Everyone Has a Story
(The following is a message I gave at the American Church in London on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. With the 20th anniversary coming up, I wanted to share it again. Pastor John)
Everyone has a story.
When I was growing up my parents used to talk about where they were when John F. Kennedy was killed. I remember where I was when the Challenger space shuttle exploded and crashed. It was the way my grandparents remembered Pearl Harbor or VE-Day. All of those tragic, historic moments become markers that stay with us—they become a part of the way we see the world around us. They shape how we think about everything that happens after that moment.
Everyone has a story.
This past week, as we’ve come up to the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, people have been sharing their stories of where they were and what they were doing—of people they knew who had been lost or who had suffered losses.
One of my closest friends from childhood is a flight attendant for American Airlines. She has a terrifying story to tell.
Some of my colleagues who are pastors in New York or New Jersey or Connecticut remember the tragic funerals that filled their calendars and broke the hearts of their congregations.
For months after the attacks, The New York Times ran a series of biographical sketches called “Portraits of Grief”, telling a little of the stories of almost 2000 of the victims who died that day—from bankers to busboys, from soldiers to security guards, from police officers to transit workers to those 343 firefighters who ran into the Towers and never came back. The stories gave faces and names to the numbers we heard on the news. It was essential reading.
Over the past few weeks the Los Angeles Times has been collecting short articles that highlight the impact of that day on people’s memories now.
I was working for Fuller Seminary in California at the time of the attacks, and I had been in New York on a fundraising trip about a week and a half before. Most of us on the West Coast were sleeping when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center—it was 5:45am in California. Many of us who woke up to the news at 6 saw the second plane crash a few minutes later. My son was not quite a year and a half old that day. I wondered what kind of world he was going to grow up in.
Everyone has a story.
Acts 1:1-8
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Our text from the first chapter of Acts is a story that comes right at the end of Jesus’ ministry and before the birth of the church—for those of you who follow these things, this passage falls just before the Ascension and Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are in the presence of the risen Christ, still trying to figure out what exactly happened over the last month or so. Everything was going so well, then it all went catastrophically wrong, and then Jesus emerged from the tomb and you get the idea that the disciples were just trying to keep up.
Jesus is trying to prepare them for what was coming next, but the disciples didn’t understand what he was talking about. Did you catch that question they asked while Jesus was telling them what to expect? Jesus has lived with them and taught them and demonstrated his love by serving people and healing diseases and casting out demons and dying on the cross—he did all of that to show that the values of his Kingdom are different from those of the world. And after all that they ask him: “So are you going to restore Israel to power now already?”
You have to think that Jesus groans here, wishing they could understand what he was telling them, but he presses on and says: “Once the Holy Spirit comes to empower you, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and all over the world.”
In so many words Jesus told them: You have a new story to tell, and I want you to tell it everywhere.
What was the story?
The first part of that story is that God came in the first place, that he took on human form. At Christmas when we sing about “Emmanuel,” we’re celebrating the mystery of “God with us,” of God coming to reconcile us to himself.
The second part of our story is the message that Jesus came to share. More than anything else he talked about the Kingdom of God. In his sermons and parables and his confrontations with religious and political power, Jesus described a world with values that went against the grain—of generosity and forgiveness, of grace and love for enemies.
But most importantly our story tells of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross—of his taking on our sin and punishment so that we could come freely into the presence of God.
When Jesus told his disciples to “be my witnesses,” this is the story he wanted them to tell.
Being a witness in Jewish tradition was a very important thing. Only with two witnesses could a case be presented in court. Being an honest witness was so important that it becomes one of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against anyone.”
To be a witness was to testify, along with others, to the love and grace and sacrifice and redemption available through Jesus Christ.
The essence of the gospel is this: Through the life and ministry of Jesus we have seen what the world can look like when it operates according to the values of the Kingdom of God. Through the sacrifice of Jesus the Messiah we receive the good news that all people in all places can be reconciled to God.
