In honor of the horrible and tragic events of September 11, 2001; remarks from my message delivered the following Sunday are reprinted here:
The prophets speak about how we mis - take life. How we substitute the false for the true, the superficial for the sublime. How we neglect the important and entertain, even work for, the vain things.
Now tragedy is our prophet. Her voice has made many things clearer now. Sadness is our nation’s unity and anger is knocking at the door, while vengeance is an unwelcome outsider that wishes to come in – brandishing its grim sickle.
In our sorrow that sometimes seethes, our laments become our confessions – but they need greater definition from us. They need to be faced and named so we wont be the same again. So we will seek God for real and for good.
Now our generation has met with calamity and a new fear. Now we understand our parents more, or our grandparents. Now we live more together, and less full of our selves. Now our hugs mean
more. “I love you,” means more. Friends, family, real community in Christ, mean more.
When will it be like it was again? Do you want it to be? Now that what’s meaningful is meaningful for real. Today our living is more profound, more sublime, more grateful, and imminently more a gift. Those who lost loved ones feel a pain that aches, and anger too. But their death is not wasted. And if I might say it, their death has become a gift to us. For their death has given us a call to life and to meaning and to God. Theirs then is a sacrificial death, pointing us to the one who died as the sacrifice… the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
And so, when I seek God, I think of a verse of Scripture that is perhaps my favorite. But I sometimes feel unsure of saying so because when people have the “What is your favorite verse?” discussion this one does not appear very personal and it is not about Jesus. But I am a morning person, and on countless mornings, I have risen to a new day and sought a quiet place – which is usually my back deck. I often go there with my Bible and a cup of coffee, and this verse is how God and I greet one another…..
Lamentations 3:21-24
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
