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WEDNESDAY IS 11 September
— 12 months since the World Trade Centre disaster. What
should we learn, 12 months on, as we reflect on that horrendous
event? We have seen, only this Friday night, how easily major
transportation routes can be disrupted. It doesn't need a 747:
just a bomb hoax at the airport! How secure are we?
I am afraid that our world hasn’t
taken the crisis to heart. We have not heard the word of the
Lord, and I see judgment coming. Maybe I exaggerate when I say
it will come, but I am certain that we are heading in the direction
where judgment can't be far off.
We need to be ready when judgment
comes. It is God’s way. He can’t tolerate rebellion.
He says,
You deserted
the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot the God who gave you birth. (v18)
The West has lived for too long
on memories of a relationship with God. We never were, in a full
sense, the People of God, but we were a group of nations where
it was more likely that people would acknowledge God than reject
him.
So never imagine that events like those of 12 months ago are
mere causeless coincidences. Yes, evil men plotted evil, but
God withdrew his protective hand, and he will keep it back until
we in the west acknowledge Jesus is Lord and bow the knee to
him.
God asks,
(Deut 32:30)
How could one man chase a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the LORD had given them up?
31 For their rock is not
like our Rock,
as even our enemies concede.
32 Their vine comes from
the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are filled with poison,
and their clusters with bitterness.
33 Their wine is the venom
of serpents,
the deadly poison of cobras.
34 “Have I not kept
this in reserve
and sealed it in my vaults?
The Allies invaded Afghanistan
and defeated the evil Taliban. They drove Osama Bin Laden from
his strongholds and tore down the Government structures which
he exploited.
But the Taliban didn’t attack the World Trade Centre. The
Taliban didn’t bomb US Embassies or ships. Why attack Afghanistan?
What did the US really do, even if it turned out for good in
some respects? Where is Bin Laden? What was really achieved?
And why Iraq now? Another evil state. Another thorn in the side
for many. But did Saddam attack the World Trade Centre? Was he
behind the anthrax attacks?
What is our world doing? Why are John Howard and Alexander Downer
talking up an attack on Iraq? Why are US and UK jets stepping
up attacks?
God says,
35 It is mine
to avenge; I will repay.
In due time their foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
and their doom rushes upon them.”
But we are turning into people
who avenge, and we are playing the game of vengeance, and we
are the ones who will be hurt. There is a vast difference, a
great gulf, between justice and vengeance.
In Kindergarten, I had an enemy. I can’t remember his name.
He had a big nose, and he must have known it. I never said anything
to him about his nose. I didn’t even think it was such a
bad thing -- after all, they did call me "The Buzzard"
at school myself. There's a certain nobility to a properly sized
schnozz. If Cyrano de Bergerac could be a great man and also
have a big nose, surely this kid could become a great man with
a big nose too. But he used to punch me whenever I came near
enough to him. And I used to seek vengeance by hitting him back.
You know how it goes. These things get worse and worse. He constantly
hit me, I constantly reacted and fought back.
Then, one day, I blocked his punch and I said, “I never
start a fight with you. I only hit back when you hit me. Why
do you keep hitting me? Why can’t we be friends?”
And, for the first time, he didn't hit me. He put his fists down,
and said, “I’m sorry,” and held out his hand for
me to shake. For the rest of the year, we were friends.
What works in Kindergarten usually works for adults as well.
There is a book with the title, Everything I need to know,
I learnt in Kindergarten. It's true. The author says
that, in Kindergarten he learnt to look both ways before crossing
the street, to clean up after himself, to hold hands when you
go somewhere, to say, ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’
— all those basic things.
Where is our world headed?
In Deuteronomy, we read,
36 The LORD will judge
his people
and have compassion on his servants
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave or free.
37 He will say: “Now
where are their gods,
the rock they took refuge in,
38 the gods who ate the
fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up to help you!
Let them give you shelter!
There is a lie abroad that God
helps those who help themselves, and he helps those most who
help themselves to the most.
The Psalmist says,
PS 10:5 [The
evil man’s] ways are always prosperous;
he is haughty and your laws are far from him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
He says to himself,
“Nothing will shake me;
I’ll always be happy and never have trouble.”
Sometimes it seems that the way
ahead is to cocoon ourselves in self-serving conquest. The evil
people grow strong. They gain at the expense of the poor and
the weak. We can start wishing to be like them. It begins with
wanting justice; it passes through seeking vengeance, and it
ends in world domination.
You know how it goes. These people
often do prosper for a while. They are like that song from Godspell:
Some men were
made to live in ease
Doing what they please,
Richer than the bees are in honey;
Never getting cold,
Never growing old,
Snatching pots of gold from the air...
At one time, many things pressed
in on me from all sides. I felt I had nowhere to turn.
I looked around, and found people doing wrong, enjoying the pleasures
of sin for a season, getting what they wanted, and never paying
for their deeds. And I was still trying to live righteously according
to God’s will.
Even within this church, some came for a little while, who did
as they liked and gained what they wanted, and then came to me
for help to get back on track.
I told a Pastor friend, “Sometimes it seems that I am alone,
that everyone else is doing what they like, and I am picking
up the pieces. I sometimes feel I’d be better joining them!”
A couple of them even invited me to join them in their schemes.
I’m glad now that I resisted. But, at the time, I was beginning
to think, "What kind of fool am I?"
