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Presented in a Union University Chapel Service on September 14, 2001. This morning I want to share some reflections with you. Unlike what took place in here yesterday I am not going to focus on the political, historical, or cultural issues growing out of this week’s tragic events. Though I would say that if you missed that forum you missed what I believe was a high water mark of faculty leadership at Union University. It is not an exhortation to patriotism, though that hopefully goes without saying, especially today on the anniversary of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. This morning is very intentionally theological. It is reflective and didactic and not very sermonic. If you are expecting me this morning to tell you how these events fit into God’s plan for the end times, you’ll be disappointed. The Lord Jesus Himself said that we need to be watchful of the times and the seasons, and he also said there will be wars and rumors of wars. I am certain that today is one day closer to the day when His return will take place, and we need to live in expectation that it could happen imminently, but we need to be extremely careful before suggesting that these are apocalyptic signs of the end times. Likewise some are ready to declare that these events are signs of God’s judgment on America. I confess that I do not have the discernment or ability to make a statement like that with any assurance. I do think these events have awakened an awareness of spiritual things in this country and around the world that is good. Even in very secular places like Denmark this seems to be the case. I received an e-mail from a friend from Denmark.
I also received an e-mail from a student in Germany. It is the questions in that e-mail plus notes I have received from several of you raising theological questions about the events of the week that have prompted my reflections and direction this morning. The student writes:
Why? That might be your question this morning. You may have seen the episode in the Andy Griffith reruns where Barney is showing the Mayberry kids—Opie and his friends—around the sheriff’s office. On the bulletin board are the “Most Wanted” pictures. One of the boys, intrigued by the pictures, asked Barney if these were real photographs of the wanted people. Yes!, and they are vicious criminals, proclaims Barney. The boy responds, “Well, why didn’t they just keep them when they took these pictures?” Why?, an often asked question. Do you ever wonder why? You tell people there are 400 billion stars in the sky and they believe you. Tell those same people a bench has wet paint and they have to touch it. Why is that? Why are there five syllables in the word monosyllabic? When two cars almost collide, why is it called a near miss rather than a near hit? Why do you put suits in garment bags and garments in suitcases? Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of a bottle? Why—is the question that comes to our lips when life stopping, world changing events take place. These kind of events are rare, generally few and far between. In my lifetime I can remember a handful of life-stopping days. I remember November 22, 1963, the day that John F. Kennedy died. I remember Memphis, April 17, 1968, the day that Martin Luther King died. Almost all of us here today remember the day the Challenger astronauts died. There are perhaps others you would add to the list. We all remember Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999. And none of us will ever forget September 11, 2001—one of the darkest days in American history. Most of us responded to Tuesday’s events with shock, horror, disbelief—in the words of Led Zepplin—a bit dazed and confused. Many of us began to ask the questions, “Why?’—probably the most asked and least-answered question in the English language. Sometimes it is asked out of curiosity. Sometimes it is asked out of pain and grief. That haunting question, “Why?,” growing out of our emotions, has been the question for many this week. It is indeed both the most asked and least answered. That bothers us because we have the expectation that every question should be answered. That is certainly the expectation of the Union faculty when they distribute major exams throughout the semester. There are negative consequences for failing to answer such questions or for failing to answer them correctly. To not have an answer means you don’t know something you should know, so you had better find out what the answer is. Sometimes along life’s journey we run into events that don’t have an obvious answer, or least not one that comes easily. We’re generally uncomfortable with the unsatisfying, “I don’t know.” And we think if we don’t have the answers, certainly someone should. So, we ask the professor. That is what they are here for, right? Sometimes there are clear answers—honest, straightforward answers. Sometimes there are guesses. And sometimes the best response is, “I don’t know.” And sometimes all we can say is I don’t know and I’m not sure who does, so let’s walk through this together. The events of this week have led some of you to the imponderables of God: “If there is a God of love, why did this tragedy happen?” “If God is all-powerful why didn’t he stop this evil act?” But as Christ followers we don’t claim that we have full answers to every question. Many of our questions seem to revolve around the nature and character of God. They go something