Three Visions for 9/11

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Jerusalem Blade

Puritan Board Professor
The first two were written on the day and the day after, the third half a year later. My wife and I were living in the city at the time.




<blockquote>NYC Tuesday 9/11/01 3:47 PM

I can still see the smoke billowing
from what is left of the World Trade Center
as I look out my window in Astoria
across the East River.

Only 27 days ago we beheld the massive grandeur
of lower Manhattan's skyline from the boat
as Tim, Karen, the girls, and I happily toured
our Statue of Liberty.

Visiting from Cyprus, they, and I tagging along,
we all took photos of ourselves
with the twin towers in the background,
rooted in the solid rock of New York.

But now the towers are rubble
from the terrorist attack of two hijacked planes
crashing into them "“ shown on TV the world over "“
and New York City is stunned.

I am ominously reminded of Revelation,
chapter 18, and the fall of the great city,
Babylon, accomplished in one hour,
the smoke of her burning seen

from afar off, from the ships out at sea,
who cried when they saw
the smoke of her ascending, saying,
What is like the great city?

And they threw dust on their heads,
and cried out, weeping and mourning, saying,
Woe! Woe, to the great city,
in which all who had ships on the sea

were made rich
by her wealth!
For in one hour she is made desolate.

An ominous remembrance.

We are too stunned to mourn.
For surely there are thousands dead,
and multitudes injured.
Tomorrow we will mourn.

We know there is a Sovereign God over all
who works all things after the counsel
of His own will, and not even a sparrow falls
without Him.

I take this as the beginning
of judgment on America
for our many sins
to bring us to national repentance.

A light tap of the Almighty
to indicate His displeasure
with our ungodly ways;
a light tap before a heavy blow.

Heaven's floodgates of mercy are flung wide,
and He summons us to Himself through pain,
individual pain, and national pain "“ to the Cross of Christ,
O America, where the sins of the world were taken away.

For we have not been light to the world
but darkness, the darkness of drugs,
racism, love of money, beauty, power,
and a hatred of God in our national life.

The smoke is still billowing from lower Manhattan,
and can be seen far out at sea.
I hear they are dancing in the Palestinian territories.
Here we are in shock, and tomorrow we will mourn.



-------------------


MEDITATING ON THE TWIN TOWERS
& THE CROSS


I have a friend "“ a cop "“
who is mad at me for my poem,
"NYC Tuesday 9/11/01..."
as he was down there
setting up an emergency center
and his feelings were so much more affected
than mine, with what he saw and heard,
and he disdained the poem.
I told him I was sorry,
not wanting to further trouble him,
and to honor his anguish.


During my quiet-time today
this is what came to me:

The images "“ from many different angles "“
are indelibly imprinted in my mind
of the second plane crashing into the tower

the force of the jet
disappearing right into the building
into the offices full of people
about their morning tasks
and exploding their lives into eternity,

the people on the plane
feet away from the office workers
in these bizarre proximities of mass homicide

that image
of the jet crashing into the building
and our horror
at its impact
upon human lives

not only in those seconds
but in the minutes following
"“ people jumping rather than being burned,
one falling person killing a fireman on the street "“
and then the collapses of both buildings

we are shaken to our depths
by the image of the jet
entering the building
"“ we can scarce apprehend the actual impact

the grand twin towers of New York's
and America's glory

the image of our pride,
financial leadership,
world supremacy

leader among nations....

the horror
that some would seek to bring us down.

*****************

Let me tell you God's story,
His disaster,
His day of terror

and the horror of the crash
into the edifice
of His glorious attributes Love
and Holiness.

What came crashing
into His building

"“ it was actually the Temple He had erected
of the image of His eternal glory,
His supremacy in the universe:

in human frame,
the eternal Son;


as the hymn puts it,
"Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail th' incarnate Deity!" "“

What came crashing
into the glorious and tender body
of the Lord Jesus

with far more force than the jet into the building

was the speeding, roaring Wrath aimed
"“ with the consuming destruction of God´s judgment "“
at our collective sin borne by Him

and His body was not a building
filled with thousands of wrath-deserving sinners
(are we not?)
dying quick deaths

but housed eternal God, the Son,
and His fully human nature
which suffered infinite destruction due us
from the impact
of speeding juggernaut Fury

explosions of omnipotent outraged Justice and Holiness
in fiery chain-reactions
within His vast Being
wreaking deserved Vengeance upon our sin,
the sacrificed human nature sustained by the Divine

till the Fury was somehow subsumed
in His infinite capacity
"“ the Wrath due us gone, exhausted! "“
as upon a burnt offering

and the great Image
of God's towering glory
fully Man, and fully God,
in His human nature
"“ dying the deaths we should have died "“
collapsed,
destroyed,

dead.

