Where Were You, God?
Sermon
Note: This sermon was written in 2004 after the tragic Beslan School Siege in Chechnya.
In the terrible tragedy of the Russian school siege at Beslan, where terrorists held hostage an entire school complete with tiny children on their first day at school, the world asked, "Where was God?" It's a fair question. Some children as well as adults were executed in cold blood by the terrorists and many more children and adults were killed in the carnage when bombs exploded in the school. The media carried a chilling picture of a small boy cowering in terror with his hands on his head while a terrorist had his boot on an explosive device just a few feet away. The children were told to make no noise, otherwise they would be shot - and some were indeed shot by the Chechan terrorists.
In stifling heat the children were allowed neither food nor water and the world watched with disbelieving horror when dehydrated, disorientated, shocked, injured children were eventually carried out of the building on stretchers.
Perhaps the most immediate questions on many people's lips were, "How could any human being do such a thing?" and "Why didn't God step in and stop it and punish those murdering terrorists?" and "Where was God?"
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, responded to that question in a television interview by saying that God was seen every time an older child comforted a younger child or somebody did a brave and unselfish act. God was seen in the rescue forces who risked their own lives to save as many as they could. Perhaps God was in the midst of the horror, being crucified again and again by the terrorists and suffering within every single hostage. All of that gives some understanding of God's role in the horror, but still doesn't really answer the question of why didn't God prevent it?
If God really is God, then God must by definition by omnipotent and therefore able to smite terrorists and save the innocent. In the Old Testament, God was famous for smiting anyone who got in his way, even those who inadvertently got in his way, like the man who put out his hand to steady the Ark of the Covenant when it was being carried over rough ground. God apparently had no compunction in smiting him for touching the Ark, even though the man was only trying to prevent the Ark from falling (2 Samuel 6:6-7). To our modern Western eyes that would seem like smiting the innocent, yet today it seems as though God fails to smite even those who are evil murderers of children.
Clearly this is not a new problem, for in today's Old Testament reading from the book of Habakkuk, the prophet cries out to a God who appears not to notice the evil which is going on all around and who apparently fails to hear the prayers of the faithful. Habakkuk says this, "O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous-- therefore judgment comes forth perverted."
Habakkuk could have been speaking today in the aftermath of Beslan. In fact, he was speaking about 600 years BC, just before Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Judah which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem. And it seems that perhaps God did respond to Habakkuk, because whether or not he was aware that he had heard God speak, Habakkuk suddenly makes a decision and it's a decision which enables him to hear God's voice and to know that whatever the appearance to the contrary, God has the situation in hand.
Habakkuk's decision was to make time and space to listen for God. He decided to wait upon God until God responded to him. Habakkuk says this, "I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint."
And by making time and space and waiting upon God, Habakkuk was able to hear God and to discern what God was saying to the whole nation. It became clear that God was well aware what was going on, for God said this, "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith."
Time and events proved God right, for shortly after that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah, sacked Jerusalem and carried off all the prominent citizens into exile in Babylon.
Things do change. They change for the good, but often in an unexpected way. And that change happens in God's time, not our time. For us as it was for the Jews of Habakkuk's time, part of the problem is that too many people are proud and their spirit is not right within them, but God reminds us that those whose spirit is right within them live by faith, by believing and trusting in God no matter what the provocation to abandon that trust and belief.
God also needed someone who was willing and able to take time to listen and to wait upon God. Once Habakkuk made that effort, God was able to use him by warning him of what would inevitably happen to a nation which had turned their backs on goodness and right living. And it did indeed happen.
Today's parallels are obvious. Is God warning us today? Is our society becoming so decadent that like all prosperous societies before it, our society will eventually crumble and die in some way? We are God's agents in a society which cares little for goodness and right living but which cares much for pride and for wealth. We urgently need to find time and space for God, so that God can talk to today's society. And if enough of us begin to really spend time listening for God, perhaps the horrors and violence of scenes like the school siege in Beslan will gradually become horrors of the past, but not of the present or the future.
