Healing of the Land
9/11 and the End of
Innocence
If my people, who are called
by my name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways, then will I hear from heaven and will
forgive their sin and will heal their
land, 2 Chronicles 7:14.
September 11,
2001, was a watershed for American
Evangelicals. Not only was the world’s
monument to Free Enterprise destroyed within
minutes, but the perpetrators were from the
Mid-East.
I have a
vision of word processors opening within
minutes of the catastrophe, with millions of
words spilling out to proclaim God’s
judgment on America and new signs of His
coming.
We were all
stunned. Pastors are expected, at times like
those, to have something profound or
soothing to say – to help make sense out of
what is happening to our communities or to
our nation.
Instead, we
are told today that all this is the result
of the incursion of abortionists and
homosexuals into American life. So the
evangelical community has merged with the
Republican Party not only to stamp out
“evil” but to stamp out terrorism with the
sword.
Billy Graham,
at the National Cathedral in Washington on
Friday, September 14, struggled with why God
would allow this to happen. He was quick to
say that he had no answers except that God
is sovereign.
Jerry Falwell
has come under attack because he proclaimed
9/11 to be the result of the wrath of God
being poured out on America for its
rebellion against the Rule of God.
But to ask the
“Why?” question in the first place is to
assume that somehow the people of God, and
especially America, are entitled to peace
and harmony so long as it appears to be a
moral nation. To portray this tragedy as a
conflict of good against evil is to assume
that America is on the side of God.
The great
irony, of course, is that those who
perpetrated the attack were also convinced
that they were on the side of God, which, if
that is the sole critereon, makes it very
difficult to qualify the difference between
the Islamic fundamentalists and American
culture in other than on some obscure
theological grounds.
Both Billy
Graham and Jerry Falwell are of an
evangelical tradition that insists that the
saints of God will be taken up into the
heavens, after which God will wage war
against the evil forces of this world. To
them, perhaps, and to most Evangelicals,
9/11 was a harbinger of things to come.
After much
studying of the Scriptures, I do not believe
that the Kingdom of God is something that
will be brought to earth and established
here. That is why it is easier for me to
look for humility and repentance, rather
than international events, as the
manifestation of the sovereign will of God.
I have been
preaching for years on the presence of the
Kingdom of God in the here and now and the
anticipation of its future fulfillment. And
if ever there were a time for putting that
doctrine into practice, it was after 9/11.
A Holy War
We have every
right to defend ourselves as a nation, but I
believe that America is riding for a fall by
emphasizing military might over repentance.
The whole thing smacks of an
existentialistic, “Do something; anything!”
In the
aftermath of 9/11, we witnessed the
candlelight services, the church services
and the prayer vigils. We heard the people
of America call upon the name of the Lord,
but have we heard anything about God’s
people, the church, humbling ourselves,
seeking God’s face and turning from our
wicked ways?
Altogether too
much has been said about turning others from
their wicked ways so that Christians may
feel less fearful of the unknown and thereby
more secure.
Have we heard
anything about seeking God’s help in healing
our land? No! We have set our course on
helping God stamp out evil. And my theology
tells me that God, if He wishes to humble
America, has a long way to go and that we
are headed for rocky times with this kind of
self-righteous attitude.
You will
remember the incident of Joshua scoping out
the walls around Jericho before the
Israelites crossed the Jordan into the
Promised Land.
He runs into a
man with a sword. He asks him, “Whose side
are you on?” And the man answers, “Neither.
I am the captain of the army of the Lord.”
God is on neither side, a reminder of those
famous words from Maine’s Sen. George
Mitchell to Oliver North, “God doesn’t take
sides in American politics.”
God is turning
the question back on Joshua by in essence
asking him, “Whose side are you
on?” Joshua, you will remember, was told to
take off his shoes because he was on holy
ground, and he fell down and worshipped.
America has
taken part in a holy war – a Jihad, as the
Moslems say. I do not know of any time in
history when a holy war has been won by any
side. But I have good news.
