Last week when I heard the news about the attacks in Paris, I
was outraged and deeply saddened—a sentiment that has increased as the week’s events
have continued to unfold, giving way to a clarification of Jesus’ distinct and
compelling call.
Familiarity with the theatre and the cafes where people were
shot has made these attacks close and personal, disturbing me to the point of
occupying most of my thinking this past week. Five of the six attacks happened
quite close to the neighborhood and church where we lived and served in 2011 and
2012. Our then 16-year-old daughter Anna and I attended a Jesus Culture concert
at the Bataclan Theatre—the same venue where 89 people attending the Eagles of
Death concert were gunned down a week ago today.
One French friend told me that what most unsettled her was
that six attacks happened simultaneously, setting off a cloud of insecurity and
fear across all of Paris. This fear has now spread across Europe and North
America—catching us up with much of the rest of the world.
Fear and insecurity had already overwhelmed Lebanon and
Turkey in recent weeks due to suicide bombers, and the Russians have now
officially attributed the downing of their flight over the Sinai Peninsula to a
bomb. Refugees continue to flee Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and
other places due to war, and Palestinians and Israelis live with threats and
violence every day. Everywhere we look, violence produces terror, begets acts
of vengeance, and accelerates the cycle of killing.
How are we to respond? My first reaction was a longing to be
there in Paris with our friends and the church communities we know and love. I
emailed friends, struggled to pray, poured over the news, and prayed some more.
A few thoughts come to mind as I seek God’s wisdom regarding responses to
current events, combined with links to articles I hope you find useful.
1) Love and worship the One God, Father, Jesus the Son and
Holy Spirit with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Find your security in
God’s unfailing love and care. Jesus says: “No
one can serve two masters; for
either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot
serve God and mammon
(money, security, safety)(Matthew 6:24). Let God’s perfect love drive out all
fear.
2) Inform yourself through reliable news sources, such as
Oliver Roy’s article
on the strategic limits of ISIS. Most secular news media, however, focus on the
negative, provoking insecurity and fear. The more hidden work of God’s Kingdom
goes unreported.
While sleeper terrorist cells and dangerous individuals are
indeed imbedded in most countries, activist followers of Jesus committed to
love and good deeds are also imbedded everywhere, far outnumbering jihadists.
While hundreds of European jihadists do return to Europe after fighting
alongside ISIS in Syria, many Christians also return to Europe and North
America from schools of transformational ministry around the world. While many more
Christians still need to be mobilized, Jesus followers share the Gospel, care
for the homeless, reach out to immigrants and refugees, visit the sick and
elderly, care for the disabled, visit and minister to prisoners and engage in
countless acts of love. The church in France is steadily growing, and many of
our French friends tell of an increase of spiritual hunger since the attacks
against Charlie Hebdo in January 2015.
3) Pray for God’s comfort and for peace. Intercede for the
French people; for the families of the victims; for immigrants and refugees; for
Muslims the world over, for men and women involved in ISIS and other terrorist
organizations (see this), for European
leaders and our own leaders in these dangerous times. Pray for the church and
for people of peace to be further mobilized everywhere.
4) “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”
(Romans 12:21), Paul admonishes persecuted believers. Rather than being caught
up in the wave of fear and agreeing with policies that emphasize destroying
enemies in the interests of national security, or prohibiting desperate
refugees from making their way to safety, focus on what it looks like to
deliberately overcome evil with good! Let us think on and pray about this!
5) Move in full alignment with the Spirit that raised Jesus from
the dead—not with the ruler of this world, the thief who “comes only to rob, kill,
and destroy” (John 10:10). When the sons of Zebedee ask Jesus if they should call
down fire from heaven (think “hellfire missiles”) on the Samaritans that have refused
Jesus entry, Jesus rebukes them, saying, “You do not know what kind of spirit you
are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them”
(Luke 9:55–56). For over 34 years I have ministered to violent men, seeing many
give over their lives to the God of life. Let us join Jesus fully in his
commitment to seeking and saving those who are lost.
6) Actively love your enemies and pray for persecutors.
Mourn the death of enemy combatants rather than celebrating their destruction.
Earlier on November 12, the same day terrorists struck in Paris, a US drone
attack annihilated four men in Raqqa, Syria, including the infamous Mohammed Emwazi,
otherwise known as Jihadi
John—the British man who brutally beheaded a number of Western hostages last
year. The following day, November 13, a US airstrike killed Abu Nabil, the head
of ISIS in Libya. These acts, together with France’s heavy bombing this week of
the ISIS stronghold in Raqqa, will most likely increase animosity, radicalizing
and mobilizing still more jihadists and fueling more reprisals that will lead
to still more violence and death.
Those who kill will themselves suffer greatly, as a recent
interview with American drone operators in Nevada clearly shows. Followers
of Jesus must actively follow Jesus in our treatment of violent
offenders—distancing ourselves from all killing as we seek first the Kingdom of
God and the righteousness visible in Jesus’ earthly life.
7) Actively engage in Jesus’ ministry as he lived it in the
Gospels, in the company of believers who love each other. This is the only
compelling alternative that can compete with jihadist adventurers seeking a
utopian vision. Jesus embodied the Father’s lavish love for sinners,
proclaiming forgiveness and love made concrete through healing the sick,
embracing outcasts, casting out evil spirits from the tormented, confronting
oppressors, and preaching the good news of “on earth as in heaven.” Let us step
forward into this ministry, empowered by the Spirit, seeking to share this
vision and recruit new followers before others recruit them.
8) Welcome immigrants and refugees rather than agreeing with
growing
moves to exclude
them. Now is the time to embrace the most vulnerable people into our
nations, seeking ways to humbly and intelligently serve them—bearing witness to
God’s life-giving love in Jesus.
