Scripture Lessons:
Deuteronomy 30:19-20
John 15:12-13

Prayer: Gracious God we come to you this morning, with thanks for the love you pour out on us gathered here through your Son Jesus Christ. We remember your sacrifice and love for us today. God renew in us your spirit that breaks down the walls that make us strangers to ourselves and divide us from one another. Let love be the flavor of thought and word and deed. Peace be among us.
Amen.

Friends today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11 the day that changed this nation and the world. The day that changed and shaped our culture and outlook of life. The day that changed you and me.

New York City plays a very important place in my life. My journey to America began from here. I came from India at John F. Kennedy Airport on Jan 31st 1997 to begin my married life. I considered myself a native New Yorker for the first few years of my married life. We lived and worked in the city and we were newly married couples enjoying the bliss of married life in the city of New York. Later on we became the suburbanites or the people living in the suburbs of New Jersey. Sushil still worked near city hall in downtown. I was pastor of my first church in Union, NJ. I went to school in mid-town and we occasionally went for morning worship at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church opposite Ground Zero which became a relief center after 9/11. It was Tuesday September 11th 2001 at 8:45 am when the first plane struck the first tower. I remember clearly that it was Tuesday because it was Sushil’s day off. As his daily work schedule, Sushil would have taken the path train at the exact same time into the World Trade Center stop. That evening of 9/11 we gathered in this small church and we prayed as a faith community.

Rev. John Painter the former pastor of this church in his recent email to me sent this link to the CNN’s Belief Blog which talks about ways in which America’s Attitude towards religion has changed. It is written by John Blake, CNN news reporter. In this article Blake writes how he was discovering stories of heroic efforts by simple and ordinary people. Fire fighters who marched up the smoke-choked stairwells of the World Trade Center, though many of them knew they could die. Many called their families for the one last time to say “I love you”.
There were so many stories of self-sacrifice, not just by the first responders, but by people fleeing the building. In this there was this revelation of goodness.

David O’Brien, a Catholic historian saw an Easter message in 9/11 – good rising out of the ashes of evil.
September 11 didn’t just change America, they say. It changed the nation’s attitude toward religion. A chosen nation becomes a humbled one. The 9/11 attacks, though, forced many Americans to confront their limitations, says Rev. Thomas Long, a nationally known pastor who has been active in post 9/11 interfaith efforts.
Before 9/11, interfaith efforts were dismissed as feel-good affairs that rarely got media coverage. The 9/11 attacks changed that.

“The story is not over, not by a long shot,” O’Brien wrote. “Look at all the love that day. Love can still write another chapter and keep hope alive for a better future. The meaning of 9/11 lies ahead, and it’s in our hands, and maybe in our hearts.’

Friends anniversaries are for remembering and we need to remember. It is time to remember; but what do we remember. Friends there is a danger in remembering something that needs to be forgotten. Which might be a stumbling block for us and because of that we cannot move on with our lives. On the other side we might forget the things that need to be remembered. The outpouring of love and sacrifice beyond race, ethnicities and gender broke the barriers that were set. These people and things must be remembered and honored: the firefighters and police officers who sacrificed themselves for others, and people going beyond their human capacities to help someone in need.

John 15:12-13 ” This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ”

In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 30 :19 ” I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendents may live.”

On one side we have bitterness, resentment and hatred and the other side we have forgiveness, reconciliation and peace. Bitterness is drinking poison yourself and hoping that the other person gets sick.

George Buttrick, pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian church wrote, ” While God stands at the door in mercy and knocks, revenge broods over injuries and magnifies them, and so becomes deaf to God’s knocking. Revenge is not sweet; it is burning poison…. No life is open to God which bitterly nurses its resentments.

Walter Bruggemann in his sermon – “Power to Remember, Freedom to Forget” taken from his book ” The Threat of Life,” he says “Anniversaries are times to drink deeply of the past and then before celebration is over, to turn your mind and your heart and your attention away from the past into the present, which belongs to God, and into the future where God is calling us to a deep and different newness.”

Friends what newness God has created out of the past pains and suffering in our life? Where is new life happening in your life?
I have heard about this camp which has given new life to the children of 9/11. Instilled in them hope, forgiveness and learning to love and trust again. One of my former church members lost her spouse in the 9/11 attacks and her two children have enjoyed going to this camp called “America’s Camp”.

Friends my hope for you today is that we may take time to remember the love, work with God to be co-creators of a world filled with peace, love, sacrifice, and justice. Amen.