So God’s already done the heavy-lifting. God has already done the work. The call on each one of our lives needs to be crystal clear: It isn’t to save the world. It’s to tell the story of the one who already has.
If that’s the story we’re meant to tell, then what does that mean for us today, as we gather to remember a horrible day and the impact it’s had on our lives?
First, it means that our lives aren’t trapped or limited by our memories of what happened 10 years ago. The gospel story is there to keep our fear and our anger in check—we have to keep from lashing out in revenge against people Christ came to redeem and to reconcile to himself.
Second, that new story means this: In the upside-down values of the Kingdom of God, our story of the September 11th attacks can become a catalyst for more forgiveness, not less. More work in the area of peacemaking, not less. More acts of gospel-sharing grace that tell the story of Jesus Christ in a meaningful, life-changing way.
But most importantly, to be a witness to the story of Jesus Christ is a daring, world-changing act of hope in a world that doesn’t have much of it right now. It’s an act of hope wrapped in the faith that announces to the world that Christ has come, Christ has risen, and Christ is coming again to make all things new.
How does all of that happen? That’s what we’re meant to discover together as the family of God, the Body of Christ, this local church. That’s why we’re going to spend the next few months here talking about what it means to love our neighbors, even if our neighbors are our enemies. That’s an act of hope.
We tend to think of hope as something elusive—something we can’t really find on our own. Sometimes we think of hope as something that happens to us beyond our control.
But Christian hope is active—it’s rooted in God’s faithfulness to his promises in the past. Christian hope is a discipline—we practice it daily so that we can get better at it—so that it can be more than simply hoping for a good parking place, or hoping you get into the right school.
One great theologian wrote that Christian “Faith hopes in order to know what it believes.”
To be Christ’s witnesses in this world is to be people of hope, people who hope so that we can know God’s story is true. And so we can go out and be his witnesses with that new story here in London, all around this country, and to the ends of the earth.
Let’s pray together.
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An Update About Public Worship at First Pres SLO
We will continue with in-person worship, with a renewed emphasis on our guidelines for safe gatherings (see below).
We will monitor the COVID situation on a weekly basis, seeking guidance from healthcare professionals and reviewing statistics and other scientific indicators. We may choose at any time to suspend in-person worship and return to Zoom gatherings.
We advise anyone at medium or high risk to stay home and worship with us via the livestream. (To be clear: this includes the elderly, people with compromised immune systems, and those who have traveled outside the area. Use your best judgment.)
We are requiring the staff to be tested monthly for COVID exposure.
We will communicate clearly and often about our deliberations and decisions.
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A word about our guidelines for in-person worship.
By attending in-person worship you are agreeing to abide by these guidelines.
We are trusting that everyone who attends our Sunday service is fully vaccinated—please do not come if you are not vaccinated. And while we are glad to see full compliance with the proper wearing of masks, we are concerned about the lack of social distancing in the Sanctuary. Remember, please keep at least 3 feet between each household. This is an essential part of our layered strategy for prevention in our public gatherings. I will be instructing the ushers to remind you about distancing as you enter the building.
Here are the specific guidelines for public worship.
Everyone is expected to abide by them:
Only vaccinated people will attend church in person.
The sanctuary is open at about 50% capacity (about 100 people).
Reservations will not be taken at first, but may be needed eventually.
All people will enter through the Courtyard.
All people will wear masks properly when indoors.
We will require distances between households of at least 3 feet.
We will not be singing or saying unison prayers or creeds.
We cannot allow hugging or other physical contact on church grounds.
We will not be serving food or drinks until advised differently.
A few comments here. First, if you’re not feeling well, please stay home.
Second, if these guidelines feel too restrictive to you, please address your personal liberty concerns to me or to a member of session, and NOT one of the ushers on Sunday morning. Finally, remember that this is good news! We’ve waited a long time to be together again, and we’re going to do it with caution and care and joy.