At 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Sept. 11th, our world was changed in an instant. Just as the previous generation of Americans was irrevocably altered on Dec. 7th, 1941, so this generation has been forever changed. America has suffered the loss of its innocence. We all have many more questions than we have answers. As I watched CNN and NBC, listened to the radio, listened to people in our community, and participated in a prayer vigil where 250 construction workers met together on Lansdowne St. to pray, I have been struck by the questions: Why did the terrorists do what they did? How can people be so evil? Who is to blame? Where is God? What can I do? And are we still in danger?

Such questions are so hard to answer in such tragic times. But we ask them nonetheless. If we were to take a tour of the Bible we would find that one book has more questions than any other. It is the book of Job. Job has over 330 questions in it's 42 chapters. Genesis, only has 160. Matthew, has around 180. Even the book of Psalms with its 150 chapters has only 160.

So why does the book of Job have so many questions? The answer is quite simple. It is because the book of Job deals with a horrible tragedy.

Here is what happened. Job was a righteous man. Greater than all others. A hedge, a barrier of protection, was set around him, his family, and his business. Suddenly, without warning, and for no reason other than his being blameless and upright, his family and his business were wiped out. Right in the middle of his everyday business life, two rogue groups from Arabia and Mesopotamia raided Job's livestock, took them away, and put his servants to the sword. Then his family was lost in a freak accident, when a huge wind storm swept in from the desert, striking the four corners of his house, which collapsed killing his entire family inside.

It was sudden and swift. It was unwarranted. It was unconscionable. (Pause)

Our very large international family, our robust economy has been hit and hit hard. In many ways, the events of this past week seem eerily echoed in the story of Job. Why is there such a similarity between the events of Job and the events of our life this past week? It's because, even though 4,000 years separate the two events, life, and I mean the things that make life meaningful, have not changed at all. Not even over 4 millennia. I received an email from my cousin yesterday and he said the same thing. "I have been thinking that maybe not much has changed - the same evil - the same revenge - the same terror - the same tears." Nevertheless, we have lost our innocence.

However, we dare not go down the road of hatred and revenge. I have been hearing reports of Arab-Americans who are afraid to leave their homes for fear of someone doing them bodily harm, simply because of their ethnicity. Most of them came to America to get away from the kind of people who perpetrated this crime on humanity. America dare not go down the road of ethnic strife - once taken, there is no return. Use your influence wherever you can to speak out against those who would take us down that path.

I.
So what do we do in our tragedy? We do what Job did when he learned of his loss. We go into mourning. When he received the first two reports that his business and livestock had been wiped out, he was silent. But when he received the news that his children were lost¼ He stood up and tore his robe. Then, he fell on his knees and mourned: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will return." In other words, he was saying, "everything that had meaning for me in my life is gone." As he came into this world, so Job felt he was leaving it: with nothing.

As the news was coming in by degrees, it seemed each successive revelation piled on the previous one. We did not know how many people had perished, but we knew, as mayor Giuliani of New York said, whatever the number, "it will be more than we can bear." It wouldn't surprise me if someone here this morning knows someone who lost a loved one. Our fellow citizens were lost: dads, moms, husbands, wives, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. We learned that citizens of other countries had also been working in what was truly a World Trade Center: Japan, Korea, Germany, Australia, and many many more. The news has shown their faces and told their stories and the mourning has rippled across the country. We mourn for every family lost. Every family torn apart. We weep for our nation, not because it has been weakened. It has not. We mourn because of our loss, our deep and profound loss.

Does mourning demoralize our people and paralyze our country? No, it does not. It rather undergirds our strength and reveals our soul. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto is reported to have said, "I am afraid that with our actions, we have awakened a sleeping giant, and sown the seeds of our own defeat."

II.
Now, after we have cried and grieved about as much as we are able, we begin asking more questions. Who is to blame? Some of us are at that point now. The very scary part about answering this question, is the fact that in this situation the implications are so profound. Our world has become so small, and at the same time so polarized. How our national leaders answer this question will involve the whole world.

