The people looked up and saw fire and smoke--the
darkness of the cloud spread out across the sky--flames burning
the high places. There were sounds of rumblings and roars-crashing
and tumbling. The people watched in horror and amazement--some
few moved forward wanting a closer look at the terrible wonder
but most were frozen in their tracks--filled with fear and disbelief.
After the events of this past week we are quick to seize on these words as a description of the New York crowds around the World Trade Center in the moments after the jet planes had impacted the twin towers Tuesday morning. In our minds eye we know the picture too well--the television and print media have imprinted the images almost into our very souls--a plane--the building--the explosion--the smoke--too much smoke--and then the shudder and the collapse of stone and structure. Yet the smoke and fire in high places striking terror into the hearts of the people is actually a description from our Old Testament lesson for today A lesson that speaks a most amazing word to we who are struggling to understand and respond to the violent acts of terrorism visited upon our nation.
In our first lesson from the Old Testament book of Exodus we are encountered by an event some 1,300 years before Christ. When the Hebrew tribes delivered from slavery in Egypt come to Mount Sinai where Moses, their tribal leader, goes up the mountain. The mountain is clouded by thunder and lightening with billowing smoke and fire. The descriptions of the fire, clouds of smoke and the roar from the mountaintop are captured in another portion of Exodus speaking of the fear the people felt--fear of nature's destructive power but also fear of God. Some scholars have suggested that the mountain may well have been an active volcano--certainly there was great violence in the storm at the mountain's top. Moses goes up the Mountain and stays there. Stays there far longer than the people can imagine anyone surviving. With all the fire and destruction the people look up and assume that no one could live through that. Time passes--the people give up hope in Moses ever returning. They start looking for other assurances--anything that would comfort them. In desperation even the superstitious religions of Egypt begin to look good--the people lose sight of their covenant promise from God and turn instead to a god of their own creation--a golden calf. When God sees what the people have done--God is angry--God turns to Moses and says that he is through with the people--God declares that he will destroy them and create a new people from Moses--But Moses appeals to God and begins to remind God of the history of the people of the way God had created these people--the stories of Abraham, Issac and Jacob--the stories of God's deliverance of the people out of Egypt.
In the midst of all the violence, death and destruction of this past Tuesday--one of the more often asked questions has been "What can I do" I have personally been fascinated to see that in the midst of many suggestions--such as urging people to donate blood, money and supplies--there has also been a constant call for people to pray. Pray for those who suffer--those who mourn--those who died. Pray to God and ask God to comfort--care-guide and help us. Why pray? The donations of blood and money make sense, but prayer?
Moses went to God in the face of imminent disaster. The Hebrew people were goners--but Moses went to God anyway--and we are told that the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. Prayer changes things--changes us--changes others--changes God. Changes the very way we see and understand the world. The schools and many parents took time to talk about Tuesday's events with their children--but what the nation and many in this community did that really began a process toward change was that they paused in prayer. Tuesday afternoon we activated the phone tree and gave the congregation--at mos--four hours warning that there would be a prayer service in the evening. With such a short lead time we printed only 25 bulletins --when those ran out we printed another 20--and then another 20--and then--well, the point is that people came to a prayer service.
And Friday we opened the sanctuary in the morning and kept it open all day--at noon there was another prayer service and more people gathered.--hours later--at 2:30--I watched a group of young adults and teens pull up in their cars--they walked together quietly into the sanctuary--they sat quietly--praying. Prayer is a witness to our faith in something more than ourselves--the belief that God is still God of all creation--that miracles do happen--and the stories of this past Tuesday witness as much to miracle and grace as they do to tragedy and pain--in the midst of the terror and destruction there were many who escaped--many who miraculously survived. Oh, the stories we have heard and could tell! God changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people--the problem is that last Tuesday the evil that humanity can become sought to bring disaster and the plan succeeded. Evil needs no help from God--Evil becomes its own god. There are some who still view God as the wrathful and judging bully of the universe--but the witness of scripture--of the life and teachings of Jesus--is that God long ago turned from force and violence to a better and more life giving way. Even at the moment that the ten commandments were being handed down to Moses, God was turning from the use of law to control his people to a higher ideal of forgiveness and grace. Why did the people turn from God at the foot of Mount Sinai--fearful and alone in the wilderness they had lost their way--they had no center to their faith so they turned to whatever was offered. Much of the world is filled with the lost--those who live in fear--those who hunger for life but find only starving diets.
