September 11 - Reflections Twenty Years Later

September 11 – Reflections Twenty Years Later

A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy Hammer, September 12, 2021

Psalm 140:1-8 NIV; Wendell Berry, “The Peace of Wild Things”

Can you recall where you were and what you were doing twenty years ago yesterday, on the morning of September 11, 2001?  I was in our kitchen in Franklin, TN, preparing to walk out the door for a full day of work and meetings, when a special news bulletin on CNN caught my attention.  A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  In shock and disbelief, I stood before our kitchen television set as it transmitted the image of black smoke billowing from a gaping hole in one side of the Twin Towers, as from some great wounded beast gasping for breath.  Immediately I called Mary Lou’s office to tell her what was going on, and as I left a message on her office voicemail, I watched in horror as a second plane came crashing into the Towers.  By this time I had a gut feeling, and you probably did too, that what we were witnessing was no accident.  It was intentional.  September 11, 2001, was a day that many of us shall never forget; the events and images of that day forever will be etched in our minds.

Well, it is twenty years later.  During these past twenty years, we have all been changed in a number of ways and we have all learned a lot. 

For instance, we have learned that though human nature is for the most part good, humankind’s vulnerability to misguided inclinations is ever so present and sometimes almost beyond belief.   It is hard for us to understand how a few misguided souls could be capable of such evil and destruction.  Such, I think, is something the psalmist realized as he penned the 140^th Psalm.  The psalmist had his own challenges to contend with, violent men who planned destructive things in their minds and stirred up wars continually.  The 140^th Psalm almost reads like it could have been written yesterday.  The psalm expresses the bewilderment that we all feel as we witness and wrestle with the evil that is done in the world.  It expresses the fear of what evil men might do to us.  It expresses the plea for help and longing for hope that the wrong shall fail and the right shall prevail.  It has never been more evident than now that contending with terrorism and extremism is a complicated, unending battle.  Perhaps it always has been.

Closely related is the realization that all that is done in the name of religion is not necessarily good or true.  Sadly, a lot of evil has been done in God’s name down through the centuries by persons of all religious faiths, Christianity included.  We need only remember the Christian Crusades when people were forced to be baptized at the threat of the sword.  The terrorists who planned and carried out the attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon claimed to be of the Islamic faith.  Supposedly they invoked the name of Allah, or God, when they carried out their deeds.  However, just to claim one is acting in the name of God or religion does not a person of faith make.  We all know that.

Soon after the events of September 11, 2001, Mary Lou and I attended a lecture series in Nashville titled “Relevant Religion” that was sponsored by Scarritt Bennett Center and Vanderbilt Divinity School.  Several of the lectures were given by local Muslim leaders of the Nashville community.  One of the things that all of those Muslim leaders insisted was that the terrorists were not true Muslims.  The minute they decided to take innocent human life they stepped out of the Islamic faith.  True Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance and respect for all human life, they contended.

So we do well to be careful that we don’t identify or equate extremist terrorists with the Islamic faith, any more than we need to identify Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing, with the Christian or Roman Catholic faith.  We must be careful that we don’t pronounce guilt by association; that is, that we don’t condemn or persecute any who may be of Middle Eastern descent or who practice the true Muslim faith.  It has been noted that several Muslims lost their lives in the Twin Towers tragedy too.  And Muslim Americans also mourned the innocent victims of that horrific crime against humanity.

Newspaper articles following the September 11 tragedy pointed out that there was an upswing in crimes against those of the Islamic faith.  Many Muslims were singled out for bias, discrimination, or persecution.  It didn’t help that a prominent Christian evangelist called Islam “an evil and wicked religion.” 

As I have already said, all that may be associated with religion may not be good or true. 

Thus, the need for tolerance and understanding is greater now than ever.  As people of faith, it falls to us to act justly toward all, regardless of ethnic origin or religious affiliation. 

The truth is, we need one another, and we need to love and get along with one another, in spite of our differences.  On the morning of September 11, 2001, I felt the great need to connect with loved ones.  After I called Mary Lou’s office, I also called our son and daughter, who were 200 miles away attending college.  I just needed to hear their voices and be assured that they were all right.  You may have felt the same way. 

But we also need each other in a broader sense of the term.  We need each other as members of the Christian faith community.  And we need each other in the wider, global, interfaith community, regardless of our differing religious affiliation.  The world is much, much smaller than we had originally thought.  So, we need to learn how to live with one another in harmony and peace.

There is another lesson we have learned since September 11 that is more positive in nature, and that is we have learned that the human spirit is strong.  The human spirit, when pushed to the limits, can rise to unimagined achievements. The account of Lauren Manning is one such story that demonstrates the strength of the human spirit.  Lauren was entering the north tower of the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11 when a fireball exploded from an elevator shaft.  She and two others managed to run from the building, all three of them on fire.  A passerby ran to help and reached Lauren first.  When Lauren reached the hospital with 82% of her body burned, she said, “I want to live for my husband and son.”  Before the tragedy, Lauren was one of the most beautiful women you will ever see.  But on September 11, Lauren’s face and body were drastically changed.  She was no longer the “physical beauty” she once was, as her face and body were forever scarred. 

Yet, Lauren’s spirit learned to soar with new life.  A new Lauren Manning was resurrected from the ashes of the Twin Towers inferno.  Lauren lived to tell her story through books and television interviews.  She wrote about her recovery experience in her book, Unmeasured Strength, that was released near the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.  Through Lauren, the whole world has been able to see what the power of prayer, a caring world, and the strength of the human spirit can accomplish.  Lauren was empowered, inwardly, because of her experience.  She called her burn scars her “personal tattoos, her body art.”  She was able to draw from all her injury and loss a new understanding and new purpose for life.

And one final, related thought: Because of the September 11 tragedy, we saw just how good human nature can be, and how compassionate the American people can be.  We learned that the volunteer, sacrificial spirit was alive and well in America.  Charitable giving and donating blood to blood banks following the September 11 tragedy reached record highs.  And in recent days, it has been pointed out how unified Americans were following the September 11 tragedies, in contrast to how divided, how polarized we are today.

Yes, as we reflect over the past twenty years, there are great lessons that all of us can draw from the September 11 tragedy—a new understanding and greater tolerance; a greater commitment to working for understanding and peace; a new purpose; the importance of unity; and a new dedication to life and living each day to its fullest.  With the grace of God, may it be so.  Amen.