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You who are younger have asked the questions and you who are older have been asked the questions: where were you when you first heard the news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)? Where were you when you heard that JFK had been assassinated (November 22, 1963)? Those questions remember a moment frozen in time, an event that carved up life into before and after. Last fall another such event occurred and another such question became permanently lodged into our collective consciousness – where were you when you first heard the news on September 11th, 2001? What were you doing when you caught the news that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York City?

Upon the first – "we interrupt this broadcast" – we didn't yet have a sense of the magnitude of this event. At that time, a jumbo jet was still thought to be a small, twin-engine Cessna. An hour later we knew better. One crash became two, two became three, three became four. Two architectural wonders were reduced to rubble. Thousands of workers were reduced to so many scattered body parts. The bright autumn sky of September 11th became deceptively sinister.

It is now one year later. As a nation we are trying to fortify our defenses by increasing security measures. We are bracing for economic woe, hoping for a Wall Street rally. We are hunting down the terrorists. We are publicly debating the wisdom of ‘preemptive attacks' and gearing up for another conflict with Iraq. We are trying to understand the role of America in the post-Cold War era of international politics. We are getting educated on ‘what if' scenarios regarding chemical and biological warfare.

All of this is now a part of the stage set upon which you and I act out faith in God's ways and God's kingdom. The scene is a little different. There is a new backdrop. There are new props around us. The plot has thickened. And yet, this unfolding drama remains God's story. He has written the script and has awarded us a part to play. Someone with a strong voice needs to thunder out from the stage: "The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice." A wise old man with a long, flowing beard needs to reassure us with the stories of long ago. He must teach us how to lament and how to rejoice. A lady with calloused knees must act out the part of a persistent widow, one earnestly committed to the life of prayer. We will need a stagehand to help us when we forget our lines. That person must have the script before him and be ready to prompt us with God's thoughts and God's words. We will need someone to coach all of these actors and actresses, encouraging them to live out their role on this new set. This person must keep her eyes on the final performance, cheering us on even as we bumble through our dress rehearsals.

Each of us has a part to play for which we've been given the necessary gifts of wisdom, healing, encouragement, helps and mercy. What role have you been assigned? How will you play your part in this new act and new scene?