This past Saturday morning, 9/11, I turned on the TV and just listened to the reading of the nearly 3,000 names of those who had died that day 20 years ago. I sat and listened for over 3 hours as many different people took turns reading the names in alphabetical order. Each reader also shared a story about the person they loved who had died that day. Many spoke of their fathers, sisters, uncles or cousins. It was good to remember them and hear again all of their names.
I also remember the show Tribute to Heroes that was done in 2001 just 10 days after the attack on our nation. Again, it was the telling of stories that was so moving. Stories about everyday folks who found themselves fact to face with great evil and fear but who despite this did what they could. They helped and this gave us hope. Like the stories of the firefighters and police going up the tower stairs as others streamed down. I remember one particular story about Abe and Ed, who stayed together on the 27th floor because Ed was a quadriplegic and Abe would not leave his friend alone. Together they each phoned home, told their families they were ok and that they loved them. Together they died, an orthodox Jew and a Christian, forever friends and beloved children of God.
Stories shared back then and told again now give us a way to grieve. It is so important to weep together for as Alice Walker wrote in her poem SM-, I tell you, Chickadee I am afraid of people who cannot cry. Tears left unshed turn to poison in the ducts.’
We have had much to grieve these days with so many people dying from Covid-19, the hurricanes and flooding, and so many Afghan refugees. In the midst of all of this I believe God is grieving too. The prophet Jeremiah gives language and an image to God’s lament, My grief is beyond healing, my heart is sick within me. Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with their foreign idols. . . O that my head were waters, and my eyes a foundation of tears that I might weep day and night.
In this time we lament, cry out with our weeping God. But that is not all that God asks of us, we too are called to do what we can where we are. It is important to look at how we are treating the most vulnerable in our world. We talked about this back in 2001 at a Bible Study at the Chum Drop-in Center after breakfast. I remember being struck how the image of a crying God and the call to care for one another deeply impacted the folks gathered there, many of them homeless. I wrote down what one woman said. She said, “We should drop bombs, bombs of food and medicine on Afghanistan, maybe then the people could rise up.” Her words still make me cry.
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