Last week I was away at The National Gathering of The Fellowship of Presbyterians meeting at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. As our day started on Wednesday, the day we were scheduled to go to the Martin Luther King Jr Center, news came that Rev. Dr. Billy Graham had passed away that morning. All was quiet in the room as we stopped to give thanks for the life and witness of Dr Graham. Many do not know let alone appreciate the friendship between Dr Graham and Dr. King and their shared hope-filled vision to see and end to segregation and racism in the USA and around the world.Dr Graham and his late wife Ruth, along with several of his extended family, have a long history and legacy within the Presbyterian Church. As many have had to read some of the most hate-filled responses to Dr Graham, mainly behind the cowardly veil of social media, I am grateful for many things about Dr Graham's life, witness and ministry.
I was fortunate enough to hear Dr Graham preach on several occasions. I was privileged to meet Dr Graham, even got to drive him back to his hotel in Wisconsin once a long time ago. I was also privileged to work with The Billy Graham team for crusades in Milwaukee and metro NYC. I took my son Mark to youth night in NJ when he was only six years old. Worship was led by Michael W Smith and Steve Curtis Chapman. My son remembers it well to this day. I was also privileged to have written an article on Christian Worship for DECISION magazine, for which I received a very kind thank you note from Dr Graham. The Graham Family was very much part of my home church, Elmbrook Church in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was through the ministry of that church under the leadership of Stuart and Jill Briscoe and the preaching of his brother-in-law Leighton Ford that I became a life-long committed Christian. It was here too that I first discovered the call to the pastoral ministry of Christ's Church.
His last project of film was MY HOPE AMERICA (2013) which still speaks a profound message to us all today. His last couple of books were looking at life, death and eternity from his "long-lived" experience: NEARING HOME: LIFE, FAITH AND FINISHING WELL and WHERE I AM: HEAVEN, ETERNITY AND OUR LIFE BEYOND. In the end he again quoted from Scripture (I can still hear him saying over and over again "The Scriptures say...The Word of God says...The Bible says...") when he reflects back on his own life and legacy "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." (Acts 20:24)
So I wish to add my personal voice of appreciation and gratitude to God for the life, witness and ministry of Rev Dr Billy Graham. He had an incomparable passion for The Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was committed to evangelism and social action/justice/righteousness. He once signed my Bible with a quote from The Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans "For I am not ashamed of The Gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes...for in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written 'The righteous will live by faith'." [Romans 1:16-17]
I highly commend Grant Wacker's book AMERICA'S PASTOR: BILLY GRAHAM AND THE SHAPING OF A NATION AND BILLY GRAHAM: AN AMERICAN PILGRIM (ed).
Here is the sermon he preached at The National Cathedral after the events of 9/11/2001
Billy Graham’s remarks given at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Friday, September 14, 2001, brought hope and healing to a shocked nation. His words are still powerful and relevant over 16 years later.
We come together today to affirm our conviction that God cares for us, whatever our ethnic, religious or political background may be. The Bible says that He is “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.”
No matter how hard we try, words simply cannot express the horror, the shock and the revulsion we all feel over what took place in this nation on Tuesday morning. September 11 will go down in our history as a Day to Remember.
Today we say to those who masterminded this cruel plot, and to those who carried it out, that the spirit of this nation will not be defeated by their twisted and diabolical schemes. Some day those responsible will be brought to justice.
But today we come together in this service to confess our need of God. We’ve always needed God from the very beginning of this nation. But today we need Him especially. We’re involved in a new kind of warfare. And we need the help of the Spirit of God.
The Bible says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”
But how do we understand something like this? Why does God allow evil like this to take place? Perhaps that is what you are asking. You may even be angry at God. I want to assure you that God understands these feelings that you may have.
We’ve seen so much that brings tears to our eyes and makes us all feel a sense of anger. But God can be trusted, even when life seems at its darkest.
What are some of the lessons we can learn?
First, we are reminded of the mystery and reality of evil. I have been asked hundreds of times why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I do not know the answer. I have to accept, by faith, that God is sovereign, and that He is a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering.
The Bible says God is not the Author of evil. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7 the Bible talks about the mystery of iniquity. The Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”
The lesson of this event is not only about the mystery of iniquity and evil, but, second, it’s a lesson about our need for each other.
What an example New York and Washington have been to the world these past few days! None of us will forget the pictures of our courageous firefighters and police, or the hundreds of people standing patiently in line to donate blood.
A tragedy like this could have torn our country apart, but instead it has united us. So those perpetrators who took this on to tear us apart, it has worked the other way—it has backlashed. We are more united than ever before. I think this was exemplified in a very moving way when the members of our Congress stood shoulder to shoulder and sang, “God Bless America.”
Finally, difficult as it may be for us to see right now, this event can give a message of hope—hope for the present and hope for the future.
Yes, there is hope. There is hope for the present because the stage, I believe, has already been set for a new spirit in our nation.
We desperately need a spiritual renewal in this country, and God has told us in His Word time after time that we need to repent of our sins and return to Him, and He will bless us in a new way.
There also is hope for the future because of God’s promises. As a Christian, I have hope, not just for this life, but for heaven and the life to come. And many of those people who died this past week are in heaven now. And they wouldn’t want to come back. It’s so glorious and so wonderful. That is the hope for all of us who put our faith in God. I pray that you will have this hope in your heart.
This event reminds us of the brevity and the uncertainty of life. We never know when we too will be called into eternity. I doubt if those people who got on those planes or who walked into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon on Tuesday thought that it would be the last day of their lives. And that’s why we each must face our own spiritual need and commit ourselves to God and His will.
Here in this majestic National Cathedral we see all around us the symbol of the cross. For the Christian, the cross tells us that God understands our sin and our suffering, for He took them upon Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. From the cross God declares, “I love you. I know the heartaches and the sorrows and the pain that you feel. But I love you.”
The story does not end with the cross, for Easter points us beyond the tragedy of the cross to the empty tomb. It tells us that there is hope for eternal life, for Christ has conquered evil and death and hell. Yes, there is hope.
I’ve become an old man now, and I’ve preached all over the world. And the older I get, the more I cling to that hope that I started with many years ago.
Several years ago at the National Prayer Breakfast here in Washington, Ambassador Andrew Young closed his talk with a quotation from the old hymn “How Firm a Foundation.”
This week we watched in horror as planes crashed into the steel and glass of the World Trade Center. Those majestic towers, built on solid foundations, were examples of prosperity and creativity. When damaged, those buildings plummeted to the ground, imploding in upon themselves. Yet, underneath the debris, is a foundation that was not destroyed. Therein lies the truth of that hymn, “How Firm a Foundation.”
Yes, our nation has been attacked, buildings destroyed, lives lost. But now we have a choice: whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a nation; or to choose to become stronger through all of this struggle, to rebuild on a solid foundation.
And I believe that we are starting to rebuild on that foundation. That foundation is our trust in God. And in that faith, we have the strength to endure something as difficult and as horrendous as what we have experienced this week. This has been a terrible week with many tears.
But it also has been a week of great faith. In that hymn, “How Firm a Foundation,” the words say, “Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,/For I am thy God, and will give thee aid;/I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,/Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.”
My prayer today is that we will feel the loving arms of God wrapped around us and that as we trust in Him we will know in our hearts that He will never forsake us.
We know also that God will give wisdom and courage and strength to the President and those around him. And this will be a day that we will remember as a Day of Victory.
May God bless you all.