| REFLECTIONS AS WE REMEMBER THE EVENTS OF 9/11 September 7, 2011 |
| Dear Co-laborers with Christ,  For those of us beyond a certain age, the events of September 11, 2001, are seared into our conscious memories. That day was a defining, or re-defining, moment in our lives. We remember exactly where we were when we first became aware of what was happening, we remember our feelings, our confusion, our fear, our outrage. Many, perhaps most, of us know someone who was directly affected by the events of that day, whether in New York City, Washington, D.C., or western Pennsylvania. But we know that even if we do not know someone who was present or directly involved, we are all involved, for our lives and our view of the world were on that day profoundly changed. In the days following the attacks, there was a genuine sense of being together. A sharing of what was truly bad became the ground for commitment to the common good. Many lined up at blood banks to donate blood, though it soon became clear that there would be few victims who would be saved by transfusions. Churches opened their doors, some around the clock, for prayer, and a sense of common experience was reflected in flags being flown from homes and cars, and displayed in office windows. While some with extreme views denounced any and all persons of the Islamic faith or persons with the speech, dress, and look associated with Islam, others spoke for calm and reason in a spirit of Christian grace. Calm largely became the state of our deep sorrow, rather than violence. Above all, there was a sense of needing to be together and to work together for the good of all. Some months after the attacks, I was asked to participate in a public panel discussion to reflect on the events and the aftermath. One person in the audience asked me: "where was God on 9/11?" I responded that God was where God chooses to be: in the stairwells of the collapsing World Trade Center Towers, in the dark and smoky halls of the Pentagon, in the cabin of Flight 93, in the homes of the bereaved, in the streets of New York, with the children waiting at school to be picked up by a parent who would not arrive at the end of the day. Our crucified God walks with us and shares our sufferings and our sorrow. As Bishop Roy Riley of the New Jersey Synod of the ELCA has written: Remember this: all the days of our lives - the best days and the worst days - are lived in God's precious presence, because God chooses to be present and promises to be with us to the end of time. A cross that was lifted up on a hill outside of Jerusalem makes a cross that emerges from the ruins of the World Trade Center Towers mean something to us. We know that we and all those who lost their lives on 9/11/01 mean something to God, something very precious. This gospel holds us in common and bids us to hold one another in love and in mercy - the common good born out of a most uncommon, unfathomable grace. Remember. Faithfully, your bishop, +B. Penrose Hoover |
