More than Remembering

Today we are bombarded with remembrances of the Sept. 11 attack. Again and again, I am hearing 'Never forget' or 'We'll never forget.' What does that mean?

I'm sure some people simply mean they will never forget the events of the day or the loved ones they lost. Others mean that the horror of the day is irrevocably etched in their memories. How can it be otherwise? Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

But some, though, say it in a rather ominous tone, rather like a Soprano boss warning a competitor who has overstepped that there is more to come: the debt is not yet satisfied. The bill has not yet been paid - but it will be. And that is a problem.

When we look at a horror like 9/11 and think this way, we do our loved ones a disservice. Honoring their lives by taking other lives is no honor at all but simply revenge.

It's an understandable and very human response. "We are the victims! We've been attacked! Nearly 3000 innocent people died!" we cry. All true, without question.

"We can't let this go! We can't take this lying down! We won't!" That was the immediate, natural, human response. The power of the pain and outrage led to the so-called War on Terror.

Now, eleven years later, what has been accomplished? Over 8900 Americans, British and others in the coalition force have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Add to that between 218,000 and 291,000 people - over half, civilians - of those countries. Osama bin Laden has been killed, yet the killing doesn't stop.

This isn't honor. It isn't tribute. It isn't justice. It's revenge.

Now, revenge was fine with the Old Testament crowd back in the day, along with slavery and stoning folks. Eye for an eye and all that...but we are not people of the Old Testament.

We are the people of Jesus, Christians under a radical new covenant. Jesus, the Son of God, gives us a new response to injury and attack: turn the other cheek. That is not what we want to hear, is it? We are ordinary humans, and when we hurt we want to get back at the one who hurt us. It's normal.

But Jesus calls us to something better - a new way of living, a new definition of normal. And in that new way, Jesus shows us the difference between old and new. Instead of the eye for an eye mentality, Jesus teaches love.

Love your enemies, he says in Luke 6, and do good to those who hate you, who curse you, who hurt you. Bless them! Pray for them! You've heard this before: turn the other cheek. Do unto others.

In Matthew 5, he takes it even farther: "You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. "

Ouch. But that's not all.

He goes on: "You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven."

This is a problem. If we do not 'do unto others' and love our enemies, then we are not acting as true children of God.

So what would Jesus tell us to do today? He might tell us to pray for all those who have died due to terrorism, both the innocents and their killers. He might tell us to love even the masterminds of those attacks.

It certainly isn't what *I* want to hear! I'm very good at resistance, and perhaps you understand because you are, too. But the bottom line is, no matter what the hurt, no matter how terrible the attack or how great my innocence, Jesus does not support my desire for revenge. Jesus tells me to yield, to give over, to let go, to choose another way, a way that is folly in the eyes of the world.

We're all Peter in the garden, and Jesus keeps telling us to put away our sword. Maybe it's time to listen to Him.

Remembering the Unforgettable

Tomorrow is Sept. 11, the day that broke our hearts, all over the world. Various cable channels have been 'gearing up' for the day, much as they gear up for Christmas, by airing special programs reminding us of what happened on that sad day - as though anyone has forgotten.

It makes me sad on so many levels.

Of course I am saddened by the loss of so many innocent lives, ordinary people going about their day and heroic responders who lost their lives when the towers came down as well as survivors who now face devastating illness as a result of the day's events.

I am sad to think of so many other innocent lives lost in so many incidents in the days since then, so many terrorist attacks around the world.

I am saddened by the loss of so many bright young service men and women fighting in the Mid-East wars. And I am saddened by the havoc wrought on other innocent people whose homelands have been devastated in those wars. I grieve that so many deaths and so much destruction were the result of falsified information.

I am saddened by the pain of innocent peace-loving people who are mistaken for terrorists and who face prejudice and hate because of their appearance.

I am saddened by the cost of the war not only in terms of loss of life, but in loss of trust, loss of faith, loss of compassion, loss of generosity, loss of loving-kindness toward others.

I am saddened by the fruits of so much pain - the increase we see today of incivility, of anger, of hate, of racism, of bigotry, of greed, of ignorance, of fear-mongering and disinformation and propaganda, of outright lies being presented -and accepted - as truth, of violence to bodies and property and spirit and freedom. So much pain giving rise to so much more pain. So many losses, so much hurt- truly, the quantity is staggering to contemplate!

Tomorrow is the sad anniversary of a day that has ushered in eleven sad years. As we remember those who were lost, their loved ones, and all of us struggling to find our way in a world that makes less and less sense, let us pray for the nations of the earth.

Let us pray not that this or that party or faction win, but that the people win, that justice is served and peace restored, that the hungry are fed and the sick tended, that the homeless are given shelter and that in all things, Love is both the goal and the means to it.

Indeed, Love is our only hope.