Ephesians 6:10-20
Today
we consider one of the Beatitudes that is, thankfully, remote from most of our
experience.
“Blessed
are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.” [Matthew 5:10]
That goes along with the last and final of these
sayings of Jesus:
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and
utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice
and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.” [Matthew 5:11-12]
Yes, there are times when people may laugh at you or
think how quaint and old-fashioned church people are. Dana Carvey’s “Church Lady” sketches on Saturday Night Live were funny but they
did have a mocking edge. Thanks to some
very loud, high-profiled preachers and pundits, too, a lot of folks have come
to identify Christianity with bigotry and ignorance, and put Christians who are
truly caring, open people on the defensive.
Let’s not forget the parents and children who deal with Sunday morning
sports, either, and how it is never going to be easy for teenaged Christians to
make faithful choices when they first encounter pressure to make other ones.
But
persecution? We in this room don’t
really know what it is, but that does not mean that the Church is free from
it. This is part of an article written
by Didi Tang[1]
and published by the Associated Press on August 5:
“LOWER DAFEI VILLAGE, China (AP) — About a dozen
Catholics wept and sang hymns outside their church as a man climbed to the top
of the building and sliced off its steel cross with a cutting torch. It toppled
with a thud.
‘Aren't you ashamed of what you have done?’ a
teary woman yelled at the more than 100 security guards, who along with police
and government workers kept the parishioners of Lower Dafei Catholic
Church from protecting the symbol of their faith. The guards, who stood with
shields and batons in the sun for nearly two hours, looked indifferent.
… Authorities in southeastern Zhejiang province
are believed to be under a two-month deadline to remove crosses from the
spires, vaults, roofs and wall arches of the 4,000 or so churches that dot the landscape
of this economically thriving region.
In a rare move, even China's semiofficial
Christian associations — which are supposed to ensure the ruling Communist
Party's control over Protestant and Catholic groups — have denounced the
campaign as unconstitutional and humiliating. They have warned that it could
risk turning the faithful into enemies of the party.
The campaign is believed to be the will of
President and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, whose administration has
launched the most severe crackdown in decades on social forces that might
challenge the monopoly of the party's rule.
But Yang Fenggang, an expert on China's
religions at Purdue University, said the party may have miscalculated and could
be creating the very instability it is trying to avoid.
‘The crackdown has alienated the Christians in
China, who are otherwise law-abiding citizens,’ Yang said.
… The massive campaign comes one year after the
provincial leadership ordered the razing of several churches and hundreds of
rooftop crosses deemed to be illegal structures. This summer, Zhejiang banned
rooftop crosses altogether. Despite criticism that the new rule violates
China's constitutional right of religious freedom, local enforcers are sending
demolition crews to virtually all the province's churches.
They have met with resistance. Parishioners have
kept vigils and tried to block entrances to church grounds with cargo trucks,
and many churches have re-erected crosses in defiance.”
That
is the experience of the Church in the 21st century. So is this, from Christianity Today last week:
“Dozens of Syrian Christian families have been abducted
by fighters from ISIS, according to a new
report from Reuters.
About 230 people, some of whom were taken from a church,
were kidnapped or detained by ISIS when the terrorist group captured the Syrian
town of Qaryatain on Friday. Prior to the start of the civil war, about 18,000
people lived in Qaryatain, about 2,000 of them Syriac Catholics and Orthodox
Christians, reports The
Telegraph.
Following the fighting between ISIS and the Syrian army,
at least 1,400 families fled the town to safer areas or took shelter in the
government-controlled city of Homs, reports the Assyrian Monitor for Human
Rights.
Earlier this year, ISIS launched surprise
attacks on 35 villages in northeast Syria and took more than 200 Christians
captive. Some captives were released in March.
ISIS reportedly demanded a $23 million ransom for the release of 240
Christians, according to World
Watch Monitor (WWM).
‘This is an amount beyond the capacity of a tiny church
and community,” an Assyrian Christian leader told WWM. “These captives are poor
people who depended on their low income as farmers.’
ISIS also published a price
list last fall for female captives, who are traded like cattle or "barrels
of petrol," according to the Daily
Mail. The group reportedly executed 19 girls who refused orders to sleep
with ISIS fighters.
About 600,000 Syrian Christians have fled the
country since the fighting began in 2011, reports The New York Times, in a
recent in-depth piece on the fate of the church in the Middle East.”
This article doesn’t go into what is happening in
parts of Africa under the influence of Boko Haram in Nigeria or of Al Shabab in
Somalia and Kenya or of the Janjawid in Sudan and Darfur.
And
yet, for all that, Christians persevere in the faith. The writer of Ephesians told people who would
face similar trials how to face them, realizing that they are part of a larger
battle that the Lord is winning.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his
power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against
enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor
of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done
everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth
around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes
for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of
peace. With all of these, take the
shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows
of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God.” [Ephesians 6:10-17]
That
same passage invites those who are not right there in the midst of it all, but
who are nonetheless one with those who are undergoing trial, to act as their
support.
“Pray in the Spirit at
all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always
persevere in supplication for all the saints.” [Ephesians 6:18]
We
may not be in the thick of it, but we are still in it together.
So here and now, let’s pause and ask
the Lord to share with them the encouragement that we can offer, our gratitude
and admiration for their witness, and to offer prayer for a change of heart in
those who persecute them.
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