9/11

In our Judeo-Christian tradition remembering is of utmost importance. Our identity as an individual or as a nation is influenced by what we remember about our past and about ourselves. In Exodus 13:3 we hear Moses urging the people of Israel to remember their great deliverance from Egypt. This act of remembering is established forever in the Jewish celebration of Passover, and this act of remembering was meant to be more than just a mental exercise of recalling a past event, but it was meant to shape the Jewish identity and how they lived. As they remembered generation after generation what God did when He brought them out of slavery in Egypt they were to remember their identity of being God’s free people and live accordingly no matter what socio-political situation they found themselves in.
As we approach another anniversary of that tremendous 9/11 tragedy that shook our country’s soul to the core we are called to ‘never forget.’ In essence we are called to remember and allow that remembrance to shape us as individuals, as a country, and influence how we live. As Miroslav Volf, director of the Yale University center of faith and Culture in a 2007 interview with Christianity Today editor Collin Hansen, points out, “Part of our identity as nation depends on what has happened to us in the past.”  But as Dr. Volf also points out in this interview, much of the conflict between people is “fueled by memory of what happened in the past.” One such example of hatred and conflict fueled by memory of what happened in the past is that of the often volatile relationship that exits between Hindus and Muslims in India. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that as we remember what happened on 9/11 we do not allow hatred to beget hatred. As we remember the hatred of terrorists, the bravery of those aboard United Airlines Flight 93, and of the firefighters, medics, police, civilians and countless others at the Pentagon and around the rubble that once was the gleaming twin towers, as righteous anger throbs once again in our brain and pain in our hearts let us be careful not to let that remembrance influence our identity in such a way that we become hateful towards those who are Muslims in this country. 
 Especially, as Christians we have a responsibility, as Dr. Volf would say, to let our memory of Jesus influence how we remember things in our past. In the Lord’s Supper tradition as narrated by Paul in 1Corinthians 11:23-26 Jesus in verses 24 and 25 is heard saying as He breaks the bread and takes the cup, “Do this in remembrance of me.” In essence what Jesus is saying also is, ‘Never forget.’ What Jesus is asking us to remember is His self-sacrifice for our sin, and allow that remembrance to inform our identity and how we live in this world.  And when we remember Christ’s death in such a way we remember not only what Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5:10 that while we were God’s enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, but that Jesus died for our enemies also. This remembering of death of God’s Son for us who once were God’s enemies not only should influence how we live but also how we remember our past, how we remember even those past events in which someone has hurt us, and learn not to become bitter but better as a result, learn to forgive and love as God in Jesus Christ forgave and loved us. May the memory of 9/11 like the memory of the Holocaust always be with us reminding us of the evil that does not hesitate to do violence to human dignity and life, but may that memory be dwarfed by the shadow of the Cross that affirms and perpetuates human dignity and life before the eternal throne of God.