9) Be willing to suffer and die in active love and service
of God so that the world can see the extremity of God’s care. Muslim fighters willing
to blow themselves and others up to advance their cause demonstrate a high level
of commitment—albeit it producing the evils of death, chaos and terror.
In contrast, martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero
declared: “The only violence that the gospel admits is violence to oneself.
When Christ lets himself be killed, that is violence—letting oneself be killed.
Violence to oneself is more effective than violence to others. It is very easy
to kill, especially when one has weapons, but how hard it is to let oneself be
killed for love of the people!”
An army of totally surrendered Jesus followers out to demonstrate
God’s grace and power on behalf of the poor and oppressed will advance and penetrate
into the places of greatest darkness and need, announcing and embodying authentic
hope.
In this climate of fear, God’s perfect love in Christ must
be proclaimed like never before, countering the rhetoric of opportunistic politicians
with a more compelling vision. “For
the weapons of our warfare are not of
the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of
fortresses,” writes Paul from his cell
as a persecuted apostle of the suffering Messiah (2 Corinthians 10:4). Now is
the time to arm ourselves for battle with the weapons of the Spirit embodied by
the Savior of the world, who has won the battle by “losing,” by giving up his
life as a ransom for many.
Please read this insightful letter from a dear British friend ministering
in France for many years, Andy Buckler, and pray as he indicates.
***
From Andy & Uta Buckler
Paris, 18th November 2015
Dear friends
I am writing this letter five days after the terrorist
attacks on Paris, whose indiscriminate bloodshed has caused at least 129 deaths
and hundreds of wounded. It has been a difficult time, and we have been very
grateful for your ongoing prayers and messages of support.
The recent events have brought about a strange atmosphere
in Paris. Three days of national mourning and a state of emergency with
hundreds of arrests on charges of terrorism, and police and army everywhere...
underline the reality of the continued threat. But unlike the attacks last
January, there is no mass outpouring of emotion, no big demonstrations. We're
told the security threat is too important, but it also feels like people are
determined to get back to normal life as quickly as possible, if only to show
that the terrorists have not succeeded... Except that the nervousness and
emotions are not far beneath the surface.
Last Sunday I preached at Saint Denis a short distance from
the stade de France where three terrorists blew themselves up two days before.
The service had been planned with a missional theme, with young people giving
testimonies about their evangelism experience abroad last summer, and
commissioning for a small Fresh expressions initiative in central Paris due to
start next week. The service went ahead and was great, but I found myself
really challenged about what it means to be witnesses in the current context.
"You have heard that it was
said 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy', but I tell you, love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you". (Matt 5,43-44)
Over the last few days, we have been passive witnesses to
terrible events. But as Christians, we are of course also called to be active
witnesses of a different reality that Jesus calls the kingdom of God. It is
easy to loose sight of this Gospel perspective in a media saturated society
where attitudes are so easily forged by powerful images and strong emotions.
This doesn't mean we retreat into an escapist world,
seeking to deny reality and its pain and sorrow. But rather that we believe
that God is present in the midst of the pain of this world, precisely where we
do not expect it, or where are tempted to think that he is absent. God's love
is greater than hate, his life stronger and more real than the forces of death
at work around us.
Last weekend I also spoke at two of our regional synods on
the theme of being an "Eglise de témoins" (our term for a mission
shaped church). There too it felt strange to be talking about mission in such a
painful context (especially in the Paris synod), and yet it seems precisely at
this time that being a witness is so important. As citizens of the world we are
witnesses of the terrible events that shape us, and yet as citizens of God's
kingdom we need also to be courageous witnesses of God's other perspective which
brings peace and hope.
Being witnesses of both at the same time is not easy - it
involves being weak and hurting, and yet spiritually discerning, refusing to
let our earth bound perspectives determine our identity or shake our
confidence.
In Christ, we can become prophetic signs of his presence,
through simple, but radical love. Sometimes such signs come in surprising ways.
I was struck by the reports of numerous people last Friday night opening their homes
to those caught in the attacks and with no way of getting home. The media
called this a "surprising gesture of fraternity and solidarity",
which it was! But I like to think it was also a sign of God's light in the
darkness.
So do pray that Christians here would be able to be and to
discern around them signs of God's loving presence in this difficult time. Pray
for the local churches that are opening up their doors for people to talk and pray.
Pray too for the small teams from different Paris churches that will be available
to talk and pray with people around the different sites where the attacks took place.
This is a good initiative, but requires great spiritual sensitivity in the current
climate.
In this climate, we hear a lot about the terrible effects
of "radicalism", often said as if any sort of strong religious
conviction necessarily breeds intolerance and hatred. But what we desperately
need today in its place is not simply a collection of consensus-based human
values (although these are good), nor an insensitive proselytizing zeal, but a
new form of radicalism - the radical love which comes from and through Jesus
Christ.
It is the radical love of Christ that enables us to love
not only our neighbour (which is hard enough!), but also our enemy. It opens
the way to forgive and forgive again. To pray even for forgiveness for those
who "know not what they are doing".
This goes far beyond what politicians can possibly
suggest. It is totally unreasonable and unrealistic. In fact it is impossible,
unless the lifeblood of Jesus himself is running through our veins.
But it is also a treasure that shines through our contradictions,
mixed-up emotions and pain. And it is promise and hope in our disorientated
world.
We really need to pray that God will give us grace to
allow this radical love to shine through our acts, thoughts, words, prayers,
however simple and insignificant they may seem to be to us.
For God, who said, ‘Let light shine
out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the
knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure
in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from
us. (2 Cor 4:6-7)
Please continue to pray for France at this time.
Andy Buckler
Secrétaire
National Evangelisation et Formation
(National
Secretary for Evangelism and Training)
Eglise
Protestante Unie de France