Job had a hedge of protection around him. A barrier which God had erected, but then it was taken away, allowing Satan to have his way with Job. It is the Old Testament's way of saying even the most righteous and best of this earth are not immune to suffering at the hands of evil. Just because we are Christians does not mean we are protected from bad things happening. Not in this life. The writer of Job understood this. But Job himself could not. He was too caught up in his grief and loss.

Job's friends couldn't comprehend what had happened either. His three friends came to him and said, in effect, only those who have done evil perish. Those who are righteous are never destroyed. They thought that Job had done some terribly evil thing, and this is why he was suffering. "God has lifted the barrier of protection to punish you," they said. They were wrong. Job's body and spirit were wounded unto death, he was shaken to his very core, but - listen to me - his faith was still strong. He said at a later point, "though He slay me, yet will I serve Him."

I was struck this week by a comment made by a journalist on one of the network news shows. He said, "We thought we were impervious to attack because of two great barriers-the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Those two great oceans are no longer barriers. They have been breached and our protection is gone." Our innocence is lost. The Disney song was correct: It is a small world after all.

I have heard Christians say, who have good intentions, that God is punishing us for our sinful behavior. Or all we need to do is to have faith that something good will come out of this. They are only partially right. We must learn what Job eventually learned, that as good and great as America is we do not have an exclusive and closed relationship with God. No one does. There is a third party who is active in this world, who at any moment can intrude. And Satan and all the evil he inspires, intruded this past Tuesday through the hearts and minds of ruthless men.

III.
There is a final question. Where then is God? Where is God when terrible tragedies befall us?

Remember that Job's friends were silenced because they were wrong. But, Job continues to speak. He wants to know why he has suffered. Why has God allowed this to happen? He finally gets his answer when God visits him, and from out of a storm asks Job 86 questions. 25% of the questions in the book of Job are asked in four chapters where God is interrogating Job. Listen to some of the questions:

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you understand. Do you have an arm like God's, and can your voice thunder like his? Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane.

Job is silenced and he realizes he is only a man, that he cannot possibly comprehend the meaning of the events around him. In the end Job repents in sackcloth and ashes.

Where was God this week? Hear me now. God was not in the cockpits of those four planes. It was certainly within His permissive will, but He did not cause this to happen.

Where was God this week? Brett Blair answered this question in an email to me this week. "He was there in the last moments as loved ones called on cell phones to say, "I am trapped on a plane, or on the top floor with no way of escape, and I just wanted to tell you that I love you." He was with those young men who gave their lives rushing the hijackers and crashing the planes rather than cause even more loss of innocent life. He was in the fireman's suit. Behind police badges. Holding a scalpel and a syringe. He is near the heart of all who in the face of this tragedy love their neighbor and turn to God in repentance--those who in the ashes of these last few days turn to him, not for answers, but because in the end tragedies teach us that we are mortal and fully dependent on Him."

And as mortals it is only natural for us to ask questions.

What should we do? We should mourn, yes, but we should also rebuild. We should rebuild our walls as soon as we honor all those who have fallen. We have already begun to show our will to go on, and, I pray to God that we will begin to examine our lives and seek not only our own personal renewal, but the rebirth of the faith in God our nation once had.

Let us determine that we, like Job of old, will allow the tragedy we experienced this week, and all that is certain to come in its wake, to drive us closer to the God who has always been so faithful to us. Let us be willing to say, along with him, "though he slay me, yet will I serve Him."

Yes, we have grieved God as a nation. Yes, we need to repent. But this is the work of evil men, not a vengeful God. Where is God? He is here in this sanctuary this morning. He is no stranger to anguish. Let us never forget what Job could not know, that Jesus suffered for our sins, and died. However, he was raised from the dead. Yes, terrorists can take our innocence, but they can never rob us of the hope we have in Christ.

J.T. Kauffman