Note: This sermon was introduced with a video clip from the North American Missions Board of the Southern Baptists called "Where Were You?"
Where were you? I can still remember exactly where I was when I first heard the news on the radio about the World Trade Center. I was taking my oldest son to school, and when we heard about the plane crashing into the first tower, we both started praying. I remember the shock of seeing the towers collapse, and then seeing the devastation at the Pentagon. I remember wondering if United flight 93 was highjacked as well, and then seeing the wreckage of the crash site in Pennsylvania. In many ways, we’re still trying to make sense of the events of last September 11.
We try to relate what happened to our previous experiences. For those alive when President Kennedy was assassinated, perhaps you relate the events of 9/11 to how you felt at the moment you heard about the president’s assassination. Or perhaps you relate it to how you felt when you heard about the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Or if you’re a bit older, perhaps to how you felt when you heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yet the events of September 11 stand in a category all by themselves.
So we gather this day to remember. To remember the heroes who put themselves in harm’s way to rescue others. To remember the innocent victims whose lives were cut short. To remember the people on United flight 93, who fought back and saved the lives of many. And we gather to remember in the context of a worship service. You see, one of the things the terrorists hate is our nation’s freedom of religion.
So I can’t think of a better way to express our resolve and resiliency as a nation than to gather to worship this day, to express our freedom of religion.
As we remember, I want to ask one question: What do Christians know that helps them face horrible suffering with courage.
Now I don’t mean to suggest that Christians are the only people who have shown courage in the wake of September 11. Certainly people of all faiths and all backgrounds have demonstrated heroism and resolve.
That’s part of what makes our nation great. No one has a corner on the market of courage. Yet there’s something in the courage of Christians that’s unique and profound.
I think especially about Lisa Beamer, the young widow of Todd Beamer. Lisa is the mother of two young children, and when September 11 occurred she was pregnant with their third child. In many ways, Lisa Beamer became an icon of American strength and resolve. When Stone Phillips of Dateline NBC interviewed her, he called Lisa Beamer the most courageous and remarkable person he’d ever interviewed. Larry King from CNN had similar comments about Lisa. When Larry King asked Lisa about her strength, she said, “Sometimes people look at me and wonder, ‘Is she in shock? Or is she unrealistic about what the situation is?’…Certainly the faith I have…helps me to understand the bigger picture here…We have more to look forward to than just what we see on this earth” (Let’s Roll 242). And again and again she points to her faith in Jesus Christ as the source of her courage and resiliency.
Yet Lisa isn’t alone in the remarkable courage she’s shown. She says, “Never before in my life had the difference between those who put their hope in God and those who put their hope in this world been so obvious to me. Following September 11, I saw firsthand many dear people who were trying their best to cope with loss, hurt, fear, and a host of other feelings. Some had lost a husband, father, daughter, mother or friend…They wanted to look on the bright side and do the things the clichés recommend, but they didn’t have the strength…My family and I mourned the loss of Todd deeply that day…and we still do. But because we hope in the Lord, we know beyond a doubt that one day we will see Todd again” (Let’s Roll 233)
What does she know? That’s what I want to talk about today. In Romans 8:28 we find out exactly what Lisa Beamer and other Christians know that enables them to face such horrible circumstances with courage and class.
Look at the text with me. The Bible says here that he and other followers of Jesus Christ know something that other people don’t. This isn’t the kind of knowledge you can get from reading a book or taking a college class. Sometimes our staff kids me, because whenever I start up something new I read a book about it. When I started playing golf, I bought a book to help me learn to play. So whenever I hit a good shot—which is rare—one of our staff asks me, “Hey Tim. Did you learn that out of the book?” When I bought my motorcycle, I bought a book on proficient motorcycle riding. They kid me because they know that in things like playing golf or riding a motorcycle that book knowledge does you very little good. What you need is the kind of knowledge that comes from real life experience, a different kind of knowledge that what you read in a book. That’s the kind of knowledge the Bible is speaking about here, the kind of knowledge that goes beyond head knowledge. The kind of knowledge Lisa Beamer seems to have, as well as all the other followers of Jesus Christ who’ve shown remarkable courage the last year.
Let me give you the first thing people like Lisa Beamer know: They know God is working in every situation.
The text says “in all things.” Not “in most things” or “in pleasant things” or “in religious things.” God is working in all things, the pleasant and the tragic, the exciting and the horrific, the ordinary and the extraordinary. Paul is not saying that God causes all things. Clearly awful and horrible things like September 11 happen in our world, and God is not the author of those actions. The Bible teaches that God has given the human race a significant dose of freedom. Sometimes people use that freedom in horrible and evil ways, like the terrorists did.
No, the Bible’s not saying God causes all things.
It’s saying that in the midst of all things—including horrible things people do—God is at work.
When Lisa Beamer found out that her husband Todd had indeed died on United Flight 93, she had to tell her sons. As she did, she realized that the death of her own father when she was 18 years old had uniquely prepared her to break the news to her kids. When she was faced with that horrible task, she thought of this verse, and suddenly she saw how God had been working in her life when her father died years earlier of an aneurysm.
You see, we often don’t see how God is working in a horrible situation. God’s fingerprints are hidden and secret at times, and we look at a situation and we wonder how God could ever be at work in something so horrible. It’s only in retrospect that we can see how God was working the midst of painful, tragic experiences.
I think of a guy from the Bible named Joseph
Joseph’s older brothers hated him so much that they sold him into slavery in Egypt. But Joseph didn’t grow bitter and hateful; instead he looked for how God was working in his circumstances. Eventually he became a high level official in the Egyptian government.
