Sermons
Fools for ChristPastor Russell Norris |
It was a terrible day. It was a day of explosions and fire, a day of disaster, death, and destruction. It was a day when the heart of the city was destroyed by a senseless attack from the sky. And when it was over, all that was left were ruins - a smoking pile of rubble there in the heart of the city.
But no, it was not the World Trade Center. And it was not September 11, 2001. This attack took place nearly seventy years ago. It was the city of Coventry, in England, at the height of the blitz. On the night of November 14, 1940, Coventry was destroyed by fire bombs dropped by the German Luftwaffe. And the 500-year-old Cathedral in the heart of the city - Coventry Cathedral - burned along with the rest of the city. And in the morning, it was all a smoking pile of ruins.
That next morning, the people of Coventry made a decision -- a decision to rebuild - to rebuild the Cathedral - not as an act of defiance - not as a fist in Hitler's face - but as a sign of faith, a sign of hope for the future. It was the vision of the Provost of the Cathedral - Dick Howard - that led the people of Coventry away from bitterness and hatred; so that eventually, Coventry Cathedral became the center and symbol of a world-wide Ministry of Peace and Reconciliation.
Not long after the attack, the Cathedral's stonemason, Jack Forbes, found two of the charred roof timbers - timbers dating back to the Middle Ages - that had fallen in the shape of a cross. And so he set them up in the midst of the ruins, where they were later placed on an altar of rubble, with the words, "Father, Forgive" inscribed on the stones.
Eventually, a new Cathedral was built - the Cathedral of St. Michael - the Archangel Michael. The ruins of the old Cathedral were left as a kind of a shrine - only the walls remain today, and that charred cross with the words, "Father, Forgive."
It's been a long time since I visited Coventry Cathedral - almost forty years ago. But the memories came back, on that awful September 11th, when fire again came from the sky, and again a city was engulfed by smoke and flames, and people died, and evil seemed to have won the day.
There are some interesting parallels between those two events, those two attacks, those two cities. I think, for example, of the charred timbers from the Cathedral's roof, set up in the form of a cross. And of course, we've all seen the image of the cross at Ground Zero, formed from the steel beams of the World Trade Center. It seems appropriate somehow that the cross should rise at that very point in our world where evil seems the strongest. As a reminder that no matter how powerful evil may appear, the power of God is greater.
And I think of the words inscribed on that altar in Coventry - words which have shaped the ministry of that church for more than sixty years: "Father, Forgive." Not an easy thing to say, in the face of such evil, pain and death.
Two years after 9/11, NBC's Dateline broadcast an interview with Lisa Beamer, whose husband, Todd Beamer, was one of those heroes on Flight 93 who gave up their lives to prevent yet another disaster. And of course, we all know the story of the last words of Todd Beamer to a telephone operator named Lisa Jefferson.
Lisa Jefferson called Todd's wife after the crash to tell her about that phone call, and Todd's last words. She said that before he put the phone down with the words, "Let's roll," Todd asked the operator to recite the Lord's Prayer with him.
In the interview on Dateline, Stone Phillips said to Lisa Beamer: "You say you believe that when he recited the part about 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,' that in some way, in some sense, he was forgiving the terrorists?"
Lisa Beamer responded, "I believe that in that moment he was trying to get his heart right and know that he was in line with the person that God would have wanted him to be before he took some serious action."
Stone Phillips said, "Can you ever forgive the hijackers?"
Lisa replied, "I don't think about them a lot. You know, bitterness and anger doesn't get one very far in life. And I won't allow it to seep in. I won't allow someone else's terrible actions to turn me into a person that I don't want to be. Whether if I could, you know, sit down next to Osama bin Laden right now, would I say, 'I forgive you?' I don't think so quite yet…."
You have to appreciate her honesty - and her wisdom. "Bitterness and anger doesn't get one very far in life. And I won't allow it to seep in. I won't allow [evil] to turn me into a person I don't want to be." Lisa Beamer's struggle not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil by good, is the reason the cross is planted at Ground Zero, just as it was planted firmly in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral.
The symbol of the cross - whether it's the charred roof beams of Coventry, or the steel girders of the World Trade Center, or the cross on this very altar - they all say the same thing: That the power of God, the power of Good, is stronger than any evil the world can throw at us. And it's the power of God that makes it possible for us to pray, in the midst of evil, death and destruction, "Father, forgive."
After all, the power of evil isn't limited to 9/11 or Ground Zero. Thousands of people died that day, and that was a great evil. But all around the word, thousands of men and women and children die every day - from violence, war, starvation, disease - and that, too, is a great evil.
The people of Coventry made a decision the morning of November 15th, 1940 - the day after the raid that destroyed their city and their Cathedral - it was a decision not to surrender to bitterness and hatred. For then evil would have won. But they decided rather to build - not just a church, but an entire ministry - a ministry that has provided spiritual and practical support to victims of conflict all around the world. Their symbol is that charred cross in the midst of the Cathedral's ruins.
In the same way, Jesus challenges us in the Gospel this morning. The words are among the most familiar, the most beloved in all the Bible: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that all those who believe in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."
To forgive the very people who hate you, who want to destroy you, and everything you believe in? Why you'd have to be some kind of a fool to do that! Which is precisely the point. God calls us to be fools for Christ. As Paul says in Corinthians:
"The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." In a sense we are fools - fools for Christ. After all, it was Jesus himself, as he hung on that first cross, mocked and ridiculed and tortured and betrayed by the very people he came to save - it was Jesus with his dying breath who prayed, "Father, forgive. For they know not what they do."
To the world, that's foolishness. When somebody hits you, you hit them back. That's the way it is in this world. "Don't get mad, get even." And we can see the fruits of that in what's going on today in the Middle East, between Israel and the Palestinians, between the Shiites and the Sunis. Just as we saw it in Northern Ireland, in Bosnia and Kosovo, in Ruanda, Liberia, Darfur and the Congo. Each act of violence is met by more violence. And the cycle goes on and on and on. What hope is there in that for peace?
The message of the cross is the world's best and only hope for peace. And what is that message? The same as it was for Coventry Cathedral - and the World Trade Center. The message is this: The cross is found wherever evil is most powerful - wherever people are hurting, lonely, sick, dying and grieving - in the midst of the city, in the midst of the world, in the midst of our lives, God is at work, reconciling, forgiving, healing.
The lessons today remind us there is a war going on. Not a war in Afghanistan or Iraq - but a war in our own hearts and minds - a war in our everyday world and our everyday lives. It's a war between good and evil. It's the struggle to live the Gospel in the face of evil. It's the struggle of the people of Coventry, the struggle of the Lisa Beamers of this world, it's your struggle and my struggle, to forgive our enemies, and to live the Gospel, and to be fools for Christ.
Yes, there is a war going on - a war between God and evil. The Good news is that the war has already been won. It was won on a cross, on a hill outside the city walls, 2,000 years ago. And while there may yet be battles to fight, and there may yet be suffering ahead, the victory is in sight.
It's a little like World War II after the Normandy invasion. Even after D-Day there was a lot of hard fighting yet to go. There were battles yet to be fought. And people would suffer and people would die. But the handwriting was on the wall. The end was in sight. And for those with eyes to see, the victory was at hand.
And so it is with us. The cross is planted in the heart of our world - in those very places where evil, sin and death are the strongest. The cross is planted in the heart of our world to remind us that evil will not have the last word. God will have the last Word. The message of the cross does look like foolishness compared to what the world calls wisdom. But for those who believe, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds steady in the face of adversity, confident in the victory that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.