9-11 is a day of remembrance. What does it mean for us to remember? To simply recall a historical fact? When I was in grade school, we had a textbook “Think and Do.” Remembrance means acting in the present.
“Remember” is a biblical command. “Do this in remembrance of me” Jesus said when He instituted the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:19). “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” shapes our weekly schedules (Exodus 20:8). There are some historical events that don’t touch our lives today, but not 9-11. Remembrance means acting.
The first responders who went into the towers, the passengers who stormed the cockpit on flight 93… They willingly gave their lives for others. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). It’s easy to talk about the sacrificial service of others, and then I go on with my self-absorbed life. Sinful nature prompts us to put our own interests first. American hyper-individualism is idolatry of self, it’s rampant and weakening our nation.
There can be many motivations to deny self and serve others, but for Christians there is only one motivation, the One who gave His life for us. “Holy Communion is the opposite of a festival of commemorating a dead man! It is a meal fellowship with Him who lives, and by reason of His resurrection victory, is actually present among his followers” (Peter Brunner in Gregory Lockwood, Concordia Commentary: 1 Corinthians, 393-394).
Martin Luther: “Christians live not in themselves but in Christ and their neighbor. Otherwise they are not Christian. They live in Christ through faith, in their neighbor through love. By faith they are caught up beyond themselves into God. By love they descend beneath themselves into their neighbor” (The Freedom of a Christian).