This Sunday (January 3rd), as we begin a new year, I would like to look back at the emergence of a significant threat to our society. I’m referring to the emergence of Islamic jihadist groups in the Middle East, Africa, and other areas. The principal terrorist group is the “Islamic State” (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or ISIL), an Islamic jihadist terrorist group, located in Iraq and Syria. Although there are some differences between these various groups, they all share a common hatred for Christianity and the United States. As a result of this hatred, many acts of terrorism have been perpetrated, resulting in the deaths of many Christians, simply because of their faith.
To
ground and guide our reflections on the threats by the Islamic State and other
terrorist groups, I have selected a portion from Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount,”
as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew 5: 43-48:
“You have heard that
it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in
heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain
on the righteous and on the unrighteousness.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the
same? And if you greet only your
brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly
Father is perfect.”
During my message this week, I would like
to guide us through a reflection on how we balance and integrate the very real
threats of the Islamic State with Jesus’ command to love our enemies and pray
for those who persecute us.
Before proceeding any further, a caveat
is in order: Contrary to the
claims of many American bloggers and political columnists, ISIS and other
Muslim extremists do not represent the majority of Muslims. In addition, the teachings of the Q’ ran, the
Muslim Holy Book, do not lead inevitably to ISIS theology. We have to be careful here. Just as other world religions, including
Christianity, so also Islam is a very complicated faith with multiple
expressions. While ISIS is certainly an
expression of Islam, it is not the only expression of Islam. In fact, ISIS does not even represent the
majority perspective of Muslims worldwide.
It is a minority view even within Islam.
In many respects, ISIS
parallels the Ku Klux Klan or Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church[1]
within Christianity. Although the
theology of Westboro and the KKK is drawn from their minority interpretation of
the Bible and although they claim to be Christian, neither hate group
represents all Christians. In fact both
groups promote a perspective that is at odds with the vast majority of other
Christian perspectives and is, in many ways, extremely marginal to Christian
thought and practice.
But, returning to our
question, let us begin with an exegesis of our foundational scripture, the
passage from Matthew cited above. What
did Jesus mean, when he preached that we are to love our enemies and pray for
those who persecute us?
Writing in The New Interpreter’s Bible, the
biblical scholar Eugene Boring observes that Jesus “makes the command to love
enemies specific and concrete. In its absoluteness
and concreteness, it is without parallel in paganism or Judaism. The command should not be understood
abstractly, ‘love all people, including even enemies.’ In Jesus’ situation it referred particularly
to the occupying Roman forces, and thus to national enemies as well as to
competing religious groups and personal enemies.”[2]
Of course, some have
already argued that we do not need to take Jesus’ command to love our enemies
literally. And, it is true that there
are some portions of the Bible that Christians do not interpret literally. For instance, earlier in Matthew 5, Jesus
says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away…And
if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is
better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into
hell” (Matthew 5: 29a, 30). Most Christians interpret this command as
hyperbole and do not believe Jesus intended for us to literally disfigure
ourselves.
Regardless, I believe that
Jesus intends for us to interpret literally his command to love our
enemies. I hold this position because
the command to love our enemies resonates so strongly with two key themes which
run like red threads throughout the scriptures, from beginning to end:
1. Each individual person is created in the
image of God. From the first
chapter of the Bible, humans are described as being set apart from the rest of
Creation because we have been created in the image of God (See Genesis 1: 27).
Throughout the scriptures, despite the failings of many persons, God never
revokes this understanding that each person possesses the image of God as an
integral component of who they are.
2. In response to God’s love for us,
Christians are to love all persons.
In the Hebrew scriptures this love is expressed as kindness and
hospitality to the stranger. Deuteronomy
10:19 says, “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the
land of Egypt.” In Matthew 25, Jesus
tells us to care for those who are hungry, thirsty, the stranger, the naked,
the sick, and the imprisoned. Finally,
in 1 John 4:20, we read: “Those who say,
‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do
not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they
have not seen.”
Taken together, these two recurring themes, which run
throughout the Bible, from start to finish, offer a compelling and convincing
argument for taking Jesus’ admonition to love our enemies literally.
Eugene Boring, the biblical
scholar, continues by noting that Jesus’ command to love our enemies is based
on three premises: (1) Jesus’ authority
as the Messiah; (2) the nature of God who loves all impartially; and (3) the
promise of eschatological reward, when his disciples become “children of God”
in the New Creation. To be a true “child
of God” means that we must re-orient our lives, especially our attitudes, and we
must trust God completely. Jesus
continues by pointing out that if his disciples love only those who already
love them, then they are no better than those outside the faith, especially
evil-doers.
How, then, should we apply Jesus’ command to love our enemies to the frightening
threats from the Islamic State? It
seems clear that the faithful Christian response should be to love the ISIS
terrorists who threaten to exterminate us and to pray for them. In doing this, we are living as the true “children
of God,” who have radically re-oriented our lives, trusting fundamentally in
God and not our own power. In this
radical re-orientation, we recognize that even the fiercest ISIS terrorist is
created in the image of God and is loved by God. Further, we remember that if we love only
those who already love us, then we are no better than the hate-filled Islamic
terrorist.
With that said, Jesus’
command to love our enemies does not irrevocably commit Christians to a stance
of passivism, in which we stand passively by and refuse to engage in active
defense of ourselves and other innocent people.
Over the centuries, Christians have struggled with Jesus' command to love
our enemies and the need to engage in military defense of ourselves, our homes,
and our country from violent attacks.
Out of this reflection and dialogue, the Christian “Just War” tradition
has emerged as a guide for faithful discipleship. Essentially, the Just War tradition provides
guidelines that enable Christians to determine whether they can support their
nation in a war. An example of Christian
Just War criteria is provided below:
Six Just War Criteria
- Does the prosecutor of the war have legitimate
authority?
- Is the cause just?
- Is military action the last resort? Have all peaceful alternatives been
tried?
- Proportionality.
Does the anticipated good exceed the evil?
- Are there reasonable chances of success?
- War must be conducted according to internationally accepted rules of warfare?
While I will develop
these six Just War criteria in more detail in my proclamation on Sunday, a
quick perusal suggests that Christians could legitimately support military force
to repel terrorist attacks and destroy the Islamic State, if all criteria were
met. However, Christians would not be
able to support the wholesale killing of Muslim noncombatants, as many
Americans have called for, because that would violate criterion 6 and
potentially criterion 4, as well.
Come, join us this Sunday, January
3rd, as we explore one of the most pressing ethical issues facing Christians
today. Christ United Methodist Church is
located at 4530 A Street in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Our classic worship services are at 8:30 and 11:00 on Sunday
mornings.
Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.
[1] For
information on the Westboro Baptist congregation in Topeka, Kansas, see the
Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church;
as well as one of their websites, http://www.godhatesfags.com/ .
No comments:
Post a Comment