Fri/Sat/Sun.....A Day To Remember

         The headline of today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is A Night To Remember. I saw the headline at work as I was passing a table and stopped in my tracks. To someone my age, the words a night to remember might very well bring to mind Walter Lord's classic book of the same title on the sinking of the Titanic and also the 1958 film made on the book (the best of the films on the White Star Line ship disaster, in my opinion anyway.) This was the Post's intention as the sub-headline read The bands play on and the Steelers sink Titans in overtime (a reference to the ship's band playing as it took its final dive.).
         No, it wasn't the Titanic making front page news 97 years later, this night to remember was the season opening victory of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Beneath the headline was a panoramic picture of Heinz Field with 65,000 plus people, just about all dressed in black and gold. Somewhere in one of my earlier blogs, I talked about that date, April 14th 1912, when the Titanic went down on its maiden voyage, the biggest ocean liner in the world and hyped by some as unsinkable. The world focused, even with limited media of the day, on this catastrophe that cost 1517 lives. Within 27 and one half years, Great Britain would experience world war, a great depression and the beginnings of a second world war where its cities would be bombed mercilessly. It had gone from proud jubilation on the Belfast docks to near oblivion in a few short decades.
         The 1986 Challenger explosion had always seemed to me, more than the terrible disaster, than even it was. Much of America looked at that craft, and all of America saw it on tape, lifting higher and higher, a diverse crew including a school teacher, epitomizing America's great hopes. Five years later we were forced into a war in the desert, we were experiencing increased terrorist attacks ultimately leading to what happened 8 years ago today in New York City, Washington D. C. and Western Pennsylvania! Much of our nation turned on its president who steadfastly defended it. His opposition party, hopefully inadvertently, motivated our enemies and later declared our effort a defeat, and now we have mortgaged our children's future, are pursuing socialism and blithely weakening our national defense and position in this world.
         I saw the double reference in today's paper but could not appreciate it. Pittsburgh Steeler football in this city can cloud even the most grave issues for much of the year. I have absolutely no room to cast stones for I rushed downtown after previous Super Bowl wins and spent twice as much time on Pitt football. No, I can't condemn, and if I did it should most certainly start with me, but I can lament. From my perspective, this actually gets worse. This particular blog goes from America to the War On Terror to Christianity. Nine out of ten readers, that is if I have ten readers, will disagree with me for it is an archaic belief even though it was once a foundation of Christianity. God rested on the seventh day. He wasn't tired, He was giving us a picture of His plan for us...we have six days to pursue everything that is good and necessary, joyous and strenuous but one day out of seven was given to us, to worship Him, in fact it was commanded of us, for our benefit. I did not always see it this way but was convinced by reason, the witness of the church past and a remnant today, and most importantly by God's breathed Word to us.
         In this world of today, it is near impossible to persuade even Christians that the Lord's Day is to be set apart (really set apart, for the most imaginatively fun ways to set apart a day can be constructed.) So... seeing that front page today, on September 11th, celebrating the people as they exalt a football team as our enemies continue to plan against us, was disconcerting. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette gave half of its front page to the picture and the article. The only reference to 9/11, in the front section that I have with me, that changed the fortunes of America, was the date of the paper and an On this day in the Almanac reference. Yet it is truly a day to remember. We should never want our failures, our defeats, and most importantly our sin against God, too far from us, for they should keep us humble, keep us watchful, and keep us thankful for a God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.