Where were you when the Towers came down?
That question transports any of us old enough to remember 2001 to a morning that changed everything, forever.
The horror of what unfolded, the sheer scale of the tragedy, the audacity of terrorists who considered civilian lives in peacetime to be acceptable collateral damage … Events and ideologies of 9/11 persist in haunting us almost twenty years later.
** The big hurts of 9/11 in 2020 **
It is tempting, this year, to recall 9/11 not just in terms of the terrorists’ action but also in terms of our national response. America of 2001 rallied in bipartisan grief and patriotism, stalwart in displays of national unity.
This year, we can hardly muster resources even to commemorate 9/11, because the destruction of a pandemic + social unrest has us gripped in a new nightmare. Unlike in 2001, America’s present grief and loss is mostly home-grown; there is scant “national unity” to be found.
So, remembering 9/11 in 2020 feels doubly difficult, as we grieve both what was done to us then and what we are doing to ourselves now.
What does it mean, to remember?
“Remember” is a funny word. At surface level, it means recalling something which has happened in the past. But if you separate the word into component parts, it means something more … to “re-member” means to reassemble something which has been taken apart.
Think about it like this: if “dismemberment” is a rending, wrenching, tearing process, then “re-membering” is its antithesis: stitching together, making whole.
It is in this sense of the word that God seems to be emphasizing when, multiple times in scripture. He tells His people to “remember.” “Remember who I am.” God repeats over and over again. “Remember who you are,” God adds. “Remember where you were when I found you … remember how I delivered you … remember the promises I have kept to you … Remember.”
God’s repetition of this exhortation stitches together the Old Covenant (in which the law is rooted in the people remembering that God delivered them from slavery in Egypt) and the New (in which Jesus enjoins the faithful to remember that he is with us even to the end of the age). And “remembering” marks God’s people throughout salvation history, whether they are “remembering the sabbath to keep it holy” or setting up altars to remember instances of God’s promise-keeping goodness or memorizing scripture.
** Remembering God as God Remembers Us **
A basic purpose and premise of the biblical story is that in remembering the truth of God – in recalling it, rehearsing it in our hearts and minds – we are “re-membered” ourselves. God’s truth holds God’s people together, both as individuals and as the church – Christ’s Body. In fact, we become “members” of the Body of Christ in our shared remembering. We cannot stay members if we do not remember; conversely, if we remember, we cannot be severed from Christ.
This formula holds when we apply it to our place not just in the Body but also in the world. To forget God is to walk away from God. To walk away from God is literally to get lost. In losing God, we lose ourselves. But – praise the Lord! – to remember God is to find ourselves in Him!
What does this have to do with remembering 9/11 in the midst of the heaviness of 2020? Everything.
If we remember the tragedies of the past while forgetting the goodness of God, we will be dis-membered all over again in our recollections.
If we remember the tragedies of the past and project only the narrative of brokenness (of dismemberment) onto the present, we forget the essential thread tying the two together and securing them to a future with hope: that God has never, will never, and can never forget us.
The profound pain of remembering 9/11 can remind us to remember God’s promise to comfort those who grieve. The unsolvable problems presently besetting us as a nation can remind us to remember that we are all sinners being saved by grace … and that we cannot out-sin the grace of God. The realization that there is no earthly solution to our present pain – no policy, no economic rebound, no diplomatic achievement – can remind us to remember that only God’s grace is sufficient, and it IS sufficient! And the excruciating brokenness all around us in 2020 can remind us to remember God’s promise of healing and hope … that in God, we are whole and holy, no matter what.
Remembering 9/11 this year, remembering all that was lost then and all that has been lost since then, is apt to bring us to our knees. But kneeling before the God who never forgets us will help us remember that we are safe forever because we are his forever.
