On the Love of Enemies: A September 11 Meditation

 A former parishioner of mine just sent me this text of a meditation I gave on the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. I read it, and I think it isn't bad. So here it is.

On the Love of Enemies: A September 11 Meditation
Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor

September 11, 2011

On September 11, 2001, extremists who claimed to be acting in the name of Islam but who were actually betraying several core principles of Islam attacked the United States of America. They brought down the two skyscrapers of the World Trade Center in New York. They crashed an airplane into the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Another plane they had hijacked, that they apparently intended to crash into either the Capitol Building or the White House, crashed in Pennsylvania when passengers overpowered the terrorists. The United States responded with a massive military invasion of Afghanistan, the country whose Islamist government we believed (with some but not solid justification) had harbored the terrorists as they planned and trained for their breathtaking act of terrorism. The United States then responded further with a massive military invasion of Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with the September 11 terrorist attacks. Today, ten years later, American troops are still engaged in combat in those two countries, especially in Afghanistan, where we are bogged down in an unwinnable war that has no end in sight. The United States responded by passing laws and adopting supposed security measures that severely restrict the valued civil liberties of all Americans.

On July 22, 2011, a crazed terrorist set off a bomb outside the office of the Prime Minister in Oslo, the capital of Norway. A few hours later he opened fire and killed 69 people at a youth camp run by the ruling political party of Norway. The Norwegian Prime Minister responded by saying that Norway would react to the attack by being more loving and more democratic. He apparently meant that strengthening the values that the terrorist hated would be the surest way to punish that terrorist.

 

St. Paul said “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:20-21 By saying we would heap burning coals on the heads of our enemies by loving them he surely meant that returning good for evil is the surest way to lead the evildoers to repentance. Jesus said “Do not resist an evil doer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” Matthew 5:38-42 He also said “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:44 He meant do not resist evil with more evil. Do not resist evil with violence, but resist evil with creative, assertive measures of nonviolence.

 

Our country suffered a terrible wrong on September 11, 2001. Of that there is no doubt. Nothing we say here today is intended in any way to excuse what those terrorists did. They committed a monstrous crime against humanity for which there is no conceivable justification. That truth is undeniable. Yet here’s another undeniable truth. We had no control over what people filled with hate and bad theology did. We did have, and we do have, control over how we respond to what they did. And, my friends, we responded very badly to what they did. We repaid violence with violence. We repaid hatred with hatred. We responded to an attack on our way of life by making changes to that way of life through measures like the so-called Patriot Act and in other ways that have diminished our freedom and handed the terrorists a victory they could never win on their own. Our invasions of two Muslim countries fed the terrorists’ cause of fanning hatred of our country and created more terrorists than it eliminated.

 

I don’t know if the Prime Minister of Norway is a Christian, but his response to the terrorist attack on his country was far more Christian than was, and is, our response to the terrorist attack on ours. Yes, the attack on us killed a lot more people than the attack in Norway, but then we’re a much bigger country than Norway. Jesus calls us to respond to hatred with love. We didn’t do that. Jesus calls us to love our enemies. We don’t do that. The Church of the Brethren puts out a bumper sticker that reads: “When Jesus said love your enemies, I think he probably meant don’t kill them.” It seems such an obvious truth, but it is one we Americans have never learned.

 

Today we remember the terrible events of ten years ago. We remember the pain, the fear, and the anger that we felt. We remember the lives that were lost, and we grieve with the families whose innocent loved ones died simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We remember and give thanks for the countless acts of heroism of that day. We remember and give thanks especially for the members of the New York City Fire and Police Departments who rushed into those blazing buildings trying to save lives and who lost their lives because they did. We remember and give thanks for the heroism of the airplane passengers whose bravery prevented another completed attack on another symbol of our nation. We remember and give thanks for the service of the American men and women who chose to respond to the terrible events of that day by serving in the American military. The decisions on how to use them were not theirs, and so many of them serve out of a true sense of loyalty to their country.

 

As we remember the terrible events of that day we remember the power of forgiveness. That day so demonstrates the need for forgiveness. Forgiveness for those whose hearts are so filled with hatred that they would do such terrible things. Forgiveness for ourselves and our nation for the ways in which our actions contributed to and created not a justification for that hatred but a pretext, a rationalization for it. Forgiveness for the ways in which we have perpetuated violence in the years since that violent day.

 

On that terrible day we suffered an act of extreme violence. And we responded to that violence with more violence. Far more people have died in the violent aftermath of 9/11 than died on that dreadful day. More Americans. More Iraqis. More Afghanis. Our violence has not made us safer. It has merely perpetuated the hatred that led to those acts of terrorism. Our great faith tradition teaches that nonviolence is God’s way and must be our way. God’s dream is of that day when we shall beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks, when nation shall not lift up arms against nation, and we shall learn war no more. If that day is ever to come someone must break the cycle of violence. Someone must respond to hatred with love.

 

We are the most powerful nation on earth by far, and that means that we are the ones who must break the cycle of violence. We can’t leave it up to others. So today let us remember. Let us grieve. Let us celebrate the heroes of that day. But mostly let us learn. Let us learn that violence only begets more violence. Let us at long last learn the lesson that Jesus taught so long ago. Love your enemies. It is the only way to peace. Amen.