Sermons
"Shock and Awe "
Bless the Lord who forgives our sins-God's Mercy endures forever-Amen.
Good Morning!
When I was ten years old-when we were living in Hawaii-one spring night my parents
got my brother and I up at 2:00 in the morning--helped us change from our pajamas
into clothes and took us to Hickham Air Force Base.
We were at the airfield at 3:00 in the morning standing behind a chest high fence-staring out onto an empty tarmac with a red carpet rolled out.
We were there with hundreds of military families to meet the
first group of returning POW's from the Viet Nam war.
All week our teachers at the catholic school we attended had talked about their
return. They'd also talked about some of the gruesome punishments these men had
endured. Interestingly enough it was also Holy Week so those same teachers had also
been telling us about the punishments the Roman had inflicted on Jesus. As a result
more than one of us had conflated and confused the two so that they were all men
beaten and bruised doing what God and their country had asked them to do to keep us
safe. At least that's what I understood in the spring of fifth grade.
We waited on that tarmac with posters and signs in our hands and I remember when
those planes landed and taxied to our gate-I remember as the door opened-- the noise
that erupted as the men walked down those stairs and saluted the commanding
officer
-I remember the noise as we watched their families fall into their arms
-I remember the noise and the tears on the faces of every man in uniform there.
-I remember the tears on my father's face.
-I remember and I will not soon forget-for it was a holy moment and at ten years of age
-I was filled with awe-filled with awe.
Thirty-one years have passed by and I watch the news with the eyes of the ten year
old I was and the mind of the woman I am. I am appalled at a bombing campaign that
dares to appropriate the word awe.
Shock and awe---how dare we? Awe-a word that invites us to bear witness to a sacred mystery. Awe-a word that opens a place for the holy to pour in, rush around and wash over us. Awe-a time when God's grace is made known to us.
I know awe. Awe is when those serviceman-those POW's of long ago
-battered and bruised walked down those stairs and against all odds fell into the arms
of their families. That was awe. That was new life begun again. That was God's
awesome mystery-God's love exploding before our eyes.
A bombing campaign that invokes shock and awe? Shock and anger, shock and anguish,
shock and arrogance-shock and despair-but never awe.
My friends like many of you I am struggling today with an overwhelming sense of
hopelessness and helplessness. But then I remember the servicemen who walked down
those stairs to their families against all odds. In most cases when asked how they
survived-a common refrain was prayer and each other-a belief in something, someone,
a force more powerful than themselves and their captors.
Prayer and each other.
So I invite all of us to gather here each Monday night at 7:00 for a silent prayerful vigil in
our church. Let us come and pray and force out the fear and helplessness and
loneliness. Let us come and pray alone with each other. Using prayer as one way to
create space for awe in our lives.
Last week on a Frontline documentary a reporter was interviewing Colin Powell. In the
course of the interview he asked Powell how the decision to end the first Gulf War was
made. Powell said it was when he saw the highway of death-the road with more than
75,000 dead Iraqi soldiers. He said it was clear to him if the war continued on it would
mean the death of more Americans, more casualties for our allies and the death of
countless more Iraqi "youngsters".
In order to wage war successfully we have to make the people we are bombing and
killing other than and less than who we are. War only works when the enemy is an
alien. Once we see the enemy as human or as "youngsters" than it is a much harder to
continue the carnage.
May we pray for our leaders-for Secretary Rumsfield, Secretary Powell, for Vice-
President Cheney and for President Bush-that they may soon see not just dots on a
map but lives on the line. Let us pray that our targets become people, our enemies
become human beings, and all soldiers everywhere become youngsters. Let us pray for
awe in our world that creates the space for the presence of God.
Let us pray
---Amen.