Three Years Ago
It was a Tuesday and I was driving to class. For some reason I was early (my TTh classes started about 45 later than my MWF classes) - on the way to school when I realized I was early, I decided to work on some things at CA (our campus ministry campus center) and watch some TV. I remember hearing about the first plane on the radio. I remember hearing and not completely understanding - the magnitude of what was being said hadn’t sunk in for anyone yet. I got to CA and turned on the TV - not too much later I was joined by my friend Keith (who was soon leaving to join the Air Force) and as we were watching, the second plane flew into the other tower. I remember going to my class and it being briefly mentioned by my professor (we were still unsure of what exactly was happening - it was only 9:30) - so I sat through our Animal Behavior Class with all of my classmates. I rememebr heading back to CA for lunch and meeting with a student whose father was a pilot and they couldn’t reach them. I remember many trying to contact friends and family but got no answers. I remember that worship for the next evening was on songs of lament - there would be no formal service the next day and like many other places of worship we gathered as a church and neighborhood community to pray and weep. I can remember the next week when we talked about psalms of lament - when the words of Psalm 137 seem like familiar words and the television coverage of others in foreign countries cheering at the news of the attacks cut deep. I also remember the call for us to remember the radical prayer of Jesus “to forgive them for they do not know ”
Psalm 137
An Experience of the Captivity.
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
2 Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps.
3 For there our captors demanded of us songs, and our tormentors mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
4 How can we sing the LORD’S song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,may my right hand forget her skill.
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.
7 Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it, raze it to its very foundation.”
8 O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, How blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you have repaid us.
9 How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock