Good morning, and welcome.

Today is September 11, 2026.

Twenty-five years ago today, America experienced one of the darkest mornings in our nation’s history.

And today, I don’t want to begin with politics.

I don’t want to begin with Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, red states or blue states.

I want to begin with memory.

Because some days should cause us simply to remember.

A Morning That Changed America

September 11, 2001, began as an ordinary Tuesday morning.

People went to work.

Parents dropped children off at school.

Travelers hurried through airports.

Firefighters reported for duty. Police officers began their shifts.

And then, at 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.

Now America knew this was no accident.

At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.

At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed.

And while all this was happening, aboard United Airlines Flight 93, ordinary passengers and crew members learned what was happening elsewhere and made an extraordinary decision.

They fought back.

At 10:03 a.m., Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

And at 10:28 a.m., the North Tower collapsed.

In just 102 minutes, from the first impact until the collapse of the North Tower, the world we knew had changed.

Nearly 2,977 innocent people were killed that day.

But numbers alone cannot tell the story.

They were mothers and fathers.

Husbands and wives.

Sons and daughters.

Friends and coworkers.

Firefighters, police officers, military personnel, office workers, travelers, and ordinary people who had gotten up that morning expecting an ordinary day.

So before we say anything else today, we remember them.

And we remember those who ran toward danger when almost every human instinct told them to run away.

Something Else Happened

But there is another memory from September 11 and the days that followed that I don’t want us to lose.

Something happened to America.

For a brief period, the labels that normally divided us didn’t seem quite so important.

We weren’t primarily Black Americans or white Americans.

We weren’t Republicans or Democrats.

We weren’t conservatives or liberals.

We weren’t rich Americans and poor Americans.

For a moment, we simply saw ourselves as Americans.

People stood in line to give blood.

Neighbors checked on neighbors.

Churches opened their doors.

Strangers comforted strangers.

American flags appeared on houses, businesses, bridges, cars, and front porches.

People prayed together.

Members of Congress gathered on the steps of the United States Capitol and sang together.

We disagreed before September 11.

And we certainly disagreed afterward.

But for a moment, tragedy reminded us of something our arguments had caused us to forget: We belonged to one another.

Twenty-Five Years Later

And now here we are, twenty-five years later.

I look at America today, and sometimes I wonder: Where did that sense of “us” go?

Our differences haven’t necessarily become greater.

But our ability to live with those differences sometimes seems to have become smaller.

Political disagreement becomes personal hatred.

Social media rewards outrage.

We increasingly sort people into camps.

My side.

Your side.

Our people.

Their people.

And somewhere along the way, disagreement can become dehumanization.

Now, I’m not suggesting that America was perfect on September 12, 2001.

It wasn’t.

And national unity did not erase every injustice, disagreement, prejudice, fear, or political difference.

But we remembered something important: There was something larger than our differences.

And I wonder whether we can remember that again without having to experience another national catastrophe.

Why Does Tragedy Bring Us Together?

And this isn’t only about America.

Think about families.

Sometimes relatives can go months—or even years—barely speaking to one another.

Then someone becomes seriously ill.

Someone dies.

And suddenly everybody gathers in the same room.

Old disagreements don’t necessarily disappear.

They just don’t seem as important anymore.

I’ve seen the same thing happen in churches.

People argue over programs, personalities, music, budgets, leadership, and traditions.

Then tragedy strikes a member of the congregation.

Suddenly nobody asks which committee you served on.

They ask: “What can I do?”

Organizations experience the same thing.

Communities experience it.

Military units experience it.

Nations experience it.

Why?

Because tragedy has a way of stripping away the superficial things and reminding us what really matters.

Tragedy reminds us that life is fragile.

That tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

That the person across from us is a human being before he is a political opponent.

That the woman who disagrees with us is somebody’s daughter, somebody’s mother, somebody’s friend.

And maybe the great challenge is this: Can we learn the lesson without requiring the tragedy?

Unity Does Not Mean Uniformity

Now, unity does not mean that everybody has to agree.

That’s not unity.

That’s uniformity.

America has never been a nation where everyone thought alike.

Our democracy actually depends upon disagreement.

But there is a difference between disagreeing with someone’s ideas and denying someone’s humanity.

I can disagree with you and still respect you.

I can vote differently from you and still love you.

I can believe deeply that you’re wrong and still defend your right to speak.

We can come from different cultures, different neighborhoods, different generations, different political parties, and different experiences and still recognize that we share a country and a future.

That’s what we seemed to understand after September 11.

And that’s something worth recovering.

A Christian Perspective

For those of us who follow Christ, the standard goes even higher.

Romans 12:21 tells us: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

September 11 showed us evil.

But it also showed us courage.

Sacrifice.

Compassion.

Service.

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things for people they didn’t even know.

And perhaps that is one of the most important lessons we can carry forward twenty-five years later.

We honor those who died not merely by remembering how they died, but by considering how we live.

What if we decided that we don’t need tragedy to make us compassionate?

What if we don’t need catastrophe to make us neighbors?

What if we don’t need another attack to remind us that we are Americans?

What if churches didn’t need a crisis before members rallied around one another?

What if families didn’t wait until the funeral to reconcile?

What if we decided today to call somebody we haven’t spoken to?

To forgive somebody?

To listen before responding?

To disagree without hatred?

To see a human being instead of a label?

Twenty-Five Years Later

Twenty-five years have passed.

There is now an entire generation of Americans who were not alive on September 11, 2001.

For them, 9/11 is history.

For many of us, it is memory.

We remember where we were.

We remember watching the television.

We remember the smoke.

We remember the confusion.

We remember the fear.

But we also remember something beautiful that emerged from something terrible.

We remembered that we belonged to one another.

So today, yes—let us remember the Twin Towers.

Let us remember the Pentagon.

Let us remember that field near Shanksville.

Let us remember the firefighters climbing those stairs while others were coming down.

Let us remember police officers, paramedics, military personnel, first responders, passengers, flight crews, office workers, and ordinary citizens.

Let us remember those who never came home.

But let us remember something else too.

For a moment, Americans looked beyond race, politics, class, geography, and culture and recognized something deeper.

We were Americans!!!

And maybe twenty-five years later, the greatest tribute we could offer those we lost is not simply to say: “Never forget.”

Maybe it is also to ask: “What have we remembered?”

Have we remembered the unity?

Have we remembered the compassion?

Have we remembered the sacrifice?

Have we remembered how quickly the things that divide us become insignificant when we realize how much we need one another?

My prayer for America today is simple: Lord, don’t let it take another tragedy to bring us together.

Teach us to love our neighbors before disaster strikes.

Teach us to listen before anger takes over.

Teach us to disagree without becoming enemies.

Teach us to remember that beneath all our labels, arguments, politics, cultures, and differences, we share something precious

We share this country.

We share this moment in history.

And ultimately, we share our humanity.

Twenty-five years later, may we remember those we lost.

May we honor those who served.

May we learn from who we became in the aftermath.

And may we find our way back to one another.

Not because tragedy forced us to.

But because we finally understood that unity is worth choosing.

Remember. Reflect. Reconnect.

And may God bless the families who still carry the wounds of September 11.

May God bless those who answered the call that day.

“Can we learn the lesson without requiring the tragedy?”