09/11/2026
Pastor Timothy Bourman serves as a WELS home missionary at Sure Foundation, Woodside, Queens, N.Y. Here he reflects on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks:
9/11 resists simplistic narratives. In fact, attacks like this one on innocent civilians in such a city as ours always beg us to say something and, at the same time, defy us to say anything meaningful at all. As a pastor in New York, I feel that tension deeply. Maybe I am not unlike Jeremiah, who once lamented regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, “What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, Daughter Jerusalem?” (Lamentations 2:13). If we could even give the pain of such loss some “metaphorical restraint,” as one scholar put it, perhaps we would be achieving some kind of peace.
Yet even as I despair of giving an adequate word, I’m moved to say something. Others have urged me to do so on this, the 25th anniversary of the attack on our city. Every single one of us as New Yorkers—and as Americans—has a story of that day. Some of us have more than a story; we can speak of those we have lost. Their names are written in our hearts. After 25 years, the loss is just as real as it was then.
I refuse to take these losses and turn them into a morality tale or respond with the vague promise not to forget. 9/11 runs deeper than that, as does our Savior’s love for this broken world.
But I will say this: I was personally shaken the last time I went to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum to think on that day and remember it. I saw an artifact there that has stayed with me. It was a metal beam, and melted into the beam was a KJV Bible. It was opened forever to Matthew 5:38-42. You have to see it and then read what the page says. The furnace of the destruction of 9/11 fused a Bible page frozen open to those very verses. They are worth contemplating, along with the photo I took that day. I know that 9/11 forced a response in my heart on that day along the lines of retribution. I wanted someone to answer for it, but that page in the Bible lies open for us. It gives another way to respond to violence. One preacher put it this way: When the world wields a hammer, we become anvils. That is not weakness. That is strong love. A strong love once shown for us in Jesus our Savior. He bore our evil and took the blows. If we remember 9/11 in that way, we will remember well.
Tomorrow, my son’s preschool class is wearing red, white, and blue. I’m going to join him for 9/11 in those colors. In my heart, I hope to remember in such a way that I love my fellow New Yorkers well and respond to evil as an anvil.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, on this the 25th anniversary of 9/11, comfort those who mourn with your presence and precious promises. We bless you for your power over death and place our hope in you. In a world filled with violence that we too often experience in our city, make us anvils to their hammers. Strong in love. Amen.
Matthew 5:38-42 (King James Version): “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away."
