September 11, Patriot’s Day
I want to remind everyone that the best place to be on Wednesday evening, September 11, 2002 is in God’s house. We have a real special program scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. and will probably take no more than one solid hour from beginning to end. We are cutting out a lot of the announcements, offering, and preliminaries and getting right to the subject at hand.
As we near the date there is a great emotional build-up escalating. People need release. This is again another opportunity to find the Lord as our help! “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
Let me express to you three good things that the memory of 9/11 has the potential of bringing to us.
I. The Reminder of the Brevity of Life
As we viewed buildings collapse that in an instant took the lives of right at 3,000 human beings we are reminded of the Scripture that says in Job 7:6, “My days are swifter than a weaver‘s shuttle.” Or as James 4:14 says, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
Wisdom would have us respond to this truth of the brevity of life by being humble because we do not have the promise of tomorrow and if we wake up tomorrow and find God, in His mercy has granted us life, we should rightfully respond to His goodness in praise to Him. “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1). “It is of the LORD‘S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22,23).
As we see how very brief life truly is, we should be thankful for the life we have today. This in turn will teach us to make the best of these years, weeks, days and hours God has granted. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).
II. The Reclamation of a Sincere Walk With Our Lord
Within hours, if not minutes of September 11, a year ago people were seeking God. I know that many people were looking at God at that time like a “fire escape,” but many were most sincere. As a matter of fact, one of our own church kids realized that she was not a Christian and she gave her heart to Christ as a result of this cataclysmic event.
I admonish anyone reading this, if your walk with the Lord is either delinquent or non-existent, now is the best time to get serious with Him. Job 22:21 says, “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.”
I further advise that if God has been dealing with you about being closer to Him that you need to obey Isaiah 55:6 that says, “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:”
III. The Reunion of a Mighty Nation
Although it sounds strange to call anything as a result of this tragedy as a benefit, we can truthfully say that September 11 has brought us closer as a nation, as a church, and as a family. It really makes us notice what really matters in life. This is not unusual; allow me to give you a fascinating story from the most tragic war that America ever fought:
In 1862 during the civil war, Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison’s Landing, Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of this narrow strip of land. During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moan of a soldier who lay wounded on the field. Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment. When he finally reached his own lines he discovered it was actually a confederate soldier - and the soldier had died. Suddenly the captain went numb with shock. In the dim light he saw the face of the soldier - his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out and, without telling his father, enlisted in the Confederate Army.
The heart-broken father asked if he could have a group of Union Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral. That request was turned down because the soldier was Confederate. Out of respect for the father, however, they said they would give him one musician. He chose a bugler, whom he asked to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth’s uniform. That music, the haunting bugle melody we now know as Taps. Isn’t it amazing how many times we have heard that bugle melody? In funerals I have officiated, from north to south, east to west, we will hear that familiar melody, always to remind us that it took a civil war to break us apart and put us back together as a country, one nation under God. Before the War Between the States, we were referred to as The United States “are;” now we are referred to as The United States “is.”
May God bring us back together as our pledge says, “one nation, under God, indivisible.” As we now approach September 11, let us meditate upon the words given to Taps:
“Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hill,
From the skies,
All is well, safely rest...
God is nigh.”
-Pastor Pope-