Once or twice in our sojourn upon this earth something happens which shapes the course of our lives. Many on the East Coast have experienced such an event. Consider for a moment what has been set in motion from Sandy:

*13 foot surge of seawater. 3 feet above the 200 year old record.
*90 mph winds
*The battery tunnel connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn flooded.
*74 foot crane in the middle of Manhattan tittering over the city
*8.2 million in 7 states from the Carolina’s to Ohio without power
*a close call at 2 nuclear plants
*100 homes destroyed first by flood and then by fire in Queens (historic Breezy Point *neighborhood)
*a presidential campaign stopped dead in its tracks
*The West Virginia Blizzard as a result of the storm.
*ships and trees, and roads, and homes gone.
*dozens of people lost their lives

That's the big picture and it says nothing of the tens of thousands of people whose lives are changed in significant ways. Try to calculate the human toll emotionally and spiritually and you cannot. Only God can weigh such matters. But we try in feeble ways to understand. Events like Sandy raise fundamental questions. Why is there so much chaos? Why does nature so overwhelm us and destroy our lives. Why do innocent people suffer? Questions always gets asked, don’t they: Where was God on September 11, 2001? Where was God when 280,000 perished in the Asian Tsunami? Where was God on Monday, August 29 in southeast Louisiana? Where was God this week?

I am struck by how universal these questions are. They are as old as Job and are asked by the wisest people among us. For years mankind has sought the answer to suffering. And we are still searching. So what do we do when nature overwhelms us, or when men conspire to create monstrous works of evil, and God seems so far from us? Who’s in control here? Nature? Man? God?

I

Let’s take a look at Nature. Are our lives simply subject to the whims of nature or does God somehow use the forces of nature to accomplish his will? In other words did God cause the hurricane? Before we answer this question let me draw attention to something we all do as humans. We ask questions.

And questions are so hard to answer in tragic times. But we ask questions anyway. It’s human and the Bible sees it as a human thing to do especially in hard times. If you were to take a tour of the Bible you would find that one book has a disproportionate number of questions - the book of Job. Job has over 330 questions in its 42 chapters. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, only has 160. Matthew, the first book of the New Testament has around 180. And that's odd because it seems that Jesus was asking questions every time he opened his mouth. Even the book of Psalms with its 150 chapters has only 160.

So why does the book of Job have so many more questions? Simple. It is because the book of Job deals with a horrible tragedy, and we ALL question tragedy.

You remember. Job is a righteous man. A great man in his own time. Suddenly, without warning, his family and business is wiped out. Two rogue groups from Arabia and Mesopotamia conduct a raid taking away Job's livestock and putting his servants to the sword. Then his family is lost in a freak accident when a mighty wind sweeps in from the desert, striking the four corners of the house, collapsing it and all are lost. It was swift. It was unwarranted. It was unconscionable.

In many ways the events of this past week seem eerily echoed in the story of Job. A very large part of our family have had their lives wiped out by a violent wind. We have been hit and hit hard. Now what? ?

We do what Job did when he learned of his loss. We mourn. He was silent when he received the first two reports that his business and livestock had been wiped out. Those can be replaced. But when he received the news that his children were lost, he got up and tore his robe. Then, he fell on his knees and wept: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will return." Everything that had meaning in his life was gone. As he came into this world so Job felt he was leaving it - naked.

Did God make or allow that mighty wind to collapse those 160,000 homes in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana? I tell you, No. Did God have some purpose in all this? No! Were the people of those three states any more sinners than weare? NO! NO! NO!

I consider myself fortunate, that, in our day, we have come to see that thereare other explanations for why we have these disastrous storms. Hurricanes arrive, not because God has a habit of punishing evil senior-citizen mobile-home-park dwellers, but because the prevailing winds, ocean currents and frontal zones combine in ways that make tropical storms more likely at this time of the year. The same is true of earthquakes, tornadoes, or floods. All of these are directed by the forces of nature. This is so in good times and bad and without respect to the moral climate or condition of the people who happen to be living in a region where disaster strikes.

The God we meet in the pages of scripture is not this vicious, violent, judgmental, capricious Force in the world. Instead, we meet a very different God in Scripture. John tells us that God is love and that that perfect love of God casts out all fear.

II

Let’s now move from the acts of nature to the acts of man. For all that nature has done to wreak havoc upon the earth mankind more so. Luke 13 offers a chilling look at how Jesus might address man’s inhumanity to man. Let’s read it.

