O God, the heathen have invaded your land.
They have desecrated your holy Temple and left Jerusalem in ruins.
They left the bodies of your people for the vultures, the bodies of your servants for wild animals to eat.
They shed your people’s blood like water;
Blood flowed like water all through Jerusalem, and no one was left to bury the dead.
The surrounding nations insult us;
They laugh at us and mock us.

Lord, will you be angry with us forever?
Will your anger continue to burn like fire?
Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you,
On the people who do not pray to you.
For they have killed your people;
They have ruined your country.

Do not punish us for the sins of our ancestors.
Have mercy on us now;
We have lost all hope.
Help us, O God, and save us;
Rescue us and forgive our sins for the sake of your own honor.
Why should the nations ask us, “Where is your God?”
Let us see you punish the nations for shedding the blood of your servants.

Listen to the groans of the prisoners, and by your great power free those who are condemned to die.
Lord, pay the other nations back seven times for all the insults they have hurled at you.
Then we, your people, the sheep of your flock,
Will thank you forever and praise you for all time to come.

A good friend, Curtis Meadows, sent me an intelligence report from STRATFOR in Austin, Texas this week. It is an analysis of the new form of warfare we have witnessed this week. “In the wake of this week’s terrorist attacks in the United States, the U.S. government is trying to decide how it can defeat its new style of enemy. The key to victory is finding the enemy’s center of gravity, or what enables it to operate, and destroying it. But what has worked for the U.S. military in the past may not be enough this time around. The foundation of any successful military operation is defining and attacking the enemy’s center of gravity; the capability that enables it to operate. A war effort that does not successfully define the enemy’s center of gravity, or lacks the ability to decisively incapacitate it, is doomed to failure.”

The center of gravity, the center of a people’s will to resist, the core of their values and their identity has to be successfully attacked and overcome to succeed. Without that – any enemy action is doomed to fail. Knowing that, what was attacked in the Psalm? It’s the Temple, isn’t it? For Israel, it was the Temple that was their center of gravity, the place that held them together as a people of God. Attack the Temple and you attack not only us but also our God. But you better destroy it if you want to destroy us because we can lose any other institution and still survive.

What was attacked this week? Think about that. A pastor in New York City, Tim Keller, wrote yesterday that this attack is our first hint of what “post-modern” war is going to be like in the 21st Century. “This is post-modern war, and it is different than anything we have seen before. A) There are no rules. We can kill civilians, children, whatever. B) Second, it is not nation-on-nation. It is an international network of world terrorism attacking the multi-national corporations of world capitalism. C) Third, it is semiotic, aimed not at factories and airbases but at our icons and symbols in order to psychologically debilitate and demoralize. D) Fourth, it is deliberately and bitterly ironic. It uses no bombs or guns, but our own technology against us.”

Did you catch that part about it is not aimed at factories and airbases but at our icons and symbols -–those things that define who we are, our self-defined centers of gravity, our temples? Osama Bin Laden has been studying America for thirty years, analyzing what our centers of gravity are. Not what we assume they are but what they really are from the perspective of an enemy looking to gain a decisive and fatal advantage. What has he concluded about our icons and symbols and temples?

Our temple is global commercial power. That is why he struck the World Trade Center.

Our temple is global military power. That is why he struck the Pentagon.

Our temple is global political influence. That is why he was going to attack the White House.

Are these really our temples as he concluded? If they are, then God help us.

Why would the terrorists believe our center of gravity is those things? Are they right? Is this, among other things, a wake-up call for America? I want to ask us three questions along that line this morning.

1.  Has the “great experiment” described by our founders deteriorated into simply a great experience in consumer excess? John Philpot Curran said it this way; “It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.” Is that us he is describing? Are we the indolent who no longer vote, no longer are engaged in the institutions of democracy in our community, no longer vigilant because we are too busy with experience, comfort and enjoying our high standard of living? Have we defined ourselves as consumers or stockholders instead of stewards of what God has entrusted to us? Have we become more concerned with the rewards of freedom than the responsibilities of freedom?

If we have, then God help us.

2.  Have we, like Israel, forgotten the source of our wealth and influence? Let’s look at God’s warning to Israel in Deuteronomy 8:11-20:

“Make certain that you do not forget the Lord your God; do not fail to obey any of his laws that I am giving you today. When you have all you want to eat and have built good houses to live in and when your cattle and sheep, your silver and gold, and all your possessions have increased, be sure that you do not become proud and forget the Lord your God who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. He led you through that vast and terrifying desert where there were poisonous snakes and scorpions. In that dry and waterless land he made water flow out of solid rock for you. In the desert he gave you manna to eat, food that your ancestors had never eaten. He sent hardships on you to test you, so that in the end you could be blessed with good things. So then, you must never think that you have made yourselves wealthy by your own power and strength. Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to become rich. He does this because he is still faithful today to the covenant that he made with your ancestors. Never forget the Lord your God or turn to other gods to worship and serve them. If you do, then I warn you today that you will certainly be destroyed. If you do not obey the Lord, then you will be destroyed just like those nations that he is going to destroy as you advance.”

Have we forgotten who it was that gave us the power to become rich? Have we forgotten the source of our strength and power? Have we become proud and forgotten that we are not self-made? What do you think Osama Bin Laden would say?

