The First Sunday after September 11th

From The First Sunday after September 11^th and other Sermons, Articles and Letters

By Curt Tilleraas, Pastor, North Immanuel Lutheran Church

Unless the eye catch fire, God will not be seen.
Unless the ear catch fire, God will not be heard.
Unless the tongue catch fire, God will not be named.
Unless the Heart catch fire, God will not be loved.
Unless the mind catch fire, God will not be known.

                                                  William Blake, English Poet

 “Oh that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him, with my own eyes – I, and not another.”

                                     Job 19:23-27a

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER SEPTEMBER 11^TH

     Time and time again scriptures reveal to us that in many ways we are like God, though we must never forget that we are not God. Though human nature is not divine nature, we have been made in the image of God. Our nature, now and again, reflects qualities that we share in common with God. A good shepherd, like God, is overwhelmed with love and concern when one of his many sheep becomes lost. He appears to be moved by something other than reason when he leaves the ninety-nine to seek out the one, lost sheep. Jesus tells us that He is like that -- and His Father is like that, and so is the Holy Spirit.

     Our God is like the woman who will spend a night sweeping out a house to find a lost coin, and then when she finds it she invites all of her friends to come and celebrate with her. This woman’s actions show us that our desire to find what is lost is deep within us. It comes from a part of us that reflects an attribute of God Himself. God, therefore, is not satisfied that anyone should be lost. It is not in Him to shrug off such a sad state of affairs. In short, God will be at peace, and the heavens will be filled with rejoicing, when those who are lost have been found and brought home safely.

     But where is home?

     Surely the events of this week would reinforce the Biblical notion that this world is not our home. Or, put differently, this world is not God’s home. It is inconceivable to us that anyone in God’s home, or God’s world, could ever dream of flying planes into buildings filled with thousands of innocent human beings. Here, there are thousands who will not be brought to their earthly home, safely. Here, they will never be hugged again, in the flesh, nor be tucked in at night and told that everything will be alright. Here, they will never get up in the morning and get dressed for work, wishing only that they could stay in bed for one more hour. Here, their birthdays and anniversaries will never be celebrated again, with them.   

     “My Kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus said when he walked upon the earth; and through His Word He has been revealing this truth to the world for 2,000 years. In His wilderness temptation, we are given a glimpse of the one who controls the affairs of this world. He is the one who would turn over the kingdoms of this world to Jesus, if only Jesus would have had the common sense to bow down and worship him, as the emancipated Jews bowed down and worshipped the golden calf, yet another symbol of worldly wealth, hope, power and aspiration.

     “Yea though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me,” the Psalmist confessed, telling us yet again that there is this valley of death, known as the world, through which we pass. And since God is the God of the living, this valley is not His valley and its death does not belong to Him. We do, or, we can, however, belong to Him. Even here, in this Valley of Death, which is not His home and which is not His kingdom, He lives. Even here he has prepared a table for us, in the presence of our enemies. He will and He does come here, but His throne is in our hearts, and not on the back of a golden calf, nor in towers built with human hands. His kingdom is coming into the world, but it is not of this world. The day is coming when He shall fill all things and there will be a new heaven and a new earth, but that day is not yet here.

     The things we attach ourselves to are not the things He seems to care about most of all. The extent to which we are attached to the things of this world is the extent to which we are lost. The extent to which we place our hopes and our dreams in this world and her leaders, this, too, is the extent to which we are lost. And this is precisely where our hope is born. Ours is a God whose heart goes out to those who are lost, who have become trapped in the things of this world, and crushed under the weight of things which are doomed, by nature, or design, to fall apart.

     It is not so hard, today, to imagine angels rejoicing over one poor sinner, here and there, who has been found and carried home in the arms of our Savior, his dust covered face stained with blood and tears. Not today. Not after the events of this week. We see the crowds surrounding rescue workers in New York City, resigned to the fact that thousands have been brutally murdered, and yet there they are, working, waiting, and watching for signs of life. Any life.

