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Sunday, September 23, 2001
Rev. James A. Todhunter

There has been much response to the televised remarks of the fundamentalist preachers, Reverends Falwell and Robertson, stating that the atrocities of September 11th were God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of abortion, gays and lesbians, feminists, the ACLU, etc. While the terrorists were acting in an evil fashion, God "lifted the curtain of his protection" and allowed it to happen. The public outcry in answer this has brought about some qualified apologies as well as accusations that the "secular media" took their remarks out of context. The sleaziness of their responses detracts even further from their character. But the theology they profess deserves to be challenged.

A time of national crisis, like a time of personal crisis, raises theological questions: Who is God? What is the meaning of what is happening? What are we to believe and to do? It is very important for the church at such times to speak out clearly when others are making their theological commentaries. As I tried to say last week, the church needs to speak clearly to those in power that no human being or nation has the responsibility or ability to "eradicate evil from the world." Many Moslem clerics and others objected to the name "Operation Infinite Justice" for the same reason.

The theology of Reverends Falwell and Robertson is not only bad theology, it is dangerous theology, and deserves rebuke. Let me briefly address the problems.

First, God is not an angry and righteous judge, father figure, or whatever, who sits aloft meting out punishment and reward. That is the theology of people who can only think concretely, whose minds cannot understand symbolic language, and are arrested at some early stage of development. Such minds are forever bound by the literal. Whatever and whoever the first person of the Trinity is, God is our whole experience of God – Creator, Spirit, Jesus Christ.

Second, God’s justice is not a matter of whether or not to punish, or whether to lift or lower a curtain of protection. We ought to expunge from our vocabulary the term "punishment" when we talk about God. God is infinite justice and infinite love, and the two cannot be separated. This is important. God’s justice cannot be compromised. What this means is that nobody, including us, can be protected from the consequences of our actions, or the actions of those who have gone before us. We cannot be protected from the actions of others, people we don’t even know. The world we live in is a complex world of cause and effect. It just is. The idea that God decides to punish here and reward there according to whatever is on God’s mind is childish and not helpful. But God will not or even cannot protect anybody. And the idea that until now God has left some kind of "curtain of protection" in place surrounding America, just barely containing God’s anger because of abortion, gays, feminists and the ACLU, is simply bad theology (let alone hurtful and vengeful). By the same token, those on the radical left who are ready to say that this is God’s punishment for bad U. S. policy in the Middle East and our overall indifference to the poor of the world, make the same error. A theology that can perhaps help us is one in which we recognize that we live in a world of complicated social, political and international interactions. And we live in a world in which the divisions between the rich nations and the poor nations have never been greater. And God has a lot to say about that. The inequities of wealth and power in our world are real and are bound to have impact on everybody. The fact that we are hated by some in the world ought to at least get our attention. And we cannot cop out by saying simply that we are hated because we are good and those who hate us are evil.

Third, though it has been said loud and clear, we must keep saying it: the church has a special responsibility to stand in solidarity with people whose orientation is gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender. The church has to stand in solidarity with women and those fighting for women’s rights. It is not enough to dismiss the Falwell and Robertson remarks as rantings from the mouths of clowns. We cannot overlook the real hurt they cause and the twisted version of Christianity they betray.

Now, if what I have been discussing is not what God is about, then where is God and what is God doing? The best answer is to reread for yourself the scripture from Jeremiah this morning. God is in grief. God is in mourning. God is weeping day and night for the slain of the people. God and the people are one. One in sorrow. God’s joy is gone. God is in grief. God’s heart is sick. And what is God doing about it? Here is something very important. God cannot protect us from the consequences or our actions, or the consequences of other’s actions, or lift us out of the complex web of cause and effect into which we are all thrown. And, in a way, God does not even seem interested a spending a lot of time sorting out "who really is to blame." Instead God has promised to come to us in the midst of the consequences, into the real world where suffering happens. God chooses not to erase the consequences, but to suffer with us in the midst of the consequences, and to redeem the consequences. And God’s power is to bring good from the effects and impact of human sin. Not just good from evil in some general sense, but good in the world from the consequences of human evil. God participates in that, and never stops being God. And as God participates in all this, God invites us to participate in God’s participation. That is the mystery of God’s power, and God’s invitation.

One of the most moving stories of this disaster is of the Franciscan priest, a New York Fire Department chaplain, who was killed while administering last rites to a dying firefighter at the world trade center. The outpouring of grief for this one individual has been very moving – appreciation for his courage and for his pastoral care for so many. And as I reflect on his story, it becomes clear to me that he is a perfect example of someone who chose to participate in God’s participation in our blood soaked human history. He chose to be an agent of healing and reconciliation. Anyone who accepts the calling of a Franciscan does so in the full knowledge that participating in God’s participation in the world, means you put yourself at risk, just as the brave firefighters and police and others did.

And finally, to participate in God’s participation in the world, means we are asked also to participate, not just in our own suffering and sorrow, but in the suffering and sorrow of God. God’s joy is gone. Grief is upon God. God’s heart is sick. And we are invited into the very heart of God’s suffering. God is with us. And God is God. The power of God’s justice and love is infinite. And all will be well. All will be well. Amen.

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