Nebraska Synod ELCA

3 He shall judge between many peoples and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more;
4 but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

—Micah 4.3-4–

It was a beautiful Tuesday morning in Vero Beach, Florida. I was a seminary intern attending my first Space Coast Conference gathering with my supervising pastor. We had just started Bible study when an office worker from the church that was hosting our meeting walked into the room and whispered something in the pastor‘s ear. “A little strange,” I thought, “but these things happen.” A few minutes later, that same worker came in and whispered again into the host pastor’s ear. His face turned white, and he interrupted the conversation in the room to say “I think we need to end the meeting right now. As you all were arriving, a plane flew into the World Trade Center. A second plane hit the Trade Center just a few minutes ago. I think we need to go home to be with our people until we all figure out what’s happening.” Within minutes, we knew the Pentagon had also been hit, and another plane had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. All on a beautiful Tuesday morning that started like any other day.

Where were you 25 years ago on September 11? Some of you remember that day like you remember others in your lifetime: the assassinations of 1960s leaders; the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger; the falling of the Berlin Wall, the first cases of COVID-19. For some of you, September 11 was the first of those world–shattering moments in your life. Some of you reading this don’t remember it at all.

Wherever we were when it happened, we know that the 25 years since that horrible day have been shaped by the tragedy of those terrible attacks as much as anything else. Our lives have also been shaped by the collective response to this tragedy, and after 25 years, it’s fair to look back and wonder how our response has impacted the world since that day of horror and sorrow. We’ve done our best to
ensure that an attack such as this cannot happen again, but what price have we paid for that iron-clad security? The prophet Micah makes me wonder if the American response has not, in fact, created more fear, more suffering, more death in the end. American soldiers and innocent civilians throughout the world have suffered 25 years of violence and upheaval since that terrible day: has our response, driven by our fear, served only to increase fear in the world rather than lessen it?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” To those words, I would add: violence cannot drive out violence; only peace can do that. What if we did our best to alleviate suffering in the world rather than causing more of it out of fear and retribution? What if, in doing so, we moved the world one step closer to the prophet Micah‘s vision (which is, in the end, God’s vision), where each of us might live under our own vine and fig tree, and fear would trouble us no more? What if, after 25 years, the time has come for all of us to wonder: who is God calling us to be? Are we to be a people of fear and violence, or are we to be a people of faith and peace?

Yours in the restless love of Christ,
Bishop Scott

Questions to Ponder

1. Take a minute to reflect on Sept. 11, 2001. Where were you? What happened? How did you respond? If you remember that day, what will you tell the generations to come about it?
2. What do we risk if we decide to respond to violence with violence? What do we risk if we decide to respond to violence with restraint?

Prayer

Gracious God, grant peace among nations. Cleanse from our own hearts the seeds of strife: greed and envy, harsh misunderstandings and ill will, fear and desire for revenge. Make us quick to welcome ventures in cooperation among the peoples of the world, so that there may be woven the fabric of a common good too strong to be torn by the evil hands of war. In the time of opportunity, make us be
diligent; and in the time of peril, let not our courage fail; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.