The 'anniversary' of the attacks on our country on 9/11 is always a time for me to take a kind of spiritual inventory. Certainly we honor those who courageously gave their lives seeking to help others in need - the police and fire personnel who saw a greater good, who may have remembered the words of Saint Paul, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die." (Rom 5:7)
But we are not first responders, those chartered to go into dangerous situations for the sake of helping others.
Or are we?
What have we learned about our own need to seek the good and to reject the evil in this world since 9/11?
I did a quick search on "church attendance since 9/11", and the results are appalling. Attendance was up after the attack. For a paltry month. Then, we enlightened Americans simply returned to our cesspool. We began shopping, and watching reality TV, and hit the golf courses on Sunday mornings. Where was God? Oh, we put Him away, right back into that closet where we know we can find Him again - IF we need Him.
I don't believe that Jesus was speaking only about the Pharisees when He said, "For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing. And their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them." (Mat 13:15) I think our Lord was focused on all of humanity for all time until such time as He would come again - to judge the living and the dead.
We don't need to be trained fire and police personnel to be "first responders" in a world gone mad. We can pray today that our Lord will intercede for the people of Syria who are being slaughtered by mad men whose political agendas clearly dominate their care for a suffering people. We can pray for the same intervention in Egypt, and in Rwanda, and in Afghanistan, and in literally hundreds of other places around the world. We are called to be "first responders" in prayer. And yes, maybe in fasting for that peace that can only come from God.
In a world filled with turmoil, we've forgotten the essential. The attack on our country 12 years ago was not a 'judgment' meted out by God upon us. But it did provide us with a wake-up call to return to Him, to repent, to "seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness." (Mat 6:33)
Jesus warned us in the Parable of the Wise Virgins that we must remain watchful, ever vigilant for His return. He told us that we won't know the hour in which He will come, but that we must be ready for that hour when it arrives. To be ready, we, like those wise virgins, must have our "lamps trimmed". We need to be bearers of light to the world around us. We need to carry with us that "extra oil" that will permit us to shine that light in a world that seeks only darkness. How do we do this? By repentance, by cleansing the lamps of our souls so that they might shine more brightly, and by arming ourselves with the weapon of the Cross, the weapon of peace.
Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)
Take comfort, 'be not troubled' in knowing that this peace cannot be taken from us. The world can take every possession, every physical support, but Christ gives us a spiritual peace that supersedes all of these.
On this anniversary, 12 years after a spiritual wake up call, let us not fall prey to the accusations in Proverbs: "As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." (Prov 26:11) For a month after 9/11, the churches were filled with those looking for God. I think we can say now that if they didn't already have Him, they were not going to find Him in a 2 or 4 week "search". So many who seemed committed to change their lives and seek God waned so very quickly, and returned to 'the folly' that was life in America, as it was on 9/10.
For those who believe, or those who have come to believe because God has our hearts, even if our faith feels as though it's 'in the margins', let us turn with renewed effort to following Christ - in the churches, in our offices and schools, in our governmental offices, in the streets, in our cars, and most especially in our homes.
"For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time." (Rev 12:12) Indeed, the devil's time, as well as our time, grows short.
"Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: "For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul." (Heb 10:35-39)
It is time for us to live as if we are slaves to a Master who loves us enough to forgive us our sins, and to save our souls. It all begins with faith, and with a heart to not draw back to that same old lifestyle we led before we were awakened from our sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment