9/11/01 Plus 10: Between Memory and Hope

When something terrible happens… something of a horrible magnitude… the memory that surrounds that event seems to be permanently etched in our minds… often in minute detail.

I can still remember when I first heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated… or what I was doing when I was told that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded… or who I was with when I heard of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001?

What were you doing when you heard the towers had fallen? What’s your memory of that terrible day… 10 years ago?
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As I considered what I might share with you in this Service of Remembrance… I thought I’d re-visit some of my own memories of that time…

Whenever a tragedy strikes… whenever bad things happen to good people… we hear the question... and it’s one that we may have even asked ourselves... "Where is God in all of this?"

I’d like to tell you the answer to that question that I discovered when I took a trip to New York City three months after the towers fell... God was present at Ground Zero for me that day… in a very powerful way.
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It was a gray day when I emerged from the subway station at the intersection of West and Chambers. There were a few others like me... clearly tourists... clearly there on a sort of pilgrimage. Quietly we made our way to Broadway and then to Saint Paul's Chapel where the fence around the church has been transformed into a shrine... a "people's memorial".

Posters... flowers... prayer beads and pictures of sacred images were hanging everywhere. One poster still stands out in my memory very clearly… it had a picture of a lovely 20-something woman on it… with big bold letters pleading… “Have you seen Carla?”

People were standing in hushed silence… as though we were in church… some places 5 and 6 deep… looking at everything there. It was quite moving… But for me the most powerful encounters of the day were yet to come.
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After walking by St. Paul's Chapel... I came upon a table set up on the sidewalk covered with books and pamphlets and stuff. Not really an unusual sight in New York City... there are often tables on the sidewalk covered with items for sale… incense… watches…or art of various expressions and quality. But this was clearly different. Over the table was a sign that read... "Prayer Station"...

I stopped to talk to one of the young women who were standing there. Jennifer couldn’t have been much older than Erin at the time. She told me how the "Prayer Station" was sponsored by an organization called: Youth With A Mission... For the 3 month anniversary there were over 200 kids from 18-25 at various "Prayer Stations" in the area… just trying to be a friendly face for people working and visiting around Ground Zero.

Jennifer had come all the way from Vancouver, BC to pray with anyone who needed it. She realized that she didn't have any special skills to offer... but she felt the need to do something... What she could give was her time and her prayers... and so... after raising all the money she needed to get to NY and back… there she stood.

She and her friends had just prayed with a man from France. His wife had died when the tower collapsed to the ground. The woman had traveled to NYC to see a former college classmate and was to have met her at a coffee shop in the World Trade Center that terrible morning. This was the first chance he had to come to the place where his wife died.

We chatted a bit... and prayed together... then I continued down Broadway. I hadn't gone more than a few feet when for some reason I looked up. There on the building across the street hung a huge banner... several stories tall... Its message was simple... "Fear is not the only force at work in the world today."

I couldn't help but stop and pause a moment in silent awe when I read that banner just after being with a young woman who had traveled over 3000 miles simply to pray with strangers on the streets of New York City.
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And then I met Tony. In front of the fence that surrounds Trinity Church… Tony... Steve... and Ike had set themselves up with rickety chairs and plastic milk crates… "Shoes shined... Shoes shined…." they called out as people walked by. I thought… "Well what the heck... this is New York… and my shoes sure could use a shine." So I sat down at Tony's chair.

This African American man in his early thirties went on and on in his jovial jiving manner about how he had a Ph.D in "Shoe-ology." "You'll see…" he said... “this’ll be the best shine these shoes’ll ever have... because I'm the Shoe Doctor.” And as he buffed and polished he told me how he and his friends have been shining shoes at that spot for 17 years.

They were there that Tuesday September 11... Tony said he lost a lot of friends that day... He stopped for a moment and looked in the direction of where the towers once stood… “After all… “ he said quietly… “you don't shine someone's shoes for 17 years and not become friends."

He spoke of how he and Steve and Ike ran to help the victims after the first tower collapsed... "What else could we do? You can't just run away and leave people like that." And then he told me how it felt to run like Hell in the other direction when the second tower started to collapse.

Before I left him I asked Tony how he was doing. "It's pretty rough sometimes with the nightmares and stuff... But I have my faith to help me through... I know the love of God is in me." And then… standing right there on the street he began to recite from memory the following poem… in a catchy rap beat that I couldn’t possibly imitate:

"I greet this day with love in my heart...From now on I behold every creature with love and I am born again.
I love the sun because it warms my bones,
but I also love the rain because it cleans my spirit.
I love the light because it shows me the way,
but I love also the darkness because it shows to me the stars.
I welcome happiness because it makes my heart larger,
but I endure also sorrow because it opens my soul.
I welcome rewards because I deserve them,
but I welcome also difficulties
because they challenge me for new horizons.

I greet this day with love in my heart.
With love I demolish the wall of suspiciousness and hate
which humans have built in their hearts.
In its place I make bridges with my love to enter in their souls.

I greet this day with love in my heart.
And how will I speak?
I will laud mine enemies and they will become friends;
I will encourage my friends and they will become brothers.
Always I will dig for reasons to applaud;
never will I search for excuses to gossip.
When I am tempted to criticize I will bite my tongue.
When I am moved to praise I will shout from the roofs.

I greet this day with love in my heart.
Everyone I meet, I silently greet and say “I love you.”
Though soundless these words, they glow in my eyes,
they unknit my forehead, they bring a smile on my lips,
everything reflects in my voice, and my heart opens.
From now on I love the whole human kind.
From this moment every speck of hate leaves my veins.
I have no time but to love.

I greet this day with love in my heart.
I love what I am.
I love those that love me.
I love those that hate me.
I love that which I do.
I love.

A few months after my first visit to Ground Zero I happened to be in Lower Manhattan again for a conference… Gone were the Prayer Stations on the sidewalk and the banner on the side of the building… and as I walked by the place where I had met Tony… instead of three make-shift shoeshine stands… there were only 2… Steve and Ike were still there… still shining shoes.

I asked about Tony… I wanted to thank him for his powerful witness of hope… but they looked at me kind of puzzled. Tony? They’d never heard of a Tony… for years it’s only been the two of them shining shoes on that spot.

10 years later… I still believe that I met God that day on the streets of New York City… I prayed with HER… HE shined my shoes… “…the best shine they’ll ever have.”
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All these years later our memories are still vivid… the pictures… the stories… can still bring us to tears. But more than re-living the memories on this 10th anniversary… I invite you to pledge to actively live in hope that a better world is possible.

This past week… a colleague of mine sent me a copy of the 9/11 Commemorative Pledge… He’d heard about it through the Baptist Peace Fellowship…

“As a Christian and an American, on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks I commit myself to work for building peace in my community and the world, and to love my neighbors by standing against hate and fear.”

"Fear is not the only force at work in the world today." My friends… our country is best served by our efforts to overcome evil with good…

As disciples… as students of Jesus Christ… we aren’t called to do everything that Jesus did… We’re called to do everything that we do in the same manner that Jesus did everything that he did.

Our country is best served by our efforts to live a compassionate life… Recently a “friend” of a “friend” on Facebook wrote: “…If you remember everyone banded together after 9/11, but a lot of that fellowship has long been forgotten. What we need is to change internally… not just for the moment… but for the long haul.”

How can we do that? Well… Tony’s already told us… Greet this day… and every day with love in your hearts.

If we do nothing more… or less… than that… then neither Christ… nor the victims of September 11th… nor any victim of hatred and terror in any time or any place… will have died in vain. Amen.