How are we to react to such evil?  The world is anxiously waiting to see how one man, President George W Bush, will react.  Now there is a man in serious need of prayer.  He is determined to identify and punish those responsible, that much is clear.  The US Congress has given him both the authority to proceed, more or less as he sees fit, and very substantial resources with which to act.  He has no problem in the areas of authority, resources or support.  The problem with which he is confronted is twofold.  Firstly, what precisely is he to do and, secondly, how precisely is he to do it? On both these matters he will receive plenty of conflicting advice.  He needs wisdom, not merely human wisdom but the wisdom of God, in order to decide how, precisely, to proceed.  We need to be ernestly praying for him, that he will seek for, and receive, that wisdom.  I must say that I am optimistic that he will proceed wisely simply because of one thing.  Israel declared a day of mourning, the EU a day of mourning and remembrance but President Bush declared Friday as a day of prayer and remembrance.  I choose to take that distinction between a call to mourning and a call to prayer as an indication that he is, in some measure, looking to God for answers.  If that is the case then he is at least headed in the right direction and needs our support and encouragement in prayer.

I expect that most of us reacted to the news of the terrible deeds with a mixture of shock, horror, disbelief and grief.  Now that the reality has had a little time to sink in, what is your reaction today?  We have seen a variety of reactions in New York and Washington: relief on the part of those whose loved ones escaped; devastated sorrow on the part of those who know their loved ones to be dead; a roller-coaster of hope and despair on the part of those whose loved ones are still missing, presumed dead.  Some seek justice, others want revenge.  Some, indeed, are prepared to take the law into their own hands.  Many turn to the church.  Others will blame God, or at least cite this horror as supposed evidence against the reality of a loving God.  How have we been responding and how should we be responding?

I believe that there are three critical elements to how we should respond:-
1. We need to praise God both in and despite the circumstances.
2. We need to look to Him, rather than to ourselves, for help.
3. We need to examine ourselves before Him and put right whatever He identifies as requiring attention.

Praise God
It sounds crazy to say that we should be praising God in the middle of these dreadful circumstances. But it is not crazy.  Rather it is the only way by which we may effectively prevent the circumstances from driving us crazy!  That’s easy to say to a congregation in Banbridge, thousands of miles from the scene of the crime, to people who are relatively isolated from the trauma which is unfolding.  But it is just as true for those who are suffering in America, and across the world, as it is for us in Banbridge. Indeed, the greater and more intense the suffering, the more essential it is that we praise God.  Why? Because when we begin to praise God we begin to recall again just who He is.  When we begin to praise Him we proclaim to the forces of darkness just whom they are dealing with, not mere man but the almighty, ever-lasting God.  As we begin to praise God we begin to do battle with the despair, helplessness and hopelessness that threatens to permanently overwhelm us.  As we begin to praise God we begin to dissolve the anger, bitterness and hatred that could so easily spring up within us.  As we praise Him, we take our eyes off ourselves and focus on Him and we become stronger as a result.  Turn with me to Habakkuk 3:17-18.  Habakkuk is in the throes of a national disaster. Yet look at his determination. "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.”  Habakkuk is describing a national disaster. He is describing a situation where the people have lost absolutely everything and all means of supporting or helping themselves, yet he is determined to praise God because of who He is.   This is not praising God for the circumstances in which we find ourselves but rather making a conscious decision to not let the circumstances stop us from giving to God the praise to which He deserves and is entitled.  Despite the awfulness of the circumstances we have so much to thank Him for.  Just think ... at one stage it was feared that the number of casualties in the World Trade Centre could be up to 50,000.  The current estimates are just below 5,000.  In the Pentagon, the initial fears were of numbers of casualties in the region of 800.  The current estimates are much lower. What would have been the consequences of that fourth plane reaching its intended target?  It is most likely that many more lives would have been lost.  It sounds stupid to thank God that the fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania but, while we deeply mourn the loss of those who were aboard it, we must be thankful that it did not reach its target.  It sounds crazy to use the words “only” and “5000 casualties” in the same sentence.  But again, while we mourn every life that has been lost we must remember to thank God for the tens of thousands who somehow miraculously escaped.  We are horrified by how quickly the twin towers collapsed, but we can still thank God for every precious moment that they remained standing, against all odds, allowing more people to escape.  Our human instinct clamours for justice and retaliation but that is a treacherous road, fraught with danger and difficulty.  One wrong move could so easily make the situation much worse rather than better.  And so we need to get our attention off ourselves, away from our own hurts and look to our God.  He is our "stronghold in time of trouble" (Psalm 37:39).

