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Note: This essay first appeared in the
December 2006 Baptist Studies Bulletin.
Advent season is well underway, yet in our nation and world peace may
well be at its lowest ebb since the dark days of World War II.
Iraq is in utter
chaos, plagued by a botched invasion and ensuing civil war that has
claimed
the lives of over 600,000 Iraqis
and thousands of U.S. troops. The result of
trumped up “evidence” thrust upon the American public by an administration
seeped in eschatological visions of the Religious Right, the hell-hole that
America created in Iraq has cast down political strongholds in America, spread
war and anarchy throughout the Middle East, provided a powerful platform for
religious fundamentalists to terrorize the world, and raised the bar of
suspicion, fear and even hatred among religions of the world to unprecedented
levels.
Even as the deadly
Iraq effect ripples around the world, millions upon millions of persons are
dying from genocide, starvation, malnutrition, natural disasters, AIDS, lack
of sanitation and preventable diseases … even as the
disparity between the wealthy and impoverished grows ever greater.
The richest 1% of the world’s population owns 40% of the world’s assets, while
the poorest half of the world’s population owns 1% of the world’s assets. And
the gap continues to grow.
And yet this Advent
season most of us will live insulated from the distant chaos of terror-fueled
warfare, the tragedy of untimely death and the signs of impending collapse
that characterize much of our planet. In our church sanctuaries we are
comfortable. In our homes we are insulated. A few moments each week we
contemplate the Christ child. A few dollars we send to missionaries, or
perhaps to a local charity or a worldwide relief agency. But most of our time
is preoccupied with purchasing meaningless gifts for those who have no worldly
needs, attending a steady stream of holiday parties, gorging on an abundance
of rich foods that harm the body and feed not the soul, and racking up credit
card debt in order that we might live beyond our already abundant means.
Consumed with ourselves, we make the rich richer and seal the untimely fate of
millions.
But what can we do
otherwise, we ask?
Perhaps the Amish,
the descendants of Anabaptists, the early cousins of Baptists, can teach us a
lesson. When a gunman murdered five young Amish girls in Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania earlier this autumn, the Amish community did something remarkable
in those darkest of days: they forgave the killer, and even prayed for his
family.
When is the last
time we extended forgiveness to someone who harmed us in such a way that it
devastated our lives? When is the last time we prayed for an Iraqi family who
lost a loved one to the atrocities of war and terror?
Last month the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America took a remarkable step. Rejecting the
teachings of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon regarding the right of
government authorities to punish teachings deemed theological heresy, the ELCA
apologized for Lutheran persecution of 16th-century Anabaptists. In their
statement of apology, the ELCA declared, “the situation of the 16th
century no longer applies in the 21st century.”
This Advent season
is marked by overwhelming wrongs in the world, wrongs of which we are
complicit. Jesus came into this world and gave of himself to begin the work
of correcting the wrongs in the world, an ongoing task he entrusted to his
followers. Is there any better way to honor the Christ of yesterday and
tomorrow than by rededicating ourselves to the task of correcting the wrongs
in our personal lives and the world at large? Can we be so bold as to work
for the resolving of today’s ills so that healing and forgiveness may take
place on the morrow? Will we, in short, do our part as believers to bear
Christ’s message of hope to a world in need of redemption?
May it be so, Lord
Jesus. |
