9/11 VIVIDLY RECALLED

Watching the replay this week of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers instantly brought back the unbelievable horrors of that day. Every aspect, it seems, was recorded by some camera or audio recorder. I found the impact of the re-run of the footage intensely sobering. There was no need to go looking for some new aspect of the event as the media is always inclined to do. It was important simply to see again the main story.

The human aspect of it was the most horrific and the most sobering. Four plane loads of unsuspecting passengers, having been murderously hijacked, were deliberately used as highly lethal missiles. In three of them everyone was atomised on impact. We actually saw very clearly one of those impacts taking place! Nothing was left to the imagination. The stunned horror of the watching bystanders was recorded in detail. That horror worsened as the flames isolated hundreds of people trapped in the floors above the point of impact. And then it happened all over again as the second tower was hit by another plane.

Some 200 people jumped from the top floors to avoid incarceration. Their jumps were witnessed by those on the ground; a devastating horrifying sight. It was unbelievable, surreal; a disaster movie of the most lurid kind had come to life. Yet worse was to come; something that no one anticipated. The first tower began to collapse, and collapse very quickly in a huge cloud of dust and rubble. The shock of that to onlookers was enormous. Then the second tower followed suit. There was little or no hope for those still in them. Later it was learned that over 300 fire fighters were killed inside the towers as they were seeking to rescue others. People immediately outside the towers were filmed running for their lives, enveloped in a fast moving, suffocating and toxic cloud. It later came as no surprise, though with awful force, that nearly 3,000 people had died in the towers. Only some 200 or so bodies were identifiable, and of those only a handful was recognisable.

It was a human horror story, an ultimate human tragedy. It was a tragedy indeed for those who were killed. It was also a tragedy for humanity generally in that it revealed once again just how deluded and deranged humanity itself could be in using its talents and sophistication to bring about such cynical and murderous actions, and, in watching it, actually applaud it. It had taken some two hours to unfold. It would change perspectives for a very long time to come.

And this was in New York, New York on what began as a normal working day. This was the capital of the world’s greatest superpower! Separated from the rest of the world by two vast oceans, it was the dominating, invulnerable, proud new empire of the turn of the century. The iconic centre of the trade on which it was built had been demolished in what was virtually a moment of time.

And the whole world watched it as it was actually happening on television screens. This was a truly horrifying aspect. One is tempted to say this aspect was unique, but unfortunately this is not strictly true. The world’s disasters, of whatever kind, are all now watched instantly. We are not told about them, we see them. And there have been many of them now.

Utterly sobering; that is my reaction. By that I mean, you just have to stop and think hard and deep about it. You just have to wrestle with the hard questions that arise. You can’t really go back to the old round of giddy pleasures burying your head at such a reminder of human vulnerability. We have to ask, “What am I doing with my life?”, “Am I accountable for my life?” It’s a very foolish thing to write off questions of life after death merely on the basis of materialistic ideology. For us, life now has to go on, of course, despite the horror, but it is so desperately important to wrestle with the question of what life is about, and why these things happen. Not just at the human level but at the divine level. What was God saying through this? Where was God in this? There’s certainly far more to this than the story of evil people against the good, even if that may be part of it.

Bob

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FURIOUS PLANET

There will be a great many Americans who will be giving God sincere thanks for the deliverance from a full scale disaster from Hurricane Irene. There will be many petitions, too, for the many for whom the hurricane did spell disaster. The pictures were distressing to watch, very reminiscent of the Tsunami scenes. None the less, there was a deliverance – the wholesale flooding of Manhattan does not bear thinking about; it would have made the New Orleans’ tragedy seem small. But it was a close shave. The vulnerability of the U.S. continues to be highlighted, even though the grace of God stilled the fury of the storm.


We live on a very dangerous planet. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, not to mention asteroids, all make it at best uncertain, at worst terrifying. God made it that way! Why? By contrast, the new creation will be very different; for one thing, as Revelation tells us, “There will be no more sea”. That removes a great source of danger, something that has taken untold numbers of lives – it was the danger New York faced! The fireball of the sun will be replaced by the light of God Himself. That removes the fire element that still burns dangerously at the heart of our planet. So why do we live with such danger now? Why is the planet like it is, a dangerous place?


I have often reflected on that issue, and I have come to the conclusion that in the great wisdom of God the very planet itself (and even the universe) was made in such a way as to remind a sinful race of the appalling dangers spiritually that surrounds it. When a redeemed race comes to populate a new creation such reminders will not be necessary, and the new creation will not have them. Put another way, there will be no need for the new creation to reflect in anyway the danger of the anger of God since it will be a place with people who have come to a full redemption through the work of Jesus. If it doesn’t have to reflect the anger of God big changes can take place.


