September 11th Remembrance, CAK Airport

September 11th Remembrance
CAK Airport, 9/11/23

We all remember that day.  We remember what we were doing, and who we were with.  We remember the lives lost, and the heroes who rushed into the chaos, hoping to bring life out of death.  All of us standing here today remember that day.  And that makes it a touchstone, a flashpoint, a shared common experience.

As a nation, we have always been a melting pot, or better yet, a colorful fabric woven together out of many different threads.  And on September 11th, and the days that followed, the fabric was stronger than ever.  People who never got along before found common purpose.  Ethnic groups, who'd assumed they had nothing in common, realized that they had everything in common.  Together, we too rushed into the chaos, hoping to bring life out of death.

And today, 22 years later, it is sort of hard to remember what that was like.  In our current disunity and divisiveness, it seems like we’ve forgotten about the beautiful fabric of so many strands.  Each of us thinking we can somehow get along without the other threads in the fabric.  But we can’t.  That is not who we are; that is not how our country was intended to be.  An America divided against itself, for whatever alleged "existential reasons," cannot survive.  As Jesus said—and Lincoln reminded us—a house divided against itself cannot stand.

So my prayer today is this:  That we will find our way back to something like the unity we felt and lived in the days and weeks after 9/11.  That we would be inspired to reach out, rather than draw back.  That we once again would put aside our differences in order to make this country better for our children, to make this world better for our children, and to make life better for ourselves.

May God bless you, and may God bless America, and may God bless all the nations of this world. 

Let us pray.

O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful
hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of
decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant
that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the
benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This
we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  BCP 839

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
move every human heart and especially the hearts of the
people of this land, that barriers which divide us may
crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our
divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  BCP 823