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November 29, 2015 at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. First Sunday in Advent. Luke 21:25-36. Signs of the times…
QUESTION: What did the Christian Terrorist who shot 9 people at the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado say after he was arrested? “ No more baby parts.” And where pray tell did he hear that?
I have heard it multiple times on various news reports as well as the Internet. Most especially by Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina during the debates. She also referenced a Planned Parenthood video of a baby delivered and allowed to die for “Baby parts,” the very same exact words used by the Christian Terrorist who shot 9 innocent people killing three.
The video she mentioned was actually high jacked and used by Pro-life people to generate anger and hatred against Planned Parenthood. Adding insult to injury was the fact that the video was of a premature baby that was still alive at birth but could not be saved and the family recorded it for their personal use to work through their grief.
We live in dangerous times I believe, and it’s not because of Muslims, it’s because of media hype and hatred and religious extremism.
I was raking leaves in front of our house just before the first snow and I noticed something in the grass. I picked it up, it was a chestnut. The tree in front of our house was planted about three years ago and this is the first year that it has dropped its seed.
I held it in my hand for quite a while delighted by its rich dark brown mahogany color and thought about how this, just like the fig tree and all the trees in the Gospel parable of Jesus is a sign. A sign that our little chestnut has come of age and has established itself in the circle of life that is nature.
I still carry that chestnut with me as a reminder of what is really important in life and how God talks to us most especially through God’s wondrous creation including everything that happens all around us every day.
“Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”
What I believe Jesus is saying is that we need to be alert to the kingdom’s presence right now! Because it is right now, not someday! I think that is perhaps the most confusing part of our Christian tradition and doctrine mainly that there is this physical life that doesn’t matter all that much because there is a heaven that awaits us. A place where good people go and another, very hot place where the miserable sinners will end up.
As you have heard me say many times, I do not believe heaven and hell are places at all but conditions of being that are experienced right here on earth. In fact one of the reasons the so-called Islamic terrorists are so dangerous is because of their twisted understanding or outright ignorance of the Muslim faith that causes them to believe that killing anyone who is not a Muslim brings glory to God.
Some of you may have seen a post that appeared on Facebook illustrating I think in a very powerful way what I am talking about. A couple were driving along in one of the countries plagued by terrorism when suddenly they were stopped by a gunman obviously a terrorist who pointed his rifle at the husband and demanded:
“Are you a Muslim or a Christian?”
The man answered emphatically:
“I am a Muslim!”
“Then recite something from the Qur’an” The gunman bellowed.
The man, a Christian, recited a passage from the Gospel of Matthew.
The gunman smiled and waved them on.
“That was crazy,” said his wife as they pulled away. “You could have had us both killed doing that. What if he recognized that it was not from the Qur’an?”
“If he really knew what is in the Qur’an,” the husband said, “He would not want to kill us.”
What he is referring to specifically is Qur’an 5:53 which says,
“who so kills a soul, unless it be for murder or for wreaking corruption in the land, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind; and he who saves a life, it shall be as if he had given life to all mankind.”
I have found at least ten direct ways that Islamic Law forbids Terrorism. You may not know this but both Jesus and Mary are mentioned in the Qur’an and with respect and reverence.
I personally did not know instance that like the Jews Muslims do not proselytize or try to convert anyone to the Muslim faith. When they conquered other lands and peoples as Christians and Jews did as well they did not force their religion on the vanquished.
It is historically incorrect to hold the Muslim faith up as uniquely violent and warlike, for world history is rife with violence at the hands of most conquering religions.
We need to be so careful in this information age of ours where so many things are reported in the media and online and often people just accept them as fact without any effort at further study. This is extremely dangerous and deadly.
As an example, one of my dear little old ladies at Lasata asked an excellent question last Friday, “Why don’t Muslims speak out against terrorism?” Good question I said, and then researched it online and found many examples, just as you can of prominent Muslim leaders around the world doing just that, the problem is that to my knowledge none of the main news outlets covered any of them.
The day before Thanksgiving I received an e-mail from Brian Nitz, a friend we know from our early years in Racine now living with his family in Ireland. This is what he writes regarding the “signs” regarding Muslims:
“One Christian friend shared a facetious Facebook suggestion that maybe those of us who suggest that our great country could accept 10,000 Syrian refugees (1/140th the number Jordan has sheltered). That maybe we should take them into our own home! (All caps, suitable Facebook meme background, you get the picture.)
So I thought about this, the logistics of using our spare bedroom whether it would work for Virginia as well as it did when we've taken in students and a colleague of mine. Whether the landlord would approve. We could make it work and for us fear is not an obstacle.
Asad's mom was laying on the uncomfortable couch where our bible study group normally sits when she said some things I disagree with, "Everyone thinks I'm a terrorist." Someone tried to lighten things with a sarcastic, "Wait, you're not a terrorist?" But then the shadow of sadness that came over the face of this young woman told me that this was no laughing matter for her. Not at all. Even in this relatively charitable country, she had faced racism and hate.
Yes I was afraid, but not that Asad's parents were terrorists. I was afraid of offending this person or shocking her in a way that would harm her fragile heart. I was afraid that our stairs were too steep. I was afraid that if something went wrong the ambulance would not find its way quick enough along Ireland's narrow, winding roads. I was afraid that we couldn't do enough for her. And I was afraid of what would happen to her children if...
Now imagine if we had spent this evening debating her beliefs or we had turned her away and prayed. I taught kindergartners a Sunday school lesson on that only a few weeks ago. They understood what James meant in James 2:14-19:
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 but someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your[a] works, and I will show you my faith by my[b] works. 19
AMEN.
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