives for others! I see the newspaper cartoon that shows two kids trading sports cards: "I'll give you two Michael Jordans and one Barry Bonds for a New York City Fireman!" I see the enhancement of community around our country, helping hands extending to neighbors; closer international relations - my friend, Jack Perry called me all the way from northern Ontario, Canada last night to lend his support. I even see a re-awakening among Americans to faith and coming to church! And all of this, I pray, will outlast and transcend this tragedy as God works good out of the worst evil, as the Bible promises God will!

I see the Cross! As the names begin to become known, as the depth of this disaster sinks in and becomes more horribly real to us. As the shepherd went after just one sheep, the value of each life is just so precious! In that pile of rubble, I see the Cross! I see that Jesus has died for each one. The Bishop is right when he says: "There is no such thing as God-pleasing violence," As our nation prepares for some sort of response, retaliation, to this attack upon us, next Sunday perhaps, we ought to discuss war from our Christian perspective to offer some guidance as to how we think about such things. Luther allowed for a "just war;" still, for now, the Bishop's caution is well advised: "if we despise and do violence to those who truly follow the Moslem faith," those other than terrorists, "those who believe its teachings and live in peace, then we are no better than those who have used their claimed religion as a banner for their personal sinfulness. The innocent are to be protected no matter what their religion, language, skin-color or any characteristic that makes them different from us or others." My friend Jack from Canada puts it better than me or the Bishop: "I can hate the one black bear that killed my neighbor's dog without hating all black bears!"

We need only to remember the Japanese-American Interment Camps of World War II which, with the perspective of time, we now regard universally as one of our greatest national shames! We can't do it again! We can't become like the enemy! Mayor Rudy Guilliani, with dust still on his suit and a gaunt glaze in his eyes, cautioned: "We are not to give in to anger and prejudice for that is what caused this tragedy in the first place!"

I see the Cross! Planted firmly in that pile of rubble, I see the Cross! "Lift High The Cross," we sang only last week. "With the Cross of Jesus going on before," we sang in another popular hymn. On Tuesday evening, here at St. Peter's, when I came to open up for the Prayer Vigil, there, earning my total admiration, was Pat Shebey, true to her phone conversation with me earlier in that day, true to her respect for the stance of Winston Churchill during World War II that in the face of tyranny life must go on, there she was to lead our brave ladies, on that very damnable day, not cowering at home, but in their own way, here in our own church, standing up to terrorism, and saying, "NO!" Rudy Guilliani said: "We are to go about our lives to show that vicious, cowardly attacks will not stop us!"

Indeed, in the scripture passage that has been foremost in my mind all week long, helping and sustaining me, and which is, I guess, the text for this rather impromptu sermon, Paul says in Romans 5:

...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance, and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint us, because God's
love has been poured into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

We are suffering! Presently, we are enduring! Surely we are demonstrating character! And the image of the Cross planted firmly in the rubble of Tower, or Pentagon, or plane crash, is indeed a sign of hope!

"Where have all The flowers gone?...Gone to graveyards everyone." I see the Cross firmly planted in the pile of rubble, for it is also a grave! O, yes, surely, we hold out all hope, and we pray yet for more survivors to be found like "The Lost Sheep," midst such rejoicing, to be rescued, to be resurrected from their terrifying tomb; but we fear the grave, the grave of thousands!

And we grieve! The fiance of a woman I slightly know is among the Trade Center missing! Some of you may already have been directly touched by loss! I fear that in the days ahead, as we become more aware of those whom we have lost, that hardly a one of us will not be affected! If not directly, through family, friends, community and congregation, we will know someone who knew someone! We grieve, perhaps vicariously, but we grieve, knowing, feeling, groaning over the loss of our own loved ones in life and the raw edge of what that is like, thereby unashamedly weeping with a mixture of utter melancholy and also swelling pride as we hear the stories of those we already know to be gone, over 300 firefighters and incredibly courageous airline passengers who grappled hand to hand with armed terrorists, averting the destruction of who knows what else and the deaths of who knows how many more! We grieve with Ted Olsen, the Solicitor General of the United States, the President's Lawyer, who, representative of all the others, spoke to his wife Barbara by cell phone from the plane about to crash into the Pentagon, and could do nothing! We grieve for the terrors Barbara and all the others in that last unimaginable, unconscionable instant before impact! We grieve with everyone holding up pictures so desperately waiting for those still missing! It is impossible to bear!

For as we stare upon that pile of rubble, could there ever be a more clear vision of what it means to "perish?" Yet, there I see the Cross! And our faith teaches that, "All who believe in Jesus shall not perish, but have eternal life!" Indeed, on this day, this Sunday of Sundays, we offer up this prayer: "Lord God, welcome all these who have not perished!" Paul writes:

For the trumpet will sound, and the dead
will be raised imperishable, and we shall
be changed. For this perishable nature must
put on the imperishable, and this mortal
nature must put on immortality. When the
perishable puts on the imperishable, and
the mortal puts on immortality, then shall
come to pass the saying that is written:

'Death is swallowed up in victory.'
'O death, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?'
...thanks be to God who gives us
the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ...

"Where have all the graveyards gone?" Christians know. "Gone to flowers, everyone!" And many of them are LILLIES!

AMEN

Copyright © 2001 Gunnar L. Anderson. All Rights Reserved.

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