In the Valley of the Shadow: A September 11 Reflection

Ken Sehested is executive director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. He wrote the article excerpted here with Kyle Childress, pastor of Austin Heights Baptist Church, Nacogdoches, Texas. Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, 4800 Wedgewood Dr., Charlotte, NC 28210; 704/521-6051; bpfna@bpfna.org; www.bpfna.org (where you can read the complete version of this article).

"How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she that was great among the nations! ...She weeps bitterly in the night..." (Lam. 1:1)

Sept. 23, Boston © Ellen Shub

Late yesterday morning--midway through a long car trip to visit my Mom and several mentors--I awoke in the home of a good friend, in the oldest city in Texas, to the news repeatedly described in media accounts as the "horrific" events in New York City and Washington, DC. Parties yet unnamed and unknown (though suspected) hijacked our own agents of affluence to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, twin symbols of global economic and military dominance.

Here I sit, in the oldest city in Texas, reflecting via one of the oldest Scriptures in print on the oldest drama of human savagery. The shedding of blood begun by Cain--against his brother Abel, early in Genesis 4--was geometrically escalated, by chapter's end, in Lamech's threat to avenge his personal honor seventy-times-seven. God's refusal of revenge--indeed, the Divine prohibition again human vengeance--was ignored with impunity then no less than now. It is an old story. But there is another story, indeed a counter-story, which can and must be told by the believing community.

What may we say, dare we say, in the face of such horror? Is there any hope, any healing, any harvest of mercy to be had?

Pastoral Insight

At a moment like this, the first engagement of Christians is to engage in the ministry of grieving--grieving for the yet-uncounted individuals and families whose lives have been crushed or crumbled by this catastrophe. We weep with those who weep.

Holy grief, the practice of lament, is not a form of self-centered pity but the willingness to crouch with those forced to their knees in the face of devastation. The billowing grief rising from this trauma is very real and will not be disposed of with the power of positive thinking. We have no quick answers or explanations, or even plans of action.

Furthermore, the ministry of grieving reminds us that we are not engineers of the coming Reign of Peace, but witnesses, pointing to where this Promise is breaking out even in our midst (and, conversely, where it is being opposed). Grieving is also a powerful antidote to the arrogance of self-sufficiency, to confidence in wishful thinking and human control. There is a sustaining force in the universe that we can trust, which is available but not manageable.

The second engagement for Christians is to intercede in prayer for the casualties of this catastrophe. Intercessory prayer is not a form of spiritual hocus-pocus; we have no magical wand to wave, to make the hurt go away. "The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much," according to the King James rendering of the Apostle Paul's advice. We may debate exactly how this is so, but this much is clear: intercessory prayer keeps us in a heightened state of readiness to intervene with compassion when the moment arises, which is the third call to Christians.

Prophetic Challenge

Grieving and intercession make us available for the ministry of mercy and comfort. This, of course, is what US President George W. Bush attempted in his speech to the nation on September 18 when he referenced the psalmist's affirmation of hard-won hope: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4). It is very appropriate for the nation's leader to speak words of succor to the people. And the believing community should stand ready and willing to echo and amplify those words whenever possible.

Sept. 23, Boston © Ellen Shub

Nevertheless, Christians must remain alert when Caesar quotes Scripture. The text of Holy Writ is forever threatened with being co-opted, is always in danger of being robed in the garments of empire, of being mobilized to endorse injustice, of being segregated from intended conclusion. And in this episode, President Bush neglected to note that the text he quoted pushes forward to the point of table fellowship with enemies.

Which brings me to the parallel, if less comfortable, work of prophetic challenge to which Christians have been ordained. An essential work of Gospel proclamation is theological interrogation of political propaganda. In short, we are called to ask the questions currently being disguised by newspaper headlines.

UNICEF, the UN's own child-welfare agency, has indicated that at least a half-million Iraqi children have died since the end of Desert Storm from causes directly related to the international economic sanctions. When former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked point-blank on national television if the death of half a million children was worth the price of opposing Hussein, she said yes. We say no. The competition of loyalty is that stark. Choose this day whom you will serve.

Another Way

Part of our prophetic calling is to insist that there are rival, realistic and spiritually-informed political strategies which suggest an alternative to those policies which depend on superior fire-power and assume the need for political domination. We lift them up and, together with all who share this common vision, recommend them to our nation's leaders.

Overcoming the world's enmity will indeed come at the cost of much blood. But in the end only the power to relinquish life, rather than require it or remand it, results in a reconciled, restored community.

It is possible to fearlessly traverse the valley of the shadow of death; but not because we are the meanest S.O.B. in sight. No, because we have learned, as Jesus taught, that only those willing to lose life, for his sake--that is to say, for the sake of the promised Peaceable Reign of God--will find it.

Previous Article      Next Article