As I worked all week long to decide how to preach on a day when everyone's focus would understandably be on the 10th anniversary of the attack on American soil by a group of radical extremists, I also was studying the lectionary for the day, considering the gospel reading dealing with forgiveness.
Please don't misunderstand my intentions. I was not setting out to lessen the impact of remembering those who died ten years ago, or those who are affected to this day by those events. I heart goes out everyday in ways that people may never understand because of what I was doing that day, and how my job as well as a close friend's job (a firefighter) was affected all the way on the other side of the country.
But I also found my heart filled with extreme sadness today. All sorts of "what if's" have run through my head. Everything from opportunities in my life to the feelings that people might of been feeling there in New York City, Washington DC, near a field in Pennsylvania, and all around the country as they watched the events unfold on television.
Today I preached about forgiveness. It's Scripture. It's the teachings of Jesus.
To forgive others as we've been forgiven.
Will the sadness ever go away? Will we get past the anger and the pain from that day and find a way to love others?
We've learned to pull together from that day, but I've also seen so many people discriminate a certain set of people all because a handful of radical extremists performed a horrible act of violence.
Can people look past their secular differences and realize that just because a few people were buttheads (it's about as nasty as you'll see me post in these blogs - LOL), not everyone are dangerous? Some people might even teach us something about ourselves. Like how to live in peace.
Christ teaches us to love one another just as God loves us. There is not "time table" for it. It's a straightout, forward statement.
Enough said.
