How Long?
This week we looked on our TV screens and saw the door of hell opened. Before us was the evil of a premeditated attack designed to inflict a maximum number of civilian casualties and cause maximum psychological and social pain. This was not a military or industrial target, nor a declared war, but terrorism against ordinary people travelling, at work and so forth. Whatever our nation, race or creed, the only moral response is repugnance at this evil. The sheer evil of the attack has rightly drawn condemnation from American and Arab, Christian and Muslim – despite the chilling sight of a tiny handful cheering on the destruction.
This is not the first, and will not be the last, such atrocity and it is far from being the worst. Even in the last 25 years half the population of Cambodia died while we entertained ourselves in front of the TV; 800,000 were systematically slaughtered in Rwanda while we traded on stock market; countless numbers are still dying in the Sudan while we argue about which restaurant to visit for lunch; and thousands will die in our world today because you and I are too greedy and selfish to share around food, safe water and basic health care.
But the events of last week shock us. We imagine ourselves in the planes or buildings. We are affected by graphic TV images that at once drew us into vortex of events, yet kept us separated from them. Some in our congregation have stories that put names and faces to events. There is a family member in the second tower who just escaped down the stairs before his building was hit and who was also in the 1993 attack – someone on assignment with the US military and based in Maryland – a mother with two children in US military bases in vulnerable locations – someone else whose posting to the south wing of Pentagon had been delayed over the fateful day.
And so we are affected by this and seek to make sense of it. Some see this as a sign that Jesus is about to return. Some see the start of WW3. Others claimed to see a fulfilment of a prophecy of Nostradamus only to be embarrassed by the revelation that the quoted words were written as a spoof in the 1990s. In truth, much of truth regarding this will not be known for long time and perhaps some will never be known.
Because we are Christians we seek to make sense of this through the mind of God revealed in Scripture. This doesn’t mean looking for secret codes or twisting the Bible to make it speak about 11 Sep 01. Rather it means looking for broad themes in the events of last Tuesday, looking at the consistent character of God and looking for parallel situations. As we’ll see, we can make sense of some aspects of the events, but others defy us – they are beyond our vision. At some points we must listen to Deut. 29:29.
In trying to make sense of these events we can usefully look to the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. This book was set in a man-made disaster of Israel being invaded by the dreaded Babylonians about 600 years before Jesus. Incredible violence came swooping out of nowhere and everything was changed that day. One or two phrases from his description can be used for 11 Sep 2001: Hab. 1:8b-9a; 17b; 2:8b.
Before trying to make sense of things, it is important to be real about our feelings. Sometimes we think it is Christian or more manly or mature to hold back our feelings and be cool, calm and collected – emotionally untouched by events. This a Greek virtue but not a Biblical one. Nor was it Habakkuk’s way: Hab. 1:2-3,13b; 3:16a. It is good to explore and acknowledge our feelings of denial, numbness, shock, compassion, and vengeance. It is better to acknowledge them to the Lord and ourselves rather than deny or bottle them up.
God’s Amazing Act (Hab. 1:5)
Inevitably we ask Habakkuk’s question Hab. 1:3a,13.
Why do these things happen? That question can be answered at several levels.
At one level there is the failure of US intelligence gathering; failure of airport and aircraft security; and a series of coincidences that were good for terrorists, but evil for their victims.
At another level we must face the fact of human sin. Since our ejection from Garden of Eden, we humans have a stubborn and deep-seated inclination to do evil. Jeremiah puts it this way: Jer 17:9. David says (perhaps reflecting on his own experience): Ps 14:1-3. The texts can be multiplied. Sadly, we can also supply proof texts from life: too many stories where individuals and whole communities in certain circumstances have performed a Jekyll and Hyde transformation from good to gross evil in an incredibly short time. Some of the worst evil the world has seen has come from urbane, cultured, well dressed, well spoken, well educated and otherwise well behaved people. As someone observed long ago: educate people without religion and you make them but clever devils.
People have stated some mitigating factors in explanation of terrorism: frustration borne of long suffered injustice; brain-washing with twisted ideologies so that people don’t know what they are doing; denial of access to conventional means of making war; the experience of violence from those they later attacked. Yes, yes, yes – but at the end of it, the explanation of the terrorist’s action is in that word sin. All humans are sinful and do sin. Many of us have parallel sinful impulses to the terrorists. However, for many-sided reasons some express their sinfulness in acts like this while most of us do not. This is not a natural disaster or act of God; this is an act of human sin and evil.
