To answer that question, we need to ponder different issues that are at hand here.
For starters, we got the hidden, inscrutable will of God. That is we can't read into God's mind why these things occur or what His purpose is in them. We do know from Scriptures that God does not cause or foreordain evil. We do know from Scriptures that God take what men meant for evil and use it for good, especially for the good of those who love Him, who have been accorded to His purpose, in Christ.
What we don't know, however, is what specific purpose these things occur. Nor are we allowed to decide on our own accord that God did it as judgment on specific individuals or groups of individuals regardless of what sins they may be participating in at the moment when their lives are taken away. That is because, regardless of what they did or didn't do, nothing insult the intent of God's creation (which is His image in humankind lost at the fall) more then murder. And more, it is not our place to peer into His hidden will which He forbids us to look into. When Christ was asked about various disasters and misfortunes that overtook and killed the lives of various individuals, His answer wasn't to say God was judging them. Instead of allowing them to satisfy their curiosity into what is inscrutable to them, He pointed to them to God's revealed will for them (and us): unless we repent, we also shall perish.
So when various preachers go on tv or radio and say people died in those instances of terrorist acts because of their own sins being judged by God, they are wrong, and seriously so. Whether of not sins were committed by the victims are immaterial to this. God didn't reveal why He allowed these events to take place so we must remain silence.
We do know that regardless, per God's revealed will shown in His word, He does not desire the death of the sinner. He wants all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He does not want any to perish but all to come to repentance.
His love remains true for those who died in these horrific attacks regardless of what they were doing at the moment. He showed His love by sending His eternally begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to atone for their sins at the Cross. The fact many didn't avail themselves of what Christ did for them does not change the fact of God's love for them.
So what should our attitude be? First off, we need to always remember that God's love is for both victims and victimizers alike. Christ truly paid for the sins of both, no matter how heinous those sins are. When Scriptures say He is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, then that is most certainly true for even the worst of the worst of sinners. So we can pray for all involved that they would know God's love, revealed in God Incarnate crucified for them and offered up to them in Word and Sacrament.
Secondly, while Christ crucified is still the central message to all, that doesn't preclude us wishing and praying for governments to carry out justice. In fact, Romans 13 tells us God ordains governments for the very purpose of curbing and restraining evil. And we are indeed to pray for our leaders to do so in proper fashion. That is Lutheran doctrine of two kingdom in a nutshell.
Thirdly, we are to weep with those who weep, and mourn with those who mourn. And with the recent events, many are weeping and mourning the senseless deaths of their loved ones. If Christ as God in the flesh can weep for Lazarus before raising him from the dead or weep for the people of the city of Jerusalem, who rejected His message, we can also out of compassion that we are called to.
Finally, we are to pray for God's mercy. That is what we do when we sing Kyrie, Eleison.
We sing that knowing how fully dependent we are on God's mercy for our salvation, for Christ's sake. But we sing that when we mourn at the evil things that take place in this world. We long for God's mercy to be shown others that change and comfort them as well.
So we sing and pray,
Kyrie, eleison
Christe, eleison
Kyrie, eleison
Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy on us
Here we stand.
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