Sermon Notes for September 11

First Responders
Matthew 28:16-20
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 11, 2011

For many of us, even writing the date ‘September 11’ is very, very difficult. We are reminded on this date of incredible human suffering, terrible evil, our shock and anger, and fear, along with the inspiring courage so many showed that day as well, on the ground and in the air. Yet the frightening scenes of terror from that day that replay themselves over and over again in our minds, the memory of loved ones and friends lost in the conflicts overseas spawned by that terrible day, and the continuing suffering of those who feel most deeply the loss of loved ones from those awful hours, compels us to pause with our fellow citizens today in a united fellowship of suffering. We gather to worship, but also in our worship to comfort and encourage one another and pray for all who still suffer most deeply the scars of 9/11. Most supremely we come to confess our greatest need – to hear and believe afresh the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the only hope for peace in and among the peoples of the world.

We can add to this the sorrow and pain and fear so many in our own community have felt this week as a result of the fires which have plagued us. Many are weeping; many are wondering and fearful; many are mourning; many are weeping. Who will comfort them? How will they find hope?

Perhaps like me you have paused this week to pray and give thanks for the first responders – the firefighters who risk so much to enter the hell of the blaze and rescue so many. Seeing them work this week also took me back to the scenes of ten years ago when we watched in astonishment as medical personnel, chaplains, firemen, law enforcement officials, and aid workers rushed into areas which we have been trained to run away from. They are rightly called our heroes – our first responders. Let us honor them and give thanks for them. As we do so, we may also learn from them how we too might come to lead heroic and courageous lives of faith. We can do so by seeing the world as it really is, by trusting God’s mercy to be greater than that reality, and offering ourselves as agents of reconciliation.

I. Let Us See the Disaster in All of Its Horror
The Need for the Great Commission: Terror and Tears
“You shall surely die…”
Not an execution carried out but an unavoidable consequence of dancing with the serpent.
The first two towers that fell
The centuries of enmity because of the rage of the one who hates the image of God.

The Object of the Great Commission: Enraged and the Broken
“Nations” – ethnos; the uproar and the One who is ‘Peace’
Psalm 2 and Micah 5
Rachel weeping; Jesus wept; he shall wipe away every tear from their eye.

II. Let Us Trust God’s Mercy in All Its Splendor

Jesus at Lazarus’ Tomb – his anger is directed where?
Rev Tim Keller on 9/16/2001
Demonize? No. Love and Evangelize
Who is the Enemy? Romans 5:6-10
weak, ungodly, sinners, and enemies
The Forgiveness of December 7, 1941.
We have not yet lived long enough to see what God will yet do with the sorrows of 9/11.
Genesis 50:15-21

III. Let Us Offer Ourselves as Ministers of Reconciliation
It is thus that we can enter into the flames of human need and suffering and tribulation, in the Name of Jesus and with his peace.
He is looking for his ‘first responders’

The One Whom We Teach and Proclaim
The One Who is with Us
The One who suffered in and with our sufferings
The One Who Will Make All Things New
“Is everything sad going to come untrue?” – JRR Tolkien

Through Christ, the answer is an eternal ‘yes and amen’. We cannot ignore the world to which we’ve been sent with the excuse that our worship of the sending God is all that he requires. No. There are towers still falling, people still dying and mourning, children still hungry and thirsty, neighbors today who are homeless and fearful. Let us see the fall, let us trust the Gospel, and let us offer ourselves to Christ for his mission in the world he loves and for which he suffered. Amen.