     They don’t care who it is, or what kind of person might emerge from the ruins. Anyone will do. Because, you see, they share something in common with God Himself. We are not watching the crowds of those who seem to be rather safe and secure. We are watching the ones who are in danger as they seek to find those who are trapped between death and life. We, too, in a sense, leave behind the ninety-nine, in search of the one who is lost. And though we are not God, now and again we are given a glimpse of what God is like, and what we are like when God draws near to those who are passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

     Jesus tells us that the end will come like a thief in the night. The Bible speaks of the great and terrible day of the Lord. It will be a day of rejoicing for those who are ready to meet Him, but a day of terror for those who have turned away from Him in their lives. But the horrible events of this week were not the unspeakable acts of God. If we cling to and confess our Trinitarian faith in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we will know, without a doubt, that this is not the work of God. Not the suicidal mission of men given over to evil. We know that this is not the work of God because we believe that Jesus Christ was and is God. We look at Jesus in order that we might see God. He shows us what we need to know of God because He was and is God and will always be God. This is the Truth that the church, in her best moments, has shed her blood for 2,000 years to preserve. As Christians we know, without a doubt, that the blood of Jesus is the only blood that saves. His was the only blood that is capable of bringing about our salvation and the salvation of the entire world. No one else’s blood will satisfy the hunger of God -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- for the salvation of our souls.

     As Christians we know that we do not believe in the same God as those who danced in the streets with joy when they first heard about the attack on America this week. But with them, and even though we dance to the tune of a different God, we, too, cry out, “God is great,” “Allah Akbar,” or, “God is the greatest.”

     We know, without a doubt, that God is greater than all the people in the world who are capable of such a great and unthinkable evil. Unlike those who celebrate attacks on innocent civilians as a form of martyrdom, we do not rejoice in the slaughter of innocent people.

     We know that wanton murder and destruction will bring no one closer to the peace of God that passes all understanding. It will not bring any killers one step closer to Paradise. We know these things by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit. We know that we are confronting a people who deny the cross, who deny the truth and saving power of Jesus’ death on the cross, a people whose god says that the greatest sin on earth is to say that God has begotten a Son.

     We are dealing, brothers and sisters, with people who have replaced the Holy Spirit with Muhammad. It is a central belief in Christianity that when Jesus spoke of the one who would come after Him, the one who would fill his followers and the earth with the knowledge of Him, He was speaking of the Holy Spirit. He said it was so Himself. And we know that without the Holy Spirit we can know nothing of Jesus Christ.

     Islam, on the other hand, teaches that this is where the Holy Bible was corrupted. In mainstream Islam, as well as in radical Islam, it is taught that Jesus was really talking about Muhammad, and not the Holy Spirit. Jesus, Islam proclaims, was prophesying the coming of Muhammad, who would lead the faithful into their true religion, Islam. Jesus said that sins against him could be forgiven, but not the sin against the Holy Spirit.

     We have seen the face of God, this week, in the grief stricken faces of those who cannot imagine what they are, in fact, seeing. We have seen the face of God in those whose hearts are breaking in the presence of such great loss. We have seen the body of God in the resolute bodies of mothers, fathers, sons and daughters as they search the streets for ones they have lost. “Even as you do unto the least of these, my brethren, so have you done to me,” our God has said.

     We have seen a massive attack launched head on into the heart of God this week, but the blood of God is life itself and the life and love of God will never be defeated or destroyed, of this we can rest assured. Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age,” He Himself has assured us.

     “What ungodly beast slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?” the poet Yeats mused when given a glimpse of incarnate evil – when given a glimpse of the beast who would seek to devour the child born in Bethlehem. The one who would seek to take his place in the hearts and minds of men, women and children. What ungodly beast, indeed? We know who that beast is. We have seen his face and the work of his hands. We know that he will do everything in his power to convince people that this world is our home and that we have no need of the one, true God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and it drives him crazy when he reveals the strength of his hand and people turn to God instead of him. It drives him crazy when the Holy Spirit shows us that human beings, and not God, have done these terrible things.

