Remembering September 11

“…choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” -Joshua 24:15

This has been a traumatic week as we have relived the horrors of Sep. 11, 2001. I knew the anniversary was coming. It did not take me by surprise. But yet the reawakening of the emotions stirred again something so very sickening and grim within me that I found it disturbing. And now it was complicated by all of the frustrations of the last five years of a nation floundering to find its enemy and of those who still had no idea just who the enemy is. Part of me did not want to see the video again, to see the tributes, to watch the docu-dramas and listen to a President struggle for the words to make sense of it all. It was too big, too tragic, too vicious for processing in the spare change of my spare time.

I listened to a preacher try to memorialize and summarize last weekend just what we needed to remember. It is a most difficult job because it was such a multifaceted event. And there is still little agreement as to what actually happened. I sat with the announcement board that hangs out in front of the school and struggled as to what to write after the date, Mon. – Sep. 11. What do we say? How do we grieve? What is it that we should remember?

We grieve, of course, for the innocent victims, both good and bad, saved or lost. They deserved far better. We grieve for those in government who have to live with the “if only’s” of their missed chances. We grieve for a people enslaved by fanaticism who glory in their call to make war in the name of God. They are ultimately the biggest losers for their single eye towards destruction and subjection has rendered them unable to build viable societies or economies. We grieve for those who have sacrificed life in seeking retribution for the outrage of 9/11 and for those who struggle even now in the fog of this frontless war. We pray their sacrifices are not wasteful and without effect.

Some are finally awakening to the epic proportions of the ideological dimensions of this global confrontation. For this we can be thankful. And, in part, we can take some small comfort in that the soft, feel-good philosophy of inclusive relativism has finally met its match. For too long, many have frolicked barefoot in the tall grass of “no absolutes,” no right or wrong, each to his own, do your own thing. And now their soft toes have met an iron stake driven deep into the ground called Islam. The impact is painful and riveting as true believers are willing to come to our shores and die for the sake of “Truth” that will not compromise itself with pluralism or diversity. We, as Christians, have known all along that what you believe matters. Ideas are important. Words have meaning. There is right and wrong. Much of the world has forgotten. In the aftermath of 9/11, we have a rare opportunity to inform our world that there are choices to be made and stands to be taken.

Let us make sure to begin with our children. Black and white still exist. ‘Yes’ still means ‘yes’ and ‘no’ still means ‘no.’ The world is either flat or round but cannot be both. What we believe determines what we will do. What we sow is what we will reap. Our theology should determine our morals and not the other way around. The ten commandments are not the ten suggestions. Truth does not change with time. Absolutes still are those things which are true at all places, at all times, and with all people. There is a heaven to be gained and a hell to be spurned. There are many false gods but only one true one. And which one we serve makes all the difference.