*****************

The horror of New York's towers
is so much more vivid in our minds
than what befell God.

It was love for us
and not terrorist revenge
that sent engines of destruction
into His eternal Son,

for Father,
Son,
and Spirit
covenanted in Eternity
to make this great triune Sacrifice
for love of us.

May it be held up for the world to see
with greater vividness than the broken towers "“
God's Disaster,
effected by divine love.

May the images in our minds
of the World Trade Center
lead us to meditate
on what crashed into Jesus Christ.

There is a happier ending to that Story,
for when the dust settled
God had one of His hymnists pen,

"In the cross of Christ I glory
Tow'ring o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime."

For God raised Him up alive again
after the crash,
and He will save us in Himself
if we will trust Him.

Learn of Him, and how He saves us,
for it is great
and eternal.

Every evil of those who will trust Him
paid for
by His precious blood
and suffering.

Out of God's disaster
flows a river of redeeming love,
a fountain of cleansing
for whosoever will
drink the Waters of Eternal Youth.

<blockquote>Wed 9/12/01 1:15 PM</blockquote>



------------------



OLD GLORY

I was waiting for a bus on West 14th Street in NYC
and looked up in the windy night sky
and saw atop the Chelsea Market building
an American flag billowing majestically in the breeze
highlighted in the dark by spotlights

it was a glorious sight, attended as it was by the vision
in my mind's eye, of our military might
propelled by a national sense of outraged justice,
of our renewed feeling of solidarity as a people
under one flag.

As I watched the flag furl and unfurl slowly in the wind
lit bright against the black night
I saw the fresh blood of our young men
willingly spilled for its honor
as they pursued our adversaries on distant mountains

I saw the resolve of our people "“ and our leaders "“
to command the respect of the nations:
"Trifle with us at your peril!"
as we unleashed fury
on those who thought to make us prey.

I couldn't take my eyes off the solemn beauty of it,
of the vision of America, great and mighty,
unified and mobilized, pierced to the heart
by sadness at our recent national wounds,
yet still swift, powerful and dignified.

At that moment I felt a love for this land
I had never felt before, saw the glory of America
as I had never seen it before, and was awed.
This is truly a nation among nations
for all its flaws.

I love the sheer physical beauty of this country,
the towering, sprawling cities, rugged remote wildernesses,
its lakes, rivers, and especially its streams splashing and sparkling
about me as I lounge mid-stream on island rocks "“
the vastness and variety of this rich land!

But I felt another sadness
mingled with our own recent losses,
for although September 11th has brought out
the seeming best in us, and we love ourselves
as I have never seen before

that flag was flapping and snapping gloriously
in eternity, one among many in the long procession of nations
up through recorded time, and I saw the judgment
inevitable from on high
from an outraged justice we ourselves trifle with

seeing as we have moral cancers that have eaten away our heart
for God, and for the laws of life and of love
that are the health and glory of any nation
or individual, turning instead to mere human religions
and disdaining "“ casting aside from us! "“ His holy word.

I've seen the signs "“ after 9/11 "“ which say,
"United we stand. In God we trust."
Alas it is not so, for we are still a bitterly divided people,
and the "God" who is "trusted" is not the One true,
but men and women make gods of anything they love.

How is it now, that in its hour of greatest peril
"“ and on the day of my sixtieth year here in this land "“
my heart is filled with love and respect for this flag
as never before?
But it is fitting.

America, I am not against you "“ I am your Poet! "“
but for you, to plead with you to look above our glorious flag
to Him who lifts flags up and casts them down,
who draws souls to the Savior of the world,
the living ensign of God´s justice and His mercy.

I daresay the atoning cross of Jesus the Messiah
is the banner of God's kingdom
and none who do not bow the knee
to His suffering glory there
shall enter it.

I know words such as mine here will divide
and not unite our nation, and so it is meant to be,
for not all Americans are Heaven-bound,
and some will rage at my words,
even as they raged when my King spoke His.

Love the flag I do
but I love the cross of Jesus Christ more
for great as our land is
the kingdom of God that shall replace this and all nations
is worthy of the first and purest loyalty

for it is the land of the great King
in whose heart is the spring of fathomless glory
and to be with and near Him
is worth all the lands, all the gold, even my life,
and I look beyond Old Glory to Eternal Glory.

<blockquote>March 21, 2002</blockquote></blockquote>

[Edited on 9-11-2006 by Jerusalem Blade]

[Edited on 9-13-2006 by Jerusalem Blade]
 
I changed the title of the thread (from "poems" to "visions") as I had forgotten how poetry was (deservedly) in great disrepute these days! Vision in the sense of seeing.

Steve
 
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