Great. I get the blog for 9/11. Seventeen years, it has been. Most of our young people from K-12 were not even alive when the World Trade Center’s twin towers became crumbled mortar and ash. Think of this: seventeen years from now, hardly anyone will have lived who personally remember Pearl Harbor. History just zooms along at warp speed. We live in challenging, disturbed times. Word and deed are scrutinized and analyzed for all the world to see; or at least cyber-space and social media. We are united, radically. Connected, tragically. Yet we also know that there are numerous courageous, loving and hopeful people. An eleven-year-old girl stands on a stage in front of 40,000 people and tells her peers that God’s love changes everything. This eleven-year-old girl confessed to being trans-gendered. I confess that I don’t have any pastoral wisdom for what to do with that information. Like homosexuality, such behavior and self-awareness used to be considered evil, even inhuman. Everything is now out in the open, for better or worse.

What happened in New York City seventeen years ago changed us. It united us, radically. Hatred reared its ugly head again. And yet, as such testing moments do, it brought out the best of us. When we realize that this life has no regard for us, then self-sacrifice for the good of another becomes possible. Heroes risk, and give, their lives for strangers. I am not calling on all of you to go out and martyr yourselves, of course! It is enough of an awareness to know that we would, if the situation presented itself. As we reach out in trust, openness and welcome, fear gets chased away. Fear of those who are different, seem threatening at first glance, or want something.

God did something radical to me yesterday. He challenged me to invite a five-member family who had no place to go into our church for worship. To back up a little: our church sits on a main thoroughfare, making us an easy “target” for people in need of money for gas, food, a place to stay. Especially on a Sunday morning. They know they will get a lot of charitable people to come to their rescue. Yes, I gave this family some money; others did too. But it was the inviting them to worship in which I took a radical risk. And yet, I instinctively know our congregation enough to know that I would not get any backlash for inviting “them” into our church. The family who looked nothing like the rest of us sat politely in the back pew. The three children were marvelously well-behaved. I noticed the daughter mimicking my gestures at the Lord’s Table. I noticed all their mouths moving, singing songs that they probably didn’t know. And they were fed in so many ways – the Eucharist, the unabashed sharing of the peace, and yes, my birthday cake afterwards was a big hit for them! We were united, radically by God’s grace. God’s unconditional love changes everything. Even tragedy into triumph.

Pastor Art