This post is pertaining primarily to the issue of celebrating the death of Bin Laden. I am still trying to sort through my thoughts on this. Not only am I a pastor of twenty years, but also a veteran.In short, two feelings. Grief and Grateful.
A few of my friends told me they watched the celebration on the news and then felt odd about what they were viewing. They voiced they simply felt odd in that they weren't sure how to feel about celebrating a death, even of a known enemy.
Some reasons may this death may not settle well might be because we have a feeling that we have been misinformed, or having doubts due to the lack of inclusion into the story via footage and such. Another reason for a follower of Christ is the conflict that rises from the very words of Jesus. It's all through his teachings. "Turn the other cheek, pray for those who curse us, bless the persecutor, it's easy to love those who love us, love your enemies... And so on."
Another challenge might be all the "Us verses Them" nationalism that creeps it's way into many sermons in America. Similarly, the early disciples, when hearing Jesus talk about his Kingdom, tended to think like the Zealots expecting Jesus to raise up Jerusalem by overthrowing Rome with the sword. Instead Jesus went the opposite way of the sword. He went the way of the cross. Which raises the question... Did Christ die to raise up one of our Kingdoms, or just His?
I saw in our local paper a quote from a family member of one that was killed during 9/11 that read, "The Evil Is Gone". This is a great example of what a wounded judgmental society does with evil. We attach it to people, instead of their deeds. If we return evil with a slaying, is evil really gone?
I mourn the loss of those killed on 9/11. It was unjust by any standard, and a pure dose of evil unleashed on innocence. But at the same time, I cannot block out of my mind that in Africa over 6,000 people will die of preventable diseases EACH DAY. That's more than two 9/11's per day over something we American's could fix with the same amount of money we spend on Ice cream each year.
So... are we a part of a system that is unjust or evil from the perspective of another country on the same planet. Is eating ice cream now evil? Situations like 9/11 can be isolated so much that we miss a bigger picture that remains. Evil isn't gone. We could burry a thousand Bin Ladens and evil and it's effects would remain in this world. The real question seems to be, Where is the good? Or, in my opinion, where is the Church? Not the nationalistic religion we hear so much from, but the Church that "destroys evil with good."
We humans are real quick to cry "Justice". Our bloody history is mostly due to the fact that we rarely know how to carry out justice. I do believe Jesus taught about a justice birthed not from hate, as we often try to employ, but a justice birthed from love, designed to restore.
One more thing. I taught one Sunday on the parable of the lost coin Luke 15:8-10. The silver coin in question was called a drachma. Sort of the minimum days wage in 1st century Palestine. Like a penny.
The traditional reading of this passage doesn't really capture the personal dimensions of the story. The Jewish audience hearing Jesus tell the story would have known this woman as a bride to be, and that the one coin that had gone missing wasn't her life savings, instead one of ten coins found on a betrothal necklace given to her by her groom to be. This makes sense as to why its a woman in the story, and why its a silver coin, and why she throws a party in the middle if the night inviting everyone over to see that she found "her" coin. A drachma. Jesus was telling this story to Pharisees who were complaining about him "eating with prostitutes and tax collectors." People they considered to be of "low value". Drachma people.
Jesus was making the point that God is like this bride-to-be searching frantically for those considered to be of low value to the religious world. People who hadn't earned it. Drachma people. People that the religious community had no problem referring to them as hell bound.
Since all of this was still fresh when I heard the news of Bin Laden, I couldn't help but think of the drachma. Many believed him to have no value, in terms of the evil he ushered into this world. And a part of me wants to agree with that. However, in terms of God's kingdom, I am of no greater value than he was. God is a frantic bride-to-be turning the house upside down to find what the culture says has no value. Maybe this is the practice of heaven.
Another challenge might be all the "Us verses Them" nationalism that creeps it's way into many sermons in America. Similarly, the early disciples, when hearing Jesus talk about his Kingdom, tended to think like the Zealots expecting Jesus to raise up Jerusalem by overthrowing Rome with the sword. Instead Jesus went the opposite way of the sword. He went the way of the cross. Which raises the question... Did Christ die to raise up one of our Kingdoms, or just His?
