One of the few things we do have control over in our lives is how we choose to live. We can control the priorities we set and the decision we make. We can control the values we embrace and the character we develop. So let me ask, how have we been living these past 10 years? Do our lives today embrace the values that were so clear to us ten years ago today? One of the things we honored and celebrated in the days after 9/11 were the men and women who were willing to run into burning buildings when everyone else was running out. We honored police officers, firefighters and all kinds of Emergency Medical people for their selflessness as they ran into the WTC and the Pentagon in an effort to rescue as many people as possible. Have our lives reflected that same selflessness during these past 10 years? Is that a value we have embraced and made a priority? Has it become a part of who we are?
What about the courageous example of Todd Beamer and the passengers of flight 93? Here was a group of people who were willing to take their plane down in a quiet PA field instead of seeing it destroy the lives of others. Over these past 10 years have our lives reflected that kind of sacrificial courage? Is this how we choose to live?
How have we been living our lives these past ten years? What priorities and values have been seen in all the big and little decisions we have made? In simple ways have we been willing to place the needs of others before our own like Ron Fazio did on September 11th? If you have never heard about Ron Fazio, he was a corporate Vice President with an office on the 99th floor of Tower Two. When the first plane slammed into Tower One, Ron Fazio made one of the best decisions of his life. He ordered all of his employees to evacuate the building. Even though the south tower where their offices were had not yet been hit, he insisted that all of his employees get away from the windows, leave their desks, and get out of the building. After making that decision, Ron didn’t lead the people down the stairs; he stood and held the door open for others to leave first. Ron yelled for everyone to hurry up and get out and he held the door open until everyone from his company started down stairs.
All of Ron’s employees made it out of the building that day and so did Ron, but instead of running to safety, Ron remained outside Tower Two, doing what he could. He wasn’t a firefighter or an EMT, but Ron did what he could - he held the door for others and the last anyone saw of Ron Fazio, he was holding the door open and handing his cell phone to someone for them to use. The last any one knew, Ron was holding the door open when Tower Two came crashing down. Have we been holding the door for people during these past 10 years? Are we committed to a life of sacrifice, courage and service? Are we committed to living out the values that we know are the most important ones for us to embrace?
One of the things that happened in the days after September 11th is that as individuals, families, churches and communities we returned to our core values and we spent a lot of time thinking and talking about how to live out those values in our every day lives. As I look back today, the value that seemed the most important to me on that day, and a value that I think lies at the very heart of who we are as both children of God and as a church is our need to be connected. On September 11th, first lady Laura Bush, said that the first thing she did that day was to call her daughters to reassure them and then she called her mother to be comforted by her. Her first thought was to reach out to her family and get connected and I have to confess that once the events of that day started to become clear to me that was the first thing I wanted to do as well. I spent a large part of the afternoon trying to call my parents - not because they were in any danger - I just wanted to be connected to my family.
We all wanted or needed to be connected. As the stories of September 11th began to be shared in the weeks and months that followed, the most powerful and painful things we heard were all the phone calls that people made from the WTC, Pentagon and flight 93. When danger and even certain death were so close people didn’t call their stock brokers or doctors, they reached out to their wives and husbands and children. People called to either reassure their family that they were ok, or they called in what they knew would be their final moments to simply say, I love you. In the midst of a crisis we learn what is ultimately important and what we learned on September 11th is that at our core we have a strong need to be connected and there is a reason for that – we were created to be connected.
In Genesis 1 it says that God created man in his own image, in the image of God create him, male and female he created them. So we reflect not just the image but the character of God and just as God is relational – so are we. We know God wants to be connected to his people because it says in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believe in him might not perish but have everlasting life. The first thing we see here is that God loves us. God created us in love and so has a desire to be connected to us. But the depth of God’s desire for connection with us isn’t just seen in his love for us, it is seen in God giving Jesus for us. God sent Jesus to die for us so that we might live with God forever. That is how much God wants to be connected to us, not just for a moment but for eternity.
So we see that God is relational and wants to be connected to his children and because we are created in the image of God we are also relational beings who have within us not only a need to be connected to God but a need to be connected to one another. Let’s go back to the creation story. After God created the world and placed Adam in the middle of garden surrounded by all the animals, God realized that Adam was still alone and God said, it is not good for man to be alone, God knew that we needed to be connected, so he created Eve, a helper and a partner. God created someone for Adam to be connected to and what this tells us is that at the core of every single one of us is a need to be connected not only to God and to one another, and while we are all different in how we will seek to be connected and the level of connection that will satisfy and fulfill us, none of us can ignore the deep need we all have to be connected. For us to experience the fullness and the joy and the deep satisfaction that can be ours in life and in faith – we need to be connected to God and to one another.