Take the sea again. From one perspective it is a phenomenon of great beauty, and it speaks of the vastness and power of its creator. From another perspective it can be seen, as one writer put it, as “The Cruel Sea”. It is merciless and destructive. It can be whipped up into a fury. Humanity cannot survive in it. More than that, it is referred to in Scripture as the “abyss”, a term for hell itself. The very creatures that live in its depths are gruesome and grotesque, not to say ferocious and devouring. They reflect the denizens of hell. This is a picture in creation itself of something very real, but something to be aware of and avoid. It has a clear spiritual message for humanity in its present sinful predicament – it is surrounded by the appalling danger of a spiritual abyss.


Or take the sun. Again it speaks of the glory of God; it provides us with light and life. But at the same time it is highly dangerous to humanity if treated without respect. It’s the sun’s rays that control the weather and create the storms that bring distress. Those rays can bring a powerful message, if required, about the spiritual condition of humanity and its rejection of God. In fact the very structure of the creation brings us warnings from all directions, warnings that have been verbalised in the written revelation to the effect that we need to make peace with our Creator.


That is why the lessening of the hurricane into a storm as it neared New York needs to be seen as a mark of the grace of God; it was precisely measured to spare, yet to warn of the need to get back to the ways of God



Bob

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A CHRISTIAN CONTRIBUTION to A DIFFICULT PROBLEM

There was considerable media comment on the U.K. city riots at the week-end, largely focussed on what caused them, and what can be done to prevent them. It’s important that discussions on these questions continue, preferably out of the media and in a non-partisan, non-prejudiced co-operative spirit. There’s a huge amount to be learned, and no simple answers.


I was heartened by the fact that in some articles there seemed to be a readiness to come away from previous polarised positions and accept the complexity of the situation. The classic socialist view has always been that the real problem is the economic disenfranchisement of an underclass of people (something which globalisation has aggravated in our generation). We have a sink of unskilled, unemployed, frustrated younger people, who are battered by an advertising, “life style” media telling them they must have this and must have that, when their pockets are simply unable to fund them. That is socially explosive. Traditionally the answer has been thought to lie in government policy of redistribution of income toward the poor. While this viewpoint contains an important truth, it is more and more seen as not being whole truth.


The more conservative view has, on the other hand, tended to see the issue as fundamentally a moral issue – a breakdown in family, a loss of basic moral, social values, a degeneration of humanity for which moral input and strong control is essential. Again, happily, its proponents, some at least, have begun to see that though this is important, it is, again, not the whole truth. There is a realisation that people ghettoed into high rise blocks from which there is little escape, being fed a daily diet of violent behaviour and pornography by the media, constantly living financially on the edge, are going to develop a “fight for survival”, “grab what you can” amoral culture that burns angrily all the ime and passes from one generation to another.


The Christian church is by no means “flavour of the month” in such modern discussions – indeed Christian morality is a bit of a “red rag” to the social thinking bull. That should not put us off. The Christian church has a huge contribution to make to the problem. Its history is full of testimony and examples of such contributions. That history is not so much one of social ideas pedalled at government and political level, (though the career of Lord Shaftsbury, for example, demonstrates it has had high level legislative impact), but one of “on the ground”, direct, personal and practical involvement in these socially deprived areas. At the end of the day legislation does not produce culture change though it may help; direct personal involvement has proved itself much more effective in bringing about culture change.


My mind turned to such figures as F. B. Meyer, a 19th century prince of preachers who had his church in Leicester in a down town area, but alongside his church also had a factory where he provided employment for men making sticks of firewood. He directed other activities which were geared to producing a sense of self-worth. Victorian society was full of deprived areas, and a great many Christian workers dedicated themselves to those areas with practical strategies. William Booth, and the Salvation Army were, of course, household names and they operated with the same combination of social relief and the preaching of moral values. It was not just famous figures, however. There were a great many clergy and other individuals, known and unknown, who took on churches, missions and relief work and considered such work as a high vocation. It's not just in the past, either! This is a calling and an opportunity that will always be open so long as such needs are with us. Thankfully it a calling to which many still make response. The need is very much there.

It is in the midst of deep social need and degradation that the church and its gospel for the poor can be seen at its best – if and when it makes direct contact with that need.

It is also so very important to remember that in the midst of deprived areas there are many people who do have moral standards and great integrity and for whom a church on the ground can be a massive support.




Bob


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