A holy war
against the worst kind of evil has already
been won for you and me at Calvary. That is
why Isaiah’s hopeful prophecy of the Highway
of the Redeemed is so relevant to us today.
The victory
for the Redeemed of the Lord has been
decisive and complete. The Lord of the ages
– the Alpha and Omega – the Beginning and
the End – has invited a peculiar people into
the safety of His Kingdom, where swords have
been beaten into plowshares and spears into
pruning hooks.
It is a
Kingdom where the lion has already lain down
with the lamb and where the bear has already
been gentled. It is a Kingdom where the
beasts of the wild are already being led by
a child. We are safe already!
We grieve;
yes! But we do not despair. And while others
are asking why God would allow such a thing,
we praise Him with confidence for His mercy
and long suffering and gentleness toward His
people.
My friends,
this conflict in the Mid-East is not about
the triumph of good over evil or even about
bringing democracy to the region. This is
about shades of evil justifying itself.
The disaster
of 9/11 was not about God’s wrath being
poured out on America. The thing that is
striking about the wrath of God is its
forbearance. God’s rod of mercy is stretched
out all day long to a rebellious and
gainsaying people, but His sword of justice
is in its scabbard.
This is not
about confirming Jerry Falwell’s America. We
are told in the Scriptures that judgment
begins, not in the political halls or the
halls of justice, but in the “House of God.”
The moment
that the pastors of this nation, including
myself and Jerry Falwell, will call upon the
name of God, humble ourselves and pray and
seek His face and turn from our wicked,
self-righteous ways, God will heal our land.
Who Can Know
the Mind of God?
If this
bombing was a judgment on America, then it
was first a judgment on the Church of Jesus
Christ. It will take more than religious
words and pseudo church services and
political action to heal our land. It will
take more than our feeble and foolish
attempts to determine what God is doing.
“Who can know the mind of God?” Only
American Evangelicals?
The God that
we worship is our refuge and strength.
“Therefore,” the Psalmist cries out in
Chapter 46, “we will not fear, though the
earth give way, and the mountains fall into
the heart of the sea…There is a river whose
streams make glad the city of God, the holy
place where the Most High dwells. God is
within her; she will not fall…Nations are in
uproar; kingdoms fall…Be still and know that
I am God; I will be exalted among the
nations; I will be exalted in the earth!”
“There
is a river whose streams make glad the city
of God!” Are we as believers safely within
the city of God? Can we face struggles and
suffering and uncertainty with sadness and
yet, glad hearts? Are we praising God that
He has lifted us up out of the quicksand of
the nations and placed us on the Rock,
Christ Jesus?
Do we have
confidence in our status as sojourners on
the Highway of the Redeemed, God’s eternal
Kingdom?
Those are the
questions we ought to be asking ourselves
during this time of preoccupation with
military and political revenge. If the
answer, however weakly, is “yes,” then we
are ready for whatever happens and can lift
our hearts and voices to God, praising Him
for making wars cease, breaking the bow and
shattering the spear. And we can be still
and know that he is God and will be exalted
among the nations.
But instead of
showing the way, the Church of Jesus Christ
in America has fumbled the ball and turned
away from God’s justice to its own
retributive brand of justice.
Shortly after
9/11, I received a call from a Catholic
friend, 80 years old, who was, of all
things, praising God and acknowledging his
own unworthiness. He asked me to read the
18th chapter of Revelation. The book of
Revelation is, I believe, a picture of the
ongoing judgment of God against the nations
and against the Church of Jesus Christ.
Babylon is
symbolic of economic power and
self-satisfaction. And the World Trade
Center, in the view of my friend, was
symbolic of the economic power of the world.
“Come out of her, my people, so that you
will not share in her sins, so that you will
not receive any of her plagues,” Rev. 18:4.
“Woe! Woe! O great city, O Babylon, city of
power! In one hour your doom has come!” v.
10.
My friend
makes an interesting point, doesn’t he? This
picture of God’s judgment against the
principalities and powers of this earth
lines up pretty well with what happened in
NY on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001.