In the terrible tragedy of the Russian school siege at Beslan, where terrorists held hostage an entire school complete with tiny children on their first day at school, the world asked, "Where was God?" It's a fair question. Some children as well as adults were executed in cold blood by the terrorists and many more children and adults were killed in the carnage when bombs exploded in the school. The media carried a chilling picture of a small boy cowering in terror with his hands on his head while a terrorist had his boot on an explosive device just a few feet away. The children were told to make no noise, otherwise they would be shot - and some were indeed shot by the Chechan terrorists.
In stifling heat the children were allowed neither food nor water and the world watched with disbelieving horror when dehydrated, disorientated, shocked, injured children were eventually carried out of the building on stretchers.
Perhaps the most immediate questions on many people's lips were, "How could any human being do such a thing?" and "Why didn't God step in and stop it and punish those murdering terrorists?" and "Where was God?"
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, responded to that question in a television interview by saying that God was seen every time an older child comforted a younger child or somebody did a brave and unselfish act. God was seen in the rescue forces who risked their own lives to save as many as they could. Perhaps God was in the midst of the horror, being crucified again and again by the terrorists and suffering within every single hostage. All of that gives some understanding of God's role in the horror, but still doesn't really answer the question of why didn't God prevent it?
If God really is God, then God must by definition by omnipotent and therefore able to smite terrorists and save the innocent. In the Old Testament, God was famous for smiting anyone who got in his way, even those who inadvertently got in his way, like the man who put out his hand to steady the Ark of the Covenant when it was being carried over rough ground. God apparently had no compunction in smiting him for touching the Ark, even though the man was only trying to prevent the Ark from falling (2 Samuel 6:6-7). To our modern Western eyes that would seem like smiting the innocent, yet today it seems as though God fails to smite even those who are evil murderers of children.
Clearly this is not a new problem, for in today's Old Testament reading from the book of Habakkuk, the prophet cries out to a God who appears not to notice the evil which is going on all around and who apparently fails to hear the prayers of the faithful. Habakkuk says this, "O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous-- therefore judgment comes forth perverted."
Habakkuk could have been speaking today in the aftermath of Beslan. In fact, he was speaking about 600 years BC, just before Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Judah which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem. And it seems that perhaps God did respond to Habakkuk, because whether or not he was aware that he had heard God speak, Habakkuk suddenly makes a decision and it's a decision which enables him to hear God's voice and to know that whatever the appearance to the contrary, God has the situation in hand.
Habakkuk's decision was to make time and space to listen for God. He decided to wait upon God until God responded to him. Habakkuk says this, "I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint."
And by making time and space and waiting upon God, Habakkuk was able to hear God and to discern what God was saying to the whole nation. It became clear that God was well aware what was going on, for God said this, "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith."
Time and events proved God right, for shortly after that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah, sacked Jerusalem and carried off all the prominent citizens into exile in Babylon.
Things do change. They change for the good, but often in an unexpected way. And that change happens in God's time, not our time. For us as it was for the Jews of Habakkuk's time, part of the problem is that too many people are proud and their spirit is not right within them, but God reminds us that those whose spirit is right within them live by faith, by believing and trusting in God no matter what the provocation to abandon that trust and belief.
God also needed someone who was willing and able to take time to listen and to wait upon God. Once Habakkuk made that effort, God was able to use him by warning him of what would inevitably happen to a nation which had turned their backs on goodness and right living. And it did indeed happen.
Today's parallels are obvious. Is God warning us today? Is our society becoming so decadent that like all prosperous societies before it, our society will eventually crumble and die in some way? We are God's agents in a society which cares little for goodness and right living but which cares much for pride and for wealth. We urgently need to find time and space for God, so that God can talk to today's society. And if enough of us begin to really spend time listening for God, perhaps the horrors and violence of scenes like the school siege in Beslan will gradually become horrors of the past, but not of the present or the future.
