Journal
Ping Homilies: Love
20 February 2006 › 9 comments
America, bless God
Wow, Valentine’s Day came and went, and I hardly noticed the recent 9rules religion topic: Love. While V-Day is important to me, and I like being all sweet and sappy (just ask my wife), that’s not the brand of love I want to talk about in this homily. Rather,I would like to touch briefly on the type that is covered in Matthew 5:43-46…
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
I apologize for all the old English in the above scripture, but I’m using the King James Version because it’s “open source,” whereas some of the newer translations have various copyrights attached. That being said, I think Jesus makes a good point here (doesn’t he always). He “raises the bar,” so to speak on the standards of love. It is not enough for us to love selfishly to get somehing in return. That is nothing more than veiled political ambition.
Pray for Iraq
I cannot tell you how much it bothers me to hear from the pulpit “pray for our troops,” and nothing more. If we are to truely love the way Jesus has called us to, we must pray for all those involved in this international conflict: our troops, allies, and enemies. I would love to hear someone say “Bow your heads in a prayer for Iraq.” I bet people would fall out of their pews if a preacher said that! At seminary, we met a student whose family background is Iraqi, and it was interesting to see his perspective on things.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no revolutionary. Despite my frustrations with the speed (or lack thereof) with which the USCIS is processing my wife’s permanent resident paperwork, I consider myself fortunate to be an American. While I enjoy a certain quality of life here in the US, I cannot say that I am always “proud” to be an American, because let’s face it – we don’t always make wise decisions. I feel about this country like I do about Windows – It’s not the best system, but it’s what we’ve got, so we make do.
American != Christian
If you’re not familiar with the != syntax, in most programming languages, that’s the way to write “not equal to.” While I certainly don’t think that American citizenship and Christianity are mutually exclusive, I think we need to hit pause sometimes, and realize they are not automatically synonymous.
Some time ago I asked my dad, a retired US Air Force colonel, and experienced pilot, about how he felt that Christianity meshed with war. He said that the best soldier is the one who does not go looking to pick a fight. If I may, here’s a good quote from the movie Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility.” We must use our gifts for the right purposes.
My dad also pointed out to me something that a chaplain had told him: The Exodus 20:13 commandment of “Thou shalt not kill,” literally reads “thou shalt not murder,” which makes a whole lot more sense in light of some of the bloody scenes in the Old Testament. The death penalty was not a foreign concept to ancient Israel, but it was executed with corporate consent.
Murder then, is killing without authorization, vigilante justice, taking the law into your own hands. So, while the war on terror continues, I think it’s important for us to remember to pray for our enemies. Even if you think the bad guys deserve what they get, keep in mind Ezekiel 33:11…
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Well, I’ll wrap this article before it gets too lengthy. Let me just say that I’m a fat and happy American citizen who is thankful to be living in a land o’plenty. My intention here was not to spark a political debate, simply to remind us (myself especially) to live a life of love – praying for all of humankind.
Discussion + Dissension
Comments closed after 2 weeks.
#1 Bill Crabb
I always see this section of scripture tying into “Love thy neighbor as thy self”, and Christ pointing out through the Good Samaritan that your neighbor is not necessarily the people next door or those who might happen to look like you or follow the same religion. The Samaritan wasn’t a Jew, he was one of the “enemy” if you will. And yet Christ places his kindness and selflessness as an example to strive for. I believe that in a digital world, all mankind is really our neighbor.
I have struggled with the question of if I am to love my enemies, then how am I to respond to Al Qaeda and UBL. Through prayer, it seems to me that to love someone that wants to kill you requires a willingness to examine their grievances as legitimate, an unwillingness to demonize or dehumanize, and the recognition that my sins before God are greater than any transgressions they may have commited against me. Unfortunately, this puts me at odds with most of my fellow Christians.
#2 Nathan Smith
Bill: I know what you mean. Sometimes we need to show true love, even if it means risking being branded as un-patriotic or even worse, heritical within mainstream Evangelicalism. I of course in no way sympathize with terrorists or their cause, and admit to feeling bitter towards them, which Jesus would tell us is all the more reason to pray. Quite some time ago, I saw a funny bumper-sticker that read: “Human Beans, Visualize Whirrled Peas.” - I try to!
#3 matthew Smith
Nathan,
Great post. Always a good reminder, especially for a missionary. I had to learn this some hard ways when I was studying overseas in 2000-2001. It was a hard year to be overseas as an american, and as a christian – for destinctly different reasons.
For open source bible materials, you may check out crosswire.org. as a follow up to the copyright (sorry, its a wee bit off topic), see here and note you have a bit of flex. :)
#4 Nathan Smith
Matthew: While I was already aware of some allowance for “fair use” of other translations, I just don’t even like to bother with it. I think what irks me is the spirit in which the restrictions are implimented, as if they actually wrote a single line of those scriptures. I would just say long live the Septuagint, but my Greek stinks, so the trusty KJV works in a pinch. That way, we don’t have to worry about any random bottom-feeders with patents and copyrights.
By the way, I own several versions. The NRSV is my leather-bound one. I’m not saying the KJV is the only good one, just the one that’s free of red tape.
#5 Justin Perkins
I find it very interesting that certain versions of the bible are copyrighted. What is up with that? Then again, why are there “versions” at all? Red tape on bible, what have we come to?
I’m not a religious man even in the modest sense of the word, so my questions may be totally “out there”.
Waiting for citizenship can take a while. It took my fiance about a year and half. I’ve heard some people say it was only a few months. I don’t get it, maybe it depends on who is processing your paperwork.
#6 Nathan Smith
Justin: I know what you mean. It’s sort of ironic that we have all these translators working, taking the text from Hebrew / Greek, and converting it to a more usable vernacular. I understand that they have families to support, and need to put food on the table. However, strict copyrights seem contrary to the nature of the Bible in the first place – salvation for all who will accept Jesus as Lord, free of monetary value, yet costing obedience.
As far as why there are differing versions, I think they are actually necessary / beneficial. For instance, we don’t use the same old English as the King James Version anymore, saying Thee and Thou. So, it would make sense to have a more contemporary translation so that we can understand the unchanging principles, but in our own familiar manner of speaking. While I’m all for presenting the message with utmost clarity, I don’t care for the way in which the information is restricted, especially considering the translators didn’t write the original text. It’s like taking a free site template, then copyrighting it.
As far as US immigration stuff goes, I’m not sure about what’s taking so long. I think it’s because we moved for my new job, in the middle of them processing the paperwork. It raises little red flags in the system I guess. It’s ironic, she’s graduated with a masters degree, but is ineligible to work because her student visa expired. Such is the wisdom of our government.
#7 Natalie Jost
Nathan, I’ve thought about that a lot. I too understand the need to feed a family, but some things were meant to be done in service to God. I find charging money for the Bible (or sharing the content of the Bible) to be something similar to charging the homeless for a bed and food. Sure, you could, but what an a** you’d be.
You know, my sister is an immigration officer and she’s told me there have been times she has had to escort some really decent people back to their old country – even after they’d been in the US (and paying US taxes) for decades.
It just proves perfection is a long way off. We all have work to do. God bless you for posting this.
#8 Nathan Smith
Natalie: Oh man, that’s hillarious! I’ll have to remember that quote for future arguments over money + the Bible. I don’t suppose your sister could put in a good word for us? We have a meeting tomorrow with the local Boise office.
#9 Natalie Jost
Man, it’s probably too late now. I just read this. She works out of Denver, but I’ll mention it to her anyway, see if there’s someone she can call. She’s relatively new, but from my understanding, the only one with a college degree.