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Sunday, September 11, 2005
Scripture: Genesis 50:15-21
Reverend Larry Gerber
Exactly four years after that terrible day of terrorist violence, we are still asking “Why” and “What now?”
September 11, 2001. Exactly four years ago today.
It was the worst attack in American history, and it burned into our brains a series of heartbreaking images that will stay with us forever. The Twin Towers falling. The Pentagon exploding. Flight 93 crashing into the ground. A firefighter carrying away a flag-draped victim. The twisted rubble of Ground Zero.
It wasn’t long before the terrorist attacks became known by the shorthand expression “9/11.” Then, when terrorists planted bombs on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 and injuring more than 1,500, the attack was dubbed “Spain’s 9/11.” Michael Moore skewered the Bush administration with a documentary called “Fahrenheit 9/11.” And a San Francisco columnist who switched from liberal to conservative in the aftermath of the attack on America called himself a “9/11 Republican.” And then there was the bombing in England this year: London’s 9/11.
We are living in a post (and present)-9/11 world. We’ve seen the evil that people can do, and we’ve seen the spirit of sacrifice and service in firefighters, police officers, and ordinary citizens. But the question remains, “Where is God in all this?”
Some say they saw God in the bravery of rescuers who rushed into burning buildings after the airplanes hit. Others point to God’s power in the passengers who overcame the hijackers on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania. Still others claim that God was holding up the Twin Towers long enough for most of the people on the lower floors to escape — but, to be honest, that seems to have more to do with architecture than with Almighty God. If God was holding up the Twin Towers for some, why didn’t He hold it up long enough for all to get out, and why did He allow the firefighters and other rescuers to perish in that inferno?
We sit here today, four years after 9/11, still wondering about the place of God in these awful events. And , of course, we are asking questions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As we look for answers, it makes sense to go back to the beginning, to the book of Genesis, and discover how our ancestors responded to attacks that were as unexpected and as evil as the suicide missions of 2001.
In particular, let’s look at the story of Joseph, the favorite son of a man named Jacob. Joseph’s own personal 9/11 occurs when his brothers become overwhelmed with jealousy, and conspire to kill him. “Come now,” they say, “let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him” (Genesis 37:20). No doubt the anger of the terrorists who attacked the United States four years ago was fueled, at least in part, by this kind of resentment and jealousy.
Joseph, after all, was the brother who seemed to have everything, who seemed to always get his way, who seemed to have influence over their father. Clearly, whatever the brother would conspire to do against Joseph — he had it coming. So they thought.
Fortunately, one of the brothers intervenes, and convinces his siblings not to take Joseph’s life. Instead, they strip him, throw him into a pit, and sell him into slavery. They smear his robe with goat’s blood, and show it to their father, tricking him into believing that Joseph has been torn to pieces by wild animals. Joseph is carted off to Egypt, where he becomes a slave of one of Pharaoh’s officers.
Fast forward to the end of Genesis. Joseph has risen to power in Egypt, and has become second-in-command to Pharaoh himself. A famine hits his homeland, and his brothers travel down to Egypt to buy grain, not knowing that Joseph is now the governor of the land. After a series of tests and negotiations, Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers, and they are relieved that he does not strike, stab or slay them for their previous offenses. They fall down before him and say, “We are here as your slaves” (50:18).
They did the crime, so they expect to do the time. It only seems fair.
But Joseph goes in an entirely different direction. “Do not be afraid!” he says to them. “Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones” (vv. 19-21).
What a jaw-dropping response this is, from a man who had been betrayed by his brothers, tossed into a pit, and then sold into slavery. We might expect him to be angry, but he’s not. We would sympathize if he was bitter, but he’s not. We would understand if he felt a need to pursue revenge with all the shock and awe of Egyptian military might ... but he doesn’t go this way at all. Joseph focuses on reconciliation, not revenge.
So to answer the question, Where is God in all of this? — God is in God’s people, and when the world sees this, it’s a powerful lesson in our post-9/11 world.
Not that Joseph considers himself to be God, or to be playing God. Notice how Joseph begins his statement to his brothers: “Am I in the place of God?” Of course not! Joseph knows that he is not God, despite the fact that he has a position of power and prestige in a major superpower of the ancient Near East. He realizes that he is under the Lord’s judgment and control, just as his brothers are. They are all subject to the same divine authority, all accountable to the one Lord God for their words and for their deeds.