Turn to God
Which brings me to my second point. Turn to Psalm 121. The psalmist looks to the hills and asks a question. “I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?”  To which hills is he looking and what does he see there?  The traditional interpretation is that it is to the hills on which Jerusalem is situated that the psalmist looks and that there he sees the place that God has chosen as His dwelling on earth.  In looking at these hills the psalmist catches sight of the source of his aid.  The hills could very well be a source of comfort, a reminder that God is with him.  But hills could also represent a source of danger.  The hills could harbour an enemy ready to attack.  Many of Israel’s enemies lived in hilly country on Israel’s borders.  It may very well be that it is with a sense of fear and foreboding that the psalmist looks at these hills and cries out “Who will help me?”.  It is with that same desperation and sense of helplessness that people look at the devastation in New York and Washington and wonder “how can we combat this new threat?”.  It is the same question – who will help us?  And the answer to all who cry out to God for help, whether in the time of the psalmist or today, is the same.  God says, “I will help – if you will let me”.  The psalmist affirms his faith in the protection and provision of God in those words that we know so well: “My help comes from the Lord,  the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip.  He who watches over you will not slumber;  indeed, he who watches over Israel  will neither slumber nor sleep.  The LORD watches over you -  the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.  The Lord will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”  Our God whom we worship is not deaf to the cries of those whom he has created.  When we cast ourselves on Him, He comes to our aid both quickly and effectively.  And there is nothing that can prevent Him coming to our aid.  The lesson read by the Duke of Edinburgh during the service in St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday was taken from St Paul’s epistle to the Romans  (Romans 8:31-39). I want to draw your attention to the promises in that passage but first turn to Romans 8: 28. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”  It may be difficult to see God’s purpose but He is working for our good.  Now listen again to the assurance that God gives us, as expressed by Paul - “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:  “For your sake we face death all day long;  we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Now, read those words again and substitute the word ‘me’ for the word ‘us’ and the word ‘I’ for the word ‘we’ and let it sink in.

Examine ourselves before God
All the promises of God, His protection and His provision, while they are available to everyone, everywhere - regardless of colour, creed, class or condition - they only apply to those who have claimed them and made them their own through faith in Jesus Christ.  They only apply to those who are actually trusting in God through faith in Jesus Christ, rather than merely saying that they are trusting in God.  Turn for a moment to Proverbs 18:10-11. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall.”.  When we trust in the Lord we find our true place of absolute, dependable, reliable, genuine safety.  There are no "what if's" or uncertainty.  But this verse does not stand on its own.  In the next verse we read that "The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, they imagine it an unscaleable wall".  Note the word "imagine".  In fact is it is anything but unscaleable.  Here we see the contrast between trusting in God and trusting in our own strengths and resources.

It has not escaped anyone’s notice that the targets hit in Washington and New York on Tuesday are symbolic of the military and economic might of that nation.  Anyone who has ever handled a US dollar bill will have noticed the motto printed on it “In God We Trust”.  I believe that the people of the United States have an important question to ask themselves before God.  Now may not be quite the right time for such a question, perhaps it would be better to wait until the dead have been buried, but the question must still be asked.  “Are we really trusting in God or are we trusting in our military and economic might instead?”  They are not alone.  As a community we too must ask a very similar question.  As individuals each of us must ask ourselves before God whether we are truly trusting in Him or whether we are trusting in our own strength and ingenuity.  And as we do so let us remember the words of Isaiah, the words which Jesus used as His commission as He commenced His earthly ministry, the commission in which, as His church, we now share: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

May God give to each of us the grace to honestly examine our hearts before Him and to repent of those things in which we have placed our trust, rather than in Him.  I pray that each of us will turn to Him, rather than to ourselves, for help in these difficult days.  I pray that, by His grace, we will all lift our eyes to Him and praise Him.  Finally I pray that God will indeed bless the people of the United States of America; that they will know the grace and compassion of our great and glorious God; that He will give them strength and comfort in this time of trial; that He will give them the grace to surrender themselves, together with their resources and might, into His hands; that He will give their leaders divine wisdom and steadfast hearts so that His name may truly be glorified throughout that great nation and the world.  In God, may we all once again, truly, trust.