What is going to be required of us over the next period of time? I know there are many things and I just want to talk with you about four in particular. I know there is a time for mourning, a time for grief and a time for comfort. That time is now and we should all do it and help others as well. But, after that is the time for courage and commitment. The media is going to focus on fear, tears and disruption but we should focus on courage and strength. Let me read again from the book of Deuteronomy as God instructs the leaders of the nation as they go to war:

“When you go out to fight against your enemies and you see chariots and horses and an army that outnumbers yours, do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God who rescued you from Egypt, will be with you. Before you start fighting, a priest is to come forward and say to the army, “Men of Israel, listen! Today you are going into battle. Do not be afraid of your enemies or lose courage and panic. The Lord your God is going with you, and he will give you victory.”

He then gives a number of men permission to leave and stay home for a number of valid reasons: building a house but not dedicating it; planting a vineyard but not harvest it; engaged to be married. Then he commands:

The officers will also say to the men, “Is there any man here who has lost his nerve and is afraid? If so, he is to go home. Otherwise, he will destroy the morale of the others.”

Let’s not be those who are sent home for the wrong reason. This is war and we are not to be afraid or to lose our nerve or we will destroy the morale of those depending on us.

3.  What is the church to do in these days? I am afraid the church is often presented as the place the fearful go to huddle for therapy. It should not be. Yes, we can be comforting in this time but the church must provide the strength that we are all going to need. It should be a place of courage and commitment.

As you probably know, a young man named Alexis deToqueville came to America in 1835 to find out what was unique and great about America. He traveled the length of this country in search of that and this is what he said: “It was not until I went into the churches of America, and I heard her pulpits flame with righteousness that I understood her greatness.”

Is it still true? Can you still only understand the greatness of America by going into the churches? Is that the real center of gravity – or is Osama Bin Laden right? If Bin Laden is right and deToqueville is now wrong then God help us.

Or could it be that the Church in its form of hundreds of thousands of seemingly invisible and insignificant “cells” across this country will still be what deToqueville described – the greatest strength of America? Is that the center of gravity Bin Laden has completely overlooked because the picture of the Church presented to the world is hard to take seriously? Perhaps more lies beneath than he can imagine.

As we look at those four things, let’s consider ninth verse of the Psalm: Help us, O God, and save us; Rescue us and forgive our sins for the sake of your honor.

Rescue us for what? For the sake of our economy? For the sake of our markets or military or way of life or political system? No, only rescue us for your honor. If we perish then you are dishonored so it is in your own interests to save us. There is nothing we have that deserves it – only Your honor.

I have been struck all this week at the irony that there are thousands dead and lost and we are told to go out and buy on Monday to prove the terrorists wrong. We have a moment of remembrance for the fallen and save our prayers for the stock market on Monday. This is what is going to show the terrorists that they have misread America? If this is true then God help us.

Here, I believe, are what is going to be required of us.

Duty:

We are used to options and choosing our own way. That has often relieved us of the necessities of duty. What did Thomas Paine say? “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”” Yet, we have tried to foist the fatigue of supporting freedom off onto others while we have reaped the blessings. Perhaps Ellen Sturgis Hooper said it best for me: “I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty; I woke and found that life was Duty.” Isn’t that so true of us? We have slept and wanted the “beauties” of this life and we have been rudely awakened this week to what life is. It is Duty. Last, while I don’t agree with everything John Rockefeller says, I like the way he puts it: “Every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation, every possession, a duty”

Sacrifice:

We have learned the truth of this observation: “It is impossible to defend perfectly against the attack of those who want to die.” Can we even comprehend that? We have been reluctant to engage in any war that risks the loss of one American life and we are up against those who have no regard for such a risk. I think I can say this because I am a veteran. It is foolish to think that there can be a war without the loss of human life. It is horrible but we cannot subcontract this to others as awful as that sounds. We are going to lose lives if we are going to secure a victory. This is not going to be entertainment on CNN.

Patriotism:

Carol has been talking with me this week about “my generation” – the Boomers. We were ashamed of our country and we were not patriots. Perhaps this is an opportunity to redeem ourselves for that. Consider what Ross Perot, not someone I always understand or agree with, says about it: “Every good and great thing stands moment by moment on the razor’s edge of destruction, and must be fought for.” Think about that because he is right. It is moment by moment and that for which we have been made stewards, this great experiment, is a good and great thing and must be fought for.

Or think about what John Stuart Mill says, “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

Repentance:

I am not talking here about a moment of silence or a prayer for the economy but a genuine asking for God’s forgiveness for our sins and transgressions. “Have mercy on us now…Help us, O God, and save us; rescue us and forgive our sins for the sake of your own honor.”

As we end the lesson I want you to look at the final verse:

“Then we, your people, the sheep of your flock, will thank you forever and praise you for all time to come.”

Whose is the victory? Yes, it is God’s.
Whose people are we? God’s
Whose sheep are we? God’s

It is all God’s and that is the source of our strength. Whatever happens, it is all God’s and He will do what He will for His honor. Remember the text from Deuteronomy: “He sent hardships on you to test you, so that in the end you could be blessed with good things.

He is our Rock and we are his people. Never forget that. Our center is not giving or missions or relief – it is only God and God alone.

Let me ask you as we end. What is your center of gravity? What has been attacked and threatened in your life this week? Was Bin Laden right about you? Has he discovered what it takes to not only throw you off balance, to disrupt you, but to make you fear for your life?

Or, is God the center of gravity of your life and you will not be shaken or surprised or moved – no matter what? We are not counting on a temple made by human hands but by a temple that cannot be destroyed – ever or by anything. Rest in that.

What does Isaiah tell us? “For the mountains may depart and hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”

Amen