Sept. 16, 2001

"A Response To Terrorism"

Sermon:

In light of the events of the past week, I am going to delay the sermon series we started last week. We will take it up again next week with the next subject, confession. But today let's talk about some of the things that have just happened to us. In light of the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, we are all emotionally overwhelmed. We have many questions on our minds. Let's try to find a few answers this morning. Let me address a few of the questions that have heard raised this week.

"Isn't this all about religion? Why don't we just get rid of all the Moslems?"

We need to be a people who stand against hatred and bigotry of all kinds. One of the most troubling reactions of people this past week has been the general anger toward all people of Asian or Middle Eastern origin, and toward people of the Moslem religion. There is a fear of violence by people who are looking for someone to punish for these terrorist acts.

Speaking as a Christian to Christians, this kind of retribution has no place in our lives. We do not believe in punishing one person for another person's sins. The surest way for the terrorists to win their battle is for us to start acting just like them, labeling people as enemies and attacking indiscriminately. Please pray that the violence done by these terrorists will not be repeated by our neighbors. You must understand this. Terrorists are not looking for sympathy. They are trying to provoke us to become like them. That is the one thing we must never do.

There are many Moslem and Arabic people in this land who are peaceful, responsible citizens, and are just as upset by these events as any other Americans. They are either non-religious, or they practice an Americanized form of Islam with does not teach violence. Some of them have lost loved ones who worked in the World Trade Center. They grieve just like we do, and they are very troubled that this kind of violence has been done in the name of their religion.

Let me put it in this perspective. There are Moslems in America who are outraged by these acts of terror being done in the name of Islam, just as I was angered last week when I saw Protestants Christians in Ireland taunting and threatening little Catholic children on their way to school. When I saw that scene of Protestants and Catholics looking at each other with such hatred and fear, I thought "How dare these people call themselves Christians when they act this way. They should all be excommunicated until they publicly repent and apologize for insulting the name of Jesus Christ!" That's how I felt.

There are Moslems in America who feel the same way about Arab terrorists. We must not assume that all Moslems are like Osama Bin Laden, just as we Christians hope that people do not assume that all Christians are like the people in Ireland. In every race, nation, and culture, there are people of good will and people of evil will. And in every religious group, there are people who are seriously seeking God, and people who merely use their religion to justify their own bigotry. Let's be very careful not to rush to judgment.

Having said that, we cannot be naive about the very real differences between religions. I heard a young man on a radio call-in show saying that Islam is a "peaceful religion, the most peaceful of religions" and that people's association of violence with Islam is just a misunderstanding. There are two serious problems with that statement, and they are the Koran and the teaching of the prophet Mohammed.

It is simply a fact that Mohammed did teach his followers that if non-Moslems would not convert and accept the Moslem faith, they could be killed. And when Mohammed first began to preach his new found faith, and met with resistance even from fellow Arabs, he gathered an army and swept across the Arab world in a campaign of conquest that killed thousands of people. Islam was born in a violent, bloody revolution.

This is exactly the opposite of Christianity which was born at the cross. Jesus calls us as disciples to lay down our lives in service and witness to others. Christianity is spread by self-sacrificing love, not by the threat of violence. There is a difference in religions.

True, there have been times when Christian leaders tried to build the church by force. We remember with agony the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and the practice of slavery in this land- people who called themselves Christians, and who enslaved others and enforced their religion on those they had power over. But, we remember it as an anomaly, an error, not in any sense a normal or justifiable model for the church. It was the greatest mistake the church ever made because it betrayed every word of the Gospel.

Jesus warned the apostles about this, saying, "The rulers of the Gentiles exercise power over them, but it shall not be so among you. If anyone wants to be great in the kingdom of God, let him become as a servant."

We must pray for our Moslem neighbors, and I call on you urgently, as never before, pray for Moslems. But our prayers must not be naive and silly, merely asking that they follow their faith honestly and respectfully. We pray for them because we know that they are not on the right track to the kingdom of God. Anyone who has truly known Jesus Christ to be "the Way, the Truth, and the Life", must be praying that all people who do not know Him will turn to Him and accept Him as their Lord and Savior.

This world will never be safe, never be at peace, until everyone has accepted the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, not by force, but by personal decision, willingly.

"Should the terrorists be punished? Aren't we supposed to forgive?"

Great question! There are two different things being confused here: our personal calling as disciples of Jesus, and the responsibility of government. Let's try to sort them out in a biblical perspective.

