All
she did was take a drink of water...
By
Rev. Tom Tuura
Pastor
of Christ Lutheran Church
We
are on a busy fall schedule, and I want to grab a subject that is
just around the corner, and discuss it before it is consumed by the
busy holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sandwiched in between is
of course Reformation and also something called IDOP or International
Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
2017
is the 500th
anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. We will be hearing much
about that in the next year.
Last
month we looked at a couple of “hot button” terms which are
thrown around quite a bit, they were “evangelical”
and “fundamental”.
If you missed that article, I'd encourage you to go back and read it
or request it. Not on purpose, the subject this month could be
another term, “persecution”.
Persecution is defined as hostility
and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or
religious beliefs. Wikipedia.
Persecution
is very similar to another hot button term we hear constantly today,
discrimination. Both of these are relevant to our society because of
their placement in our Constitution, (1st
and 14th
Amendments). Freedom of religion which is functionally or legally
absent in places were persecution is taking place and of course
discrimination which continues to universally affected our planet.
At
home in the USA, Christian persecution has not been a problem in our
nation as a whole since the ratification, legislation and rulings of
our government. Certainly there have been cases that have been
fought and won, and fought and lost. But even the cases lost such as
the notable Supreme Court rulings of the early 60's, ruling that
prayer and Bible study were illegal in the public schools though
debated and disliked have not resulted in persecution—far from it.
Basically
our debates have centered around two clauses in the First Amendment,
called the establishment clause and the free exercise clause. Then
there's Thomas Jefferson's famous “wall of separation” wording
which isn't even in the Constitution.
In
fact Christians in the USA have perhaps had the most unprecedented
freedoms to worship, work and witness than at any time in the 2000
years of the church. That has not always been the case. We've had
freedom of religion fights, which are serious, but very little rises
to persecution--yet.
Historically,
and in other lands, we know that persecution in a general sense has
taken place. Unfortunately it has to be admitted acting in the name
of the Church, Church leaders themselves have been guilty of
persecution at times. This includes persecuting the Jews. And of
course the official state sponsored persecution of all things
religious, Christian and otherwise in the name of Communism and
Nazism.
Lets
narrow this down. Sadly we acknowledge that there is persecution of
all sorts all around, even towards other religions. This is very
important to understand in this discussion. There is plenty of guilt
to go around. However, there is also a persistent theme of denial
towards Christian persecution.
Jesus
states that the Christian is unique. “If
the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. If
you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you
are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the
world hates you...If they persecuted me they will also persecute
you.”
(John 15:18-20)
We
need to make very sure that this “hatred” is because of Christ,
and not for any other reason. We are hated because we are not part
of the world system. We are chosen “out” of the world. Are we
truly “out”? Is the world truly out of us?
I
was a brand new Christian, probably a freshman in college when I went
to a dinner in Duluth Minnesota put on by Open Doors ministry. That
was my first presentation on Brother Andrew author of the famous
paperback, GOD'S SMUGGLER, and the persecuted church. I was stunned.
My church invited the author of TORTURED FOR CHRIST Richard
Wurmbrand as a guest speaker, but I was too young to really pay
attention.
Both
of these presentations impacted our congregation. Certainly myself
as I learned about Brother Andrew traveling into Communist Eastern
Europe in a VW filled with Bibles.
We
have all heard of the violent and bloody persecution stories, but
here's a contemporary example of what they go through. This story
from an Indian village is reported by several outlets. “According
to ucanews.com, the Gond tribal people of Barbattar village include
15 Christian families. Most of the 1,000 villagers practise their
ancestral animist faith. However, the leader of the 60-strong
Christian population, Mohan Netam, said their neighbours turned on
them because "we refused to succumb to the village body's
pressure" to abandon the faith. He said their lives have "become
miserable" after the village governing body "banned us from
collecting firewood or grazing our animals in the forest".
And
I'll close with this. “Aasiya
Noreen
better known as Asia
Bibi is a
Pakistani woman who was convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani court,
receiving a sentence of death by hanging. In June 2009, Noreen was
involved in an argument with a group of Muslim women with whom she
had been harvesting berries after the other women grew angry with her
for drinking the same water as them. She was subsequently accused of
insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a charge she denies, and was
arrested and imprisoned. In November 2010, a Sheikhupura judge
sentenced her to death.”
wikipedia
All
she did was take a drink of water.
These
words are in the brief video trailer put out by Open Doors for this
years IDOP observance. “Don't
pray for us. Pray with us. If you pray for us, you will pray for the
wrong things. You will
pray
that the church will be safe. We do not pray for such things. We
pray that when persecution comes, when they threaten us, when they
kill us that until our last breath, we will cry out Jesus is Lord.”
Its
completely understandable that we as American Christians don't want
to hear about persecution within the church. But we have to realize
that these are our brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom we will
share heaven. “Oh how did you die? I died with my Christian
friends and family around me. How about you? I was put to death for
taking a drink of water.” Keep that in mind.
That’s
my view from the Blackberry Patch Pulpit
Pastor
Tom
###
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