I
Peter 3:13-18a
People
of faith sometimes suffer for doing what is right. For us, it is not common. We tend to identify it with heroic actions of
the past. Because of that, there are some people who misidentify
inconvenience with suffering. But first
let’s recognize what suffering for just being a Christian, let alone for taking
a dramatic stand really looks like.
Hinduism
teaches that everyone is born over and over and over again, and that only when
you get things right do you eventually escape the endless round of rebirth and
enter a state of peace. Your place in
the world as a cockroach or an elephant is tied to how you did in your last
life, and if you did well enough to become human you still are destined to a
high or low social standing based on your deserving, your karma. It is a matter of divine justice that some
people are powerful and privileged and others are impoverished.
At
the lowest end of this human pyramid is a group called Dalits, who are assigned
all the worst jobs and are shunned, socially and religiously. A long time ago, many Dalits heard the gospel
and believed the good news that Jesus came to save everyone; that we all stand
the same in the eyes of the One God, and that we are loved so much that he left
that state of perfection and joy we call heaven to be born here, on earth,
among the lowest of the low, to make all human life holy, not just that of the
privileged classes. Many Dalits became
Christians, and thought that, outside of Hindu ritual, they would then be free
from the oppression that defined their lives.
It
was not to be. It turned out that not
only the Hindus, but the Muslims who also rejected the caste system would
continue to look down on them and mistreat them terribly. When Pakistan separated from India and became
an independent, Muslim state, the Dalits – the Christians – continued and
continue to this day to be denied any form of equality. Just last week there was an article in the
New York Times by Zia ur-Rehman and Maria Abi-Habib that said,
“Although
India has outlawed caste-based discrimination with mixed success, in Pakistan
it is almost encouraged by the state. In July, the Pakistani military placed
newspaper advertisements for sewer sweepers with the caveat that only
Christians should apply. After activists protested, the religious requirement
was removed. …
Doctors often refuse to treat the
sweepers, who are seen as unclean and untouchable.
Officially,
Pakistan denies the existence of caste-based practices in the country. But
across the country, the discrimination persists.
One form of abuse
commonly meted out on Pakistan’s religious minorities has been to accuse them of blasphemy, a crime that is punishable by death
in the country, and that at times has been used to settle personal disputes.”[1]
There
is a long and honorable list of Christians who have suffered under tyrants and who
have stood up to people who were seeking to destroy the faith or to use it as a
tool of control. There are many who have
stood up for their sisters and brothers in Christ, and who have stood up for
human beings in general regardless of their faith, knowing that God’s love has
always been and will always be there for all people. I John 4:10-12 says,
“In this is love, not that we loved God,
but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our
sins. Beloved, since God loved us so
much, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and
his love is perfected in us.”
So people like Lawrence of Rome stood up for the poor
in that city, and Oscar Romero did the same thing for the people of El Salvador
seventeen hundred years later. In the
1300’s, Catherine of Siena called for the Church to stop getting involved in
wars in Europe. In the 1960’s, Dorothy
Day was confronting the Vietnam War. In
the fourth century, Christians were killed for opposing the worship of the
emperor. In the 1930’s Martin Niemoller and
Dietrich Bonhoeffer were standing up to the Nazis in Germany.
That
said, it is not just the heroes that we know of, but the people who accept that
sacrifice and the possibility of suffering arise as part of Christian living who
keep the world from becoming an endless scramble for prestige, power, pleasure,
and profit. It’s what enables someone to
say that their dignity has nothing to do with what anybody says of them. Their worth comes from above and is kept safe
within. Again, we have the words of a
hero that we know of, but who spoke for a whole lot of others in a speech the
night before he was shot. (Incidentally,
he was in Memphis in support of a garbage workers’ strike – people who do here
what the Dalits do in Pakistan and India.)
Martin Luther King, Jr. said,
“I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised
land. I may not get there with you, but
I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised
land. So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.”[2]
He was following the words of I Peter 3:14-16,
“Do not fear what they fear, and do not be
intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to
anyone who demands of you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it
with gentleness and reverence.”
As
for us, most of us have never come anywhere near that point. There are people, however, people we know
well, who face down other fears – and sometimes opposition or criticism – for
the ways that they consciously live out their Christian commitment.
I often think back to a
friend from college who was in medical school and after going on a mission trip
to Sierra Leone chose to go into public health because she said she could make
a real difference there. (Her parents
were not all that happy about that choice.
They were even more unhappy when she returned to West Africa after her
graduation.) I have no idea where she is
now, but I am sure that her service is more apparent than it was thirty-four
years ago.
I think
of a woman I knew in the Virgin Islands who raised a large family. It included not only her own children but
also several who, through difficult circumstances, just sort of ended up with
her. There wasn’t always room in the
house, but there was always room on the porch.
As she would say, “None of these children are mine. They’re all God’s.” So sometimes she did without, but the kids had a home.
These
people allowed insecurity and hardship into their lives. They didn’t seek it, but they accepted it as
a condition of something more important, which was following Jesus.
“Do not be intimidated,
but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.”
Maybe the more we trust him with the important parts
of our lives, the more he trusts us with the truly important assignments, large
or small, that bring life to his world.
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