09/11/2026
Today marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11. It was a horrific day for the United States. We remember those who died that day and all of the first responders who have died in the years since. They placed their bodies on the line to save others. Panic and uncertainty seized this country. Yet people responded with acts of immense bravery. Private citizens mobilized a fleet of boats to rescue people from Manhattan. The passengers and crew of United Flight 93 risked and ultimately lost their lives trying to retake the plane. People volunteered countless hours for rescue and care over many months. We also give thanks to Canadians who extended safe harbor to Americans and others stranded in their country. Our allies around the world came to our aid, extended empathy and compassion, and pledged their support for us.
This church prays and acts for peace, for us and for all around the world. Today is not just a day to remember our own horror 25 years ago, but to allow that memory to drive us toward the same empathy, care, and concern for others that was extended to us. It is a time to reflect upon the complexities of foreign policy and what it does to people. It is a time to stay close to pain, not in order to avenge it, but to remember that there is real loss and real terror at play around the world today, too.
The United States turned from horror within our country to exact it upon others. Rising Islamophobia, Abu Ghraib, “enhanced interrogations,” Guantanamo Bay, extensive use of private contractors in combat, and so much more. These have left us weaker and further from the ideal we profess as our aspiration. We remember 9/11. In so doing we have to remember what came next.
A whole generation has grown up since the towers came down, since the Pentagon was attacked, since United Flight 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. They don’t know that day or the time before it. They inherited a world in which U.S. intervention in the Middle East had escalated and war became a nearly perpetual presence. They have inherited a country with increasing polarization and distrust. When the headlines say “remember,” they cannot. They only have the “after” of it all.
We remember, not in order to lionize the past, but to honor those who died and to catalyze ourselves to be a people of compassion and care who are involved in the work of peace.
