WHY?
It was like something from
the wide screen – a horror blockbuster - entertaining because of its
unreality; but it wasn’t a movie – and it was real.
At the moment the world
reels in shock; but it’s far far too early to know what the full implications
of this nightmare event will be. We
don’t know what the implications will be on the stage of world politics or in
the arena of international warfare. We
don’t know what the financial implications will be for the hitherto greatest
power base in the world, or if the human race which invented fearful weapons of
mass destruction will now spend the rest of its life in fear of them.
And it is CERTAINLY too
early to imagine how we will feel over the next days and weeks as the full
horror unfolds in terms of loss of human life - how we will feel as each news
bulletin brings more scenes of distress – thousands of funeral services –
countless accounts of family heartbreak. How
even you and I, who are geographically detached from the situation, will feel
ten days from now we cannot imagine.
One thing is sure.
This one is too big to bury our heads in the sand.
We cannot even protect our children from it because the horrible and
heartbreaking visual reminders are all around us.
We have to come to terms with this.
Like me, I’m sure many
of you have shed tears, had nightmares, experienced throughout the week an
emptiness of spirit, or feel yourself to be living under a heavy dark cloud of
despair. And we are asking
questions – questions which I feel we must seek a response to. I think sometimes, as regards the whole area of Christian
life in the world, that if something happens which is not consistent with our
philosophy of God – we and the whole church fall silent.
But folks, God is still
the same today as He was last Sunday – before all this happened.
He IS an unchanging God, he is a powerful God and He is a loving God –
everything we perceived him to be LAST week.
Nothing in that respect has changed.
But is that how many people in New York (and in ALL areas affected by
this tragedy) will feel today. Dare
I stand on a soapbox in Manhattan today and preach about the love of God?
Why?
What is God doing? What is He saying?
Some have suggested it’s
His judgment on the city of New York because of it’s anti-Christian policies
recently – and maybe it IS. I
cannot say. But two things I would
say of that suggestion.
First, I’m not convinced
that in this New Covenant area of grace that we have seen God act in this
indiscriminate destruction of life as an act of national or metro-political
punishment. In the Old Testament
period – yes, and at the end of time – yes; but in these days of grace I’m
not sure we see God act that way.
Secondly, if it is an act
of judgement by God – then we should hardly dare speak of it.
Because if any nation is deserving of the judgement of God it is our own.
If any community is worthy of punishment it is ours.
If any people stand guilty before God it is us.
Yes, we, whose very history is built on Biblical principles; we who in
many instances, as individuals, were brought up to fear and honour the Lord; we
even who claim to be members of his Church.
We are guilty of apathy, hypocrisy, superficial Christianity, pharisaic
worship, ignorance of God’s Word, narrow mindedness, self-centeredness,
bigotry, laxity in moral values, greed – need I go on?
If this IS an incident of
some kind of selective punishment by God, then what of our own mess?
Is this not a time to focus on our own shortcomings – nationally and
individually – and cry out for the mercy of God?
Is it not a time for each of us to plead for God’s forgiveness and to
ask His Holy Spirit to, day by day, mould us more into the likeness of His Son.
And that will mean being prepared to let go much of the trash in our
lives that has no eternal value.
So, if Tuesday was an act
of judgement, let us not speak of it, but to first remove the plank from our own
eye and seek the mercy of God.
For what it’s worth, my own
interpretation of this awful event, and the less publicised atrocities which
happen throughout the world (albeit on a smaller scale), is that we are
suffering the consequences of living in a fallen and sinful world.
And I mean ‘fallen’ in
the sense, of course, that in Genesis humankind fell from the original purposes
of God by its disobedience of the Creator’s laws; and I mean ‘sinful’ in
the sense that, ever since then, humankind has also exercised the free will
given by God to continue to make wrong choices – to choose evil rather than
God. And by so doing we have made a
mess of the world and of life. We
sow sin and are reaping a harvest of depravation.
But can you see that such depravation is not of God’s doing – it is
of the devil. And it is a harvest
to which we all contribute as we sow.
The Apostle Paul wrote in
Galatians 6, “Do not be deceived: God
cannot be mocked. A man reaps what
he sows. The one who sows to please
his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to
please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
So, in its very simplest
form, the picture is of a vast field (which is the world) where all the people
in it are continually sowing seed. Some
are sowing good seed – the seed of God, and some are sowing bad seed – the
seed of the devil. ‘Now’, Paul
assures us, ‘those who sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap
eternal life.’
In other words the harvest
we will reap, if our thoughts, words and actions are motivated by the heart of
God and we have sought the salvation offered to us in Christ – the harvest
promised is eternal life – an eternity in the presence of God and so much
goodness and truth that we cannot comprehend the wonder of it all. And indeed the assurance of it all brings us a sweet
foretaste now - in the form of peace, fulfilment and a sense of God’s presence
and so on.
BUT, this side of
eternity we are still living in this field - where so much seed of the devil is being sown – evil, hatred, greed
– the need to dominate (both at personal and international level) – it’s
all falling around us; and it’s growing and multiplying and it constantly
threatens to choke truth and goodness and love.
Only the return of Christ
will bring this reign of terror to an end – the day when every knee will be
forced to bow and every tongue confess that truly Jesus Christ is Lord.
So here we live, side by
side with all this evil, suffering and pain.
