September 11th CAK Airport

Sept. 11 Ceremony
CAK Airport 

Last week I visited my brother and sister in law in Stuyvesant Town, which is on the lower east side of Manhattan.  They have lived in New York City since the 70’s, and have lived in that Stuyvesant Town apartment since 1990.  From their living room and bedroom windows, you could see the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center.  Which means that on September 11th, they had a clear view of the towers burning.  Watching it all unfold for hours on end.  As for so many New Yorkers—and people around the world—that was a traumatic day in their lives.  

At the time, my brother was a Lutheran pastor, serving a church in Howard Beach, Queens.  A good number of his parishioners were cops and firefighters, and several of them died that day in the towers.  About a week after September 11th, my brother went to his Bishop and said he needed to leave the church—and stop being a pastor—because he had lost his faith.  And I get that; I really do.

But over time, with help, he stuck with it.  He ministered to the grieving families, and tended to the emotionally racked people of the parish.  He worked hard to do what he could to help people recover in the only way he knew how.  You could say he loved his way back into ministry, and back to loving the great city of New York.  He rediscovered the value of being in ministry in the midst of a violent and senseless world.  And he found hope, because he looked for hope.

When I visited them last week, I often looked out their window at the tallest building in the country: One World Trade Center, gleaming in the September sun, which sits where the twin towers once stood.  This building is beautiful, but it does not replace the Twin Towers.  It is filled with people, but it does not replace the lives that were lost that day.  It is a testament to heroism, but it does not replace the brave people who ran into the building trying to save the lives that were lost.

But that new building is a sign of hope.  It is a sign of rebirth.  A sign of resurrection.  It is a reminder that evil did not—and will not—have the last word.  Though we lost many of our fellow Americans that day, we live in hope.  Though the presence of evil around us makes us doubt, we live with faith.  And though hatred seeks to isolate us, we live by trusting and relying on one another.  We get through things together, because that is the only way through.  Together.

May God bless our country, and may God protect those who stand in harm’s way.  I pray that God will lead us into a world where friendship subdues hatred, where peace conquers anger, and where God’s love reigns above every tribe and nation.  For the benefit of us all, and those who will come after us.
 

Let us pray:        For the Human Family BCP 815
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us
through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole
human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which
infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;
unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, all nations and races may serve you in
harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.