Read the passage.
September 11, 2001. Exactly ten years ago today.
It was the worst attack in American history, and it burned into our brains a series of heartbreaking images that will stay with us forever. The Twin Towers falling. The Pentagon exploding. Flight 93 crashing into the ground. A firefighter carrying away a flag-draped victim. The twisted rubble of Ground Zero.
This day, September 11, 2011, is also the first full day of NFL football.
I confess to you this morning that I am not up to the task of giving you words that will address the horror and heritage of 9/11 in any way that is consoling or convincing. But as we struggle to find images and stories that might reveal the depth of our emotions on this tenth anniversary of that day of infamy, believe it or not we can connect with some of those feelings by holding hands and watching a football game.
The first four televised games of the 2011 NFL season were specifically chosen to commemorate the events of 9/11.
*At 1 p.m. there is a game between Pittsburgh and Baltimore — midway between those two cities is Shanksville, PA, the site of the crash of flight 93, which the terrorists had destined for the White House.
*Later in the afternoon there is a game between the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins, played only a few miles from the site of the Pentagon plane crash/attack.
*This afternoon there is also a game between Carolina and Arizona, which will feature ceremonies honoring Pat Tillmon, the Cardinals player who left a lucrative pro-football career to join the military after the 9/11 attacks and who was killed in action in Iraq.
*Finally the Dallas Cowboys will play the New York Jets just across the Hudson River in full view of where the Twin Towers fell.
Whatever game you see it is a good day to hold hands with your loved ones as you enjoy the simple act of being together and watch a football game.
There is only one way to get through the horror of an event like 9/11: day by day.
Some people would like to put away the images of that day. Although I understand the impulse, I must also respectfully disagree. It reminds us of how evil people can be to each other. The images may help us face reality, both concerning ourselves and concerning the world in which we live. America is certainly not innocent in the world. It has committed its share of sin in the world. Yet, the people in those planes, the people who worked in those buildings, were simply going about their daily lives. Evil overtook them. Of course, the people cried out for help and reached out to help each other.
The biblical story faces reality as well. The Old Testament has as its foundation the oppression of the Hebrew people in Egypt, and it continues with the exile of the northern kingdom and then the southern kingdom. The stories of exodus and exile continue to give people a way of reading their lives in light of what God is doing in their lives. The story shifts in the New Testament to the centrality of the cross, which reveals the violence that human beings can inflict upon an innocent man.
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