A Decade of Pain

A sermon by the Rev. David M. Horst, Interim Minister

Second Congregational Society, Unitarian Universalist

9/11 Service of Remembrance ~ September 11, 2011

With a 186-foot concrete base built to withstand a blast exceeding 900 pounds of TNT, a core of high-tech reinforced concrete running up the center, and a surrounding steel frame designed to distribute the weight should any two columns fail, the new 1,776 foot skyscraper at the site of One World Trade Center is likely to be the most bomb- and impact-resistant high-rise structure in the world.

With small flags painted with multi-colored peace signs and decorated with glass beads hung in store windows in and around the Main Street of Nantucket, local schoolchildren offer the gentlest of reminders to visitors and islanders that peace through peaceful means is a value many Americans still hold despite the realities of the world.

I put these two images before you and ask this question: Which one will make our country safer? Hardened concrete and steel or flimsy and fading peace flags? That is, advanced technology or a quaint old ideology?

I’ve contrived what may seem a false choice; but I do so to recognize competing narratives of national peace and security ten years after the 9/11 attacks unified America citizens in shared horror and outrage.

On this anniversary of the attacks by a band of criminals espousing a perverted brand of Islam, we grieve anew for the thousands of Americans killed in the attacks and the hundreds of first-responders who came to their rescue only to become casualties themselves. For the families still stricken by the loss of their loved ones, we share once more their heartache. They have endured a decade of pain, and we stand in solidarity with them and hold them in our thoughts and prayers once more.

The competing narratives are in the context of what many political and cultural commentators have asserted: That 9/11 was a turning point in our nation’s history, the date when the United States standing as the world’s sole superpower began to decline. The past ten years have been grim. Two wars bought on credit have contributed significantly to the national debt. Our moral standing has been diminished by our acquiescence toward torture and unlawful imprisonment of enemies both alleged and real. We’ve witnessed the rise of political and religious extremism following the election of a popular young, black president. Criminal abuse in the banking and investment industry nearly bankrupted our country and required a huge infusion of government funds, also adding to the national debt and triggering massive unemployment and an economic downturn. All of this helped create the toxic climate in Washington where political posturing has usurped thoughtful policy making. Indeed, this is a picture of an unstable and unsafe nation and world.

We cannot blame 9/11 for all of these economic and political troubles and misfortunes, but 9/11 seems to mark the beginning of a decline. Which narrative do we choose to understand and address the problem? What will save us now after this decade of pain? A trust in our ability to defend ourselves or a trust in the ability to make peace? 

I do not think concrete and steel will save us. I do think little children and peace flags just might, because what we need most of all is a change of heart. What we need is a belief in the sanctity and inviolability of human life. What we need is an equal sense of justice and mercy. What we need is a way to transcend ignorance and fear, greed and self-interest, religious intolerance, and extreme nationalism and bald aggression.

Is a heart-changing approach -- peace flags and all -- any match for real-world violence and war? I only know this: I cannot succumb to cynicism and despair, and concrete and steel are symbols of these things. I cannot live in a kind of fatalistic meaninglessness, and fortified structures are monuments to fatalism. 

I live by faith, and the quaint old peace symbol made is testament to my faith. I am still swept off my feet by hope. I trust in love.

I may sound like just another fuzzy brained, bleeding heart liberal today! I’d like to be a political realist, but I just don’t know how -- and we have plenty of those types anyway. I’d like to offer moral certitude, but human needs and desires are too complicated -- and there are already too many simple-minded fundamentalists doing that.

I can offer no hard-headed ideas to make our country safer; and in the context of the current political and economic turmoil, I struggle not to succumb to cynicism and despair myself. My walk up and down Main Street looking at the array of peace flags created by the first generation of the 21st century gave me some hope even as I imagined the new fortified One World Trade Center taking shape in New York.

My religious convictions keep me sane in a world that often seems otherwise. I live -- and we all live -- in that place between the world as it is and the world as it yet may be. I acknowledge the reality of concrete and steel, but I yearn for the peace symbolized in the flags made by our children.

The live in an in-between place. Much of the time, it’s true, the harshness of the world has us in its grip; but thankfully there are moments when the possibility of peace is before us.

Perhaps we cannot make the world safer. We can only try to make ourselves and those we love safer in it.

Keep safe in all your going’s in and going’s out. Find peace wherever you can. Make peace in whatever ways you are able.