Read Luke 13:1-9

In this text we have a tragic national event in the life of Israel during Jesus’ time. It is a headline event discussed by everyone within the nation of Israel. There are actually two events. One of the events appears to be an accidental collapse of a structure at a building site that killed 18 people and the other was a military operation against civilians ordered by Pontius Pilate.That event seems to be politically if not religiously motivated.

You are well aware that Israel, during the time of Jesus, had been conquered by Rome. Rome’s presence was a constant reminder that they were a nation under siege.The people learned to live with this but there remained a great tension, a religious underground had actually emerged to fight for freedom. Pilate, Rome’s representative, was despised. And it is apparent from this text that Pilate ruled in a ruthless manner. Some people, who, we do not know, come to Jesus to discuss an incident in the Temple. Pilate, angered by something that occurred in Galilee, decided to make an example of a group of Galilean Jews who were visiting the capitol of Jerusalem. He ordered his soldiers to go into the temple in the middle of the day, while there was tens of thousands of people worshipping there, and execute these Galileans. This was done to send the Jews a message: If you do not keep your region under control you will suffer the consequences of Rome’s might. It was a strong reminder of the suffering the Jews endured under Rome.

Pilate sent a political and religious message by slaying a group of men who were more likely than not, innocent. Now the Galilean territory may have done something that set Pilate off but these men quite likely had nothing to do with it. They were…convenient. In the wrong place at the right time.

On 9/11, four years ago today, a group of Muslim men chose an innocent group of people to target, in order to send a political and religious message. In these past four years, try as I may, I have yet been able to make sense of it.

Let me ask you: Why is this story in the Bible? It’s there because the disciples wanted to ask Jesus a very specific question. They wanted to know if these people died because they had sinned. Was this God’s judgment because of their immoral living? Jesus gives a very simple answer: No. He then goes on to say, “You,” he is talking to the disciples. You must repent or you will likewise perish.” In other words, these things happen. Life can be indiscriminate. One day you are here and the next you die in an accident or at the hands of some thug. So, repent.

Now, this tells me something very important. God is not up there pulling all the strings. God does not control the world in this way. There is chaos. There is evil. There is uncertainty. It would be dishonest to say that God makes everything all right in this world. The death of 3000 innocent souls who were simply going to work on September 11 tells me how warped and depraved some people can be. The death of 1508 soldiers in Iraq tells me that peace has an enormous price (the number is deaths in combat activities). The burial of 350 children last year in Russia tells me that evil still wins in this world. Don’t get me wrong. I as much as any man have hope in the resurrection. I simply cannot deny the picture painted by the Psalmist when he asks, “Will the Lord cast off for ever?” And will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forever more? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? And I said, this is my infirmity."

Sometimes it seems that God has just left the planet and won’t be coming back.

III

So, there is a final question. Where then is God? Where is God when terrible tragedies befall us? Where was God this week? Hear me. God was not in the in the hurricane that ripped through New York and New Jersey. God was not in the floodwaters that swamped New Orleans. He was not in the cockpit of those planes on 911. He did not cause these things to happen. I’ll tell where God is. He is there in the last moments as loved ones try to help one another get out of harm’s way. He is there in the fireman’s suit. He is there behind the police badge. He is behind the scalpel and the syringe. He is there in the Coast Guard officials, marines, Red Cross, EMTs, Salvation Army, FEMA, neighbors, Governors, Mayors, nurses, the President, and He is near the heart of all who in the face of this tragedy love their neighbor and turn to God in repentance who in the flood waters of these last few days look to him, not for answers, but because in the end tragedies teach us that we are mortal and fully dependent upon Him.

But 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 homes as soon as the rubble is cleared. We should rebuild our lives as soon as we honor in death all those who have perished in the wind and the rain.

Who is to blame? Blame it on the rain. Blame it on the wind. Blame it on our inadequacies to prepare for such tragedies. But don’t….don’t blame it on God.

Where is God? He is here. Anguish is no stranger to God. Let us never forget that Jesus suffered. He died. But he was raised. Therefore, I have hope even when the waters come up to my neck. I have hope even when I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have hope even when the fold waters engulf me. I have hope because love is poured out on me by God and by my neighbors. And, as the Song of Solomon Records (8:7), “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.”

Amen.