I was in a theology class on September 11, 2001. A frantic young lady rushed into the room and informed the classroom that something terrible had happened in New York City. We sat there speechless. Our professor, a godly man, led us in prayer for protection. We did not know what had happened and how what happened would affect us. That uncertainty followed us for the next hour until lunchtime when we entered the cafeteria and watched that dreadful scene again and again and again on TV. Something powerful had happened; powerful enough to shake a nation and push our emotions to places it had not gone before.
In a very tangible way, evil showed up with all its might and fury. In a very objective way, evil was incarnated in devilish men. So much has transpired since that day, but we memorialize that ill-famed day as a day when the corporate reality of a nation shook at its very core; when we awoke from our slumber to see that the opposite of the good was alive and well. We mourn and remember. That’s what we are created to do. We mourn and remember because we are ritualized beings. Let us never forget. Let us never cease to be amazed at the ways of evil men. Let us never stop to pray for their ultimate destruction! Arise, O Lord, defend us! Arise, O Lord, and we will be saved!
