Dear Friends,
Some events in human history impact us so greatly that we forever have engraved in our mind where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news. I’ll never forget that I was leaving a chapel service at Louisville Seminary when I heard the news that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded on its ascent. I was sitting in my class at James Lane Allen Elementary school in Lexington, Kentucky, when I was told by the sisters that the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, had been assassinated.
And if you are more than about fifteen years old, you remember the circumstances when you learned a plane hit a building in New York City, and then another plane hit another building – when you were, how you learned, what you thought, when you cried. We are not who we were before that deadly day.
It’s hard to believe it has been ten years since extremists attacked on 9/11/2001. This year is not only the tenth anniversary, but 9/11 falls on a Sunday. Our worship service on Sunday – the readings, the prayers, the music, the sermon – will reflect on this significant event. In the sermon I will suggest some things we have learned since 9/11; some things we have forgotten and some things we have remembered. Life has changed in many ways and life has failed to change enough in other ways. We will remember how the teachings of Jesus hold important guidance for us when we face such painful and unjust circumstances in our lives.
I hope you will join us for worship on Sunday morning, September 11, 2011.
Christ’s peace,
Steve