Tuesday, the world changed. The world was different when you went to be Tuesday night than when you went to be Monday night. The world as we have known it has changed. And I don’t just mean that the skyline of New York City is different. I mean the world as we had known it.
The scripture gives a picture of it. The earth has given way and the mountains have fallen into the heart of the sea. It reminds me of an image of the existentialist philosopher Camus that has stuck with me since I shared it in a sermon years ago. He says we all have worlds that we build around us like a stage set that we play our lives out on. But sometimes something will happen when our stage sets fall flat. I, like a good portion of America, feel drawn to the television where I have been watching all week some of my stage sets fall flat. And I don’t think the world will ever be quite the same.
This is what I see having happened this week to the American people. The events of this week in New York and Washington, D.C. have elicited in us our greatest fears. Whatever our greatest fears are as a nation, as individuals, those fears that we have set up our stage sets to control as best we can, those stage sets have come down with the horrible events of this past week, and our fears have come right to the surface. I’ve seen this in the ministry that I’ve done this past week: Those people who live with their fears near the surface, they have come right to the top, and they are having a real hard time this week. All of us are having a hard time this week. Many of our securities have come crashing down. And the first and greatest response that I see driving much of what people are doing is fear – just simple, deep fear. Fear is the source of much anger, denial, bargaining, frustration, panic, guilt. And while a grieving process, and some of those feelings are appropriate, we cannot be driven by fear. Fear may be healthy to make us aware of some things we need to be aware of. We need to be aware that we are the edge of that cliff. But we need courage and wisdom, not fear, to carefully step back.
This morning, I want to look at a Christian response to the events of this past week, to our stage sets falling flat - to our security, the world we have come to know falling flat. I want to mention three characteristics of Christians during these times. And I believe these characteristics would make us a witness to the world during these times. They are all in the passage for this morning.
The first response we must have is courage. “Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, …we will not fear.” Boy, have you seen courage these past few days. Two stories stick with me the most. The first is a comment about firefighters being a different breed. When buildings are on fire, most people run out of them. Firefighters run into them. And I remember one woman calmly telling her story of walking down from the eightieth floor. But she broke down when her story came to the 15th floor where the firefighters passed them on their way up.
The other story is of the people on the hijacked plane who were on the phone with their families, coming to learn that other hijacked planes had been flown into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. I remember one woman telling the story of her 20 minute conversation with her husband on the plane. Over and over again, they shared their love. They spoke seriously and somberly, but with no panic. She knew what it was to confirm that knowledge of what the other planes had done to her husband. And he told her that some of them were realizing they needed to resist the hijackers. It’s clear they came to the realization that if they could not save themselves, they needed to save others. And they gave their lives. It is an amazing picture of courage.
Now, courage is not exclusive to Christians. But for Christians, it has a particular and singular source. Our courage comes from faith. That is the next response I want to speak of to the loss of our world. We must respond with faith.
To many I have spoken to this week, it is their faith that has been shaken. Fear coming to the surface has shaken their faith. “How could a good God do such a terrible thing?” And for all those who see judgment in what happened this past week, I believe we need to make a significant distinction in how we see what happened. What we saw was evil. It was not an act of God.
That being said, …that distinction being very clear, then we can move on to the miracle of the cross. For it is in the cross that God redeems evil for good. This evil act done by evil men has brought a horrific sacrifice. My prayer is that God will honor that sacrifice, and as Lincoln said at Gettysburg, that their blood will not have been spilled in vain. This is where I see God moving through this. We, in our country, myself very much included, have worked very hard to build a very false sense of security. Security is some of the stage-sets of our worldview that we have made for ourselves. Those stage sets just fell down. Our sense of security will never be the same. It never should have been. There is only one real security. That is trust in God through His Son Jesus Christ.
One of the interesting commentaries I have seen in my hours in front of the TV this week was from a woman whose name I did not catch who runs crusades, women’s crusades, around North America. They have seen real fruit and amazing things that happen in these crusades. But then she made a comment that struck me. She said that they’ve seen people really come to the Lord and transformed at their crusades, a real renewal brewing. But her heart is broken because she is not seeing the same thing in the church – in churches around North America. And she said this is the reason. The church is not desperate enough yet. Churches are not desperate enough to open themselves up to faith and renewal.
I pray that the effect of this past week – the falling of those stage sets – will not merely awaken faith in our country, but in our church. As much work as we want to do in airports and stadiums and buildings, we are not going to stop evil, and we are not going to stop terrorists. We have no security other than God. Our faith is that no matter what harm may come to us, no one can harm us. No matter what bad may happen, there is nothing God cannot redeem; no matter how people may kill us, they cannot take away the promise of the resurrection. And nothing can take away the love of Jesus in our hearts and lives. The response to fear is faith – faith in a living God who has a call and a plan for each of our lives, and loves us more than we can ever hope to know.
Exactly in the place where security fails, that is the place for faith to be renewed. The securities of this world have failed this week. Our condition is desperate. Faith is our response. This is our faith: “God is our refuge and strength; an ever-present help in trouble.
The third response that is a remarkable characteristic of the Christian, a combination of courage and faith, is patience. “Come and see the works of the Lord,” this scripture says. “He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God”.
I do understand that there is an urgency. But may this urgency not be fueled by the sightless passions of anger and rage. May it be the response to the ongoing threat – that we do what is right in response to what is wrong. And patience, a diligent patience that comes from faith, is needed to understand what is wrong and do the correct thing to make it right.
Sher Singh was born in India and moved to the United States two years ago. On Tuesday morning, this devout Sikh gentleman was on a train from Boston to Washington, D.C.. When the train stopped in Providence, RI, he was arrested as a suspect in the horrors of the day. Word spread quickly on the local news, and soon their was a crowd. “As police led Mr. Singh from the station the crowd whooped and jeered. "Kill him!" yelled one man. "You killed my brother," shrieked another. Mr. Singh, who had absolutely no connection with the terrorism, is a Sikh and wears a turban, a long beard, and a ceremonial dagger strapped to his shoulder” (from Breakpoint with Chuck Colson). We must have patience. It is that faithful, courageous patience that the world will see.
This has been a devastating week. I’ve had one person tell me they were unaffected, and I don’t believe them. All of us have been affected. And I don’t think things will ever quite ‘go back to normal’. And, you know what? They shouldn’t. Things never should be quite the same. It would be a shame if somehow our country and our lives seemed to go on unaffected. There is too much to grieve. I don’t want to be the same person after seeing those images of planes flying into buildings and such monumental buildings collapsing with so many people in them. I want to grieve. I want to have the faith to grieve. It hurts. It really does.
First, we grieve such a horrific loss. Then is a time to rebuild. And that talk is going on to a great extent already. We are rebuilding our flight schedules around the country. We are rebuilding our sports teams’ schedules. We’re even already starting to think about what is going to go on the spot of the former World Trade Center. And those who have lost family, company and loved ones are going to have to do the real hard work of rebuilding their lives. And each of us is going to have to put up some new stage sets.
But as each of us begins to put up new stage sets of our worldview, let us do so carefully. I beg you, don’t simply try to find the security you once had. It never was real. We absolutely need to stand behind our country as we move forward in alleviating the threat of terrorism. And each of us must participate in the great human and financial cost that will take. That is the call of America right now. But our country, even our great military might, cannot eradicate evil – evil that all of us remain vulnerable to. As you put up new stage-sets, may the presence of the living, loving God be your sole and final security. And may you live a life in this new world marked by courage, faith and patience that all can see. That is what each of us needs. It’s what our fallen world needs. And it is what God is calling us to.
