Sermon given by Neil Earle at the Riverside Convention Center, 9/28/01
This summer I was in the Inland Empire visiting some friends in Redlands. We decided to watch the blockbuster movie "Pearl Harbor," That was in June. Little did I realize how prophetic that movie would be. You will all remember how President Roosevelt described the Pearl Harbor attack as "a Day that would live in Infamy" – December 7, 1941.
Those of us watching that film in June little dreamt that we would see a far worse Day of Infamy acted out before our eyes on that horrible September 11, 2001. Those images of Manhattan Island looking like a stricken animal with smoke bellowing out where the Twin Towers had once stood will be with us till the end of our days.
But thank God, Americans are a resilient people. It seems like the last two weeks we have been a whole country in Church. Just when you are ready to give up on the country, you see the candles, the memorial services, even Hollywood getting in on the act. We saw the Day of Mourning service at the national cathedral where the rector quoted those poignant lines from Jeremiah about "Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted because they are not."
We are living in stirring times, historic times. Those of us who are children will tell our children's children about the day the great towers fell. But perhaps the greatest story of all, in these last few weeks has been the sense of a people, a nation rediscovering its Christian soul. At Yankee Stadium over 25,000 people gathered last Sunday for a magnificent interfaith service, all the people of God singing together, praying together – an amazing time. May be it won't last but I know our pastors in New York and New Jersey are telling me the churches are pretty full these days.
New York expected 1 million people to attend the Memorial in Central Park but for security reasons it had to be moved to Yankee Stadium. Everyone's lighting candles. My wife saw a TV report just last night of tourists coming into New York City holding candles and singing "God Bless America" which has become an unofficial national anthem these last days. It reminds me of Isaiah 9:2. Not that this is the end of America or the end of the world. I don't believe that. The prophecy buffs have been trying to make hay of this tragedy and a tragedy it was.
But don't forget that 17,000 people died two years ago in Turkey and 25,000 people died in Mexico City in an earthquake in 1985. No – not the end of America but perhaps the end of the scandal-plagued, cafe latte, talk-show bloated, Lexus in my garage, overdone, immoral 1990s. Perhaps the immoral decade has been buried in the rubble of New York City and that's a good thing isn't it? People who are not even active Christians would tell me in the last two years about how raw and carnal Jay Leno and David Letterman were getting, after the scandals of the 1990s. The language and phrases they would use. Yes, even non-Christians were turned off. "It's over now," one of my friends told me. I said, "A pastor couldn't have said it better."
There's a new seriousness now. The Emmy Awards will be introduced by Walter Cronkite – people are asked to wear business attire not no-clothes clothes. We're in a New York state of mind. Last week David Letterman was much more somber and restrained. He had the New York fire commissioner on last week and the audience erupted in a huge emotional applause. "We're had whole units wiped out," said the chief. "We've had whole stations decimated. But we're New Yorkers, we'll rebuild."
This really grabs at our emotions. These are stirring times, the sight of a nation beginning to return a little bit to its Christian roots. The sight of those firefighters running up those floors risking their all to do their jobs. They put and still put many of us professing Christians to shame. "No greater love has a man than this." You know, God doesn't have favorite people or favorite nations but at times America has stirred itself to live up to the vision of some of its founders, those who dreamt of a shining city on a hill, a nation devoted to God. That hasn't always happened as Abraham Lincoln reminded someone during the Civil War who wondered if God was on his side. Lincoln wisely responded that he only hoped that he was on God's side.
America has a Christian heritage. That sometime gets lost in all that happens. But there are enough people who know what 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, that if my people, called by my name, will humble themselves and pray then I will hear from heaven and will heal their land.
And so we have seen a stirring thing, as Isaiah 9:2 says: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light has come." And so it is when even the sometimes-offbeat New Yorker magazine has a picture of a candle-lit sidewalk memorial to a firefighter only slightly obscured by busy walking feet. Stirring times, emotional times, great times to be alive in spite of the tragedy, to see America's Christian soul begin to stir and for thousands of people to be reconnecting to God and each other. "The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light."
Two or three times in this country's history it has been the instrument of God's avenging justice as a deeply converted Christian woman wrote 50 years ago: "As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, for God is marching on." This is the Christian conscience that sustained the nation during the civil war against slavery and the great battle with Hitler.
We will still need that strength. Our pastor in Union, New Jersey told me that 2000 from his state died in the Towers. A little town lost 38 people. A little church missed 15 people. Shocking things. Yet out of this agony many seem to be recovering their Christian soul. Not the end of the world but perhaps the end of spiritual apathy for many.
Let's remember, they had great tragedies in Jesus day too. In fact even Jesus was the target of a terror attack when Herod killed all the boys in Bethlehem under two years old. You can read that in Matthew 2. In Luke 13 Jesus talked about 18 people in Siloam who were killed when a tower fell on them. Jesus said: "Do you suppose that these were worse sinners than all the other because they suffered this accident? Do you think that they were singled out for the special wrath of God? No, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."
That's a tough statement but what did it mean? Did the people of Siloam have it coming? Did the people of New York have it coming? No. Not at all. Jesus was saying that we live in a precarious world. This is God's beautiful creation but it is not God's world. Jesus knew that the human race was doomed to tragedy and agony the day Adam took the forbidden fruit. It was all over when our first parents left the Garden of Eden. There would be curses, there would be travail, there would be wars.
But Jesus also knew that God had a plan and bringing salvation was the major thrust of that plan. Jesus knew that there would be a future for the human race because of what he would do on Calvary. The curse would be lifted in him and much more. The great German theologian Jurgen Moltmann explained it this way: "If Paul calls death the last enemy then the opposite is also true; that the risen Christ, and with him the resurrection hope, must be declared to be the enemy of death and of a world that puts up with death."
As Moltmann went on to say: "The raising of Christ is not merely a consolation in a life that is full of distress and doomed to die, but it is also God's contradiction of suffering and death and of the wickedness of evil." Moltmann knew that God had triumphed over death at the resurrection of Jesus but he also knew that God would be vindicated at the end of history in "the coming glory of God over all – the victory of life over death."
Paul explained this in Romans 8:18-25. What we see now is a creation groaning in travail, an unfinished or an unfulfilled existence. There are earthquakes, lots of sad accidents and acts of terror. Yet out of it God is working out His plan of vindication. Paul said: "The creation will be delivered from its present bondage to corruption and futility and enter the glorious liberty of the children of God."
Maybe, in a cockeyed way, the atheists have a point – God has a lot to answer for. And answer it he will! He will be vindicated at the end of history in the final ushering in of the rule of Christ and his saints in the Kingdom of God, a kingdom only here now in part but which will eventually cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Let's take one last look at that final vindication of God through the words of the apostle John:
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will 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 have passed away.' Then he said, 'Write this down for these words are true and faithful.'" (Revelation 21:1-5)
We all have a date with destiny at the end of history. We'll see you there, and all our loved ones will be there and all will be well. God speed that day!