LESSONS FROM GROUND ZERO
It is a common observation for events that are sudden, shocking, and heavy events that we not only remember the event, we remember where we were when we heard about the event. Senior adults who were alive during the 1940’s not only remember the attack on Pearl Harbor, but they also remember where they were when they heard about the attack. People alive during early 1960’s not only remember the assassination of President Kennedy, but where they were when they heard about it. In 2001, we remember not only the news of airliners flying into New York’s twin towers, the pentagon, and the crash in Pennsylvania, but where we were as we followed that awful story.
Where were you? Maybe it was a spot on the highway listening to yourradio. Perhaps you were in your workplace, your kitchen, at a restaurant, or in school. It is the place you will never forget. While that place will not compare to the hallowed respect we give to Ground Zero, in a sense, that is our Ground Zero.
On September 11, 2002 I was asked to speak at local hospital chapel service. Part of my reflection was that Ground Zero happens there every day, just not to the same scale. Every day someone’s life is shattered. Everyday someone is told that his or her loved one did not survive. Every day people abruptly must face an uncertain future. Everyday tragedy touches someone’s life. Therefore, any place can be Ground Zero.
In Luke 13, there is a story we do not visit too often about a Ground Zero place.
1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Luke 13:1-3 NIV
This morning on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, we share some somber lessons about any place, every place, about all the “Ground Zeroes” where tragedy, disappointment, and loss can strike.
LIFE IS UNCERTAIN
Notice that in the news that came to Jesus, those whose blood was spilt were worshipping: whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Luke 13:1b NIV
Who would have expected that, in an act of worship, these Galileans would have been struck down. Even there they were not safe from sudden tragedy. Who would have thought ten years ago that people getting on an airliner or going to work find their day take such an unexpected turn.
Life is insecure and uncertain. Skyscrapers crash and so do stock markets. Rebels attack and children rebel. Bodies get broken, and so do relationships. Our health declines and marriages fail.
Ground Zero brings us to places where we see how little is in our control. We are confronted with acts of violence. We feel the trauma of floods and tornadoes. We grieve the pain of divorce. We watch helplessly when our children or grandchildren make rebellious decisions.
No one can truly say with certainty where he or she will be ten or twenty years from now. You do not know if you will be prosperous or poor, honored or despised, have many friends or only a few. The world faces uncertain days and it always has. So it is no surprise that so much of scripture was written in times of crisis, in the face of adversity because so much of life is lived in the face of danger.
EVIL IS REAL
Look at the earlier part of that verse: whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. (Luke 13:1b NIV) The cause of this bloodshed was a deliberate order given by Pilate.
The aftermath of a tornado or and earthquake is tragic, but not necessarily “evil.” The challenge of a health issue like cancer may be formidable, but not necessarily “evil.” But the tragedies brought about by human decisions bring their own unique pain. The pictures of airliners flying into buildings and skyscrapers collapsing, along with the knowledge that the cause was a deliberate act to kill and destroy convinces us that evil exists. Such sinister acts remind us of the reality of evil. Certainly Jeremiah was right when he said,
The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
Evil is real, but evil does not have the last word… it can be overcome. Paul gives the instruction: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21 NIV
GOD IS GOOD
The familiar psalm affirms that God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, (Psalm 46:1 NIV) Notice the scale and intensity of the trouble. Certainly these are “Ground Zero” tragedies. Yet God is present.
The first two points about life’s uncertainty and evil’s reality are accepted easily because we see and experience them. But this is a lesson we must embrace in faith.
In my theology class taught about three truths that are challenging to make together: Evil is real. God is great. God is good. It is hard to reconcile how more than two of these can be true. But here is something we must take on faith that God is good and that God cares.
There is a sacred mystery in suffering because God shows up. I do not understand why tragic and heartbreaking things to happen. But I cling to the promise that in the midst of evil, God is present and God is good.
A few years ago I read Phillip Yancey’s book Where Is God When Life Hurts? He re-released the book after September 11, 2001. In the new introduction, he offered this answer to the title question: Where is God When It Hurts?
A good clue is to find God's people when it hurts: standing in line for seven hours to donate blood, working through the night to find survivors, holding candlelight vigils, kneeling in prayer in the U.S. Capitol, finding some way not only to endure but to prevail. Phillip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts?
God’s goodness can be trusted, even when we do not understand the pain we are experiencing.
First Corinthians 13 is known as the Love Chapter and is read often in wedding ceremonies I conduct. But at the end of the chapter are words regarding observation.