Only the renewing grace of God in Jesus Christ can deliver any of us from this sinfulness. Only in the cross of Jesus is the sacrificial payment made that can remove guilt for this gross sin of the terrorists, or for our supposedly little, but no less significant sins. Only in the Spirit of Jesus is the power that can remake people such that our sinful inclinations are first limited in their worst expressions, then denied and then replaced with an inclination to do good. The events of last week remind us that salvation cannot ever come from the human heart and energies of human hands - it must come from outside. And so David, having noted universal sinfulness, goes on to say what we must say to one another: Ps 14:7.
But even this level of explanation does not answer Habakkuk’s question and our’s. It only pushes it back. If God is all-powerful and all-good why does he allow us the freedom to express sinfulness like this and why did he allow evil in the first place? And that is a point where must be silent and plead Deut 29:29, because the Bible does not tell us the answer to this question.
But that does not mean that we have nothing further to say. Scripture does not tell why God let evil into the world in the first place. But it does tell us what God does with evil. When the door of hell opens and evil floods out God is there, diverting and distracting evil so it works to his purposes, to his good and our good. When Rom. 8:28 says that God works all things to the good of those who love him, it means all things – including the most evil and devastating things we face. As Paul goes on to say in the same chapter, none of these things can or do separate us from his love in Jesus Christ. Many of us can testify to the good which God has wrought in what appeared to be evil moments touching us.
Once again, the greatest testimony to that is in the Cross of Jesus Christ. On that day when the principalities and powers of evil screeched from hell and so poured their fury that the earth shook and the sky was darkened as the sins and guilt of all were poured upon the sinless Jesus, God was there saving the world. The Cross and resurrection of Jesus forever answer the question as to where our holy and loving God is when we suffer: he is there with us, just as he was there when hell’s fury erupted on Easter Friday.
Cling to that: the cross of Jesus shows that God is all-powerful and all-loving, and working for good in all things. It does not explain how he was working for good last Tuesday, but it assures us that he is. Already the internet is abounding with amazing stories of people not being on one of those flights, not being in that building at that time or getting out in amazing circumstances. We should thank God for these things. But what will we say to the young widow of a fireman who was safe and then went into building after first aircraft hit and was incinerated and crushed in the fury? If some had a lucky break in their miraculous escape, what kind of break did these heroic figures have? God’s presence was not just there in the occasional lucky break last Tuesday, but it was there in the event’s totality. Somehow he worked for good in the whole.
Something of the same point is seen from Habakkuk who says that God will do something causing people to be utterly amazed (Hab. 1:5). God’s amazing act in this case was to use a more evil nation (Babylon) to punish a less evil nation (Israel). God was there working for good in the totality of that event, although it was amazing and even immoral to the naked eye.
Again, we do not know how God was working for good last Tuesday and we should not give ourselves to rash speculation. However, the Cross and resurrection of Jesus demonstrate that God is always working for the good of all his people in all things. Let us focus on that as we sit in silent wonder before mysteries beyond our knowledge.
In Wrath Remember Mercy (Hab. 3:2)
How do we respond to the events of last Tuesday? There are a number of different things to work on.
The first response comes from Habakkuk and sets the scene for the rest: I will rejoice in the Lord (3:18). We read similar words elsewhere, for Scripture teaches us to always be joyful and thankful: Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances … (1 Thess. 5:16-18. Note the words: ‘always’, ‘all circumstances’. We are not to be joyful and thankful when things go as we want or when life is pleasant, but always – even when the doors of hell open.
How can we be thankful for the events of the last week? It seems macabre, unfeeling, uncaring to do so. No! With Habakkuk we can see the reality and feel the pain of evil, but still rejoice, because God is there and God is working out his good purposes. Remember that Habakkuk did not see Jesus standing in doors of hell on Easter Friday, but still he could say: Hab. 3:16b-19. His was not a shallow faith- nor is he being driven by his feelings, or making things up – rather he is expressing the Biblical truth that God is always sovereignly working for good. Because of that truth we can rejoice always.
