Remembering and Reflecting Love (A 9/11 Message) - John 3:16-17, 1st John 3:16-18
This is part of an interview offered on NPR this past Wednesday. It is rather lengthy, but please bear with me:
Capt. Jay Jonas was on the 27th floor of the North Tower when the South Tower collapsed. When he found out, he didn't tell the firefighters who were under his command.
"There was another captain on the 27th floor, and I said [to him]: 'You check the south windows. I'll check the north windows,' because I thought a piece of our building had just collapsed. And he just looked at me and said, 'The South Tower collapsed.' The firefighters under my command didn't hear the conversation, and I just looked at them and said: 'It's time for us to get out of here.' "
The captain and his men started to make their way down the staircase. Minutes before the tower came down, they came across a woman named Josephine Harris. She said she needed help.
"She was crying," he says. "My guys stopped and one of my firefighters turned around and said, 'Hey Cap, what do you want to do with her?' And every fiber in my being was screaming at me to get out of this building. Every second we waste was one second closer to us not getting out of the building. But that's not what firemen do. We were there to save peoples' lives. That's the whole purpose for us climbing those stairs was to save someone."
Jonas and his men started carrying Harris down the stairs. They reached the fourth floor landing when the building started to collapse.
"The floor started to move," he says. "Since the collapse started 1,300 feet away, the sound was off in the distance. And it got louder as it got closer. And you could hear the floors hitting the other floors, and it created tremendous vibrations in the stairway. You could also hear the sound of twisting steel all around you."
After the building collapsed, Jonas' first thought was that he didn't get all of his men out. His second thought was that he was about to die.
"We were coughing and gagging and trying to get debris out of our mouths and our noses, and I thought, 'I wonder who else is still alive?' " And I gave out a roll call, and all of my people were accounted for," he says. "So our initial thought was, OK, 'We're alive. Let's dust ourselves off and continue down the stairway.' "
The stairway was gone. Jonas, Harris and the other firefighters waited for several hours when they saw a sliver of sunshine hitting them. He could see a pencil-width beam of sunlight.
"I looked up and saw a sliver of blue sky," he says. "And I looked up and saw the sky. All of a sudden I realized we're on top of the World Trade Center, [which was] four or five stories tall."[i]
All of Jonas’ crew survived that day…but not all firefighters did…not all policemen did…not all EMT’s did…The Fire Department of New York City lost 343 members that day…the New York Police Department lost 23 officers…the Port Authority Police Department lost 37 officers…8 privately employed EMT’s lost their lives…in the time since 55 firefighters and 49 officers have died related to 9/11.
On Flight 93, 40 passengers and the crew members gave up their lives that they knew were to be among a larger number if they did not act…and as the call of “Let’s Roll,” rang out according to a GTE phone operator…the civilians on the plane went into action to regain control of the plane…ending with its destruction in Pennsylvania.
We watched scenes that day of New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. where the Pentagon had been hit as well. In total on that day…from the four flights, the emergency responders, and the folks in the towers and the pentagon, just shy of 3000 people died 10 years ago in a day that has been etched in many of our memories. As we remember that day, and in memory of those that died, let us pause for 30 seconds of silence…
“…every fiber in my being was screaming at me to get out of this building. Every second we waste was one second closer to us not getting out of the building. But that’s not what firemen do. We were there to save peoples’ live. That’s the whole purpose for us climbing those stairs was to save someone.”
“…every fiber in my being was screaming at me to get out…But that’s not what firemen do.”
“…that’s not what firemen do.”
As we remember and reflect on the sacrifices made by the heroes of 9/11…and hear that “…that’s not what firemen do.” We have to ask ourselves the question, “What is it that Christians do?”
When we see a need, as those firemen did, what do we do?
When we encounter a burning building, do we run away from it, do we stand on the sidelines and pray for it, or do we run into it?
John, in his letter, gives us the answer that Christians need to hear: “We know love by this that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” We are called to run into the building…
How do we come to think that John’s words would call us to run into a burning building? From the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John itself. The resurrected Jesus appears among the disciples, as they are gathered in the house where they had taken refuge, for fear of meeting the same fate as Jesus. He shows them his hands and his side and says to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”[ii] How did God send Jesus? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”[iii]
God sent His son into the world. God looked at this burning and dying, sin-filled world, and sent His Son into the burning building. God sent Jesus into the most dangerous of environments, to save its inhabitants…you and me. And Jesus says He’s sending us in the same way…Jesus is sending those who follow Him into the burning building…Just as Jonas’ crew followed him through Tower 2, so Jesus expects us to follow Him into the world.
“Wait a minute preacher, God could send Jesus into the world and Jesus could die for our sins, but that’s because He’s Jesus, God can’t expect the same from us…we’re not Jesus.”
Brothers and sisters, have we forgotten that in Jesus, God became fully human just as we are fully human. He took on our same temptations and challenges…Hebrews tells us “in every way he was tested as we are…”[iv]
Jesus was even tested about running into a burning building. When Jesus was in Gethsemane, we can imagine that every fiber of his being was screaming at him to get out, telling him to get up and run, to take off to the countryside and hide out until everything blew over. He didn’t because that’s not what Messiah’s do. If we don’t think Jesus was struggling about walking into the burning building that was the cross waiting for Him in Jerusalem, then hear his cries, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible, remove this cup from me….”[v] Jesus didn’t want to go into the burning building…part of him wanted to run…to save himself…yet the part that remembered why God had sent Him into the world stayed put, praying, “…yet, not what I want, but what you want.” Then Jesus, as he stood and watched, waiting as his captors came to arrest Him, ran straight into the burning building, even as it threatened to crumble about Him. Because that’s what Messiah’s do…
And, my brothers and sisters, as Jesus sends us, just as the Father sent Him, it is just what we as Christians are supposed to do…to take up our cross and follow Him…
Are we supposed to wait around for terrorists to crash into a building and run in to try and save everyone?
Are we supposed to wait for someone to arrests us and nail us to a cross?
No, because I do not believe that our Jesus’ commission, our calling, is based on waiting. The only waiting Jesus ever said to wait on was for the Father to pour out the Holy Spirit…and that has already happened…we are not called to wait…we are called to act…
Maybe our Twin Tower is an encounter with the homeless at Good Shepherd Kitchen or some other place of meeting their need…
Maybe our Cross is visiting a convicted criminal in prison…
Maybe our Twin Tower is going into a hospital or Hospice and spending time with the critical patients or terminally ill…
Maybe our Cross is going into disaster areas to help residents recover from floods, tornados, hurricanes, or earthquakes…
Maybe our Twin Tower is sharing the Gospel in the seediest parts of town…
Maybe our Cross is traveling to a country we have no connection with as part of a health-focused mission team…
Wherever that Twin Tower or Cross is in our lives…God is calling us to run in and safe a life…
“We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another…let us love, not in words or speech, but in truth and action.
Laying your life on the line for another…that’s love…
This morning we have remembered the victims and heroes of 9/11…we paused for a moment of silence to remember to remember the love that they showed, in laying their lives on the line…
This morning we have the opportunity to remember an even greater act of love, as Jesus laid down His life for ours…We have this meal in which Jesus said, “This is my body…this is my blood…do this as often as you eat/drink, in remembrance of me.” Paul tells us as we celebrate this meal, that every time we do, we proclaim Christ crucified…sharing this meal is a sharing of the fact that Jesus ran into the building…
As you come and receive the bread and the cup..I encourage you to bring forth yourself as an offering to God…ask God, either as you kneel at the altar, or return to Your seat…ask God to show you the burning building He has in store for you…and for the courage to run in…
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen.
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