Reflecting back thirteen years ago today, I too remember
where I was at the moment we heard the news of the planes striking the World
Trade Center. I was in the middle school band room in Trempealeau, Wisconsin,
enjoying some time with students who had come to hang out before school. We had
the television on CNN just like every morning, until something caught a student’s
eye. We prayed in public school that morning. Who really cared about a lawsuit that day?
I can’t forget the Sunday following either. Our Redeemer
Lutheran Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin, was absolutely packed that morning.
Why? Because people were scared and looking for answers about a life-changing
experience beyond the normal. And who wouldn’t want that?
But the events of September 11, 2001, are hardly the most
life-changing experience the world has known. Surely moments such as the day
you bought your first car or house, your graduation day, your wedding day, or
the birth of your children come to mind.
Or perhaps the moment is more
melancholy like the death of a loved one, the disintegration of a relationship,
or other horrible tragedy.
But these still aren’t as life-changing as it gets.
For
the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NRSV)
That’s right, a FREE GIFT is absolutely,
positively, the most life-changing experience one can ever imagine! And we can't buy it or earn it, even though we've been programmed to believe that's the only way we ever get good things--and this is the GREATEST thing. Surely it must have a big price tag! It does, and the cost is crossed out in red ink (Christ's blood) and stamped "paid in full." We just believe.
And we can
celebrate that free gift every Sunday in worship, when God comes to us in our hearing,
our singing, our praying, and our eating and drinking. But it doesn’t just end on Sunday. Each and
every day we are drowned to sin (all of us, talk about a disaster!) and raised
to new life to face the day as God’s beloved children!
So why not fill the chairs or pews in
church on Sunday? Why not take time with the family at home each night to give
thanks, be filled by the word of God, and pray knowing that God will hear?
Jesus’ resurrection is more than enough reason to gather as families—both
nuclear family and family of God—to give thanks for those things we celebrate
as well as those we mourn, knowing that God says:
I am
with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20b NRSV)
What are we waiting for? Let's take seriously the fact that God wants to be in relationship with us. Let's take time to talk with God.
Give God the glory!
Allelulia!
