Metro After the Towers

Dear Kristin, Mike, Bethany, and John--my beloved children,

(without your permission I am forwarding this to lots of folk who have been asking or who I know will be interested in hearing from us)

First thing, let me say that to my knowledge everyone in the Metro Baptist family is okay. Gary Byma was closest to ground zero and he is safe. Tony, had not left for work in the towers when they were hit. The Massengills live within a few blocks of the former towers and are safe, but as yet have not been able to return to the neighborhood or home to assess damage. There are perhaps others about which I do not know. We will be checking through out the day today.

But now on a personal note to you, my children, at this moment in time, about my feelings this morning....

I did not cry until after I had spoken with each of you yesterday. The knowledge that I will see each of you again while countless thousands will not be going home to loved ones or having loved ones come home to them became overwhelming. All in such a brief span of time. Vulnerable. Fighting my cynicism. Having steeled myself from emotional expressions. I am so extremely thankful for each of you, and so profoundly proud of who you are and who you are becoming.
The feelings have not just been of horror but of frustration that there is not more that I can be doing in the aftermath. Calls are coming in from all over the country and around the world wanting to know how they can help, and I have nothing to say but pray and that, by itself, seems so hollow. Yet, at the core of my being I affirm the power of that action. Prayer will not change the circumstances for those who have died or are trapped in the rubble. Yet prayer can change the life of the pray-er. Even so I cringe to know that those who guided the planes into their designated targets were uttering prayers to Allah in the mis-guided fanaticism of fundamentalists -- just as prayers of mis-guided fundamentalists of other faiths, yes, even our own, are crying out for revenge against innocents in other lands. So I search for answers which will not come, and pray--praying first that my prayers will not be those of vengeance and hatred, while still expressing the anger and outrage that is at the core of my being this morning. I pray that you will see the sunrise and rejoice in the life which you have been given to celebrate this day. I pray that comfort will be found in the awesome mystery that is God who revealed Divine Love to us so fully in Jesus, the prince of peace. I pray that minds of cool reason will guide the actions that we take personally this day and the minds of those who have fingers on phone dials and buttons that can escalate this nightmare into on-going nightmares. I pray that the cycle of violence will cease and that we, individually and corporately, will be the fire walls beyond which the hatred will not move. I pray that we will recognize as a nation and as individuals how our corporate business interests and often bullying attitudes have fueled the hatred that has rained down upon us. I pray that even as we grieve for the loss of lives in those places hit, we recognize that for many Americans those places in some ways symbolized our golden calves, monuments to corporate wealth and nationalistic power. I pray that while we do not turn this into some kind of moralistic "God is punishing us" or "judging us" religious beating of our chests, that we will recognize our calling to lead not by might but by faithful stewardship of God's provision for us.

I am running on so I must stop and help Ronnie get breakfast set up for our overnight guests.

I have copied a letter which I sent to many friends below for you to read.

Remember, I love you.

"Dear Friends,
Thanks for asking about us and assuring us of your prayers. Metro Baptist here in mid-town Manhattan has been seeking to minister on behalf of the faith community to those left stranded or just numbed (as we all are) by the events of the day. Mail and calls have poured in from across the country, and even the world, with a note from both a rabbi friend in Jerusalem and a Palestinian in Bethlehem.

I am sitting in my office trying to comprehend it all. We are a bit numb. In fact watching the stages of grief occur so rapidly around me makes it hard for me not to move into some kind of cold objective observer. How do you counsel? What do you say? How can one help? There is nothing to do but offer the ministry of presence and pray that God is in that presence.

The senselessness of it, the shock, the anger weigh heavy upon my heart. Then to have to listen to calls for revenge which will only take the lives of other untold numbers of other innocents rips my heart.

Today during a prayer service I read from Psalm 46 (1-5, 7, 10). Somehow that helped calm the voices which raged within.

The church is open for prayer, for food and for shelter. We now have at least twenty-six sleeping on the floor. A family of Kurds, four Russians, a Moroccan Muslim, three from England, two Puerto Ricans, a Jewish woman from an Israeli coastal town and an assorted group of Americans--none who can get home.

I am reminded again today of a message penned a number of years ago by Walker Knight, formerly editor of the Home Mission Magazine, and founding editor of Baptists Today, and one which I keep taped in front of me on my computer.

"Peace, like war, is waged. Peace plans it strategy and encircles the enemy. Peace marshals its forces and storms the gates. Peace gathers its weapons and pierces the defense. But Christ has turned it all around; the weapons of peace are love, joy, goodness, longsuffering. The arms of peace are justice, truth, patience, prayer. The strategy of peace brings safety, welfare, happiness. The forces of peace are the sons and daughters of God."

And so as those gathered on the floor of Metro go to sleep for the night I remember the words of the prophet: "And the lion shall lay down with the lamb." May the peace we know in this building tonight be known across the land.