But 3 chapters later, the writer of
Revelation has this to say:
"Then I saw a
new heaven and a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away,
and there was no longer any sea. I saw the
Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down
out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband. And I
heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Now the dwelling place of God is with men,
and he will live with them. They will be his
people, and God himself will be with them
and be their God. He will wipe every tear
from their eyes. There will be no more death
or mourning or crying or pain, for the old
order of things has passed away,” Rev.
21:1-4.
The Kingdom of
God has no more sea – there is no racial,
cultural or geographic divider between
nations. The new Jerusalem, prepared as a
bride, beautifully dressed for her husband,
beckons all who are weary and dependent on
the might and power of America for their
security.
Political
correctness and freedom to rebel against God
may well seem to be drowning out the voice
of the Holy Spirit in our national
conscience. But that is the way of the
nations.
God, Himself,
dwells with us in the person of Jesus Christ
– King of kings and Lord of lords. That is
where the people of God are, and that is
where we need to be if we are to be able to
cope with the trouble that is engulfing this
nation.
For those who
are traveling on the Highway of the
Redeemed, there is no more death, or
mourning or crying or pain. This does not
mean that we do not experience death,
mourning, crying or pain. What it means is
that these things do not exist in the
Kingdom to which God has called us. We have
a hope, along with the Apostle Paul, that
whatever troubles we face today are simply
momentary troubles.
While we may
hope for the best for America, the Kingdom
of God goes forward regardless of what
happens to America.
I would remind
you that there are Christians in prisons
right now in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and in
other dark places in the world. It is likely
that many of these folks will be martyred as
our wars wage on.
But we have a
kinship with these folks. They are with us,
on the Highway of the Redeemed. They are
suffering, but God has and will wipe every
tear from their eyes, for the old order of
things has passed away for them and for us.
Struggle for
the Dominion of God
This struggle,
then, is a struggle for God’s dominion over
His Church. What happened in NY and what
happens in the future is an opportunity for
the Church of Jesus Christ to repent,
regardless of how it all turns out. As the
Gaither song goes, “Kings and kingdoms will
all pass away, but there’s something about
that Name.”
The homicidal
jet crashes of September 11, 2001, changed
forever the landscape of American life. For
our purposes, the church in America was at
long last confronted with its innocence. And
rather than profit from this lesson in
Redemptive History, the evangelical wing of
the church has embarked on a New Crusade for
reform of both America and the Holy Land.
Our actions
cannot be viewed in isolation. God’s
Redemptive History is one thing; the Sermon
on the Mount is quite another. Through a
network of connections that unite us as
families and friends and acquaintances
across this country, every one of us has
been affected by the devastation of that day
and the devastation that continues through
our reactive foreign policy.
As Martin
Luther King, Jr. once said so well, “We are
caught in an inescapable network of
mutuality, tied in a single garment of
destiny. Whatever affects one directly,
affects all indirectly.”
“God
is our refuge and strength,” Psalm 46
reminds us, “a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear, though the
earth should change, though the mountains
shake in the heart of the sea…(though the
jets should crash…though buildings should
crumble…though countless lives, including
those of Believers, should be lost.)”
The Psalm goes
on to promise that God is in the midst of
the city, and that God will help it when the
morning dawns. Although the nations are in
an uproar and the kingdoms totter, God
remains in control. “‘The Lord of hosts is
with us,” claims this song of faith; “The
God of Jacob is our refuge.”
God chastises
those He loves – His children. God watches
the Ungodly from afar but is intimately
involved with the pathway of the Godly. .
Healing of the
land comes from the presence of God through
His church. This is a prodding from God to
His Church. America is not the voice of good
in the world; the voice of Good is the
universal Church of Jesus Christ, including
those in Afghanistan and Iraq who have not
bent their knees to Baal.
The message of
the World Trade Center is for you and me if
we profess to be children of the eternal
God. This is not a wake up call. Believers
are already awake and alert.
But we are
presented with an opportunity to stand for
something solid in a world that is in
turmoil; it is an opportunity to see our sin
as it is and to repent and turn from our
flirtation with culture. And then; only then
will God hear our prayers, forgive and heal
our land. |