Can you quote me a verse of Scripture which suggests that somehow God
snatches his children up out of the chaos of this world to wrap them, as it
were, in cotton wool till the end of time.
It certainly didn’t happen to the Christians of the first three
centuries of Christendom – and it never will.
Jesus himself, in Matthew
13, tells us that the good seed and the bad seed – the wheat and the weeds -
would grow together in the field – and then what would happen.
Matthew 13.30 (Pew Bibles page 979) “At that time I will tell the
harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then
gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”
So here we are as
professing Christians living and growing in this evil infested field.
All around us the seeds of every evil imaginable (and a whole lot more
besides) are falling; and its only by the daily cleansing by the blood of Christ
and the power of the Holy Spirit to root out evil and fertilise and encourage
spiritual growth that that evil seed doesn’t overcome and destroy us.
Living in this field of
sin isn’t much fun at times and it is causing indiscriminate pain and
suffering throughout the world. Soon
these walls will reverberate with hymns like ‘We plough the fields and scatter
the good seed on the land, and it is fed and watered by God’s almighty
hand.’ But try singing that in
some parts of the world where, because of nation’s greed and the mismanagement
of the earth’s natural resources – two thirds of our fellow human beings are
either starving to death or at best undernourished.
We sing, ‘Jesus loves the little children – all the children of the
world’, but try telling that to the street children in some of the South
American countries where part of their annual clean up policy before the
tourists start arriving is to round up such children and put them in compounds
from which, mysteriously, they rarely emerge.
It’s a murky field we live in.
And what we saw last
Tuesday, in my opinion, was like a volcanic eruption of evil – of greed, of
revenge, of thirst for domination, of a hunger for sheer destruction.
Many lovely people – husbands, wives, mothers, fathers and children –
just like you and I, were living in that part of the field – and they suffered
from that overspill of evil. Tomorrow
it could be us for we are living and growing side by side with the agencies of
Satan.
Those dear people had
committed no offence. They just
happened to live and work and holiday in a part of the field which experienced a
prolific outburst of evil fruit.
So when some around you
may sneer at your faith and ask ‘If there is a God of love, where was he on
Tuesday?’ or ‘Why did a so called God of love act in such a cruel way?’
remind them that it’s highly unlikely Tuesday’s events were the work of God.
It’s much, much more likely that it was the handiwork of Satan – the
Father of lies.
And why didn’t God
prevent it? Because he chose to
create us as complete beings with the dignity of choice; and we’re living
together in God’s field with those who choose and sow evil – so we suffer
from the consequences.
Only when our Lord returns
and the weeds are uprooted and destroyed will we be fully and completely
redeemed from all evil and our salvation fully realised. Meanwhile we live in the field.
Does my reasoning make sense to you?
Now you may well say,
‘That all sounds very depressing! Is
there any point in praying then?’ And
I have three answers, YES, YES and YES. Prayer
is a calling down of the elements which make good seed grow.
Prayer is not only asking for things but it is making ourselves available
to be instruments of God – so that all the time we are cultivating, if you
like, the growth of goodness, love and joy in one another.
And what can we do for
those whose lives have been devastated by the events of Tuesday?
We can bear them up in a tidal wave of empathy, love, compassion – real
Godly concern worked out on our knees in prayer – so that the people of that
city, and of all places caught up in its pain, may feel themselves to be born up
by the sheer volume of goodness and love. And
never believe the devil’s propaganda of lies that you can do nothing to help.
Here’s just one
suggestion I though of last night. Why
don’t some of you in the next few weeks try to get the name and address of
someone who has lost a family member in this tragedy.
Then write to them. Tell
them you don’t pretend to understand what they must be going through but you
want them to know that every day you are going to be thinking of them and
praying for them, and that if there is some practical way you can demonstrate
your love and concern they must let you know.
Perhaps at some time they would like to get away from the city for a time
of rest, quietness and reflection – and that if they could make the journey
here maybe you or your family or someone you know would be able to accommodate
them for a time and to love and serve them ‘in the name of the Lord’.
That’s only one suggestion.
So where does all that
leave us? Has what I’ve said
helped? What should our response be
today? Well, here it is again.
First we should repent. Those
dear people died through an eruption of sin – the seeds of which you and I sow
each day. Let us turn again to the Lord and repent of our sins.
Secondly, realise that
although life in this field of God’s is difficult at times we can be of real
help by the fruitfulness of our lives. The
sturdiness of our growth can support those who have been damaged.
Work this out in prayer. Let
those prayers not be a superficial offloading of our burden but a real offering
of our lives for the purposes of God.
And finally, put on daily
the full armour of God which you can read about in Ephesians 6 for, as Paul
reminds us, ‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil.”
Yes there are painful days
ahead of us as we become emotionally involved in the suffering which these next
days will bring – and ours is but a pale reflection of the pain borne by those
directly involved. But don’t
despair completely. The evil one
will have his day but his destiny is eternal destruction.
Those who love God on the other hand will never truly perish for
as Paul, again, writes, ‘nothing – not even death itself will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
In the name of God, we and all his children from the four corners of the earth, will stand together in prayer and love, we will face down the evil one and all his powers of darkness, and in God’s strength, through prayer and action, we will help those who weep tears of sorrow today to find again happiness and laughter in the future. For even in this murky field of life we CAN experience a foretaste of the glory of God. Amen.