9 - 11 sermons

I heard two good ones on Sunday.

First MP spoke of learning from the past and specifically used the 9-11-01 tragedy as an example.

People can learn the wrong things from the past. MP spoke of a man who had a successful yet unfulfilled career. The 9-11 tragedy got him to act on his dream to be a teacher. So he quit his job, got training, and ten years later he is still teaching.

But another man in the chaos of 9-11 called his wife at 8:37 AM to tell her he was all right. Ten years later every day at 8:37 he still calls his wife to tell her he is all right. It seems he is fixated in the past. He learned the wrong thing from 9-11.

Then MP generalized from 9-11. He used the illustration of a child learning to "pump" on a swing. To grow up you learn to go higher by yourself. You no longer need someone else to push you. You lean back on the back swing and push forward when coming forward. That makes you go higher.

In the same way we lean back (look back) to learn from the past in order to more strongly move forward. We learn from the past but we do not stay there.

In the evening, RC gave a sermon specifically remembering 9-11-01.

"Everyone remembers where they were on 9-11-01." He said this to us. I have heard it said repeatedly in the days coming up to Sunday. Yet it is not true for me. Truth be told I have it mixed up with the Challenger disaster in my memory. I have vivid memories of where I was when I heard about the Challenger blowing up with all those brave astronauts. Since Mission Control is in Houston it is closer to me. I know people who knew some of them. Perhaps that is why. I am not sure.

Pictures come to my mind and when I think of 9-11. But they are the memories of Challenger. Those same pictures come up. I have the two memories mixed up. I cannot truly say I remember sharing my feelings with others on 9-11. I have little memory of it at all.

Perhaps it is dissociated in my mind, if that is the right term. I did not spend a lot of time watching the towers fall over and over again. That was too much. It was painful and I did not want to deal with my emotions.

RC mentioned that many people came back to church after 9-11. The churches were filled. SJD was filled. I remember that too. He spoke of people getting single minded. We looked to God alone for comfort and help. We sought his love and support.

Yet this did not last. Soon we were back to being double minded again, wanting to love God but also wanting to take comfort from the sinful world. We wanted our distractions back. They tend to drown out God.

RC likened this to the Israelites who were single-mindedly grateful after God delivered them from the Egyptians miraculously through the Red Sea. Everyone praised God wholeheartedly. But soon the Israelites forgot. They were soon complaining about their situation. They had already forgotten God's great salvation for them.

Let us try to remember God's salvation and be truly grateful.