When a famine hit the entire ancient world, it was Joseph’s foresight and management that enabled Egypt to have enough food to sustain their nation. Since the famine was widespread, Joseph’s brothers eventually came to Egypt to buy food, and though Joseph recognized them, they didn’t recognize him.
Eventually he revealed himself to his brothers, and his entire family came to live with Joseph in Egypt. When Joseph’s brothers admitted their fear of what Joseph might do to them to get revenge, Joseph said, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good in order to save people from starvation” (Gen 50:20).
Joseph from the Old Testament and Lisa Beamer had in common their knowledge that God was working in every situation, no matter how painful or difficult.
They also know that God’s purpose is good.
Lisa Beamer and others are utterly convinced of the goodness of God and God’s purposes, and because of that they can trust God. Now this text doesn’t say that God calls bad things good. Clearly some of the things that happen to us are bad things, like what we saw on September 11. What this text is telling us is that in the midst of both good and bad circumstances, God is working for our good.
Think of what you go through to bake a cake from scratch. Some of the ingredients you put into a cake would be pretty gross to eat all by themselves. After all, sugar and butter taste okay on their own, but who likes to eat flower, raw egges or baking soda? Some ingredients are good and some are bad, at least from a taste perspective. Yet when they’re mixed together in a certain way and cooked at a certain temperature for a certain period of time, together those good and bad ingredients make something that tastes great. You need both the good and the bad tasting ingredients to get the cake.
God’s good purpose is the same way in that he works both good and bad circumstances together to fulfill his good purpose.
Of course, the goodness of God is an old philosophical dilemma. If you took high school or college philosophy, you’ve probably heard this dilemma.
It usually goes like this: If God is good as the Bible claims, he must want to eliminate evil and suffering in our world. If God is all powerful as the Bible claims, he must be powerful enough to eliminate evil and suffering. Yet evil and suffering are in our world. Therefore—so the argument goes—God must not be good or he must not be all powerful. There’s a whole movement of theology called Process Theology that claims God is good but simply not powerful enough yet to conquer evil. Others have concluded that if God does exist, he’s not a good God but a tyrant to allow such horrible things to happen. In fact, for as many people who sought God in the wake of September 11, there were probably just as many people who grew embittered and angry with God.
Two people can go through the same experience, with one person seeking God and the other running away from God. The heart of those two reactions is the question of whether or not the person can trust God’s goodness. If God is good, then he can be trusted in the midst of horrible evil. But if God’s character is in question, then he can’t be trusted.
I’m not going to solve this classical philosophical problem for you today, and people like Lisa Beamer haven’t solved it either. But instead they’ve become persuaded of God’s goodness, not through philosophical reasoning but through personal experience. Christians believe in the goodness of God because they know God personally, they’ve walked with God. Thus even though they can’t completely solve the philosophical dilemma, they’re convinced that there is a solution.
You see, it’s one thing to talk about a person’s goodness in theory. Not knowing a person, yet studying the person’s actions and words. That’s kind of like writing a biography of a historical figure you’ve never met. You deal with other things written about that person, with the legacy that person leaves. But it’s quite another thing to talk about a person’s goodness when you know that person.
You don’t have to ask other people or read what others have written, because you know the person. You know their goodness because you have a relationship. That’s why Christians are utterly convinced of the goodness of God’s purposes.
One more thing Christians like Lisa Beamer knows: They know God has called them into a relationship.
This promise is for those who love God and who have been called by God. This describes people who have heard God’s invitation to a relationship and have responded. You can’t love someone you don’t know, so loving God starts with hearing his call and responding to it. Lisa Beamer’s new book Let’s Roll is really an extended testimony about how she and her husband Todd came to faith in Christ and how her faith in Christ has sustained here.
I think also about Genelle Guzman, the very last survivor to be rescued from ground zero (Time 9/9/02, pp. 32-39). Genelle worked for the Port Authority on the 64th floor of the north tower. Prior to September 11 she had been interested in the Christian faith, occasionally attending church at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. But she was more interested in partying and nightclub hopping than in responding to God’s calling. But when she was the last survivor pulled from ground zero, that got her attention and she committed her life to Jesus Christ. She told Time magazine that her life has completely changed since she responded to God’s calling to a relationship.
I guess that’s really the difference between those who have this knowledge and those who don’t.
Conclusion
Do you have this knowledge? I don’t mean do you know that people like Lisa Beamer have this knowledge or have you read about this knowledge. I mean do you have this knowledge personally?
Tuesday’s USA Today had an article on the front page about those who escaped the World Trade Center on September 11 (USA Today 9/3/02 1A). After interviewing over 300 survivors and family members of victims, USA Today concluded that in the South tower those who didn’t delay but ran for safety immediately are the one’s who survived. Those who delayed are the ones who perished. It occurred to me that the spiritual life is much the same, that those who delay and put off a commitment to Jesus Christ often wait until it’s too late. USA Today also noted that people lived or died in the towers by groups, influenced to stay or go by the people around them. The same is true in our spirituality, that people are often influenced to seek Christ or to reject Christ by those around them.
If there’s ever a time for courage and to take a stand, it’s in responding to God’s calling. Those who didn’t delay and who took a stand are those who survived the world trade center, and those who don’t delay and who take a stand spiritually are those who respond to God’s calling.
Now let me share a video with you about three people who didn’t delay but who in the wake of September 11 did come to faith in Christ.
Note: This sermon is followed by a six minute video by the North American Missions Board of the Southern Baptists called "What Man Meant for Evil." This is followed by an invitation to respond to Christ.
