Reflection - What a wonderful community we have. I love ingathering, with its recommitment to one another and to this wonderful faith. Part of Ingathering for me, a question I revisit for myself  every time is,  "What brings us together?," "What brings us to church?"  "What is this tradition about?" This year I stumbled on a powerful answer to my question is an unexpected place.   A year ago today we were innocent of the events of 9/11.  In the year since everything has been affected.  Our nation and how we we perceive the world have been changed. What sense does religion make in light of 9/11, you may ask. 

 Jeannie and I are going to recreate for you part of a Frontline interview with the Rabbi Irwin Kula that seems to answer that question - for his tradition, and to a very real extent, I think, for all traditions.   Since 9/11 Rabbi Kula has developed an unusual spiritual practice - he chants the actual  last words of victims of  the September 11 tragedy that were captured verbatim on voicemail and cellphone. In listening to him chant, and talk about where God was - or wasn't, on 9/11, I was very moved, recognizing in the wisdom of his words, the importance of what my own religious tradition does for me. 

 The following words by Jeannie and myself are a reproduction of his remarks.  When his statement is over, I would ask that we observe a minute of silent meditation, reflection and prayer.

 "Every time I thought there was something out there
it turned into something opposed to me. 

Something I have to define myself against, whether that's God or that's a Christian or a Muslim….
And that's not my experience.
My genuine experience of life
is that there is nothing out there. 
This is all there is.
And when you see the seamlessness of it all,
that's what I mean by God.
Every tradition has that.

Three times a day since I'm six years old.
I've been saying - "Hear, Israel, the Lord  our God, the Lord is One" 

It's one of our few creedal statements. The Shema.
Three times a day since I'm six years old.
 9/11 I guess, if you ask me, what'd 9/11  really do, it made me realize the truth of that.
The truth of that - everything is one. 
Not that there's some guy hanging out there who has it all together we call one.
It IS all one.
We all know it deep down.

We've all had those experiences whether it was looking at our child in the crib or it's looking at our lover or looking at a mountaintop or looking at a sunset. 
Right.  We've  all have had those experiences where we recognize,
"Whoah!  We're much more connected here.
That's what those firemen had.
They recognized - they didn't have time to think about it.
Because actually, if you think about it, you begin to create separation.
They didn't think about it.
All they knew, was that they were absolutely connected.
They were absolutely connected to the 86^th floor.
So that's what God is.
That's not where God is.
God isn't anywhere.
That's what we mean when we say God.

 And yet these insights of connectedness, and oneness  which make us feel so at home in the world,  are so  difficult to hold onto.  And so, inevitably, we end up living lives of isolation and loneliness.

 Hey, Juce, it's Brian.
I'm on the plane and it's hijacked and it doesn't look good.
I just wanted to let you know, that I love you, and I hope to see you again.

 These are final conversations recorded on cell phones, recorded voicemail.  They are so pure about the expression of love between husband and wife, between mother and child.
They seem to me to be incredible texts because they were at the moment of confronting life or death and, for me, I chant these every single morning. 

 Because they remind me,
That, whatever my tradition is about, it's about this.

 Mommy the building is on fire.
There's smoke coming through the walls.
I can't breathe.
I love you Mommy.
Good bye.

 The real tone, the real wisdom, the real of this tradition, the real experience behind religion - it's about love, and it's about connection.
Maybe it's no more complicated than that.

Mommy something terrible is happening
I don't think I'm going to make it.
I love you.
Take care of the children.