PRAYER ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Holy God,
Creator of all people and all nations,
It is with sorrow and apprehension we remember the tragic events
That occurred on this day.

We lift to You in prayer all those who died
In the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon, and on United Airlines Flight 93
In Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

We entrust them to Your loving care.
Console their families, friends, and all who mourn this loss
In the hope that all who trust in You find peace and rest in Your Kingdom.

We pray for those who courageously responded to provide aid and comfort to the afflicted.
May their painful memories of that day
Be healed and transformed into strength and positive resolution.

We also pray for ourselves as we seek Your strength and guidance.
We live in the aftermath of this tragedy and under the shadow of future acts of aggression;
We stand in need of Your assistance.

Enable us, Dear God, to put an end to fear:
By resolving to live lives that are based on respect for one another;
By resolving to abide in a peaceful manner
and never settle disagreements in our lives in a violent way;
By resolving not to fall into the trap of blaming entire ethnic groups, races, or religions
in response to acts of hostility;
By resolving that justice, not revenge, prevails in our world.

Let us resolve that in the face of hatred, we will show love;
That in times of despair, we will be voices of hope
And creators of new dreams;
That in times of darkness, we will be sources of light.

Let us resolve that we never regard forgiveness as weakness,
But rather as a source of strength in our lives and in our world.

And, let us honor the memory of nearly 3,000 individuals who died on September 11, 2001
By resolving, with Your help Almighty God,
To truly live this way so You may be glorified and Your love made known to others through us.

Amen.

SERMON

POINT: For James, faith is inward

for outward

Reveal Answer

.

POINT: In no circumstances do Christians get a pass to treat people unjustly.

James 5:1-6 NRSV
Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure during the last days.

Leviticus 19:13 NIV - Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.

Jeremiah 22:13 NIV - Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 NIV- Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This, too, is meaningless.

James 5:1-6 NRSV
Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one who does not resist you.

“One’s relationship with money is lifelong, it colors one’s sense of identity, it shapes one’s attitude toward other people, and it connects and splits generations; money is the arena in which greed and generosity are played out, in which wisdom is exercised, and folly committed. Freedom, desire, power, status, work, possession: these huge ideas that rule life are enacted, almost always, in and around money.” —John Armstrong, How to Worry Less about Money

POINT: Generosity is a rejection of the

for the sake of

Reveal Answer

.

“As Jesus explained, the right things have to die so the right things can live—we die to selfishness, greed, power, accumulation, prestige, and self-preservation, giving life to community, generosity, compassion, mercy, brotherhood, kindness, and love. The gospel will die in the toxic soil of self.” —Jen Hatmaker, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

1 John 3:17 NRSV - How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

“On our own, we conclude:
there is not enough to go around
we are going to run short
of money
of love
of grades
of publications
of sex
of beer
of members
of years
of life

we should seize the day
seize our goods
seize our neighbor’s goods
because there is not enough to go around
and in the midst of our perceived deficit

you come
you come giving bread in the wilderness
you come giving children at the 11th hour
you come giving homes to exiles
you come giving futures to the shut down
you come giving easter joy to the dead
you come – fleshed in Jesus.

and we watch while
the blind receive their sight
the lame walk
the lepers are cleansed
the deaf hear
the dead are raised
the poor dance and sing

we watch
and we take the food we did not grow and
the life we did not invent and
future that is gift and gift and gift and
families and neighbors who sustain us
when we did not deserve it.

It dawns on us – late rather than soon-
that you “give food in due season
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

By your giving, break our cycles of imagined scarcity
override our presumed deficits
quiet our anxieties of lack
transform our perceptual field to see
the abundance………mercy upon mercy
blessing upon blessing.

Sink your generosity deep into our lives
that your muchness may expose our false lack
that endlessly receiving we may endlessly give
so that the world may be made Easter new,
without greedy lack, but only wonder,
without coercive need but only love,
without destructive greed but only praise
without aggression and invasiveness….
all things Easter new…..
all around us, toward us and
by us

all things Easter new.
Finish your creation,
in wonder, love, and praise.
Amen.” —On Generosity, Walter Brueggemann, from Money and Possessions