In the past week, I read nearly a hundred messages where Christians spoke of how God will wipe away the evil on the earth, and use his people to do it as he did in the Old Testament. The problem with pulling verses out of the Old Testament to support violence toward our country's enemy is absolutely NO different than what the Fundamentalist radical Taliban did with the Quran. Its the age old practice of using verses to support one's opinion, instead of allowing one's opinion to be shaped by the verses.
Yes, there are passages in the Bible, that when interpreted from one angle, can certainly justify war today. For example, Deuteronomy 7 speaks about "TOTAL destruction of the enemy." However, context still matters, and passages like this should remain in context with the Abrahamic Covenant and the Hebraic lineage, not 21st Century terrorist groups. Most conservative and liberal theologians agree that in that particular narrative, God was trying to protect his Hebrew children from pagan influences, knowing that if one was left alive, the Hebrew children would begin to turn. And they did.
These particular passages aren't meant to be used to blanket current matters of wiping out evil. These verses aren't meant for blanketing or supporting wiping off an entire people in todays age, just because we see them as evil. Context still matters, whether its the Quran or the Bible. Mainstream Islam discredited the interpretations of the Taliban for that very reason. Again, its an age old practice to use the Bible as a weapon, and verses like ammo. This is why so many people want little to do with God, because his validity is trashed when we make him in our image.
Anne Lamotte wrote, "You know you have created God in your own imagine, when in fact, he hates all the same people you do."
I saw in our local paper a quote from a family member of one that was killed during 9/11 that read, "The Evil Is Gone". This is a great example of what a wounded judgmental society does with evil. We attach it to people, instead of their deeds. If we return evil with a slaying, is evil really gone?
I mourn the loss of those killed on 9/11. It was unjust by any standard, and a pure dose of evil unleashed on innocence. But at the same time, I cannot block out of my mind that in Africa over 6,000 people will die of preventable diseases EACH DAY. That's more than two 9/11's per day over something we American's could fix with the same amount of money we spend on Ice cream each year.
So... are we a part of a system that is unjust or evil from the perspective of another country on the same planet. Is eating ice cream now evil? Situations like 9/11 can be isolated so much that we miss a bigger picture that remains. Evil isn't gone. We could burry a thousand Bin Ladens and evil and it's effects would remain in this world. The real question seems to be, Where is the good? Or, in my opinion, where is the Church? Not the nationalistic religion we hear so much from, but the Church that "destroys evil with good."
We humans are real quick to cry "Justice". Our bloody history is mostly due to the fact that we rarely know how to carry out justice. I do believe Jesus taught about a justice birthed not from hate, as we often try to employ, but a justice birthed from love, designed to restore.
One more thing. I taught one Sunday on the parable of the lost coin Luke 15:8-10. The silver coin in question was called a drachma. Sort of the minimum days wage in 1st century Palestine. Like a penny.
The traditional reading of this passage doesn't really capture the personal dimensions of the story. The Jewish audience hearing Jesus tell the story would have known this woman as a bride to be, and that the one coin that had gone missing wasn't her life savings, instead one of ten coins found on a betrothal necklace given to her by her groom to be. This makes sense as to why its a woman in the story, and why its a silver coin, and why she throws a party in the middle if the night inviting everyone over to see that she found "her" coin. A drachma. Jesus was telling this story to Pharisees who were complaining about him "eating with prostitutes and tax collectors." People they considered to be of "low value". Drachma people.
Jesus was making the point that God is like this bride-to-be searching frantically for those considered to be of low value to the religious world. People who hadn't earned it. Drachma people. People that the religious community had no problem referring to them as hell bound.
Since all of this was still fresh when I heard the news of Bin Laden, I couldn't help but think of the drachma. Many believed him to have no value, in terms of the evil he ushered into this world. And a part of me wants to agree with that. However, in terms of God's kingdom, I am of no greater value than he was. God is a frantic bride-to-be turning the house upside down to find what the culture says has no value. Maybe this is the practice of heaven.
In regards to Osama Bin Laden's death, I feel grief because this was a situation of evil that was handled with evil, instead of "good". This was a human being that God created for a very different purpose than what he actually fulfilled. But at the same time I am grateful that justice was served for the folks who hurt from their loss from 9/11. A truer justice would have been if he was allowed to stand before a judge, however, this situation is more of an action of war than it was true justice from a legal stand point.
Bottom line... those who claim to follow Christ are still left with a sermon on the mount to contend with. A sermon that says, "LOVE YOUR ENEMY."
