Recently
I was “introduced” to an email purported to have originated from a pilot. Perhaps you’ve seen it… been sent it… or sent
it yourself. In the email the pilot
expresses in rational, articulate language his fear of Muslims…
The
letter itself has an interesting provenance… it actually dates back to late
2001 where it appeared (attributed to a different author in an American newspaper. It then jumped to the world-wide-web where it
has been in circulation for some 13 years.
Rather
than provide my personal response to the email let me try to provide what I
hope is a pastoral response to some of the issues raised within it. My initial thought, of course, was what would
Christ’s response be…? Maybe I’ll come back to that…
I
think what hit me most was the “aroma of fear” I could “smell” as I read. As I read it seemed so clear to me that the
original author (whomever he or she may be) was writing out of a deep and
creeping fear (see 2 Timothy 1:7)… It’s a common fear, a fear that has existed
since the days that Cain murdered his brother Abel. The fear of anything that looks, acts, sounds
different from me.
It’s
a misplaced fear.
See,
the issue is not ethnicity, race, religion or nationality – our fight is not
with our brothers and sisters whatever their nationality, creeds, religion or
race… the battle we wage is a spiritual one (See Ephesians 6:12). And if we are losing this battle the blame
rests not with politicians, not with immigrants old and new… not with religious
extremists…
According
to 2 Chronicles 7:14 the fault rests squarely with those who claim to be
followers of Christ… Our nation is in
its present condition, fear runs rampant because we (those who claim Christ as
Lord) have not humbled ourselves…
…we
do not pray…
…we
do not seek God’s face…
…we
refuse to turn from our self-centred ways…
…we
do not respond to each other in love and grace…
…when
reviled we revile back…
…when
offended we seek to return offense…
We
have forgotten the words of our Saviour (Matthew 5:11)… the battle we wage is
to be engaged with truth… the good news of shalom… a renewed mind…
righteousness… faith… the Word… and above all, prayer (Ephesians 6).
So
what would Jesus do? Precisely what He
did… He would walk into the danger zone
with a message of love and hope, grace and healing… He would take the abuse, the name-calling,
the fear and anger and respond with Truth and mercy.. He never once raised a
hand to harm another, never wrote a letter much less a book –He had no time
too. He was too busy living it!
And
when His oppressors brutally beat Him and nailed Him to a cross one of the last
things He said was, “Father, forgive them… they have no idea…”
The
truth is Christians have come to the mistaken conclusion that they deserve
comfort, safety, ease, even affluence! … and we are more disturbed when these
things are threated than we are by injustice, greed, poverty, pain… which seems
so unlike Jesus.
…just
sayin’
