This weekend, as Americans of all faith communities have gathered in synagogues, churches and mosques throughout our country, the usual distinctive patterns and themes of worship and celebration have shared a common focus—our commemoration of the fifth anniversary of our great national tragedy—the terrible disaster of September 11, 2001.
As this milestone has approached, so many of us have found ourselves remembering and even reliving the vivid recollections and emotions of that horrific day. The arrival of early fall—and particularly such bright, clear September days as this, will forever bring to mind the catastrophic images ... none of us who lived through that moment in history will ever forget exactly where we were—and what we were doing—on that fateful morning.
The media has already been saturated with coverage of the anniversary, and our TV screens, magazines and newspapers will be emblazoned, today and tomorrow, with the images of destruction that are already indelibly seared into our consciousness. And while the pundits and politicians will engage in the analysis— and inevitably, the exploitation—of this commemoration, from a variety of perspectives, it is appropriate that we, as people of faith, reflect on the profound spiritual challenges raised by the memory of 9/11.
There is no question that most of us, on that terrible day five years ago, found ourselves struggling with deep, visceral questions that are at the core of our religious quest....
How could God have allowed this tragedy?
Where was God on the morning of September 11, 2001?
Where, in that catastrophe, was the love and mercy we are praising God for in this very hour of worship?
As we mark this tragic anniversary, with the memory of our pain and grief that day once again so vivid in our minds and hearts, I want to share with you some personal insights and possibilities for thinking about these fundamental and timeless pleas for understanding. What I cannot offer you are easy answers—for there are none.
There may be some people who have ready formulas of spiritual pablum in response to such hard questions. But we as progressive people of faith, who cherish the gifts of reason and intellect, cannot accept those quick and easy explanations ... so often spoken with smugness and self-righteous conviction. We are too much of this critical modern era to settle for those often hackneyed, facile responses about “God’s will”, that we must accept without question. We share a different understanding of belief ... which eschews easy answers to difficult dilemmas ... and instead teaches us that doubt and questioning are to be considered sacred struggles for truth.
We humbly respect—and are perhaps a bit envious—of those whose faith is simple and unquestioning ... those who can talk about these issues with complete assurance. But, for our part, we feel closer to those who don’t claim to have all the answers.
What I do have to offer may not resonate with each and every one of you. I only ask you to open your hearts and minds to the possibilities ... and then to continue your own “wrestling with the angel” as it were ... that sacred struggle with faith that we as Jews and Christians have been engaged in since our ancient ancestor Jacob encountered that mysterious stranger in the desert, and took the name Israel ... “one who struggles and prevails”....
And so, with trembling and yearning, anguish and pain, we echo that plaintive cry we all uttered as that terrible destruction unfolded before our very eyes five years ago....
How could a God of mercy and love have allowed thousands of innocent people to suffer and die so horrifically?
How could God allow such evil to flourish?
Is He there at all?
And if He is—where was Divine love and mercy on that day?
Now while these are indeed hard, complex challenges, for which there are no easy answers that are right for everyone, I want to share some insights from my Jewish tradition—which has had to confront the reality of suffering and evil throughout the past 5000 years.
The very question, “How can God allow suffering and evil?” presupposes a basic assumption which Judaism, and many Christian theologians, would challenge—and that is the idea that God is the direct and conscious cause of everything that happens to us. Our faith would question the idea that God rules the universe like some cosmic puppeteer—manipulating and choreographing the minute details of human affairs. Rather, we believe that God indeed created the world, and set the natural order in motion, according to cosmic laws and realities that we may not be able to fully comprehend or control. Yet, at the same time, God has created us as human beings with free will ... with choice as well as responsibility, of directing our own destinies. This has always been one of Judaism’s most distinctive and characteristic concepts ... an exalted view of the nature of humanity, as essentially good and, created in God’s image, endowed with a spark of Divinity. Indeed, we are taught that humanity is in partnership with God ... co-workers in the continuing process of Creation ... endowed with the potential for vast goodness and noble achievement ... and yet free, in the end, to choose!
And ever since that transcendent encounter at Mount Sinai, and indeed ever since Jesus taught his understanding of that tradition, the blueprint for a world of justice and peace was revealed ... and that choice has always been remarkably clear and constant, offered freely to us and to all humanity:
“Choose the blessing and life ... or the curse and death!”
Choose to follow God’s law of love and justice, and build a world of peace and human fulfillment ... or seek selfishly after power and wealth, ignore the sanctity of each and every human life ... and bring suffering and violence, hunger and oppression—upon ourselves....
This has always been humanity’s free and unfettered choice—both individually and collectively. These choices are made by individuals in ways that shape their own intimate human relationships, and they are also made by entire communities, societies, and nations ... and the consequences of either choice are also shared by us all—for we’re all in this together ... responsible for one another ... our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers....
How can God allow all the suffering in the world?
How could a loving, merciful God have allowed September 11th ... or the Holocaust ... or all the tragedies the human family has endured?
How can we believe in God in the face of AIDS ... or cancer ... or the suffering and death of innocent children ... or the devastation of tsunamis, hurricanes, and so many other natural disasters that have taken millions of lives?
All of these questions, which intelligent, sensitive people struggle with all the time, seem to me to miss the real point—for they totally place the responsibility for evil and suffering on God alone! Yet, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we must admit that so much—perhaps most of the evil in the world, is our own doing ... the consequences of our own free choice!
Shouldn’t the question really be, “How can we—individually and collectively—allow so much suffering in our world?” How can humanity—full of such potential and genius—so debase our knowledge and abilities, and get our priorities so wrong?
