Reflections of 9-11

There are certain historical events that take place over the course of our lifetime that we will always remember.  Not only will we remember the event, we will remember where we were when we heard the news of the event.

I was too young to have any knowledge of the assassination of President John Kennedy so I don't remember where I was when the news came.  I suspect I was at home in Macon being a "Terrible Two" because that's how old I happen to be at the time.

I remember very distinctly where I was when I heard that President Ronald Reagan had been shot.  I was at the Post Office in Memorial Hall at the University of Georgia when someone came in and said, "Hey did y'all here Reagan has been shot."  I finished mailing whatever I was mailing and headed to the nearest television I could find.

The day the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded is stamped on my consciousness.  It was cold in Macon that January day, below zero in fact.  I was teaching and coaching at Northeast High School in Macon and school was closed because all the diesel fuel had frozen in the school system's buses and the kids couldn't get to school. After lunch, I turned on the television to see a trail of smoke and here questions abounding as to what had happened.

Of course, none of us will ever forget where we were on the faithful day of September 11, 2001.  I was pastor of Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church in McDonough.  It was the second day of work for my new Administrative Assistant.  I was going over the things that would be expected of her in her new position.  I heard something on the radio on the way to the office about a plane hitting the World Trade Center.  

After arriving and giving a few instruction I decided to go back home and turn on the television to see what was taking place.  Then another plane hit the towers.  At that point I knew it wasn't an accident.  I went back to the office and sent our new employee home for the day. (With pay)  I debated whether to pick up my third grade daughter from school. In the end I didn't rush to the school, but my daughter's primary teacher was a nervous wreck because her husband was on a plane bound for Washington.  He was safe at day's end.

Soon I heard other news. A plane had flown into the Pentagon and another had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.   I had a lunch meeting that I reluctantly kept.

I picked up my daughter from school at the normal dismissal time.  She knew something was amiss but no one had told the children at school what had taken place. I told her what happened. I remember telling her that the people who had done this had died when it happened and they couldn't hurt her.  On the one hand it was technically true.  Those people on those planes couldn't hurt her.  What was unspoken by me was there were some evil people still lose in the world who could still harm us all.

Our church had a very good notification system for getting news out so I set it in motion and that evening we gathered at the church to pray.  I assumed only a few people would attend but the cars kept piling in to the parking lot.  We had a full church and we prayed.  I'm not sure to this day what exactly we were praying for but we were turning to the only place we knew to turn.  I offered a few words that were probably not eloquent.  The truth be told at the moment there was war in my soul between my best self and my worst self.

I wrote something that night reflecting on the events.  I really don't remember what I said and copies of what I wrote are long gone.  

The next Sunday we closed our worship service with "God Bless America" and did so every Sunday until I moved to another appointment in 2004.

I have been to the site of the World Trade Center since that day.  I have seen the holes in the ground where the Twin Towers once stood.  I simply could not fathom what happened on 9-11 as I stood there.  Since then, I've seen the new building that has risen in its place as a tribute to the unvanquished spirit of a nation that would not bow down to evil. 

It has been eighteen long years since 9-11.  That said, anyone who was conscious of what took place that day has certainly not forgotten it.  We remember it every time we board a plane.  We remember it every time we walk through security and have our personage searched when we attend a public event.  

In the ensuing years many have died in the wars that day spawned.  We can debate the need of those wars ad nauseum.  What we cannot debate is that our world changed that day.  The geo-political ramifications of that day have been earth shattering.  Things changed.

Yet, what did not change and has not changed is the fundamental belief that we have as followers of Jesus Christ that one day God's perfect reign of justice and righteousness will come upon the earth.  We still hold fast to that great truth proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah that  "He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4 NRSV)

I am proud to be an American.  I love my country.  That said, I do not believe that by simply being an American one is any more virtuous than anyone else.  There are times our history we have been right and sadly there have been times we have been wrong.  My prayer is that as a nation we will always strive for justice and righteousness.

Even so, on 9-11 we were attacked by pure unadulterated evil. Yet, the one great truth we can take from 9-11 is that as nation does rise against nation, one thing is constant. God is the one on the throne.  Evil may have its moments but it is God who triumphs in the end.