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| HIS WEEKEND, memorial services are being
held in many places for the lives lost and the injuries sustained in
Bali in October last year. I won't speak long about the grief side of things. Our church has not suffered much grief. We lost no one when terrorists attacked tourists. But Marrickville has suffered, and there will be special services today elsewhere. I believe that Bali says important things to us. I believe that Bali poses many questions for us to answer. There are issues which the West as a whole has not tried to tackle. Our shallow responses will only inspire terrorists. You and I are responsible. If the history of Christianity teaches anything, it teaches the power of the small committed group. What will we do? Shall we look at the depth of the darkness and curse it, or shall we light our own candles and dispel some of it? UNDERSTANDING But let us understand the terrorist mentality. The Bible tells us, Our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, and against
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
The evil in the world is scarcely the work of nasty individuals. It is
the work of a system. It is the work of a principle of abused power. It
is the work of spiritual forces overarching the things of this world.We are not in a battle against Islam. Some say that this is a clash of civilisations. We are in a battle against spiritual evil which certainly clamps some Muslims in its stinking jaws. But it’s a spiritual evil which emerges in many forms in many places. It's a spiritual evil which will grasp us, too, if we are not alert. The devil goes
around like a roaring lion, seeking those whom he would devour. Resist
him, firm in the faith...
The early Christians faced all kinds of hardship. They were brave.
Their bravery came from knowing that Jesus has risen from the dead and
has conquered death and Hades.Every religion has its martyrs, but the early Christian martyrs were distinct from the rest. They did not die in the act of killing others. They did not die as punishment for crimes they committed while establishing their movement. They died because they refused to play the political game. They died because they refused to be bowed by the idolatry of power. To be true to the gospel, we will certainly pray for those in authority. But we will never forget that all power corrupts. We will never forget that absolute power corrupts absolutely. We will never forget that it is our duty to resist the corrupting accumulation of power. But do we do that by terror, or do we do that some other way? The terror our world faces is more pervasive than anything that happened in 1968. It is better organised than anything that happened in Russia in 1917. It is transferrable in a way that nothing before it — save the gospel of Christ — has ever been. The Bali bombing was one act in a chain of terror embracing The Moro Rebels in the Philippines, the Jakarta Church bombings, attacks on Christians in Pakistan, ongoing violence in Ambon, the atrocities in East Timor, murders of Copts, of tourists and of Anwar Sadat in Egypt, and much else. The Bali bombing was just the tip of an iceberg which can easily sink the Titanic of the West if we let ourselves be at ease in Zion, if we presume that we have all the answers and can sum up the terrorists in a simple sentence. They say, “To every complex issue there is an answer which is simple, obvious and wrong.” Terrorists use terror because terror works. If you don't believe that, look at the history of modern Israel: it was built out of the terror campaigns of the Irgun Zvei Leumi and the Stern Gang. Or look at how organised crime and its terror campaigns eventually sank Prohibition in the US. Or see how the Bolsheviks gained power in Russia. Terror works. To change the world, there are only two ways: the way of terror and the way of innocent martyrdom. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that every person who refuses the way of innocence will turn up at Marrickville RSL with a bomb. And I'm not saying that every one of us, if we want to bring about change, will die in the process if we refuse the way of terror. What I am saying is that we all face a choice. We either stand for the gospel in a spirit of peace and in the power of truth, or we stand for change through violence. We all stand in the tradition of those who die at the hands of evil people; or we stand in the tradition of those who murder of the innocent. Terrorism is not inspired by jealousy of the Western lifestyle. Some American commentators and politicians pushed that line after the World Trade Centre attacks. Millions of people worldwide don’t even like Coca Cola, McDonalds or George W Bush. Terrorism today is an attack on a West which is seen among Muslim extremists as Godless, Imperialistic and determined to dominate and impose its values on the East. And how does the West answer? With more Coca Cola, more McDonalds and more of George W Bush. With smart bombs and puppet governments. With a determination to impose our values. But we are too polite even to mention God, let alone hear what he says. STRATEGISING So we need a strategy if we are to get out of the mess we are in. Do not repay anyone
evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with
everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for
God’s wrath, for it is written, “‘It is mine to avenge, I will repay,
says the Lord.” (Romans 12: 17 – 19)
The first thing is that we must become people of peace and of justice and of righteousness and of love. If the West is to have any impact on its surroundings, it has to change. And it will change only if enough of us ordinary, "powerless" Christians change. In the last few weeks, I have told you about the conversions of several people. One was George Fox, the Quaker. Soon after the Quakers first appeared, they began to reflect on their world from a Biblical perspective. And they realised that the same Jesus who had taught them as they sat and reflected on his word was also the one who taught their slaves as their slaves sat and reflected on his word. “How can we enslave those who are, by nature our brothers and sisters, and whose hearts are equally illuminated by the true Light of Christ?” they asked. So they banned slavery among themselves and freed their slaves. No one could be both a slave–owner and a Quaker. Another person I mentioned was John Wesley. Wesley founded the Methodist movement. He was unlike many Anglicans of his day, because he