Friday, September 12, 2003
Friday, September 12, 2003 |
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answers to our nation's future are in Christians and in churches
By DAVID EPPS t's Sept. 12 now, two years and a day after the Sept. 11. I was home writing an article when I received a call advising me to turn on the television set. I did and sat transfixed as one tower of the World Trade Center burned. Then, in a horrifying instant, another airliner slammed into the remaining tower and rained fire, glass, concrete, and bodies onto the streets so far below. I went to the closet, took out the American flag and planted it firmly in the holder attached to a column on my front porch. It seemed like the thing to do since, evidently, the United States was under attack. It would get worse. The Pentagon would be in flames and Flight 93, bound for another target, would, due to the courage of several passengers, fail to reach its destination and crash in a field in Pennsylvania. Over three thousand people lost their lives and we lost our sense of invincibility. Even today, we are affected by Sept. 11. Some people have stopped flying altogether. Many of those who do fly now fly less often or only when necessary. We endure intrusive searches at the airport that we would not have tolerated two years earlier and many us cautiously scan the airplanes for signs of young Middle Eastern men who may be on board. I asked a security expert this week if he felt secure on airplanes. He responded that he felt the danger was no longer from people on board the plane but from the lone terrorist who may be able to secure a shoulder launched missile from the ground. "It only takes one," he said, to bring a plane down. People are now aware that a Sunday professional football game, with a stadium, packed with tens of thousands of people, or a Saturday college game, for that matter, offers a terrorist a wonderful target of opportunity. We realize that a national holiday, such as July 4th, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, may well be chosen as a symbolic day to strike another blow against the nation. In nearly every community, under the American flag, flies the single colored flag that denotes the level of "threat alert" for the day. We wait, knowing that another attack, if the terrorists have their way, is simply a matter of time. We have invaded and conquered two nations since 9/11, although there is still violence in both of those lands. Tens of thousands of American troops are in harm's way on a daily basis. In the barber shop the other day, the man cutting my hair opined that we would have to do the same with Iran and Saudi Arabia at some point. "Iran," he said, "has nukes. We can't tolerate that." Another gentleman felt that we would be in another war with North Korea. Like the Israelis, we are learning to live with the ever-present possibility of catastrophe. It is very tempting to feel helpless or, worse, to finger-point and blame others for the current situation. Yet, the scriptures offer a verse that makes it clear that people of faith can and must do something to affect the present and the future. II Chronicles 7:14 states: If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. (NIV) The answers to the future of the nation are not found in the halls of Congress, within the walls of the Supreme Court, or in the Oval Office. The answers are to be found in the pews of the churches of the land. If the people of God those who are called by His name will bow the heart and the knee to God in submission, will sincerely and fervently pray, and will turn from their own sins (for "judgment begins at the House of God"), God promises to hear, forgive, and heal. A survey a few years ago found that the average Christian prayed 30 seconds a day. Pastors did not fare much better, devoting only three minutes a day, on average, to prayer. Is it any wonder that, while we may be militarily and economically strong, we are, as a nation, spiritually weak? To withstand the onslaught of evil and terror, we must be people of strong spirit. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats can "save the nation." Believers in God must cease their criticizing, stop the games playing, and get serious with God. We must return to church, return to God, become people of the Word and prayer, receive the graces found in the sacraments, and quit lamenting the sins of others when we have so many in our own lives. Otherwise, like all the great nations before us, we too shall fall. And it will be our own fault. [David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church, which meets at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sundays on Ga. Highway 34 between Peachtree City and Newnan. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.CTKCEC.org.]
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