WTC ATTACK Rock, Rescue, Restoration

St. Stephen’s UCC                                                           September 13, 2026

 

A Reflection on the Rock, the Rescue, and the Restoration

Today, our being here together carries a deep and sacred purpose. We join in collective memory, pausing to look back twenty-five years to September 11, 2001—a day that shook the foundations of our world and broke our hearts with unimaginable loss

We come here to honor the thousands of lives cut short, to wrap the grieving in our prayers, and to revere the 343 brave firefighters and first responders who ran toward the fire so that others might live.Let us lift our voices, quiet our minds, and open our hearts to our God who is our shelter and our eternal strength. As St. Augustine once remarked:

“God loves each of us as though there were only one of us.”

 

When earthly towers crumble down to dust,
And everything we built begins to shake,
We look to where we place our deepest trust,
And find the promise God will never break.

Through heavy smoke, three hundred forty-three
Stepped straight into the fire, calm and brave.
For people they would never live to see,
They gave up everything they had to save.

Though pain and empty chairs remain behind,
And grief can feel too heavy to endure,
A deeper hope is what we’re meant to find,
The promise of His healing love is sure.

So let us stand upon the Rock above,
And walk together in this fearless love.

 

In the love of Christ,

 

Ned