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Where is the cross in violence?

The issue of violence and Christians part in it have been singularly linked since the Prince of

Peace was violently killed on a hill outside Jerusalem, two thousand years ago. Sometimes the cross,

symbolizing those who follow Christ, stands against violence and prevails. But other times, the

violence in the world is so powerful that it seems to overwhelm the cross. The photograph on the front

of the bulletin seems to indicate that September 11, 2001, was such a time. This is the cross atop

Trinity church on Wall Street. Trinitys church building was damaged when the Trade Center towers

fell, but the church itself, the people, survives by Gods grace.

The trauma we have undergone as a nation has not been an impersonal one for us. Many families

represented here today were directly affected by the war begun against us on September 11, 2001.

Many of us may have spent agonizing hours on that now-past Tuesday seeking or awaiting word of

loved ones or friends in New York who might have become casualties. Our families have seen sons or

daughters or other loved ones go off to campaigns in warring places. The attacks of September 11,

2001 did not happen just way up in New York or Washington. In a real sense, it happened here, right

here in Fairview, Tennessee.

On that Tuesday afternoon I called an Army colonel in Washington, D.C., a close friend with

whom I had served around the world. He was safe. He told me that F-16 fighters were thick as flies

above our nations capital. We had never seen that before. We had never neededto see that before.

Three days later I called another friend with whom I served in the Pentagon. He told me that the

Armys casualty list would be released that afternoon. Then he said, You know some of them. And

late Friday when the list did become public, I saw the names of some men and women I had known.

None had been close friends, but it still hit me hard.

Then on the same day I got an email from the Rev. John Maynard of Bunyip, Australia, with

whom I had corresponded on occasion about ministry matters. John wrote, One of the members of my

Presbytery spoke to me today. He has two cousins who live in America and work at the Pentagon one

in the Air Force Section and the other in the Naval. He has tried to find out their fate, but so far without

success. We fear the one in the Naval Section may be among the causalities. Our heart in Australia

goes out to all who have lost loved ones in this recent tragedy, or have been affected deeply through

people they know. You have our prayers this Sunday. Christs Love, John.

After time had passed I was able to discover that twelve percent of the total killed in New York

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came from other countries. Koreans, Indians, Germans, Colombians, Italians, Filipinos,

Bangladeshis, and others. Almost none of these dead were tourists. They lived and worked in New

York. Hence, it was not hyperbole for our nation's leaders to say that this attack was against world

civilization.

For ten years today, our nation has been at war. The cost in blood and treasure has not been low.

Today we commemorate the day and memorialize the dead, injured and bereaved in New York, the

Pentagon and the brave men and women who foiled the hijackers plot on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania

at cost of their own lives. And in memorializing and remembering, we flee to the cross. The past ten

years have shown us the impermanency of human life, indeed, of human endeavor. The builders of the

World Trade Center reportedly said that the towers would last ten thousand years, yet they were

destroyed in little more than one hour.

The fleetingness of human life and work was well understood by the prophets and Jesus himself.

All people are grass, wrote Isaiah, their constancy is like the flower of the field. In the world you

will have trouble, Jesus warned us. A large number of passages in the Bible observe that human

beings are wisps and human endeavors endure barely longer.

But there is good news even so make that especially so. The fleetingness of human life and

affairs does not dismay Isaiah because, The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God

stands forever. He does not mean merely the written word of Scripture, but the Word as Gods never-

ending, personal involvement in the events of history, in the lives and concerns of human beings. God

is here among us now. Thus, those who rely on God shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and

not be faint.

This God known to Isaiah, known to the apostles, known in Christ, is a God of justice. The

prophets emphasized that God is righteous and does not delight in wickedness. No prophet in the Bible,

Jesus included, ever denied the reality of evil in the world. But we know that the triumph of God over

evil is already certain. It is just not yet accomplished. Thus, even though we cannot face the future with

certainty, we do face it with confidence; in fact, we mustface it with confidence. Faith can do no other.

We are to take courage, because Christ has overcome the world.

These two facts about God that God endures with us always, and that God loves justice show

that human impermanency does not mean that our lives are unimportant. On the contrary, human

beings and our affairs are crucially important, not just to ourselves day to day, but to God.

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Where is the cross in violence?

As the dust settled ten years ago and rescuers were able to start clearing the wreckage in New

York, they came upon a startling scene. In the midst of ruin, surrounded by rubble and desolation,

rescuers came upon a perfectly formed Roman cross, made of the iron of I-beams of World Trade

Center building six when it collapsed.

Word quickly spread. Within a day work teams entering the wreckage started going to the cross

first, praying before it or leaving notes on it. On October 3 it was moved from the ruins to a pedestal on

the former WTC plaza on Church street.

In October 2006 the cross was moved the St. Peter's church, which faces WTC plaza, bearing a

plaque which read, "The Cross at Ground Zero - Founded September 13, 2001; Blessed October 4,

2001; Temporarily Relocated October 15, 2006. Will return to WTC Museum, a sign of comfort for

all."

On July 23 of this year the cross was blessed by Rev. Brian Jordan during a short ceremony and

then was taken by a flatbed truck back to the scene of the attacks, where it was emplaced in the

National September 11th Memorial and Museum.

It may be that the cross-bearing people of God are hard pressed now on every side, that we are

perplexed, that we are haunted by battles of the past decade and fearful of of more violence perhaps to

come. Even so, we are not crushed, we do not despair, we are not truly destroyed.

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow

weary, his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.

The presence of God and the love of God are never lacking in the world though from time to time

God may appear distant. Even the Psalmist had been through dark nights when others said, There is

no help for you in God. But all who take refuge in God finally come to rejoice.

Let us always carry around in our lives the love and holiness of Christ so that the life of Christ may

be revealed in us no matter our circumstances.

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