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Sermon Index

THE PATH OF PEACE

by the Reverend John Parker Manwell
and the Reverend Phyllis L. Hubbell
at the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore
on the 11th of September 2002
In Memoriam

Rev. Manwell: We gather this evening in remembrance of the terrible attacks one year ago this morning. Four planes hijacked. Three planeloads of human beings crashed into buildings packed with people and one crashed into the ground.

Over these 12 months, we have wept, and we have raged. We have reached out to the survivors in sympathy. We have asked, again and again, what it all means. How could God let this happen? How could anyone think this was God's will? How could anyone hate so deeply?

I think we have learned many things about terrorism, about the world, and about ourselves. But what comes first to my mind is what we have learned about the resilience of the American people. Of the firefighters and the police officers who gave so mucheven their very lives; of the people of New York City, of those who work at the Pentagon; of the air crews who daily face the risk of terrorism.

Americans have plastered their cars, their homes, their bodies with American flagssome, no doubt, out of the kind of patriotism that proclaims "my country, right or wrong"but many more out of a sheer love for all that we hold dear. I'm not at all sure that most of us could say why we do so, except to say, "No! We will not let you destroy us. We're going to keep on building up the kind of world we believe in."

The path to peacethe path to the kind of world we believe inis a path of building bridges between one person and another, one people and another, one culture and another. Rather than demonizing each other as evil, we listen to each other's stories and find common ground. It's a path of embracing all the peoples of the earth as brothers and sisters. Across all our differences, we are meant to live as one.

Rev. Hubbell: "Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!"

At some level, we may realize that no matter how many degrees we hold, no matter how "respectable" we are, and no matter how hard we try to be good, we all fall short of what we hope for from ourselves. We fail. We hurt other people. By our very existence, we're complicit in great national failures, as well.

Perhaps Amazing Grace is so beloved because it assures us that regardless of our failures and imperfections, we are accepted, and acceptable, loved and lovable. We have the potential, always, to do better. We may not be able to offer a sound scientific explanation for our feelings, but most of us recognize that we have encountered grace in our lives. It is grace that gives us the strength to pick up our lives and go on in the face of great pain.

Dr. Alvin Jackson is the new pastor of National City Christian Church, the national flagship church of the Disciples of Christ. John and I met him, and heard him preach, as part of our "pilgrimage" of urban ministry last spring. He's an African American pastor at a historically white church located in the heart of Washington, with an array of ministries to the city.

Last September, following a visit to the Pentagon to meet with families who had lost loved ones in the devastation of 9/11, he was preparing to leave when a father who had lost a son came up to him and said, softly, "Pastor, it's all right."

Jackson nodded his agreement and left, but afterwards he pondered. No, it's not all right.A young life has been cut short. A father and a mother have lost their son and siblings their brother. Others have lost a friend. How can it be all right?

And yetlife must go on, and it does go on. We suffer grievous pain, but life goes on. Some survivors, of course, do get trapped in their pain. But most of us heal, and although the pain is always there, our lives go on.

As Dr. Jackson told his congregation, "grace becomes the signal of God's assurance that life can be all right when everything is all wrong." It's not a cliche, but a gift. A gift of faith that

allows us to look at earthly reality . . . with all of its hurts and heartbreaks, with all of its sad and tragic edges and cruel cuts, and still be able to say at the very center of our being, "It's all right." That's why we call it "amazing grace."

It's a gift of life itself, of ultimately, the creator of life, of God. We don't have to name it, only accept it.

Grace is what allows us not just to get on with life after September 11 but to find new dimensions in our living. Our priorities change, as we try to do justice to the lives that were lost. We take more pains to be present to those we love. To value and nurture our relationships, spend more time with our families, give back more to our communities. We may even take up tasks left behind by someone who has died or throw ourselves into some new work in memory of a loved one.

Whether it's a cause, or just the task of knitting our families closer together, grace challenges us to build bridges between people and peoples in this broken world. And we are savedfrom what? From futility and meaninglessness, from loneliness and self-absorption, from bitterness and cynicism.

Rev. Manwell: Through many dangers, toils and snares/I have already come;

'tis grace that brought me safe thus far/and grace will lead me home.

It is said that toward the end of his long life, filled as it was with triumph and tragedy, Winston Churchill accepted yet one more commencement invitation. It would be his last public address. Painfully and with the help of others, he rose to speak, paused, and offered only these few short words. "Never, never give up! Never give up!" Then he sat down.

We cannot know when terrorists will strike next, or where. But doubtless they will. May we, too, never give up. Never give up the search for peace. Never give up the search for justice.

Never give up.

With the eyes of grace, may we find our way home, even in the face of terror, to the abiding values that unite us as a nationvalues that call on us to be a nation of bridge builders. Through all the dangers, toils and snares, may we walk the path of peace

and never give up.