It's been 11 years...and we HAVE forgotten

There's been this silly Feng Shui (did I spell that right?) post going around Facebook telling the world it's been 823 years since we had an October where the days lined up like the ones from this year's calendar or the December calendar, or whatever...  It's a lie.  (The really sad ones like the one above are just wrong as this year, it's simply not so for October!)  It's bothered me since I first saw this nonsense promising people massive windfalls if they repost the silliness, but this year it's particularly disturbing to me and I think I know why.

This year, once we got beyond Leap Day, all the dates of the year line up with the same days of the week as 11 years ago.  That was 2001--a big year!  I proposed to my wife on July 7, 2001--a Saturday, just like it was a Saturday this year.  I graduated from UNCC on December 15--a Saturday, just like it will be a Saturday this year.  We will celebrate our 11th anniversary on Dec 30, a Sunday just like it was in 2001.

And of course, September 11 will fall on a Tuesday, just like it did in 2001...

Lots of Facebook status updates, profile pictures, cover photos, etc., are being posted in remembrance of that horrible day and the thousands of lives lost in such horrific acts of violence.  I remember and it still leaves me unsettled, sad, melancholy.  The pain...the tears, the sadness all come back.  At times, it's even as though I'm still glued to the television, watching the events unfold over and over and over again.

But, you know, there are other memories from those dreadful days in September 2001.  The evening of September 11, like many of you, I was gathered with my church family for prayer at Bethel UMC in Salisbury.  The little church was packed.  Among those gathered were two families with loved ones unaccounted for in New York (both families were able to get good news in the next few days).  I remember as a pastor trying to find some words that would make sense and bring comfort, but only tears came.

We cried together and prayed together.  And we did something else...we committed anew to be in relationship with each other as we renewed our relationship with God.  We re-committed ourselves to living for God, loving each other, and were proud of our country.  There were no Democrats or Republicans, no Baptists or Methodists.  We were all Americans.  In the Christian church, we were all one body, committed to the faith--and to our respective churches.  Church attendance in our country saw rising numbers that stayed that way for months on end...I was so proud to be an American and proud to be a Christian in the aftermath of such devastation.

Today, those Facebook posts have a common theme..."We will never forget!"  Intended to convey that we will never forget those whose lives were lost that day, we remember, still with some tears, the people in the planes, the people working in the buildings and perhaps most poignantly, the public servants and ordinary heroes who gave their lives to try to save or protect others.  We will never forget.

But we have forgotten too much...

1. Partisan Politics is the ruler of the day and we are a country divided.  Shame on us for forgetting the unity we once felt.

2. We have forgotten our unconditional and over the top support for our local heroes, particularly our police officers and fire fighters, that still today work to keep us safe.

3. And we have forgotten our commitment to our faith.  Churches are no longer filled to the brim...attendance has not only returned to pre-9/11 levels, it has shrunk further.  Vacations, family outings, sports--all have found their way back to a priority level above our commitment to be together in worship, prayer, and praise, to be united in mission to help the least, the last, and the lost.

And so, while I am pleased that we have still committed to remember, at least once a year, those whose lives were lost on that day, I am hesitantly hopeful that we will at least try to put partisanship aside and show some respect to our fellow citizens.  And too--perhaps this year, when the 16th of September comes around, again on a Sunday this year--that we REMEMBER the commitments we made to be in our houses of worship, together, as one body.

9/11--We will never forget!  Let's see if we mean it this year...

Blessings