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Dear
Friends,
The dawn of this century will from now on be remembered
by the horrors of September 11 when towers and
fortress fell. This has become a hinge event,
certainly for U.S. history and perhaps for world
history. And for us personally the images of that
day will not—and should not—leave us for as long
as we live.
It
is now time for us to ponder some of the enduring
lessons from 9/11/01. In saying this I am raising
before us the ancient question of Ezekiel, “How
should we then live?” (33:10). What do the shattering
events of that single day teach us that should
guide our living for the time, however brief or
extended, that we have on this earth?
THE
UTTER REALITY OF EVIL
The first enduring lesson is the utter reality
of evil. We live in a good world that frankly
has gone bad. This is the divine risk God undertakes
so that we may be free moral agents. God has freely
chosen to give us the freedom to choose, and the
risk is that we may indeed choose evil rather
than good. And the tragic story of our evil choices
is written across the face of humanity.
What
happened on September 11 was evil. No justifications
or qualifications or equivocations will do. It
was evil, raw evil. And this is true whether we
are speaking of the explosive reality of commercial
airliners slicing into gigantic buildings and
snuffing out the lives of thousands or of the
silent reality of thirty-two thousand of the world’s
children dying of hunger-related causes on the
same day. Both of these evils, and much more,
occurred on 9/11/01.
It
is important for us to really pay attention to
the reality of evil because evil has become such
a non-category in our day that modern people try
desperately to explain it away by endless rationalizations
about nasty genes or abusive parents or unjust
structures. And while there is a point to the
many underlying causes for evil, we must nevertheless
insist that evil happens because people choose
to do evil. Period.
And,
please, let us not try to sanitize the vicious,
heartless destruction of innocent lives and the
traumatizing of millions more with religious platitudes
and pretended piety. Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda
are trying to hijack Islam for their evil purposes
in much the same way that Adolf Hitler and the
Third Reich sought to hijack Christianity for
their evil purposes. And let us be unmistakably
clear: the purposes of both were and are evil,
genuinely evil. This form of evil arises whenever
any group—be it nomads or nations—presents an
image of God as one who advocates a future that
favors one people over another, a God who does
not seek the welfare of all individuals and people
groups, nay the whole of his good creation. Dressing
evil in religious garb in no way changes its reality.
Indeed, the pretense only piles evil upon evil.
In
a book to be published next April (Renovation
of the Heart published by NavPress) Dallas
Willard titles one of his chapters “Radical Evil
in the Ruined Soul.” It is a telling title. Evil
really does exist no matter how hard we try to
deny it or ignore it or trivialize it or explain
it away. I even find it hard to press us on this
point so inclined am I to want to think the best
of others and give everyone the benefit of the
doubt. But pollyannaish dreams of idealized goodness
simply will not do. Evil is real and it is with
this reality that we must contend. To use the
language of theology, our anthropology must recognize
and take with utmost seriousness the reality of
human depravity.
Evil
finds its point of origin in the human heart.
In The Gulag Archipelago Alexander Solzhenitsyn
observes, “Gradually it was disclosed to me that
the line separating good and evil passed not through
states, nor between classes, nor between political
parties either—but right through every human heart—and
through all human hearts.” It was, for example,
deep hatred nurtured in individual hearts for
many years that allowed the terrorists to look
their victims in the eye, and then use them, even
the children, to annihilate thousands more. Such
is the power of evil.
Now,
Jesus, the Christ, came into our world, lived,
died, and rose from the dead in order to face
down evil on its own vicious ground, and to establish
a way for us to be delivered from evil and ultimately
to be embraced by what is Good, by God himself.
This is the great hope . . . indeed, the only
salvation for our war-torn, evil-soaked world.
THE
UTTER VULNERABILITY OF HUMAN LIFE
The second enduring lesson for our living is the
utter vulnerability of human life. There
really is “no hidin’ place down here.” September
11 and subsequent events have seized many with
fear, making them feel that the world is out of
control and a very dangerous place. And while
I empathize with the angst many people feel, I
must press on and say to us, “Welcome to the real
world.”
The
only difference between pre-9/11/01 and post-9/11/01
is that our vulnerability is no longer hidden
from us. Most peoples of the world live with this
reality from birth to the grave. We have foolishly
thought that oceans and wealth and military muscle
comprise an invulnerable shield. Among our proudest
possessions were both the targets of attack—the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon–and the instruments
of attack—our sleek transcontinental airliners.
They availed us nothing. Worse than nothing.
Now we must face the truth: the largest oceans
will not shield us, the greatest buildings will
not shield us, the wealthiest balance sheets will
not shield us, the mightiest weapons will not
shield us.