     You see, my friends, we have been given this gift. A great Light has come into the darkness and shone upon those who dwelled in darkness. We know that beneath the dust and the ruins, inside this sin sick world, inside every nook and cranny, there is a God who is waiting, always, to carry us home in his arms or upon his shoulders. The One who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders can surely carry one more lost soul home.  

     Are you that one He is searching for today? Are you the one for whom he is digging, night and day, amongst the ruins of shattered hopes and dreams? Are you the one who has become like a little, lost and abandoned child? If you are, surely you have seen that the powers and principalities of this world are not worthy of your faith, hope, trust and love. It is not too late for you to repent now and turn to Him, so that you will be ready whenever He comes, whether it be in a time and manner according to His will, or at a time when He must come to rescue you from death at the hands of evil & misfortune.

     Our God never acts like the brothers of Joseph who sold him into slavery, and yet, inside and through that terrible act of betrayal the Lord was working to liberate and save His people. Our God does not act like Judas did, and yet even through that terrible act of betrayal the Lord was working out His plan to save and deliver His beloved people, his lost sheep, from sin, death and the power of the devil. Yes, we have seen the face of God this week in the eyes of those whose love cannot be destroyed. And yet, though we are made in His image, and we can see Him, at times, in ourselves and in others, we know, we confess and believe, that, unlike us, He will never give in and abandon us to our despair and fear.

     Our God – Father, Son & Holy Spirit -- will keep on digging until he finds you and carries you home. He will not give up until He hears His beloved angels burst into song -- again and again and again, when those who have been lost are found, and when those who have harmed his children are brought to justice. “It would be better that they had never been born,” Jesus said, of those who have harmed and misled his little ones, his children. It would be better for them that a chain be tied around their neck, attached to a great weight, and that they be tossed into the depths of the sea, than that they should do the things they have done, and come to face the justice of the living God. 

     The great and terrible day of the Lord will be a day of rejoicing for those who love Him, and a reign of terror for those who have turned away from Him and come to rely on their own devices. If there is hope for America, and I believe there is, our hope will be found in the One, true God.

     Throughout the Bible we see that God does not consider all gods to be the same. He was ready to destroy the Israelites because, after He had delivered them from the powers of the Egyptians, and before they entered the Promised Land, they had begun worshipping another god, a god of their own making.  

     Liars will tell you that all gods are really faces of the one, true God. We know they are liars because the Old and the New Testament both tell us that this is so. Our God is a jealous God, we have been told, time and time again, and He will do any-thing and everything to save those who love Him from their enemies. But if we worship other gods we will be on our own and His help and his hope will not be in us.

     “No one comes to the Father but by me,” Jesus said, and ‘you will know me by opening your hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit.’ “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He has said, and if we deny the truth of what he has told us, we deny that He is God.     

     A man may try to justify sleeping with a woman other than his wife because the other woman was like his wife, in oh so many ways. When he slept with the other woman, he was really worshipping the body of his wife, he may say. “She and you,” he might say, “are really the same, honey – why are you so angry?” But is she fooled? I don’t think so!

     If another man’s son comes to me and says, “I am Kristofer, your son,” I will know him to be a liar because I know my own son. If I cannot be fooled in a matter such as this, how much less can God be fooled by subtle arguments, sophistry and lies?

     You, brothers and sisters, who desire to endure the coming days and years, must always remember who your God is. Confess Him and bear witness to Him, and hope will enter into the hearts and minds of those who have become lost in our beloved land. “Our hope is in the name of the Lord,” we have been told. Cling to the gospel as if your lives depended upon it – because they do.

     Practice justice and mercy in all that you do because we have been told that this is the way of those who love Him. Our enemies will be destroyed by the blood of Jesus and by the power of His name. No one else’s blood will satisfy the wrath of God. No other name under heaven or earth is a name by which people must be saved. “At the name of Jesus, one day, every knee shall bend and tongue confess, that He, Jesus Christ, is Lord.” This is the Word of the Lord. This is the Word that will bring all who are lost home, in this life and the next. Amen.

By Curt Tilleraas