Dear members of Calvary and friends,
Yesterday was the commemoration of the attack on the World Trade Center, the downing of flight 93 which crashed in the field in Pennsylvania, and flight 77 which attacked the Pentagon. In total, nearly three thousand died that day. Sunday night, people from a number of our congregations met to talk about how the church has changed as we consider how our various generations see the world: the Silent Generation (1925-1945), the Baby Boomers (1945-1965), Gen. X (1965-1980), the Millennials (1980-1995), Gen Z (1995- 2010), and now Gen. Alpha. It’s hard to believe that many of these last two were born after that horrid day. All they know of it is what they have seen on TV or heard about in school. Some of us remember it far too clearly. I was sitting on a red Spanish tile roof in Lexington with Chester as we flashed a chimney when the homeowner came out and told us about the first plane. By the time I got Chester’s transistor radio out of the truck and returned to the roof, the second had struck. It was not until I got home that evening that I finally saw the footage. For so many of us, the day seemed to stand still, that day and those following. Some of our clergy were in seminary in New York at that time and were called upon to minister in the streets. I doubt there was a sermon across the country that failed to try to make sense of the day that next Sunday. Even today, the only way I can, is to realize what can happen to people who stop thinking, stop seeing reality and blindly follow some idealized belief. Like many tragedies, we move further and further from them, but suddenly something brings it back. One crucial time for me was while officiating at my parents’ burial in Arlington National Cemetery, I realized standing before their grave, the tombstone in the foreground failed to hide where that plane had struck the Pentagon. I was born after World War Two, I remember my father being gone during the Korean War, both my brothers served in Viet Nam, I nearly did, some of my classmates died in the wars following 9/11. From the time of Cain and Able, it seems that violence is our way of dealing with conflict. Jesus sought to show us another way. I wonder, will the day ever come when we will practice what he lived. This past Sunday we heard Jesus say, “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” While many view this as giving the church the ability to bind to hell those they want, I fear we forget that Jesus spent all his time losing, letting go, forgiving. Should we not also?
Peace,
Bryant+
