Texts of Terror and Transformation: A 9/11 Sermon

Leviticus 9:11: "The flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp."

Well, this is only the third book of the Bible, and already we get a sense of just how bloody and violent the book gets. This passage is about the origins of the cult of sacrifice in the Jewish rites. The best parts of the bull were burnt on the holy altar as a sacrifice to atone for sin, but the rest of the animal was burned outside the confines of the community. This passage is at the beginning of the long biblical record of the principle of substitutionary sacrifice—that something or somebody must die in order for things to be made right between God and humanity. In the New Testament, this practice culminates in the crucifixion of Jesus, who was understood by the early Christians to be the final and ultimate blood sacrifice to atone for the sins of humankind.

While the origins of this concept, that God demands blood sacrifice, are now shrouded by the mists of history—since this is pretty alien to our culture today—the legacy of it lives on in our hope that there will be redemption for the death of 3,000 people on 9/11, showing that their lives were worth something, not just because they were precious human beings, but worth something that can give us redemption. Their lives were payment for a future in which terrorism will be put to an end, in which the conditions that breed terror are corrected. Our hope is that the lives lost on 9/11 ultimately will be seen as a sacrifice for a higher purpose that will ennoble humanity.

This concept is a powerful one in our culture today, one that motivates our actions, hopefully not out of revenge, but out of an effort to have a positive outcome that will redeem those three thousand lives as lives not lost in vain. We now have a chance to give a new and more positive meaning to this ancient concept of sacrifice.

Deuteronomy 9:11: "And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant."

The people of the Bible—including you and I—are a people to be ruled by laws, not by the whims of tyrants or mobs. Laws that have a life beyond any one generation, laws that command more respect than the fleeting urges of rulers or even of voters. Something to think about long and hard, something to remember soberly as we experience an overwhelming temptation to bend the civil rights laws of this country in our passionate rush to lock up anybody who might be suspected of involvement in terrorism. Time to remember Moses on the mountain, with those precious legal tablets that would set the people of Israel apart, and make such a precious and enduring contribution to the advancement of civilization.

1 Kings 9:11: "...and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee."

Solomon got so carried away with building a fancy temple and capital in Jerusalem that he ran out of money and had to sell part of the country to a neighboring king to help finance his projects. Sound familiar? As we look back at recent events, think Enron. Think massive tax cuts for the rich at the same time that regular folks are losing their jobs and that local governments are being pinched to provide services for people in need. Think misplaced national priorities. Different millennium, same old story, eh?

Ecclesiastes 9:11: "Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all."

Thank you, Ecclesiastes! For reminding us of the ancient wisdom that Jesus knew so well, too. That the rain falls on the righteous and the wicked alike. That there was a terrible but in some way reassuring equality in the way that disaster fell on the rich and poor alike on 9/11. Janitors, firefighters, secretaries, and business moguls died alike. We are all dust, and to dust we shall return. 9/11 can be a reminder to us of our humble place in the grand order of things.

Isaiah 9:11: "So the LORD raises adversaries against them, and stirs up their enemies."

Jeremiah 9:11: " I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."

Daniel 9:11: "All Israel has transgressed thy law and turned aside, refusing to obey thy voice. And the curse and oath which are written in the law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him."

Hosea 9:11: "E'phraim's glory shall fly away like a bird—no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!"

These passages typify the woes and curses that the prophets railed against Israel and its often corrupt elites. It reminds us to ask ourselves: to what extent are we responsible for the conditions that created the terrorists? Not that we are to blame for 9/11, but certainly we need to look at our nation's contributions to the cultural and political and economic conditions that bred this awful menace to the world. And after we heed the call of the prophets, we need to take action as citizens and as a nation to deal vigorously for a peaceful resolution of the conditions that breed terror.