9 /11 Eleven Years Later

OK. It happened 11 years ago.  What was I doing when it happened?  I was still working at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and I was drinking my morning coffee and watching TV before I left for work.  I always left late so that I would not have to drive with the sun in my face on I 78.  I stayed late in the office for the same reason.

 

While drinking coffee and watching TV I heard the announcer say that a plane had hit the World Trade Tower.  I put down my coffee and glued my eyes to the TV.  Later in the day I called Chuck to see if he had news of any Christ Church members.  When the TV went black because the tower was gone I switched to the Cable TV stations.

 

The next day when when I was at the Y I looked up in the sky and there were no planes flying in the air.  It was weird.

 

Today I chose not to watch the reading of the names because it makes me cry.  I wonder how long we will continue to do that.  Will it be like the Holocaust Remembrance and go on forever?  I did hear the end of the program with the young people chorus singing.  They were great!  It was nice but I wish they were singing one of Mark Miller's pieces like I Believe

Here are Eleven Meditations for 9/11 from the UCC. 

 

Below I have attached today's UCC Prayer which speaks about looking up in the air.

 

Jeannette Brown

UCC Representative.

Looking Up

Isaiah 45:8
Shower, you heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and righteousness also.

Reflection by Mary Luti
Before the 11th day of September, 2001, if something fell from the sky, it was snow, rain, or hail. If in the night we caught a flare at the corner of our eye, it was a shooting star, and we felt lucky to see it. If we noticed a silver glint above us, it was only a jet, and we might have wished we were on it, escaping for a rest.

In the days before 9/11, we did not think that planes could slice into offices, nor that looking up we would see souls hurtling a hundred stories to the dust of collapsed futures. We didn't know that the sky could rain a million memos, a pair of shoes, a menu with the specials of the day, a man we met on Monday for a drink.

It's not Advent yet, but it might help us today to remember that on the last Sunday of that season, our ancient forebears raised their eyes and sang to their own sorrowful sky (for there is no time without sorrow) this urgent and insistent prayer: Rorate caeli de super, et nubes pluant Justum - You heavens, open from above, that clouds may rain the Just One!

So many awful things fell down on 9/11 that for a long time afterwards we might not have dared look up, as these scriptures imply we must. Yet this is faith's posture - heads lifted, eyes on the high horizon, hands outstretched, hearts open. This is the world's most needed gesture - to point to every cloud of sorrow and declare, despite all evidence to the contrary, that from such skies, even from these, the longed - for healing comes.

So pray today that God will give us a new sky under which all creatures may live without fear of falling objects. Pray that what falls from the sky from now on will be only the grace of our Savior, in whom are joined the hopes and fears of all the years. Pray that under God's new, safe sky we who are witnesses to sorrow and to mercy will co - create with God a new, safe, just, and holy earth.

Prayer

You heavens, open from above, and let clouds rain down sweet healing and peace, for us and all the nations. Amen.

About the Author Mary Luti is Visiting Professor of Worship and Preaching at Andover Newton Theological School.