The following sermon was preached on the Commemoration of Lancelot Andrewes at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, September 26, 2001. Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” (Luke 11:1- 4)
No doxology. None needed, we might say. The prayer Jesus taught us is perfect, complete in itself. It is the request which prompts the prayer to which I call your attention today: “Lord, teach us to pray.” Surely, a timely petition. Airplanes are not supposed to collide with skyscrapers. Skyscrapers which took years to build are not supposed to fall to the ground in a matter of hours. How do we pray in the face of the images of September 11? To whom do we appeal, and for what do we ask?
Our theology is in greater disarray than the stock market or the airline industry. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, whom I do not admire, have suggested that the attacks of September 11 represent God’s judgment on a sinful nation, the chief sinners being feminists and homosexuals. Jane Dixon, whom I do admire, countered their statements by saying “this horror absolutely did not come from God.” Particulars aside, it is Falwell and Robertson who speak the theology of the Bible, and Bishop Dixon who sides with secular humanism.
“I am going to bring upon you a nation from far away, O house of Israel,” says the Lord. “It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know. Their quiver is like an open tomb; all of them are mighty warriors. They shall destroy with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust. And when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord ourGoddone all these things to us?’ You shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’” (Jeremiah 5:15- 19)
These words of Jeremiah to a nation confident in its military and economic might have innumerable counterparts throughout the biblical story.Theinspired authors are united in seeing the hand of Godin the most terrible military disasters which come upon the holy nation. The fact that no public theologian in these two weeks besides Falwell and Robertson has even suggested that it is our own sins which have brought this terror upon us shows how far we have strayed from a biblical faith. We show the world the face of innocence, and project a God of our own devising who blesses our every intention. But the God of the Bible has a long memory and does not so easily accept our protestations of innocence.
The God of the Bible remembers the day that the Emperor Constantine painted the monogram of Christ on his soldiers’ shields and slaughtered the armies of his brother in the name of the only Son of God.TheGodof the Bible remembers the edicts of Christian rulers ordering the enslavement and death of the very Muslim neighbors who had enforced edicts of tolerance when they ruled in Europe. The God of the Bible remembers the war of Greece’s liberation in 1811, a liberation which came at the price of 300,000 Muslim lives at the hands of their new Christian rulers. And the God of the Bible remembers the day the bells of every church in Austria rang to welcome the armiesofAdolfHitlerwhenthe Anschluss was decreed. We heard the voice of this God through the prophet Amos on Sunday: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.”
“Lord, teach us to pray.” If you and I are to gather daily and pray eucharistic canons which claim the whole of salvation history for ourselves, you and I must claim the shadow side of our history as well. The attention of the whole nation is fixed on us right now, and our fellow citizens are making the same petition as Jesus’disciples: “You! People of the cloth! Theologians! Teach us to pray.” How shall we answer them? With the prayer of the Crusader, who invokes the Christian God against the enemies of the Christian empire? How will our prayer be distinguished in the ears of God from the prayers of the terrorists?
Perhaps we would do well to cover our mouths and sit in sackcloth and ashes for a time, and listen to those who can teach us how to pray again. The whole troubled history of religiously inspired violence caught up with the men and women going about their work in the World Trade Center on September 11, caught up with them and brought them to the time of trial. From that place of final judgment, those offices filling with smoke and the smell of jet fuel, a remarkable story was repeated in many ways over and over again. Someone trapped on the top floors wouldgeton a cell phone and call a spouse or parent and say, “It looks as though we’re going to die, and I wanted you to know how much I love you.” And then, the perfect prayer: “I have to go now. There are other people waiting to use the phone.” No doxology recorded. None needed.