like this: If there is a God and if he’s involved in this world, why is this world the way it is? Or maybe the question for this week is, “Is God in control?” Or perhaps, “Is anyone in control?” Some may answer that question saying, “I’m in charge—at least of my own life." Day to day we often act like we are in charge of our own lives. But when we are slapped in the face by the capricious evil and senseless tragedy of this past Tuesday, not many would say “I’m in charge.” Many people who have not prayed in years bowed their knees to Almighty God on Tuesday, acknowledging that they are not in charge. A second response to the question, “Is anyone in charge?” might be that no one is in charge. We’re simply victims of fate. But this conclusion doesn’t account for the good we experience every day and leads to a tragic view of fatalism. I believe the overall evidence from life taken as a whole and from Scripture points us to a third option. This view would conclude that someone is in charge and that someone is the creator God. But then we are forced to ask what kind of God is this? If you believe God is love but not powerful, you assume God feels sorry for the tragedy of this past Tuesday but was unable to do anything about it. If you believe God is powerful but not love, you assume He had the full ability to stop what took place on Tuesday but doesn’t care. The Bible, however, rejects those options. The Bible says God is both powerful and loving, majestic and merciful, great and good. But when senseless evil invades our lives we struggle with these truths. How can we hold to the goodness of God on the one hand and the sovereign power of God on the other in a world filled with horrific terrorism and blatant evil. The shattering events of Tuesday morning were the very embodiment of the senseless violence that is an appalling offense against God and His creatures. Some of you have asked me if I thought God knew that Tuesday’s events would happen even before they happened. The biblical answer is yes! God knows all things, but just because God knows all things does not mean that He causes all things. This is an important distinction to make. God knows how many hairs I’ve lost in my thinning hair this past year, but that does not mean that He plucked them out. A hunter walks through the woods. A deer is shot. God knew it, but did God do it? Did He cause that? Ultimately we answer this question by confessing that God has a plan and a purpose and puts all things into perspective (Eccl. 9:11). Evil exists because Satan, a completely evil creature exists and he continually opposes and attempts to thwart the plan of God. God does allow sin and evil to exist which come about by the free, yet wrong, choices of His creatures. Somehow within God’s plan His love, mercy, and grace are more fully revealed in times like these. Evil does exist and I believe was displayed on Tuesday, but evil has not always existed, and the good news today is that it will be removed from the new creation when God’s plan of the ages is brought to completion. But until that time we live in tension which will be dotted by dark days and riveted by suffering. We are not the first generation or nation to have a dark hour of the soul or raise these significant questions. The prophet Jeremiah wrestled with these kinds of issues during one of the darkest days in Israel’s history. The little book of Lamentations, which is attributed to Jeremiah, was probably written between the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC and the beginning of the rebuilding of the city 70 years later. This rather obscure book contains five poems, corresponding to the chapter divisions. Poems 1, 2, 4, 5 contain 22 verses each and generally form acrostics, in which the form reflects the successive letters of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph to Tau. In chapter 3, the zenith of the book, the 66 verses are arranged in blocks of three. Verses 1-3 each begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, verses 4-6 with the second letter, and so on. Jeremiah describes not only the destruction of the city but human affliction, distress, physical impairments, the obstruction of freedom, the confinement of movement, the problem of prayerlessness, and deep grief. As he looked around him, he observed that for many of his countryman lasting hope in God had perished. Gone were inner peace, happiness, confidence, and security. It was a time of major disappointment. The great city of Jerusalem, its walls, and its temple were being destroyed by the Babylonians. As the prophet looked around he could see destruction all about. Similarly, this week has been a time of major disappointment for us. How then do we respond to this tragedy around us? The answer comes by having the right perspective. That is what happened to Jeremiah beginning in vv. 21 of chapter 3-- a major shift from earlier in the book. Instead of resorting to fatalism or falling into despair or seeking ways to find vengeance he began to refocus on God’s faithful and steadfast love. John Calvin observed that when we fix our eyes on present things we must necessarily vacillate, as there is nothing permanent in the world, and when adversities bring a cloud over our eyes, then faith in a manner vanishes and we are troubled. Now the remedy is to raise our eyes to God, for however confounded things may be in the world, yet He remains always the same. His truth may be hidden from us, yet it remains in Him. In