Persecution: Do we really have a clue?

 

I will never forget my friend from Pakistan. 

I met him at Bible school in Germany.  One evening, while hanging out in the lecture hall he told me a story about what life was like for him in Pakistan.

He told me that one time militant Muslim extremists (it is important to note that faithful, practicing Muslims are not militant extremists and that Islam practiced faithfully is a faith of peace) put him in the back of a car, took him to a building, force fed him and hung him upside down.  The next thing he remembers is his mother sitting over his bedside crying.  Still he believed in a God that, in his words, is ‘much bigger.’  There was sacrifice and faith staring me in the face.

I walked out of the lecture hall that night introduced to true sacrifice in the name of faith.  It was a sacrifice I had not known in my many years in North American Christian circles.  To believe was a matter of life and death.   

It was a moment, a person, who has been significantly formative to my faith.  It scared the crap out of me.  But sacrifice in the name of faithfulness has a tendency to do that.

A few weeks after he shared that story with me, we found out that his family had to disown him for fear of persecution themselves.  It was a trying time for many of us who supported him.

We come up against resistance because of faith in many places and spaces in North America.  After all, we are moving increasingly into a time where the story of Jesus is not known. Yet I am not so sure that the majority of us have a clue what persecution is… 

We have much to learn from the global church!!!!!

Have you ever been persecuted for faith?  Do we really have a clue about persecution? 

I am thankful for my friend from Pakistan. I am happy to write that he is doing great and living in Germany.

Thirty Seven: “Change is good, you go first”

I had a Dilbert T-Shirt back in high school that said “change is good, you go first.”  I liked that shirt, it was funny, it was also true.

Change is difficult.  Change means that something is being left behind.  When we sin, something needs to change even if part of our soul is screaming at us not to make anything different.

Saying sorry is simply not enough.  I went to a workshop where they showed a video about the justice system.  In the video a lady that seemed to know what she was talking about said that most of the time when criminals (she was talking about pedophiles) got caught they were sorry.  But not for what they did.  They were sorry for being caught.  Sure, repentance asks us to pay attention and be sorry for the thing that we should be sorry about.  But repentance also means change.

But there is a problem.  Change takes self-discipline.  Unfortunately self-discipline is an exhaustible resource.  Meaning, it takes energy that doesn’t last forever.  If you are tired, it will be difficult for you to change because there will not be enough energy for it.

Sabbath is a time in which we rest in the presence of God.  When we confess a sin it forces us to stop, pay attention to our brokenness and rest in the presence of God.  In the presence of God we always know what the answer will be.  You are forgiven, you can start over, you can change. 

Our world is a busy place.  So if you are exhausted, the whole self-discipline/discipleship/change thing is going to be nearly impossible because the energy needed to do that can get all used up by other activities of this world. 

Confession gives us rest which empowers us to be a people no longer held by that which does not give us life.  Repent!  Renew your mind, soul and body.

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.” – Mark 2:27

Thirty Six: “The Cost of Community”

My friend Jamie Arpin-Ricci’s book “The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis and Life in the Kingdom” is one of the best books on the Sermon on the Mount that I have ever read.

This little excerpt that I offer here during Easter week was, at the time, extremely difficult to read.  Quite frankly it sucked.  It is still difficult to read.  But it is important to read it.  It’s not about being overly spiritual.  It’s not about being the perfect Christian drowning in a sea of cliche.  It’s not about jumping on the ethical train of Jesus and being legalistic.  Rather, I believe it to be a deep truth that says grace and mercy doesn’t come cheap.  A good reminder this Easter season.  The Palm Sunday Jesus reminds us that grace, mercy, discipleship and actually following Jesus to the cross and likewise bearing our own cross is no easy task.  It is central to the gift which is indeed ‘unmerited.’

The cost of the cross is far greater than we can understand, but we are blessed to be able to receive its ever-present gift.  I offer this below with humility.

The very grace that led Christ to suffer death for our sake is the same grace that is extended to us every day as we clumsily and imperfectly attempt to be his salt and light to the world.  This is not a license to sin or to remain casual in our commitment to righteousness and justice.  Far from it!  In fact, it is the unparalleled nature of that mercy and grace that drives us to ever deeper devotion, humility, repentance, sacrifice, service and love, both to God and to others.  Otherwise we use Christ’s entire life, including his brutal suffering and death, as a convenience against our own casual pattern of selfishness and sin, crucifying him anew each time.  Instead, we are called to obediently take up our cross daily and die to our sin, humbled at the unmerited gift it represents.

The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis and Life in the Kingdom – page 105.

‘simple living’ superstars

“The professionalization of poverty can easily lead to celebrations of the individual ‘radical rock stars’ who can choose to be poor.”

Leonard Dow – from “Living more with less”

I am currently reading the 30th anniversary edition of “Living more with Less” by Doris Janzen Longacre.  It’s a great book that I would certainly recommend to anyone navigating the tensions of living in a consumeristic culture with as much simplicity possible.

It is easy to glorify those who choose to live simply.  Especially in light of the consumerist context in which many North Americans were, and still are raised.  Ad’s are everywhere!  They are found on buildings, bulletin boards and on the stuff people use.  The mass media is dependant upon the presence of advertisements to deliver it’s content.  It is almost impossible to do anything without running into some form of advertising that screams “buy me I will complete your life.”  Unfortunately, this has shaped a world to be woefully individualistic, self serving, and even worse, it has bred a feeling of entitlement.

Work hard, buy this, you deserve it works well when you have money.  Not so much if you don’t.  Not a big deal when we talk about video games, cell phones and t.v’s.  But a big deal if we begin to look at food, water, and basic human needs.

To live simply in a consumerist context is to live countercultural.  But to live simply isn’t merely to be countercultural.  For if it were such, this countercultural way of life would be relegated to a mere fad.  It is also important not to make rock stars of those who ‘choose’ to live simple lifestyles vs. those who ‘need’ to live in such a way to merely survive. For to do so defeats the purpose of living simply all together.

In Matthew 19:16-22 Jesus did not tell the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions in an effort to help the ruler be a ‘young countercultural simple living superstar.’  Jesus asked him to sell all his possessions and ‘give to the poor’ in an effort to show the young man that it is impossible to love the entitled self and Jesus at the same time.  It also indicates the importance in sharing with your neighbour.  Interestingly, this lines up nicely with what Jesus said in another part of the Bible.

Love God, and love your neighbour.  The greatest and second greatest commandment.

The people who live simply out of necessity are not doing it because they have a desire to be a countercultural superstar.  If you live in poverty, you do not have the choice to live simply.  You live simply to survive.

Living simply by choice means one recognizes the true cost of the things in this world.  The stuff we buy, the car, the house, the food, the clothes and the health care products all come at a real cost.  That cost is much more expensive than the price tag indicates.  Some people have much because they can buy it, and some people have way too little because they cannot.  There seems to be no happy medium.  Living simply by choice means making the choice to share the limited resources of this planet.  Not making the choice to be countercultural.  People are countercultural because they make the choice to live simply.  Something Jesus called us to do 2000 years ago.

A consumerism that breeds entitlement at the expense of others in our world may suggest that we do not need the big house, 3 cars, a big screen tv, and that we should probably need to get over our self importance.  Easy stuff to write but sucky and difficult to live.  I feel like I suck at living simply.  I guess you could say that I am most certainly a product of my society.