We see evidence of our need for connection all through the Bible. God didn’t just call Noah to be saved through the flood, God called Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives (Genesis 6:18). God called a family because he knew that when the world was going to start over again people were going to need to be connected. When God called Abram to follow him, Abram didn’t go alone; he took his wife and his nephew Lot. And God didn’t make a covenant with just Abraham; it was a promise to his offspring, his family which would become a nation. God led the people of Israel out of Egypt not just Moses, and when Jesus entered into public ministry the very first thing he did was call people to work with him. Even Jesus had this need to be connected to others and so he calls Peter, Andrew, James and John to walk with him and work with him. All through the Bible we see the value God places on community and being connected and yet where it really becomes clear is during a time of crisis. Just like all of us on September 11th when our need to be connected became clear, so it did with Jesus during his time of crisis.
On the night that Jesus was arrested, within hours of when he knew that the cross and his own death were coming, Jesus goes off to pray, but he doesn’t go alone, he takes all of his disciples with him. When they get to the garden of Gethsemane it says Jesus withdrew deeper into the garden but again he doesn’t go alone, he takes with him his closest friends. In his own moment of crisis and trial, Jesus didn’t want to be alone, in a time of need he wanted and needed to be connected. Jesus wanted to be connected to God, which is why he goes off to pray, but he also wanted to be connected to others which is why he took his friends with him.
The next day as Jesus is on the cross literally just moments away from death, we continue to see the value he placed on connection. Jesus looks out from the cross and sees his mother and he knows that she is going to need some help and so he asks his friend John to care for his mother, but Jesus also looks into the eyes of his friend John and knows he is going to need help so he calls his mother, Mary, to love and help care for him. What an amazing moment, from the cross and just moment away from death Jesus is still focused on one of the core values of his ministry and one of the core value of God’s kingdom which is to be connected to one another.
This core value of being connected is later outlined for the church by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:12-20. By using the image of the body, Paul is calling us to be connected to one another. Just as all the parts of our body are connected and dependant upon each others, so are we connected and dependant upon one another. We were made to be connected to one another and our faith will not be strong and the church will not be strong until we work to be connected as the body of Christ.
We are not complete on our own. One of the underlying truths in life is that we need each other and the events of September 11th reminded us of that. One of the reason so many people did survive on that day was because people came together to help each others. Rescue workers ran into building to help people get out. Strangers lifted each other up out of the rubble and the dust and helped move them to safety. Ron Fazio held the door and people encouraged each other, cried with each other and helped each other all along the way. Even in communities far away from NYC, Washington DC and Shanksville, PA., people wanted and needed to come together. Prayer services and candlelight vigils were held all over the country because people just needed to feel connected and the reason was because being connected is at the core of who we are.
Being connected to one another needs to be a core value of our church. One of the reasons we encourage people to worship together each week is because coming together in worship is not just a way to connect to God, it is a way for us to be connected with one another as well. There is something powerful about connecting with one another in worship that we can’t get by just experiencing God alone in the woods or at the beach in our backyards. That is why Paul tells us to not stop meeting together, look at Hebrews 10:24-25. But it’s not just worship. We need to pray together, study together, learn together, serve together, eat together, play together and honestly learn how to live life together. David mentioned a few weeks ago how powerful it is when the youth group go away to Impact and how the students share and learn and grow together while they are away and while this often happens when any of us go away for retreats and mission trips, we need to build these relationships right here and now.
We can get connected with one another in Sunday School classes and small groups. We can get connected by serving together at a football dinner or the 5th quarter. We can get connected by walking together in the crop walk, making music together in a choir or just making some friends in the church. As the church year in many ways begins a new this fall, this is a great time to recommit ourselves to this core value in the church. As we learned from September 11th, we have control over how we live our lives so we can make the decision today to get connected with one another and not only grow in our relationships with one another, but through the body of Christ grow in our relationship with God.
What I have found through my life, and I’m sure many of you would agree with this, is that when we connect with one another in the church, when we come together in different ways as the body of Christ we grow in our connection with God. The more we work to build relationships with one another – the more we grow in our relationship with God, so if you want to reconnect with God – connect with the people of God.
September 11th every year needs to remind us that we do have control over how we live and the priorities we make in life. So today let’s return to our core values and find the joy and the life that comes when we are connected to God and one another.