What
September 11 can do, if we will allow it, is to
free us from our captivity to all false and idolatrous
securities. We can be freed from putting our trust
in human accomplishments no matter how impressive
they may appear. We can be freed from putting
our trust in material things no matter how solid
they may appear. We can be freed from putting
our trust in the vast wealth generated by world
trade no matter how successful it may appear.
THE
UTTER SECURITY OF A LIFE HID IN GOD
This leads me to my third and final lesson of
enduring value we learn from the events of 9/11/01
which is the utter security of a life hid in
God. It really is the only safe place to be.
Really.
Bill
Vaswig, one of our team members, shares in an
article his experience at a Trappist monastery
at a particularly low point in his life: his wife
was dying of uterine cancer, his own health was
compromised, his ministry organization (Preaching
and Prayer Ministries) was threatened with financial
collapse. He told his spiritual director of the
week, Brother Boniface, that he did not know where
to stand in the midst of all these difficulties.
Wisely Brother Boniface answered, “Stand between
Mary and John at the foot of the cross for the
rest of your life. If the Lord should grant you
favors, thank him. If not, thank him that he is
giving them to others who need them more.”
Bill
comments, “The place to stand for all of us in
these troubled days of September 2001 is at the
foot of the cross between Jesus’ mother, Mary,
and John his beloved disciple. Perhaps these two
figures at the foot of Jesus’ cross summarize
our situation today. The cross represents the
very worst crime in human history, much worse
than what we all have found to be so grossly shocking.
The best, wisest, most loving, perfect, brilliant
man who ever lived was killed by weak, selfish,
ungodly men who thought they were big enough to
take on God. And this God-man chose to be killed
by them in that way. That, my friends is love—the
unbelievable, unfathomable, undeserved, and thought-through
love of God. ‘None of the rulers of this age understood
this; for if they had, they would never have crucified
the Lord of Glory’ (1 Cor. 2:8).
“Can
we imagine the terror in Mary’s heart as she sees
her son being killed like a guilty murderer? .
. . Now on this horrible afternoon Jesus looks
down from the cross to Mary his mother and to
his ‘best’ friend John the disciple. He asks John
to take care of his mother and his mother to treat
John like a son. . . .
“At
such a time as this, is there a better place to
be than at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ family
when he dies? Is there a better place to be at
this point in America’s history than with our
families, especially our larger family the Holy
Christian Church? Mary and John became family
at the cross on that Good Friday.”
“Stand
between Mary and John at the foot of the cross
for the rest of your life,” said Brother Boniface.
And so we do, for this truly is the place of utter
security.
SABBATICAL
PLANS
By looking at the RENOVARÉ
schedule for 2002 some of you may have already
surmised that I will not be involved in public
ministry from January through August. It is true,
for the next eight months I will be on sabbatical,
a decision our Board encouraged and approved nearly
two years ago. It will be an important time for
me and for RENOVARÉ.
I have several writing projects for this time.
But even more important, I hope to be still and
experience deep rest, even as I consider the next
decade or so of ministry direction.
I also hope during this time to cast a vision
for RENOVARÉ, especially
our role in defining a new ecumenism for the future.
It is clear that the old ecumenism that burst
onto the religious scene at the dawn of the twentieth
century has pretty well run its course, and we
badly need a new way of envisioning the people
of God.
•
We need a vision that calls all God’s people together
on the basis of a firm, positive affirmation of
the things we have in common rather than a negative
listing of our differences.
•
We need a vision that welcomes the rich diversity
of the body of Christ while being absolutely clear
on the essentials of Christian life and faith.
•
We need a vision that understands the difference
between things central and things peripheral and
that will not confuse the one for the other.
•
We need a vision that is highly Christocentric—a
vision centered in a living faith in the living
Christ.
•
We need a vision that does justice to the complexity
of the human person in relationship with the infinite-personal
God.
•
We need a vision that brings people into such
life-transforming realities that they are indeed
taken over by love and joy and peace and patience
and kindness and generosity and faithfulness and
gentleness and self-control, indeed, all the fruit
of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).
•
We need a vision in which worship and caring and
community life become natural and instinctive.
•
We need a vision of justice and shalom that can
attack evil in all its multifaceted forms, overcoming
it with good.
And
so much more. It is to develop such a vision that
I will be giving sustained attention during this
sabbatical time.
Be
assured that during this eight-month period RENOVARÉ
will be in full swing. Other team members will
be leading our conferences and retreats, writing
our Perspective newsletters, and overseeing the
office. I have full confidence in their ministry
skills under the power of God. The office staff
will keep things humming smoothly, and they will
be caring for all correspondence and orders. I
will not be seeing my personal correspondence
until September so I really urge you to address
any questions or concerns to my associate, Lynda
Graybeal. She is fully authorized to respond in
my stead.
May
the year 2002 find you secure in God, in genuine
harmony with family and friends, and empowered
to walk cheerfully over the earth.
Peace and joy,
Richard J. Foster
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