short, were the world to change and perish a hundred times, nothing could ever affect the faithfulness of God. There is, then, no doubt that the prophet wishes to take courage and to raise Himself up to a firm hope, when He exclaimed, “GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS.” Such a response is not mental gymnastics, not mind over matter, not an attempt to avoid our grief or our feelings, but a solid exclamation of hope and confidence in God’s loving kindness and great faithfulness. That is the response we need in this hour, not fear but trust, not despair but hope. It is only when we alter our perspective that we are able to see and proclaim God’s faithfulness. We often point to God’s faithfulness in good times, but Jeremiah did so with his world in disarray around him. As the great walls of Jerusalem lay in ruins Jeremiah cried out “Great is Thy Faithfulness”—and somehow today we must do the same. In the midst of confusion and with our limited perspective we might balk at the concept of God’s steadfast and faithful love. Like the story of Joseph, however, with a different and somewhat distant perspective, we can begin to say “As for you, you meant it for evil but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). When spoken in the wrong place at the wrong time or in the wrong way, those words can sound cruel. But today I want to invite all of us to focus on God who can and does bring good out of evil. We must this morning confess our limited understanding of how God does this and say that the problem of evil remains a mystery. We can, with scriptural affirmation, be assured that God can and does use sin, evil, and suffering for His eternal good. The ultimate evidence for this is the crucifixion of Christ, which pictures Christ in His suffering state because of the sinful, evil actions of humanity. Yet through the triumph of the Resurrection, that greatest act of evil (the crucifixion of the God-man Jesus Christ) become the greatest good, the provision of forgiveness of sin and the salvation of humankind. The cross then became the greatest act of God's love and the resurrection the greatest display of His power. As you continue to monitor the unfolding events in coming days and wrestle with the issues surrounding these events, I invite you to join Jeremiah and respond from the perspective of the God who is all loving, all powerful, and always faithful. I urge you to pray. Prayer is a choice to believe God is listening. Prayer changes our thinking, our feeling, our perspective. Prayer is an expression of humble dependence on God and an act of faith. President Bush has asked us as a nation today to come together and pray. Todd will lead us in doing so in just a few moments. We need to pray for the families of the victims, pray for our leaders, pray for our military, pray for the volunteers, and yes, even pray for our enemies. The sad fact is that most modern men and women are so blinded by technology and our own sense of power/control that we tend to think of prayer as weak and useless. The reality, however, as we have seen this week, is that everybody is at the mercy of social, political, and economic forces. The discovery that human omnipotence is indeed an illusion is the necessary precondition for us to rediscover the power, love, and faithfulness of God, and the place of prayer in our lives. While most all of us here this morning believe this and want it to be true in our lives, the reality is that in a dark hour like the one of this week, we, like Jeremiah, often find that these things still seem confusing, that answers to the why question are hard to find, and that the voice of God seems distant. This experience is not only ours, but was also Jeremiah’s, and beyond that to some degree it was also true in the earthly life of our Lord. At times in His earthly life, as in ours, the voice of God was amazingly clear. At His baptism the voice of God was crystal clear: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” At His transfiguration on a mountain with Peter, James, and John, the voice of God was obviously present. “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” But on another day, on another hill outside the city of Jerusalem, when it was midnight at midday, for six hours the voice of God seemed silent. As he hung on that cross Jesus asked “why?,” crying out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet, in the midst of this silence, God was still at work—in fact, He was accomplishing your redemption and mine. It may well be today that in these dark times God is doing more than at any other time in your life and mine, on this campus, in our country, and in our world. Some of you have asked a lot of questions this week. When the “Why” questions lack answers, and the darkness of the hour makes God seem distant—what should we do?—assume He is not there?—assume He is there but that he doesn’t love us? Assume He is there but can’t help us? No—let us recognize that it is because of His great mercies that we are not consumed—let us celebrate the truth that His compassions never fail, they are new even this morning as His great faithfulness is renewed in our life. Since the Lord is our portion—Let us Hope in Him! Let us today believe what we sing, “When darkness seems to Hide His Face I’ll rest on His unchanging grace.” Then we can join our hearts and hands and with a renewed perspective we can sing in our hearts:
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