It is against our feelings and against what we see on our TV screens to rejoice and be thankful before these recent events. However, it is to walk by faith not sight (2 Cor. 5:7), and it is to set the Cross of Jesus in our eyes as we look out at those tragic events.
What other responses can we make?
Compassion for the suffering Just as Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus (Jn 11:33) so we are to weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15). People no more guilty than any of us have suffered terrible losses this week: death; physical and psychological maiming; loss of livelihood. Others, and some in our congregation, have suffered the anxiety of knowing that they had friends and families who might have been there, but who could not contact them. Others in all kinds of places and ways will bear a ripple-down suffering as plans are disrupted, businesses fail and so forth. As a company of Christian people, our hearts and prayers go out to those who suffer. To all and any in our congregation who have suffered and will suffer, we extend our sympathy, love and prayers. Please tell us how we can help you.
Justice and kindness to evil-doers The Scripture speaks of God who is stern and kind (Rom 11:22]. Because he is a God of justice, his people desire for justice to be done. Evil cannot remain unpunished. There must be careful investigation, a fair trial and an appropriate punishment for those involved. However, this must be careful and fair. If we surrender high burdens of proof and legal argument, we have surrendered to the same impulses we accuse the terrorists of. Likewise, the punishment must fit the crime and not exceed it. In particular, the focus must be on justice to the planners, financiers, protectors and implementers of the crime, but only on them.
There are disturbing signs from the US and other countries that people have already made a judgement about guilt before the evidence is collected and the trial is conducted. Anyone anywhere who is Arabic or Muslim is thought to be guilty and is to be punished. Remember that vengeance is not ours, and in this life it is for governments, not individuals to punish evil and reward good (Rom. 13:4). Ultimately justice belongs with God (Rom. 12:19) and at the end it is the justice of God against evildoers that counts.
As some of us heard last Sunday morning, our place is to love our enemies, do good for them and pray for them (Matt. 5:44-47; Rom.12:14, 17-21). Have you prayed for God to do good and bless these terrorists? If we don’t do as God says here, we surrender to terrorism: this is the evil that has conquered us (Rom. 12:21); this is hate begetting hate, violence begetting violence. Our discipleship is on trial here. If we have understood God’s love for us when we were his enemies in sin (Rom. 5:8) and if we have been transformed by that love, we must, can and will love our enemies – even when the evil is as naked and horrendous as it is this week.
Prayers for Government The Scriptures tell us that government is a God given institution - indeed it is one of his common grace blessings (Rom. 13:1-7). It also tells us to pray for those in authority, so that we will have quite and peaceful lives and so that the cause of the gospel may advance. (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
It is important for us to be prayerful for heads of government at this time. Especially pray for President Bush as his gives leadership in the recovery of life and hope; as he sets the pattern for investigation and punishment of the crime, and in decisions regarding preventative security measures. Beyond Mr Bush, we need to pray for the leaders of all governments of goodwill – for a common cause across the usual boundaries – a common cause against terrorism wherever it is conceived, incubated and delivered. And let us pray for peace: that the violence already done will be the extent of it and that there will neither be further terrorist action or disproportionate responses from the US that may trigger more violence.
Being Ready Let us finish on a very personal note.
Many of us imagined ourselves on that plane or in that office. What if we were? Would we have been ready for that sudden violent act that propelled us from history to eternity and saw us standing before the heavenly tribunal at which all are judged (Rev. 20:11-15)?
Some people once came to Jesus asking about an episode of state terrorism in which others had died (Luke 13:1-5). What did they expect him to say: that those responsible should have violence done against them, or that the dead were assured of their place in heaven as martyrs? No, instead he gave his hearers a warning. There had apparently been another recent disaster of a building collapse killing 13 people and Jesus drew the two incidents together to warn his hearers and us. It is a warning to repent now and be ready to die at any time.
We, like those poor people in Washington and New York, are not privy to the moment of our death, or to the moment of Jesus’ return. But, are we ready? If, like Habakkuk, we live in fellowship with God, we are always ready and can always sing the song of rejoicing with him (Hab. 3:18). However, if we are not ready, we still die and face judgement (Heb. 9:27).
Are you ready?
Sermon preached by David Burke at Orchard Road Presbyterian Church Singapore on 16 September 2001, after the terrorist attack on the USA on 11 September 2001.
