Christian/Muslim ThreadsMuslim attacks... :: Re: Muslim attacks...That person is just plain evil and is the cause of the problems in the world today! :evil: Here is something interesting. Mahatma Gandhi who once made the telling observation that the only people who don’t recognize Jesus as a peacemaker are Christians! The New Testament is clear in its portrayal of Jesus as One who challenged injustice. Jesus came as One who went the extra mile in relationships, seeking reconciliation and wholeness. Jesus came as One who broke through human-made barriers while affirming all persons as recipients of the grace of God. And Jesus came as One proclaiming a different way—the way of peace. In our text taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offers a new take on a number of long-held views of human interactions. "You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer . . . You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:38-39, 43-44). It’s an intriguing reversal for One who asserted that he came, not to subvert the law, but to fulfill it. In fulfilling the law, Jesus in fact offers new perspective. Listen to these familiar yet disturbing words, this time as paraphrased in The Message: Here’s another saying that deserves a second look: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth." Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: "Don’t hit back at all." . . . If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously. You’re familiar with the old written law, "Love your friend," and its unwritten companion, "Hate your enemy." I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. That is what God does. God gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and the bad, the nice and the nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you. The Gospels portray Jesus in frequent conflict with the religious leaders of the day. Yet early on in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus challenges his followers to take a look at the example of the scribes and Pharisees, and then see that their own righteousness, their own faithfulness, exceed that of the religious leaders. Clarence Jordan in his Cotton Patch Version puts it, "Unless your conduct is better than that of usual, ordinary religious people, you will never make the grade into God’s new order of the Spirit" (Matthew 5:20). Jesus is challenging his followers to embrace an alternative way of living, a higher righteousness, asserting that God’s deepest desire for humankind is that we learn to live together in shalom—that we not allow division and hostility and unbridled anger to tear at the fabric of human relationships. Presbyterian pastor and seminary professor John Killinger suggests that Jesus urges us to pray for our enemies, knowing that it is impossible for us to take that admonition seriously while continuing to categorize the others as enemies. Writes Killinger, The minute you pray for an enemy, he [or she] is no longer an enemy, but a brother [or a sister]. The prayer is thrown over [the other] like a cloak of relationship. The situation is altered, transmuted . . . When we pray for the kingdom to come, we are asking to be able to see God at work in all kinds of people—derelicts and pariahs, revolutionaries and enemies—and to be able to sit down at table with all of these. After all, it is God’s kingdom, not ours. God decides who will be invited. We learn to see other guests through God’s eyes. And yet, in the aftermath of the September 11 events of a year ago, who among us has not questioned whether talk of peace is not naïve and hopelessly out of touch with reality. In the midst of the kind of fear felt in recent weeks by people in the Washington, D.C. area, holding their breath until another sniper attack occurs, is it possible to speak of shalom? Tough questions, indeed! But perhaps it is at the most challenging times for loving and living as God’s people that the Spirit, teachings, and example of Jesus prod us to model an alternative vision for living. For we recognize that should we allow revenge, violence, and vindictiveness to have the final word, we will get precisely what we expect! Revenge never settles the score; it only leads us further down the spiral of violence. You may remember the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., written from the heat of the struggle to combat the evils of racism. In his book Strength to Love King writes, Probably no admonition of Jesus has been more difficult to follow than the command to love our enemies. Some people have sincerely felt that its actual practice is not possible. It is easy, they say, to love those who love you, but how can one love those who openly and insidiously seek to defeat you . . . Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for our enemies is the key to the solutions of the problems of the world. Jesus is not an impractical idealist; he is the practical realist . . . Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate; violence multiplies violence . . . By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power. Martin Luther King, like Jesus before him, never makes the claim that the way of nonviolence and self-giving love is an easy path to follow. For Jesus it led to the cross; for King, assassination. Through it all, the gospel’s challenge does not fade. A few years back—in 1995—a senseless tragedy occurred. Fourteen-year-old Tony Hicks and several fellow gang members ordered a pizza. As the pizza was delivered, the older gang members prodded Tony to shoot the pizza deliverer, Tariq Khamisa, a 21-year-old college student. Tariq’s father Azim was both grieved and enraged at the senseless killing, with his anger directed not simply at the individual gang members, but even more, at a culture that breeds so much violence. Azim found himself questioning how we got to this point where kids kill kids for no reason at all. Shortly after his son’s death Azim was contacted by a man named Ples Felix, the grandfather of the boy who shot Tariq. The two met together, sharing their mutual grief and heartache, even though most would consider them, because of the circumstances, to be enemies. But Azim and Ples found common ground, and together they decided they must do something. "I realized that change had to start with me," Azim reasoned, and so, even as he struggled with a desire for vengeance, he chose another path. Today, these two men—Azim Khamisa and Ples Felix—tour the United States, visiting schools with a message of nonviolence. They tell the story of Tariq and Tony’s wasted lives—one dead, the other in prison. And in a culture of violence, they speak of another alternative—the way of changed lives, the way of changed hearts and minds. Is that not the promise at the heart of Jesus’ ministry—that ours is a God who offers a fresh vision for living? It’s a vision that now more than ever continues to astound and amaze us, a vision that calls forth from us far more than we ever dreamed possible. Hildegard and Jean Goss-Mayr, active in Fellowship of Reconciliation, tell of having the opportunity to visit Poland some ten years after the end of the Second World War. By then, of course, the division of Europe had become ironclad and the arms race was escalating. While in Poland the couple had opportunity to meet privately with a number of young intellectuals, all committed Christians. After talking together about the difficulties of remaining faithful under an imposed Communist regime, Hildegard questioned, "Would you be willing, if the possibility should arise, to meet with Christians from West Germany? They want to ask forgiveness for what Germany did to Poland during the war and to begin to build new relationships." There was a time of stunned silence, until one young man responded vehemently, "What you are asking is impossible. Each stone of Warsaw has been soaked in Polish blood. We cannot forgive!" The Gosses pushed a bit more, but sensing how deep the wounds remained, they chose instead to close the meeting with prayer and head back to their lodging. All willingly joined in, praying together the Lord’s Prayer. But when they got to the passage, "Forgive us our sins as we forgive," the praying halted. And then the one who had so vehemently responded, "Forgiveness is impossible," said in a quiet voice, "I must say yes to you. I could no more pray the Lord’s Prayer, I could no longer call myself a Christian, if I refuse to forgive. Humanly speaking, I cannot do it, but God will give us the strength!" It is a powerful reminder that active peacemaking and conversion of the heart go hand in hand. In the midst of a world far too prone to violence, you and I, as followers of Jesus, are called to witness to another way of living—the way of peace, the way of compassion, the way of justice. Just because the times are tough—this is no reason to turn from example of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. We can’t stop now! http://users.foxvalley.net/~hacob/sermo ... 2_jdk.html |
🌈Pride🌈 goeth before Destruction
When 🌈Pride🌈 cometh, then cometh Shame