Don't worry -- I'm not going to sing that one!
My grandfather used to quote the rime,
The rain, it
raineth on the Just
And on the Unjust fellow,
But mainly on the Just
Because the Unjust's got
The Just’s umbrella.
Sometimes the Unjust seem to
prosper while the Just languish in captivity.
But it is this attitude, that
the powerful, the wealthy, will control the world; it is this
which is destroying our world; it is this which is creating the
vast struggle which threatens already to devour the world; it
is this which incites the have–nots to rise up and grasp
for what the wealthy and powerful have.
God says that, while we are wealthy, while we think we can buy
our way out of any situation, while we imagine that we have the
power to trample down our own enemies, he will not help. He will
not come to our aid until he sees that our strength is gone,
and there is no one left, slave or free, to come to our aid.
39 “See
now that I myself am He!
There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.
September 11 brought change to
our world, but not change for the better. God is working out
his vengeance on a people who claim to be his own, but who follow
the false gods of this world.
And God says to us,
Come out from
among them, and be separate.
When I was a young teenager,
I often heard it said, that we must come out from any association
with the World Council of Churches and be separate from them.
I often heard it said that we must come out from any friendship
with Catholics or Pentecostals, and be separate from them. I
often heard it said that we must come out from any contact with
more liberal Christians or any Christian with a social agenda.
And so preachers of lies divided the Church, and kept Christians
from listening to one another. This is not what the Bible says.
Our separation is from false gods, from the gods of greed and
of human power, the gods who say, “I will protect you; I
will make you safe!” But they divide and destroy.
When we talk about "the world", we aren't talking about
what make-up women wear, or how wide our trouser cuffs should
be. We are talking about a world which ruthlessly seeks its own
way and tramples the poor under its feet. Islam, like the West,
feeds on power. It will never be defeated while we continue making
power the issue.
I could talk about the drive
to dethrone Hussein, and remind us how anxious Downer and Blair
are to put on their full armour and pick up the droppings of
Bush's warhorse.
I could talk about powers to detain without legal representation.
What is being done about that Australian, arrested and held by
the Americans? They say he was a Taliban fighter — was he?
Someone said that Oppenheimer, the great atomic scientist was
a Communist, but it was only a lie to get him out of his job
so his accuser could apply. What court is testing the charges
against our citizens? What is our country doing to ensure that
the most basic rights of a democracy are not denied to this man?
Do we stay silent so that our Ally will not turn against us,
too? What kind of safety is it, always having to keep behind
a turning dragon?
I could talk about how our Government has used security issues
against asylum seekers.
I could talk about Australia’s shameful performance at the
Environmental summit in Johannesburg. We will look after ourselves,
and tough luck for anyone who suffers!
There are many evils I could talk about, and they all arise from
the feeling that the dangers in our world will be defeated if
we are more powerful, richer, more aggressive, more selfish.
This is fear, not faith!
BY NOW you are probably restless.
You are only one person. What can you do? These are political
issues — politicians must sort them out, not little people
in back street churches.
First, God didn't ever tell
us that, when we have the numbers, we should come out and be
separate. Paul was telling
Christians to adopt different standards from the world around
them, to make sure that they did not fall into the traps set
by the attitudes of the world they live in.
If our world says, “Might gives the right — Macht
hat Recht”, Christians must assert in defiance,
“Not by
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord.
We must not only assert it, but
live it!
If only one Christian boldly stands for right, the powers of
this dark world have been challenged. Come out from among them,
and be separate. It's like Telemachus, the British monk, who
jumped into the Roman arena and shouted his protest against the
circuses, where men slaughtered men to entertain the crowds.
His Christian protest cost him his life, but it ended the circuses.
Second, we are called to follow
the path of Jesus all the way.
If any one would
come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow
me,
says Jesus.
The great preacher, St John Chrysostomos,
once said,
As long as we
remain lambs, we overcome.
Even though we may be surrounded by a thousand wolves, we overcome
and are victorious.
But as soon as we are wolves, we are beaten: for then we lose
the support from the Shepherd, who feeds not wolves, but only
lambs. (Homily 34)
When our world chooses to become
a world of wolves, our only hope is to become sheep of the Shepherd,
following him even to death.
We may be a “little flock”, but Jesus says,
“Do not
be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to
give you the kingdom. 33
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for
yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that
will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth
destroys. 34 For where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also...”
Third, it is amazing what
even a few can do, if they do it with conviction and zeal.
Recent research shows that a few people with conviction will
do more to change the attitudes of society than any number of
politicians or public meetings or TV debates. We learn from each
other.
At first, everyone thought that the idea of not fighting in Vietnam
was traitorous. But, within ten years, the politicians were bringing
the men home.
At first, everyone thought that banning slavery was a weird obsession
of a strange sect — the Quakers. But they won over Wesley,
and he won over Wilberforce, and Wilberforce won over Parliament,
and the British Parliament won over Lincoln, and even in the
US, the slaves were freed.
The tragic events of September
11 still urge us to action. They challenge us to seek justice,
to act with mercy, to walk humbly with God, and to resist the
false religion of this world, the religion governed by gods of
power and might, the gods that crucified Jesus, the gods which
he has taken captive in his triumphant procession through gates
of glory! Let's hear him, and obey — today and forever!
AMEN |