The forces of evil and darkness are quick to fill the hearts and even the minds and souls of those who have nothing but themselves to believe in. Those who have no reason to believe in any light brighter than their own making. I doubt that there is a child who has not lost something at one time or another--a favorite toy--a book--a paper--a note--a friend--maybe even a parent. I doubt that there is a person who has not been lost at one time or another. We have all felt the frustration of looking for something that should have been just where we remembered leaving it the last time we saw it--but for some reason it wasn't there. We retraced our steps--looked through the various items near where the lost should have been found--and the more we looked the more frustrated--maybe even angry--we became.--mad at ourselves for not being more careful--mad at the lost for making us feel so angry--mad at the whole situation--maybe even mad at God for not helping us to find the lost--maybe even mad at God after we made a deal with God--or at least thought we had a deal--you know the type--God, you help me just this one time and I promise I'll... Few moments bring us closer to God more often then seeking that which is lost And few experiences are more universally known by all human beings
Jesus tells parables about the lost--simple parables. One parable is about a shepherd with 100 sheep who finds that one sheep is lost so he leaves the 99 to the seek the lost one. Or again he tells of a woman who loses a denarii--a coin--and boy does she clean house. In each case the most fascinating word to me in these parables is the word "until." In each case they seek until... The shepherd seeks until he finds the sheep--the woman seeks the coin until it is found. And all of this seeking and finding is for what purpose? As Jesus tells it--the end result of all finding is the joy--the rejoicing. Do you remember what it was like to find something that was lost--to find that which we did not expect to ever see again? In the word "until" we find all the hope and promise of these parables--and our lives.
Tuesday the rescue workers began seeking those who were lost in the collapse of the twin towers--the search was frantic--desperate--filled with prayers. And each time someone was found alive the cheers went up. A life found--but too many were not. The seeking was carried on not just to find but to rejoice in the life found. Christ's parables are invitations to seek life--to recognize in our humanity a gift from God.
For some reason one of my most vivid memories
of high school basketball--is not of a great victory or a painful
loss--it is not of a stellar player or some buzzer beating basket.
My most vivid memory is of a game that had been very close and
filled with critical moments--suddenly being whistled to a stop--and
all the players of both teams on their hands and knees under the
basket at one of the court--crawling ever so slowly across the
floor until one player exuberantly called out-- "I found
it!" The missing contact lens had stopped all the action
and brought both teams together not in competition but in mutual
service to the cause of seeking the lost. There are things that
get lost--and there are people who are lost. There are even times
when we feel lost. God seeks--and some who God seeks are amazed
to be found. That is the miracle of grace God's response is not
caught up in judgment is not defined by punishment or even consequences.
This past week has revealed to many of us just how lost we can
become--how terrible and evil the lostness of our world can be.
The shepherd finds the lost sheep the woman finds the lost coin.
And they invite their friends to rejoice with them. To me, a lost
sheep or coin just isn't worth that much excitement. But God says
there is rejoicing. Which simply reaffirms the fact that God is
God and I am not. The rejoicing of the angels over the finding
of the lost is the promise to me of the gospel--the meaning of
grace. It is so easy to become lost In the death and destruction
of this past week. Many of us came perilously close to being lost.
The anger and fear that followed the attacks threatened to overwhelm
us with evil--but then came the call to prayer. And the nation
turned from idols of self and power and paused to seek God--to
be sure not everyone found their way. But I do believe that anyone
who truly listens in prayer to God will not be led to do evil.
The God who heard Moses did not visit disaster upon the people
--they would create enough problems for themselves. God is the
source not of suffering but of life--Eternal life--The hope beyond
hope. As a nation--as a people--we stand now at a critical moment.
It is so easy--terribly easy--to slip into the ranks of the lost--to
lose our real direction in life--to have our priorities and values
compromised--misplaced--lost. There are those who mourn this
morning over the loss of a loved one--there are those seeking
answers to doubts and questions of faith--there are those being
tempted to pursue gods of retribution, prejudice and more evil--but
there is also rejoicing this morning--rejoicing over that which
was lost and now is found--rejoicing that even as we know that
we may get lost again God will not leave us to our lostness. God
has decided before not to let disaster be the final word--there
is grace--there is something more than judgment and retribution--there
is life--and the love of God for all people--even those we don't
even want to seek--let alone find. There were those the rescuers
could not find this week--but that does not mean they are lost--God
knows--God seeks--God finds--and there is rejoicing in heaven.
Because of prayer God once decided not to visit disaster upon
the people--so if we feel a little lost today the best advice
may simply be--Let us pray.
Amen.