As disciples of Jesus, yes, we are called to forgive our enemies. In the discipleship study that we just handed out, we will come to that section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said, "love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven." Forgiveness is an absolutely essential doctrine of the Christian faith, and in two weeks we will be talking about that very doctrine in a sermon on "The Doctrine of Forgiveness". Of course, we struggle with this. It isn't easy. In fact, I think that forgiveness is the single most demanding part of the Christian faith. When we have been badly hurt by someone, it may take us some time to gather the spiritual resources to forgive, but we always know that that is our assignment. Harboring unforgiveness is never an option for a Christian. It will destroy our relationship with God, and wreck our health. In the final analysis, it will destroy our very souls. Without forgiveness there is no hope for life at all.

But let me add this caution: we need to be clear about who is to forgive. After the Columbine High School shootings, there were calls for the nation to forgive the boys who did this terrible thing. Finally someone responded with a word of clarity, saying that it was not our job as a nation to forgive these boys, because we are not the ones who were hurt. Forgiveness is for the person who has suffered the loss. If your child has been killed, what possible sense does it make for me to say "I forgive them?" Forgive them what? I haven't been wronged, you have. My forgiveness will mean nothing to them, but yours could save their souls. Let's keep the focus of forgiveness where it belongs. For forgiveness to be real it must cost you something.

The people who must address forgiveness of these terrorists are the people who have lost loved ones- the people who have suffered a real personal loss. We must pray for them to find the strength of God to forgive, because they will not find peace until they do. We can pray for them, we can encourage them, we can love and support them until they are able to finish this important spiritual work of forgiveness, but please don't short-circuit the process by trying to do it for them. The one who has suffered the personal loss is the only one who can forgive.

Now, as for the call to respond as a nation by hunting down the terrorists and punishing them, how do we view to this? This is the responsibility of government. It is ordained by God that governments shall exist, and that they have a job to do in maintaining a safe, orderly society. Both apostles Peter and Paul described the function of government as being to enforce the law and to punish evildoers. Likewise, Jesus said that when we have done wrong, we should do whatever we must to settle the matter quickly. If not, He warned, "You will be handed over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the jailer. And you will not get out until you have paid the last penny." The Bible consistently teaches that government has a divine responsibility to protect its citizens and to forcefully restrain criminals.

As our own government works together with other world leaders to do that job, we must pray that they do it correctly. As many people have said over the past week, when we respond, let us be sure that it is an act of justice, not revenge. And let us be very careful that whatever we do as a nation is only to punish those who did the wrong, and that we do not inflict more suffering on innocent bystanders.

"Why did God do this?"

I've heard that question asked many times this past week by people who are hurt, confused, and angry. "Why did God do this to us? Why is God punishing us?" It makes me cringe every time I hear it.

I don't believe God did this. A group of terrorists did this. The minds of a few evil men conceived this plot, and a much larger group of evil men supported the plan over a period of years with huge amounts of money, much of it coming from people who have called themselves our friends. The responsibility for this lies with them, not with God.

However, we must say that God allowed this to happen, and that does raise the question, why? Why has God allowed these men to do this terrible thing in this land?

Here's how it works. When God calls a nation, as He called ancient Israel, and as He has called America, there is a responsibility to be faithful to His commandments. God's covenant promises that He will protect and guide a nation, if that nation continues to call upon Him and listen to His Word. But the warning is also given that if the people turn away from following God with their whole heart, God's protection will be withdrawn. We stopped asking God for wisdom, and we stopped being wise.

For too long we have been complacent. For most of the past decade we have been a nation obsessed with our own personal wealth. We talked about cashing in on the "peace dividend." I remember the first time I heard that term, "peace dividend", how it alarmed me. Why did we think the world was at peace. The world has never been at peace. If anything, the world has become a more dangerous place than ever. But we didn't want to hear about it. We told ourselves that violence, if it was a problem, was someone else's problem. America, we believed, was ready to enjoy a time of unparalleled prosperity, and unbridled greed.

We allowed our security agencies to fall into a shambles. We sacrificed our military preparedness for quick profit. We left ourselves vulnerable to attack from outside. The situation at home was no better.

