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Minister and President’s Message
Christian vocation is reconciliation - even on September 11th
September, 2002
By Nancy S. Taylor
As we approach the anniversary of September 11th, many people will recall in a fresh way the grief of loved ones lost and a world forever changed. The media will present us with an array of images: news of memorials and events, stories of survivors and rescue workers, accounts of rebuilding, footage of the horrific events of a year ago. Churches, mosques, synagogues and town and city halls are planning services and vigils. Most of us will experience a wide range of emotions.
The events of September 11th continue to touch us personally, economically, and theologically. They touch us in our different identities as Christians, Americans and world citizens. Indeed, it is hard to encompass all the various issues, concerns, and perspectives precipitated by the events of September 11th, 2001.
Contemplating my own spiritual orientation to the events of the coming anniversary, I turned to the New Testament readings for the Sunday before September 11th. There I was confronted by the words of Jesus calling us to forgive the one who sins against us. “How many times?” asks Peter. “Forgive him seventy times seven times,” Jesus replies. (Matthew 8. 15-21) Instantly, I am reminded that I am from a different world: the world of Jesus and Christian discipleship where God operates in counter-intuitive ways. It is a world in which forgiveness is beyond calculating.
God, help me to learn that kind of forgiveness.
Next I turned to the reading from the Letter to the Romans. There Paul urges me “to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 13. 8-14) The swirls of emotion I feel about September 11th are, frankly, in stark contrast to this extraordinary directive: put on the Lord Jesus Christ. I am reminded that God’s ways are not my ways.
Comment on this article through our Discussion Forum God, help me to choose your way and not the way of the world. Help me to put on the Lord Jesus Christ – to perceive, react, reach out, and act as he would, and as he would have me do.
Through the words of Jesus and Paul I am reminded that the vocation of a Christian is reconciliation, love, and mercy. This is a most difficult vocation. For this I will need a sturdy life of prayer, a Christian community that encourages me along this lonely road, a sure experience of Jesus in my life, and a solid grounding in scripture.
God, give us the courage to follow the counter-intuitive vocation of our Christian discipleship.