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 1 Corinthians 13:12a NLT
One day we will see things clearly. To borrow the line of the old gospel song by Charles Tindley, We will understand it better by and by. While we sing those words to a light hearted tune, the lesson we express when we sing it is full of faith in a God who loves us amid our troubles.
HOPE IS AVAILABLE
He does not offer understanding. Instead He offers something greater: HOPE. Paul affirmed to a persecuted church in Rome the that If God is for us who can be against us? (Romans 8:31 NIV)
God is for YOU! Your parents may have forgotten you. Your siblings may be embarrassed by you. Your enemies may have the upper hand against you. The world may seem against you…BUT God IS FOR YOU! Therefore, we can have hope and hope makes all the difference.
Henri Nouwen told a story in his book, Turn My Mourning into Dancing:A solder was captured as a prisoner of war. His captors transported him by train far from his homeland. He felt isolated from country, family, and anything familiar. His loneliness grew as he continued not to hear anything from home. He could not even know if his family was even alive or how his country was faring. Thus, he lost a sense of anything to live for. But suddenly, unexpectedly, he got a letter. It was smudged, torn at the edges from months of travel. But it said, We are waiting for you to come home. All is fine here. Don’t worry.” Everything instantly changed. He did the same difficult labor on the same meager rations, but now he knew someone waited for his release and homecoming. Hope changed his life.
A cardiologist by the name of McNair Wilson wrote this in his autobiography: Hope is the medicine I use more than any other. Hope can cure nearly anything. Doctor’s Progress.
We experience life differently when hope takes up residence within us. Hope is willing to leave unanswered questions unanswered and unknown futures unknown.
Today, we see hope manifest in ways that we could only have seen through the eyes of hope ten years ago:
· According to the North American Mission Board In the past ten years, there are 80 new evangelical church starts in Manhattan.
· On a global scale, we see a move toward hope. Recently, Jim Haney, Director of Global Research for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention observed: Today the Arab Spring of this year is being fueled by a younger generation of Arabs that crave a change. More deeply, they crave hope. It is in this gap that the gospel fits.
As a Christian, I have hope, not just for this life, but for heaven and the life to come. We have this hope because based on the promise of Jesus.
Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. John 14:1-3 NIV
Heaven is a place of ultimate hope. No suffering, no grief, no pain. THIS is a place where we live in hopeful, confident, anticipation of that place.
WE HAVE A CHOICE
We cannot always choose what happens, but we can choose our responses. Let’s return to the story Jesus was told about the worshippers who were attacked. In response he said you have a choice of what you take away from such a tragedy.
Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Luke 13:2-3 NIV
You can choose to consider the victims as sinners getting what they deserve, or you can choose to use the tragedy to move you toward repentance. Circle the word “repent.” At its core, the word for repentance means to change or to turn to God.
Jesus took this story and turned it into a call for repentance. You have a choice. Choose to change your relationship with God, to deepen your trust in Him in the midst of an uncertain and sometimes frightening world.
In his sermon at the National Cathedral a few days after September 11, 2001, Billy Graham told his audience about choice:
But now we have a choice: whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a nation -- or, whether we choose to become stronger through all of this struggle -- to rebuild on a solid foundation. And I believe that we are in the process of starting to rebuild on that foundation. That foundation is our trust in God. Billy Graham
And God has told us in His Word, time after time, that we are to repent of our sins and we're to turn to Him and He will bless us in a new way.
In 1861 Horatio Spafford married Anna Lawson and they settled north of Chicago. Spafford's law firm was successful, and he subsequently became an elder in Fullerton Avenue Presbyterian Church. He became involved with evangelists, and became close friends with Dwight L. Moody.
By 1871 they had one son and four daughters. But in that year, their son died, and while they were still grieving that loss, the Great Chicago fire wiped out Stafford's business and most of his wealth. Despite his own losses, he set about helping others who had suffered from the fire, putting his faith into practice.
Two years later, the family set out for a holiday in England. They went to New York to catch their ship, but a last-minute hitch with a business deal saw Stafford return to Chicago, intending to follow later to England to rejoin his family. Early in the morning of November 22, 1873 their ship collided with another ship, and sank in 12 minutes. Over 200 of the 300 passengers and crew were killed, including all four of Spafford’s four daughters. His wife survived, and upon being taken to England, cabled her husband, starting with "Saved alone".
Spafford caught the next ship to Europe, and according to his fifth daughter (born later), the captain of his ship told him when they were passing the site the S.S. Ville du Havre went down, and it was there at his own personal Ground Zero, that Horatio Spafford wrote the words to what has become one of our most beloved hymns.
When peace like a river attendeth my ways. When sorrows like sea billows roll.
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.