We saw violence escalating in our schools, pornography spreading like wildfire across the Internet. Perversion, adultery and graphic violence were served up on prime time TV every night. And we saw the number one warning sign of a society in danger, the disintegration of families and the disparaging of family values. Even then we still paid no attention. Our eyes were glued to only one thing- the stock market- our investment portfolios, our retirement accounts. We made money our god, and nothing could distract our attention from its promise of ease and personal excess.

Preachers cried out the need for revival. No one listened. Christian leaders warned that we were breaking God's covenant, and the covering of God's protection was removed from this nation. No one listened. Christians all over the world were calling for prayer for America, especially New York and Washington, the financial and political centers of the world. Evangelists and preachers all across Asia, Africa and Australia were receiving prophetic messages and calling for massive prayer meetings to cry out for revival in America before it was too late. One of those ministries undertook a bold step, renting Madison Square Garden for almost an entire month at a cost of millions of dollars, to try to get the people of New York to turn back to God. The response was poor. The hoped for revival did not come.

America, the nation that has sent out more Christian missionaries than any other nation in history, began to see missionaries from Africa and Asia and South America coming here, not to find refuge, but to preach the Gospel to a generation of Americans whom they saw losing the faith. Throughout Christianity, across denominational lines, a strain was developing. The American branch of Christianity has been increasingly out of step with our Christian brothers and sisters around the world, and they have been very worried about us. But we paid no attention. While a stunning revival of Christianity has been sweeping like wildfire across Africa, Asia, and South America, the spiritual landscape in America has been coldly silent. Will all of that change now? I wonder.

I've seen some wonderful things happening this week. The Congress gathered together in prayer. People who haven't been to church on Sunday in years suddenly going to church several times during the week. People calling each other up to see if they're all right. But I wonder, how will it be six months from now? Will church attendance fall back to the dismal figures we have been seeing? People are saying that these events have changed us forever. Really? I wonder.

This is a time to think about mortality. I'm not being morbid or dramatic, just realistic. Tuesday morning over 4000 people went to work thinking it would be just another boring, typical workday in New York, or in a Pentagon office, or on a flight to California. By lunch time they were dead.

I have no way of knowing how many of them were ready for that. But I must ask the question of you today. If your time to die comes today, will you be ready? I know you don't like me asking you that question, but you see, it's my job. It's my job as your pastor to see that you are ready to face death knowing where you will go after you die. I am responsible to the Lord for seeing that your souls are securely in Jesus' hands before that day comes. Just as office managers in the World Trade Center are trying to account for all the people in their area, so, one day, the last day, as the whole world goes up in flames, I will be asked to account to the Lord for all the souls in this church. And if the Lord turns to me and says, "Where is Elda? Where is Susan? Where is John? Where is Bill?.... I don't want to have to say to Him, "Sorry Lord. They never really gave their hearts to You. We lost them."

A call for revival!

October is coming. For several years, October has been set aside for Clergy Appreciation Month. Someone recently asked me what I wanted for Clergy Appreciation this year. That's easy. What I want most from you is for you to take one of these books (Discipleship Study) and fill out the card inside, and get involved. And what I want most for Christmas is to see some sign that something really has changed in us this week.

As I said, for several years Christians all over the world have been praying that we would get serious about our faith. It's time to do it. There is a prayer that they are very familiar with, but we in America have not used it so much.

We're going to change our order of service this morning. I want us all to stand together and join hands. I want us all to pray together for our own conversion. I don't care if you have prayed this prayer before, let us pray it again. Let us pray it for ourselves. Let us pray it for one another. Let us practice saying it to all those who have not yet been able to pray it for themselves.

Everyone please stand, gather around, and join hands.

Please repeat after me:

O God, I am a sinner. I confess that I sinned against your holy law. I confess that your Word is true when it says that nothing good dwells in me. According to your law I deserve to die. I have nothing to offer, nothing valuable enough to pay the price for my sin, not even my own life.

Lord Jesus Christ, you came to offer Your life, Your perfect, holy life, to pay the price of our sin. You surrendered Yourself on the cross to give us another chance to live. Through the blood that You shed, You made it possible for us to be forgiven.

Lord Jesus Christ, I ask You to forgive my sins. I ask you to cleanse me, heal me, deliver me from the power of sin. And I ask you to fill me with Your Holy Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit. Fill me with Your peace and your power. Fill me with the truth. Give me your spiritual gifts that I may serve God. Bring forth good fruit in my life, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. Renew our minds to think Your thoughts, to want what You want.

O gracious God, we pledge ourselves to You. We have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. Amen.