Apprentice 2 Jesus

This will be the defining moment of my entire life. It is a defining moment for an entire generation, whether they realize it or not. The impact of that day and that time will keep on reverberating, and much of that reverberation will be because we have failed, as a culture, to dig deep and examine the impact of that day.

One impact from that day is we have been exposed as a culture that does not mourn. Not collectively. We didn’t mourn as a nation then. There were some ceremonies, but it wasn’t a time to mourn our deep loss. We were too easily amped up on revenge. When we had a whole people, Muslims, on which to turn our anger and thirst for revenge, we were all too ready.

When we are told by the president the most patriotic thing we could do was “go shopping,” it’s a sign we are not a nation ready for these events in a way that galvanizes us. We are easily led to be galvanized by cause that will lead us to violence. We are not easily led to a place of mourning.

A major impact from that time is we are shown to be easily persuaded to give up our privacy and personal rights (foundational to the founding of our nation) for the illusion of “security.” It reverberates to this day. I listened to some guys recently argue over the use of “flock cameras” and the old mantra was brought out: “Well if you’re not doing anything wrong, why does this affect you?”

The Patriot Act is the single most egregious violation of Constitutional rights in recent history. To begin this millennium with such an act in place sets a tone for this nation that impacts us to this day. It will not be repealed by any Congress and will not be revoked by any sitting president. It gives the government immense power to violate Constitutional rights, along with the power to spy on Americans without due process. Once that power is handed over to a few in government, we are never getting it back. And we are fooled by this singular act every single day of our lives. We are fooled into surrendering our privacy for the false sense of security every single day. We gladly make the exchange.

We are less trusting as a culture since 9/11.

We are less cohesive.

Less trusting.

More divided… and violently so.

And all of that is just the cultural side of the equation. Since 9/11… the American Church has been exposed over and over and the ugliness is appalling… and we continually refuse to see it.

When 9/11 happened, I began a series shortly after on discipleship and spiritual formation. I am not the only one, I’m sure, but I tie it together for our little church because I remember the direction of the Holy Spirit in that time. The call was to build disciples.

I would ask the question: Are we Americans who happen to be Christian or are we Christians who happen to be American?

I taught on the Sermon on the Mount. I formed a discipleship group that went through a year long course of spiritual readings and practices that would call us to follow Jesus more seriously.

In my tiny corner of the world, I experienced the larger issue with the American Church.

9/11 opened it up for examination. We’ve been exposed ever since. We have failed to learn the lesson time after time.

By 2015 or so, I was receiving the answer back from my small congregation: We are Americans who happen to be Christians.

Culture wars were in full swing. Racial tensions in the area where I was pastoring were rising. I watched people make cultural choices before asking questions from a Kingdom perspective.

That was a small example of a larger problem. And it hasn’t slowed down.

9/11 was symbolic of the need for spiritual renewal. It also symbolizes our refusal to undergo the deep work of spiritual change. We are exposed as culturalized Christians and have done nothing about it in 25 years.

That fall of 2001, the Boston Globe investigative unit called Spotlight was getting into the scandal of the Boston Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church. They were in the middle of investigating the scandal that would rock the Roman Catholic World, though they were focused on just Boston. By January of 2002 they were ready to begin publishing their findings.

The Roman Catholic Church was exposed.

It didn’t stop there. Over the next 20 plus years, investigations by journalists and also brave victims simply coming forward, every corner of the western church has been examined and found wanting.

From fundamentalist Baptists to Southern Baptists to megachurches to more traditional churches, story after story has come out.

Not once has any part of the American Church stopped and called people to fast and pray and wait on God for any period of time. Not on a major scale.

My former denomination and my current denomination are now being challenged and it is deeply serious. And leadership in both struggle to deal with the magnitude of the spiritual damage being done.

And still… no major call for a long period of fasting and prayer and repentance.

9/11 has far more repercussions on us than we want to examine, and the lack of examination has compounded over 25 years. We are not better in any way as a culture in the last 25 years. (Sure… the stock market is up. Yay.) Measurably as a culture… we are unhealthy in so many ways. Spiritually… we are still refusing to hear the voice of God.

The Old Testament had a word for that: stiff-necked.