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“How does
one begin to explain, process, and articulate the meaning behind
these images, images which to a great degree remain unexplainable,
to a nation still in shock?”
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Yes, we belong as citizens
in the United States, with the incumbent responsibilities that go
with responsible citizenship. But our ultimate belonging and call
to unity transcends the geographical, political, and national boundaries
and symbols of our country. In seminary classes with students from
many ethnic backgrounds and cultures, American- and foreign-born,
who represent the pluralism and diversity of our nation, how will
we biblically and theologically reflect on issues of belonging,
national identity, and citizenship as we remind ourselves that our
ultimate belonging is to Christ and His people?
What will it mean for
the church to be a pastoral presence and a prophetic voice?
Even as we reflect afresh on our ultimate loyalties,
citizenship, and belonging in this new reality, we are surrounded
by people who have lost loved ones in ways that exacerbate and amplify
the loss, people who are broken-hearted, angry, out of jobs, and
scared for the future, and people in whom racism and hatred have
been exposed during crisis. Their needs and questions call out to
us. In the name of Messiah, we continue in the line of preaching
good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for prisoners, recovery
of sight for those who are blind, and release for the oppressed
(Luke 4:18-19).
The people of God have been a pastoral presence in the weeks following
September 11 by giving comfort, aid, and material help, and reminding
people of the goodness and love of God in Christ through word and
deed. This pastoral presence has placed the church in a more public
view in recent days. I have shuddered at hearing some of the theological
interpretations of the events of September 11, both in private conversations
and public pronouncements. The tragedy of September 11 reminds us
that the church occupies public space and has a prophetic, public
role in society. We will be pressed in our classes to help students
in their roles as “public theologians” in local churches
and ministry organizations as they are called upon to interpret
current events with critical biblical and theological skill, the
requisite abilities in cultural and social analysis, and the courage
to identify and speak both pastorally and prophetically to the myriad
of ethical issues raised by this tragedy. May we help them do this
with pastoral compassion and prophetic courage.
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ike many others on September 11, those of us
in the administrative offices at Bethel Seminary of the East were
glued to the television, watching the unspeakable and unimaginable
horror of the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon in Washington,
and the plane crash in western Pennsylvania. Powerful images remain
vivid and clear in our memories: buildings on fire; “refugees”
from lower Manhattan making their way uptown and across bridges
and ferries to safety; people covered in debris; the faces of people
we know who worked in or near the World Trade Center; and students
of Bethel Seminary of the East who call New York City their home.
How does one begin to explain, process, and
articulate the meaning behind these images, images which to a great
degree remain unexplainable, to a nation still in shock? I find
this a particular challenge in seminary classes, especially in New
York, where we use tools like language, ideas, concepts, and metaphors
to communicate God’s truth and witness as revealed in Christ
and the Scriptures, a truth that is itself often mysterious and
unexplainable. Our commitment to contextualized theological education
forces those of us who use such tools to be cognizant of the shifting
contexts of our lived reality. What questions and issues does this
new reality pose for students, and for us, as we reflect together
on recent events in light of Scripture, and our commitment to the
global church of Jesus Christ?
How will the events
of September 11 challenge our ultimate loyalties, notions of citizenship,
and belonging?
One of the tensions in our lives on this side
of heaven is our dual citizenship. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:19-22
and Philippians 3:20-21 that our ultimate citizenship is in heaven,
a borderless place with people from every tongue, tribe, and nation
who call on the name of the Lord. However, we also are citizens
of a country that affords us many civil rights and privileges, with
freedom of religious belief as one of them. In the recent attacks
on this country, we have been called to unite as Americans to fight
terror as it affects people everywhere.
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Loving
Memory
New York City mourners honor those who lost
their lives in the attacks of September 11.
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“How we respond today to these
events, and to each other, will reveal who we really are and the
persons we are becoming.”
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What is the foundation
of our desire for justice, righteousness, and peace?
I must admit that the topic of war has been given
a fairly cursory examination when I have taught Christian social
ethics during these years of relative peace. Through a one-session
introduction to Augustine’s “Just War Theory,” students
gain an understanding of the pressing questions Augustine faced
as the Roman Empire was falling and as Christians were serving in
the mechanisms of the empire, such as the military. Augustine was
clear: war was just if called by legitimate authority for the purpose
of securing peace, not revenge; safety for citizens through defensive
measures; with force exerted that will not produce greater harm;
and for protection of innocent lives, with a reasonable probability
of success.
However, as we revisit this theory in upcoming courses,
undoubtedly in more than one session, what are its implications
and applications in this new globalized empire, with its interlocking
social, political, and economic systems that know no geographical
boundaries to defend? Who and where are the innocent people to defend
in this new global empire, and where does our responsibility for
them begin and end? What does it mean for war to be “just”
with military sophistication and equipment that far exceed the swords,
clubs, and armor used by the Roman army of Augustine’s day?
Our desire for justice is based on the original condition of shalom,
which God created as His intention for humanity and creation. We
still yearn for this right ordering of relationships necessary for
just, healthy, peaceful, and harmonious existence.
Augustine was right to connect justice with peace.
But there is little guarantee that peace ensures conditions of justice.
However, conditions of justice increase the possibility of shalom,
or peace, among people, because seeking justice is the return to
the original righteousness of Eden. We have a new opportunity to
explore a scriptural and theological understanding of justice as
a distinct biblical value beyond the categories of retribution and
reward common in our political discourse. Exploring the mission
to “do justice,” to establish righteousness as the people
of God, and its implication for ministry in specific cultural and
sociopolitical contexts, is part of equipping students to minister
in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, for the day when “justice
and peace embrace” for eternity (Psalm 85).
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What kind of people can
we become through our reflection on these traumatic events and their
integration into our own moral and spiritual formation?
It has often been said that the true character of
a person is revealed during times of stress, catastrophe, and crisis.
There are numerous accounts of nobility and heroism to remember
along with the acts of evil and exploitation from September 11.
Firefighters, police officers, rescue workers, medical personnel,
friends, co-workers, and airplane passengers were prepared to act
with courage, nobility, heroism, and compassion because they were
courageous, noble, heroic, and compassionate—virtues and capacities
obtained and learned as habits. They had become certain kinds of
persons capable of responding in this way without having to think
about it.
We, along with students, are in the process of becoming
certain kinds of persons, persons who we hope are being transformed
more and more into the image of Christ. In this great incubator
of learning called life, God provides us with numerous opportunities
and challenges that test our mettle and reveal the true substance
of our character through our responses to them. Our response to
this crisis will prepare us for our responses to the next inevitable
crises. Our classes and spiritual formation discipleship groups
in New York, and in all of our centers, ultimately are environments
of moral and spiritual formation, where we learn Christlike ways
of responding to heated disagreements, unpleasant personalities,
cultural misunderstandings, personal tragedy, hatred, anger, fear,
and uncertainty. How we respond today to these events, and to each
other, will reveal who we really are and the persons we are becoming.
Our responses also will have a tremendous influence in churches
we lead as, together, we become more and more the community of the
Spirit in our spiritual and moral formation while we grow corporately
into the image of Christ.
May God use the events of September 11 in our theological
and moral formation to reveal Jesus in us, the hope of glory. •
Wyndy Corbin, Philadelphia,
is associate dean of Bethel Seminary of the East and is finishing
her doctorate in Christian social ethics at Drew University.
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