Unfortunately, we’ve forgotten our place in this divine-human power structure. We often put ourselves in the place of God rather than letting God put us in our place. Have we been playing God, or letting God play us?
Researchers play God when they create clones in the laboratory. Food scientists play God when they develop genetically modified food. Judges and juries play God when they condemn criminals to death. Politicians play God when they use military might to remove a dictator, end a civil war, or eliminate a weapon of mass destruction. We play God when we judge and condemn a friend based on a rumor, a half-truth or a second-hand report.
In all of these activities, there is a real and present danger that we will forget our proper place in the world. We are not – repeat not — in the place of God, but we should be in God’s place as servants, as ambassadors and as witnesses as we seek to bring forgiveness and reconciliation to the world.
That’s why we should be extremely cautious about making judgments that belong only to the Lord. Joseph could have crushed his brothers for their cruel and hateful crimes against him — he had the opportunity and the means — but he decided against it. He knew that he and his brothers together were standing under divine authority.
Only God is in the place of God. No Pharaoh, no president, no governor and no general stands in his place — only God. Only the Lord can be an impartial, just and eternal judge, one who “will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity” (Psalm 98:9). This was true for Joseph and his brothers. And it’s true for us, for our friends, and for those who do violence against us.
It’s important to know our place in the universe, and to trust that God will play his proper role as creator, judge and redeemer.
But to let God be God does not mean that we, as people, do nothing. Instead, we are challenged to follow Joseph in working for reconciliation instead of revenge.
The approach that Joseph takes is not as ancient, otherworldly and unrealistic as you might first assume it is. During World War II, the Russian philosopher Semyon Frank wrote in his notebook: “In this terrifying war, in the inhuman chaos which reigns in the world, the one who first starts to forgive will in the end be victorious.”
This seemed incredibly idealistic at the time, with bombs falling and millions dying, but in the end his words came true. At the close of the war, some members of the Allied camp wanted to pursue revenge against Germany, but others remembered how the punitive nature of the Versailles treaty after the First World War had created bitterness, and led to the rise of the Nazi party. So, instead of pursuing revenge, the Allies worked for reconciliation. The coal and steel industries of France and Germany were brought together, and their resources were pooled. A center was established in Switzerland to work for European reconciliation. On top of this, a generosity of spirit was at work in the United States, and a massive amount of money flowed into Europe through the Marshall Plan. Because the focus was on reconciliation instead of revenge, age-old enemies quickly became friends.
The one who first starts to forgive will, in the end, be victorious. It’s as true today as it was after World War II, and in the time of Joseph.
The challenge for us is to know our proper place in the world, and to know the place of God in human history as well. Our place is to be active followers of Jesus, and God’s place is to transform evil into good. Just how God does this is always unpredictable, because God’s ways are not our ways. But we have irrefutable evidence that God is always working to do this — we see it in the story of Joseph, when God takes the evil of the brothers and turns it into good, “in order to preserve a numerous people” (v. 20). And we see it in the story of Jesus on the cross — Christ’s own personal 9/11 — when God takes the evil of the crucifixion and transforms it into forgiveness, new life and everlasting salvation.
The Lord’s plans will certainly prevail, despite our tendency to toss people into pits and even crucify the Son of God. We humans may always be dreaming up evil, but God is always dreaming up good — coming up with wild and wonderful transformations, and surprising us with the ways that love can conquer hatred, and reconciliation can overpower revenge.
About the best we can do is to point people to the Lord, and show some evidence that he is alive and well and at work in the world. When the Christian author Philip Yancey was asked, after 9/11, the question of where God is when it hurts, he thought for a moment and then said, “I guess the answer to that question is another question. Where is the church when it hurts? If the church is doing its job — binding wounds, comforting the grieving, offering food to the hungry — I don’t think people will wonder so much where God is when it hurts. They’ll know where God is: in the presence of his people on earth.”
This is our place: to bind up wounds, comfort the grieving, feed the hungry, and work for reconciliation. We can do this as individuals, as families, as a community of faith and as a nation. If we know our place, then we’ll discover God’s place, and we’ll see the Lord’s hand at work in even the most horrifying of human events.
Our God is with us, working for good. On 9/11, through each natural disaster, such as Katrina, and every day. God is working for good. Thanks to each of you for your part in reconciliation and not judgment; for lending a helping hand, not pointing a finger.