Having been given countless opportunities and the abundant means to choose life, why do we instead so often opt for death?
We have the ability—God given—to alleviate so much of the evil around us. Yet we choose not to!
We have harnessed the energy and the power of the universe ... the secret of the atom ... and have used this knowledge to create and perfect weapons of vast destruction, rather than solving the mysteries of human life....
We have walked on the moon, spent billions of dollars on the exploration of outer space. We can build and launch satellites that we can send to the far reaches of the solar system—and guide them back to earth to an exact time and place of landing....
But we can’t fight a single HIV virus? Or devote our genius and resources to the conquering of breast cancer, or heart disease?
With all our technical knowledge in the 21st century, can we not learn to live in harmony with nature, instead of exploiting and destroying our land and shorelines?
Must we forever fail to harness the vast resources of the human community to build a world with adequate food and shelter for all, justice and equality for all ... in which hatred and terrorism would find no root?
We must come to realize that, if God were to call all the shots, human intellect, choice and effort would be meaningless. She doesn’t—because She has chosen not to. From the very mythic beginning, the choice of paradise or knowledge was given to Adam and Eve, who thankfully chose knowledge! And we, their descendants, bear both the glory—and the profound responsibility—of choice and its consequences....
And while humanity has largely made the wrong choices throughout history, yet there has always been the potential for nobility and goodness. In the midst of all the epochs of human folly and greed, there have always been those who have heard God’s voice and chosen, instead, love and compassion, courage and mercy....
And so ... Where was God when those planes were hijacked, crashed into the Twin Towers, and thousands of unsuspecting, innocent, people lost their lives?
God was not in the evil of that catastrophe. That is not where we can seek His presence and perceive His will. The blind hatred of the terrorists, the fanatic distortion and desecration of their own faith that drove them, left no room for God’s love and mercy in their hearts.
But make no mistake about it! God was there! ... On those planes ... in the World Trade Center ... and at the Pentagon!
God was there! God was there in the final expressions of love that desperate passengers, facing certain death, spoke to their families in those incredible cell phone calls....
God was there—in the courage of those who overpowered the attackers on United Flight 93 and sacrificed themselves to resist evil—and save our nation’s Capital and countless lives from even further destruction.
God was there—in the stairwells of the Twin Towers ... in the selfless efforts of hundreds of coworkers trying to help each other escape—and in the unfathomable bravery and sacrifice of the Police, Firefighters, and Emergency Rescue Workers, who entered the inferno to save others!
Yes! God was there! ... On the planes ... in the Towers ... at the Pentagon ... and He was there in the rubble ... so clearly and powerfully in the aftermath ...
In the outpouring of love, compassion, and generosity, that overwhelmed this nation ...
In the millions of prayers for the lost and the bereaved ... in the flickering flames of millions of candles in the evening wind—at vigils all over the world ...
And in the determination of grief-stricken yet courageous families, colleagues, and an entire Nation to go on!
Of course, the terrible blasphemy of this tragedy is that it was perpetrated in God’s Name—a grotesque and horrendous distortion of any true teaching about God in any religion ... certainly a desecration of the Islamic tradition that these deranged zealots sought to affirm.
But let us remember that if we allow this tragedy to rob us of our faith, and hope, and trust in God ... If we hand God over, as a hostage, to the fanatics, and give up our claim to His love and mercy, then we grant those terrorists the final victory! We are in effect saying to them, “Yes, you are the faithful ones, and we are the lost infidels.” And to do this is to rob this terrible tragedy of all meaning ... redemptive meaning ... which we can give to this evil by our response to it....
Friends, there are no easy answers—no formulas or doctrines that are right for everyone. And there are some questions in life for which no one has the right to even attempt an explanation. Each of us must wrestle with these and a host of other questions for ourselves. Each of us must seek to encounter or discover God according to our own experiences and insights. And we must also learn what questions really, in the end, make sense—not the “why” questions, for which there are no answers: “why me? ... why this? ... why now?”—But, rather, the “how” questions: How can we get through this? How can our faith in God and the support of loved ones and friends give us the strength to go on ... to grow from our pain, and to triumph over it?
At this time of memorial, let this be our response to the sad memories of that day—and to all of the trials and challenges that we must inevitable face in life....
Belief and faith may not come easily, but let’s not close ourselves off to the possibilities!
Let us affirm our faith in a living, loving God who is not the cause of our suffering, but rather the source of comfort, strength, and hope in the midst of it ....
Can we—can our nation—do without that comfort and solace and healing?
There is an old saying in our Jewish tradition:
“Where is God to be found?
Wherever people let Him in.”
Dear Friends, at this time of memory let us each open our hearts as we recall the pain and tragedy of that day—a day that also witnessed such courage and love, compassion and goodness ... Let God in!
Make that daring leap—if you will—and let your life be filled with the love, strength, and confidence that has sustained humanity through the centuries ... that brings peace and hope to millions of men and women today ... and that can help heal America now. Your answers to these questions may not be the same as mine. Our experiences and conclusions may differ. But the important thing is that the search continues—and that we remain open and sensitive to the abundant possibilities and mysteries of life and of faith....
Open your heart and mind, and let God in!
Here, now, on this day of memory,
We need not be alone with our grief and our fears.
Let us recall, together,
blessed moments, when clouds parted
and the sun appeared. We looked. We saw.
There was healing and the hope of joy;
We were at peace and knew the joy of hope.
O God, turn us to the heights
where human goodness finds its dwelling ...
lead us to Your holy mountain,
Your hand stretched forth in welcome ...
to help us on our way . . .
Amen