When You Are Under Attack

Psalm 139:7-12

September 11, 2001, is a date that we will remember for the rest of our lives. It is ironic, eerie, and sad that the way we write that date numerically is 9/11. On that Tuesday morning, our nation and our world took a blow to the heart as terrorists hijacked U.S. commercial jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

It was a ruthless, vicious, hateful, fiery, coordinated attack—one that stunned our nation, shocked our world, and killed thousands of innocent civilians. The news was so horrendous that the Houston Chronicle used two large headlines to trumpet the lead story: "ASSAULT ON AMERICA" and "TERROR HITS HOME."

Here's how it happened:

At 8:45 A.M. (EST), American Airlines Flight 11, carrying ninety-two people from Boston to Los Angeles, crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

At 9:03 A.M., United Airlines Flight 175, carrying sixty-five people from Boston to Los Angeles, crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center.

At 9:30 A.M., President Bush called the crashes "apparent terrorist attacks on our country."

At 9:40 A.M., for the first time in our nation's history, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flight operations. All inbound international flights were diverted to Canada.

At 9:43 A.M., American Airlines Flight 77, carrying sixty-four people from Washington to Los Angeles, crashed into the Pentagon. Trading on Wall Street was called off.

At 9:45 A.M., the Capitol and the West Wing of the White House were evacuated.

At 10:05 A.M., the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.

At 10:28 A.M., with most of the world watching on television by this time, the World Trade Center's north tower collapsed.

At 10:48 A.M., officials confirmed that United Airlines Flight 93, flying to San Francisco from Newark, New Jersey, had crashed eighty miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Throughout the morning and later in the day, government buildings around the country were evacuated. The United Nations closed. Financial markets were closed. Except for rescue workers, lower Manhattan was evacuated.

At 5:20 P.M., World Trade Center Building number 7 collapsed.

And at 8:30 P.M., the President of the United States addressed the nation.

When we live through an experience like that, certain dramatic images are branded into our memories forever, images of horror and heroism.

The image of those planes slamming into those buildings—we'll never forget that.

The image of those buildings coming down like they had been imploded, and our knowing what that meant—we'll never forget that.

The image of people frantically running away from the buildings while rescue workers and firefighters and police officers and chaplains were running into the buildings to try to save lives. And as we now know, many of those brave officials lost their own lives in the process. We'll never forget that. And then there is the image of search dogs looking for signs of life in the rubble. When they found good news, they barked and wagged their tails; when they found news that was not good, they moaned and cried.

We'll never forget the image of people rushing to blood centers all over the country and standing in line for three to five hours to give blood; the image of families gathering in homes, waiting and waiting for some word about the fate of their loved ones who were in harm's way that Tuesday morning; and the image of courageous people using cell phones from the backs of hijacked planes and from the top stories of burning buildings to call their loved ones to say, "I may not make it out of here, so I want to tell you I love you."

There is the image of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, with the British band playing our national anthem rather than theirs, the image of people from nations all across the world bringing flowers to our embassies and participating in candlelight vigils, and the image of American flags flying everywhere, showing the world that we will stick together as a nation.

And of course, the image of people all over America making their way to their churches to kneel at the altar and pray—we will never forget that.

These graphic images reminded us—and will continue to remind us—how we all felt under attack. As we think about the people in those buildings and on those airplanes, as well as their loved ones, their pain becomes our pain, because after all is said and done, we in this nation are a family.

Leonard Pitts Jr., in his column in the Miami Herald, wrote these words the day after the attack:

What lesson did you hope to teach us ...?

Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together....

We are a vast and quarrelsome family ... but a family nonetheless.... We are fundamentally decent ... peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God....

Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals....

Yes, we're in pain now.... We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.

When President George W. Bush addressed the nation on the evening of September 11, he wisely quoted verses from Psalm 23, including these words: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I [will] fear no evil, for you are with me" (v. 4 NIV). That is the good news of our faith—that God promises to be with us always and that nothing can separate us from God and his love.

The apostle Paul, writing to the church at Rome, said much the same thing. He wrote, "So what are we going to say about these things? ... Nothing can separate us from God's love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created" (Romans 8:31, 38-39).

That is what we as Christian people hold on to right now. That's the promise we wrap our arms around now. That's the promise we stand upon now—the promise of God to be with us always, come what may, to walk with us through the hard valleys of life, and to bring us to the mountaintop on the other side. So when we are under attack as individuals, as a church family, or as a nation, that's what we do. We keep walking forward, one day at a time, knowing that God will always be with us, and God will see us through.

Now, let me be more specific with three thoughts.

First of All, Because God Is with Us, We Walk in Faith, Not Fear

That Tuesday morning, as I sat at my desk and watched the television news unfold this horrible, tragic nightmare that set our world reeling and broke our hearts, all kinds of questions...