Where You Were Then/Where You Are Now (Rom. 14: 1-13) 9/11/11

 In our trip through Romans, Paul has covered many subjects and doctrines, but the overriding theme is love, living in peace with everyone as far as it depends on you. If the actions of others go too far, then stand on Christian principle, but don’t retaliate. Leave that in God’s hands. Rather, hold fast to your spiritual ground. Don’t compromise core values and beliefs.

 Over and over, Paul exhorts us to live by the Golden Rule. Romans 12: 10 says: “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”  Romans 12: 21 mandates to “overcome evil with good.”  Paul’s “law of love” consecrates us to Christian life. God loves us and wants us. Peter tells us that God wants none of us to perish and is patient with us.  Paul pleads for us to  “…clothe [ourselves] with the Lord Jesus Christ…” and put aside our sinful nature.

          By this time of the morning ten years ago today, a lot of grim news had hit the United States, particularly in the cities of New York and Washington and for the passengers of United Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pa. Where were you then? Chances are that you remember exactly where you were when you first heard the news. What were your first thoughts?  I was getting ready for work. Cindy had already left. It was odd for me to be home that late into the morning, much less to have the TV on. Early morning programming was going on when it was interrupted by the news anchor, who came on to say that a plane, American Flight 11, had slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. I stopped to watch. Lots of speculation was going on, but what caught my eye and attention was that it was going to be very difficult to get fire control that high.

          In less than an hour, the second plane, United Flight 175, had hit the South Tower. In less than two hours, both towers had collapsed. By the end of the morning, 2,977 innocent lives had been lost. The figure includes 411 emergency workers, of which 341 were  New York City firefighters. It also includes the 40 deaths of those on United Flight 93 and 184 more at the Pentagon and American Flight 77 that hit it.  Although it is certainly a United States tragedy, it took on international proportions as more than 70 countries lost citizens in the attacks.

          After watching the second plane hit the South Tower, I knew it was no accident. I called my wife and then started calling my children. I needed to hear their voices. I remember crying as I watched people jumping from the towers in desperation. I called my sister and my brother. I needed to know where my loved ones were…that they were safe. I had many thoughts over the next hours and days. I was angry and hurt and frustrated and confused. I once worked in New York and had friends there. My wife Cindy had worked for years in the DC area and still had friends there. I remember thinking that it didn’t even matter whether I actually knew anyone involved. It was still personal, almost familial.

In the wake of this great tragedy, I did as the rest of America did. I went to church more. I prayed more and harder. I kept in touch with everyone and pledged money to the relief efforts. For six months after 9/11, Americans went back to church like they had not done for thirty years. Volunteers lined up for military enlistment. The spirit of brotherly love for fellow Americans and for first responders and men and women in uniform hit new peaks.  

United States soil and air space had been violated. In the weeks and months that followed, we all became painfully familiar with the face and agenda of Osama Bin Laden and the Islamic radical faction known as Al-Qaeda. We have to reach all the way back to Pearl Harbor and a World War in 1941 to find this, and even then it was a military operation against a U.S. Naval base on an island territory thousands of miles from our shores.

The War on Terror was launched against a practically faceless enemy. Now, ten years later, Iraq has been invaded by American forces, Afghanistan has been occupied by the same and Osama Bin Laden was finally killed by American forces just three months ago in his compound in Pakistan. The war on Terror has cost America thousands more lives. We are still trying to understand our enemy. Certainly U.S. support of Israel and continued American troop presence in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War contributed to anti-American sentiment among Al-Qaeda, but there is more that we simply do not understand. We do not understand that kind of hate.

Ten years later, what has changed? Al-Qaeda has been seriously undermined and its leader is dead. Billions have been spent on war and national defense. We now live a little more scared than we once did. We now are a little less trusting than we once were. There is more restriction on freedom, more government intervention. In post 9/11, no one is completely untouched.

Where are we now? Our religious pollsters tell us that the surge in church participation lasted about six months. Our spike in volunteering for military service lasted about the same amount of time. What else has changed?  Our world has gotten much smaller. The economy of tiny Greece can have after shocks on the American dollar. The plentiful and cheap workforce of China has taken its toll on American jobs. The internet has linked our world communication capability to nano-seconds and yet the great world religions still clash and wars are still waged in the name of this or that religious view.

When I think of 9/11, I can’t help but think of the many acts of heroism and sacrifice that accompany that black day in our history. I think of the quiet effective leadership of Rudy Guiliani as New York’s mayor. I think of Tom Burnett, who said “don’t worry, we’re gonna do something,” and flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw, who was preparing boiling water to throw at the hijackers, both on United Flight 93, and of the other passengers who rushed the hijackers and took back control of that aircraft. I think of those many first responders who went into the jaws of danger to help others and lost their lives in the bargain, never returning to their homes and families.

The remnants of confusion and fear of 9/11 are still with us today. They may always be with us. The world seemed to change that day. Our once inviolate shores are not so anymore. All the vigilance of all the defense agencies of this country can never completely guarantee that the horror of that day might not be repeated by some random act of calculated evil. That is part of where and who we are today.

But there is more to the story than that. 9/11 reminds us. 9/11 challenges us. For on the day when part of America was lying in the smoldering ashes of terrorism, yet another part was rising from that smoke and debris before the dust had even settled. It was the citizen militia of United Flight 93. It was the first, and second and third, responders of New York State and New Jersey and so many more over weeks and months. It was the Church, mobilized through Presbyterians and Baptists and Lutherans and Methodists and yes, Muslims and so many more that gave…and went…and gave more. It was the best of all worlds. It was Christ in action. While men and women signed up in record numbers to enlist in the military and defend their country, so many more gave of their time and money to help the people of New York and Washington pick up the pieces and go on.

If the apostle Paul had been in New York on 9/11, he would have seen his sermon preached with shovels and rakes and hoes and bulldozers. “Do not overcome evil with evil. Overcome evil with good.” “Clothe yourself with Jesus Christ.” In today’s Scripture, Paul says that none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.  9/11 showed that to us again and afresh. Bravery, heroism, unselfishness, sacrifice. Those are the celebrated lessons of 9/11. But there are other equally important lessons. 9/11 was about a fringe group, not a religion. It was about the politics of religion rather than its purity. It was about community; not going it alone. It was a day and time we all wanted to say: “I am a New Yorker.”  We all belong to the Lord, says Paul.

Have the lessons of 9/11 survived as much in our hearts as they have on the New York skyline? Let’s hope so. Where are you now? What will you keep in your memory from that dreadful day?  There will always be Bin Ladens. Will we as Christians always be there as well? Don’t judge your neighbor for his differences. Embrace him for his commonality as your fellow man. The peddling of hate and prejudice in the name of religion will never sell in the hearts of Christians. The Church is community in its highest and best definition. None of us lives to himself alone. None of us!