listened to other Christians and was willing to learn from them. He listened to the Quakers, and realised that they were right. He passed the Quaker idea on in his Methodist gatherings. You could not be a Methodist and keep slaves either. Soon, Methodist evangelists were crossing England daily, preaching salvation through Christ for all, and liberation for slaves. When Methodists were beaten up, it wasn't always for preaching salvation through faith in Christ. Sometimes it was for threatening the financial well-being of people whose livelihood depended on owning slaves. Methodists were poor. Methodists were despised. No one took a Methodist seriously. Only some people with influence and power did listen and respect the Methodists, and take their whole message seriously. William Wilberforce was one. He was converted through the Methodists, but remained a mainstream Anglican. But he stuck with the Methodists when it came to slavery. And he was a Member of Parliament, who pushed and pushed until Parliament passed his Bill and it became law. Slave-keeping was legally banned throughout England and her dominions. That is why slavery didn’t play much of a part in Australian history. The US broke away from England before Wilberforce, but Australia was only just getting started as an English colony when slavery was banned, so it was banned here, too. There might not be many of us, but we can make a difference, if we are determined enough. We must change, and we must apply pressure to change others. We need a strategy based on peace and justice and righteousness and love. There are voices being raised around the world, saying that we are approaching a “clash of civilisations” between the Muslim East and the Judaeo-Christian West. And that is exactly what Al–Quaida and Jemaah Islamia want. They are spoiling for a clash of civilisations. And each Afghanistan, each Iraq, each Syria we invade or attack brings that clash nearer. And it is the work of devilish powers that drives the world in that direction. If our own societies become more peaceful, more just, more righteous and more loving, they will stand as proof that these goals can be achieved without recourse to Sharia law, without oppression and violence. But our societies must become more peaceful, more just, more righteous and more loving in their relationships with the rest of the world. The Islamic world smarts because we have consistently lied to them, because we use them and then abandon them, because we do not act with honour. To say, “Neither do they,” justifies nothing. Do we wallow in mud because pigs don’t bathe? These people are human beings, people for whom Christ died. If our fellow humans are no better morally than we are, then we are all sinners, and must all repent. There is none righteous, not one,
as
the Bible itself tells us.If we stand for Christ and the gospel regardless, then we will be respected, because radical Islam considers that Christianity no longer stands for anything. It might still kill us, but it will respect religious commitment. REDEEMING The Bali bombing has been seen as the slaughter of innocent people. In a legal sense that is true. Those clubs were not full of gangsters and evil criminals. Most of the targeted Westerners were young Australian pagans enjoying themselves. But there were far more Hindu Balinese and even Muslims from around Indonesia who died that night or in the next few days. Not too many were criminal masterminds. In another sense, of course, they were not innocent. Morally, not one of us is innocent. That is why we need Jesus, who died ...the just for the
unjust, to bring us to God.
But their undeserved suffering is proving redemptive.For a start, it has horrified many Indonesians of good will. Although there is still a lot of talk that Indonesians could never have done such a thing and it must have been the CIA, and although some Indonesians think that Jemaah Islamia is a figment of the Western anti-Muslim imagination, the Indonesian Government has finally recognised that terrorists do operate in Indonesia and that they have to be stamped out. I believe that a far greater impact has been the way that people have seen the Balinese as real and suffering people. Up until now, it has been too easy to see them as servants and as doers of the tourist’ bidding. Australians are focusing on real lives, helping widows rebuild their lives after their husbands were killed, getting treatment for some of the worst injured. If our people’s suffering turns attention on the world’s needs rather than on gaining revenge, then something good has come of it. Christians must never begin to view suffering as something good. What I am saying is that God can transform the evil of suffering and bring good even out of that most unlikely place. Before I came to Marrickville, I negotiated with another church. It was in shambles. There were major conflicts in the congregation, there was blatant sin, and everyone was so paralysed by the situation that no one felt able to act to change things. And I have to tell you that that church treated Chris and me very shabbily. Some of them even secretly tape-recorded one of my sermons, pulled a comment out of context and tried to lay a charge of heresy against me with the Baptist Union. We suffered, but we didn’t retaliate. We didn’t fight back. As a lamb before her shearers is dumb, so
he did not open his mouth.
We
took that as our guide.And good people looked on in horror as we suffered at the hands of the evil. But we lived on, and we were moved to Marrickville when everything was against my finding a church allocation. But our experiences in that other church persuaded the good people to act. They stood for right and refused to tolerate wrong. Two people were asked to leave the church because they had done serious wrong and were unwilling to repent. Gradually, they sorted things out. If, in our pursuit of obedience to Christ our Lord, we have to suffer, we can suffer as he did, and God will use that suffering to redeem a little piece of the world. If you are not of the redeemed, you can not fully share in Christ’s redemptive work, though. God commends his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He died for you. Will you turn to him in repentance and faith, and begin a new life in him? Let’s change the world!... beginning with me. AMEN |
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| © Peter R. Green 2003. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. | |
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