In elementary school we all learned the ditty: “In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Convinced by Christopher Columbus that a new, faster route to the rich spice regions of India could be found by sailing east instead of south, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain financed an exploratory mission for this new route. Instead of India, Columbus found the New World — the lands that lay across the Atlantic ocean from Europe.
In the long run it was a very good deal for Ferdinand and Isabella. But while Columbus was floundering about in the sea, the royalty of Spain had some other big-idea irons in the fire. Ferdinand petitioned the Pope and was granted permission to start a serious investigation into the religious orthodoxy of those under his rule. This ecclesial exercise became known as the “Spanish Inquisition.” It seems 1492 is a year when both new, exciting frontiers and possibilities were discovered. Yet it is also a year when old prejudices, animosities, and cruelties were reborn with a vengeance.
Although there were all sorts of free thinkers and some genuine wild-eyed crazies who got caught up in the Inquisitor’s net, the primary focus was on the resident Jews and Muslims residing in Spain. Both Jews and Muslims were rounded up and subjected to questions and the questionable tactics (yes torture) of the “Inquisition.” In the spring of 1492, shortly after Muslims were driven out of Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all the Jews from Spain. Both groups were basically given a “thumbs up or thumbs down” choice: Convert, leave or die.
The Jews who “converted” were dubbed “conversos” and were subject to suspicion and scrutiny for centuries. The Muslims who “converted” were dubbed “Moriscus,” and they too were held at arms’ length within the Christian community for centuries. Not surprisingly both conversos and Moriscus’ had secret underground networks to keep them connected to their heritage and faith, no matter what they had to show to the political powers that might be.
But that is a history lesson. That was long ago and far away. Those wrong-headed, wrong-hearted actions are in a past that we as Christians today acknowledge as horrific actions and terrible attitudes. We acknowledge our failures and foibles. We repent and say our confessions.
The problem is history happens every day. The problem is that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does recur. Nothing repeats, but everything recurs.
On April 14, 2014 almost 300 school girls in Nigeria were kidnaped, rounded up and carted off in trucks from their school in the north eastern Borno region of Nigeria. They were abducted by a radical, militant, terrorist group called “Boko Haram” — a name that literally translates as “Western education is a sin.” But it is not just Western education that “Boko Haram” finds unacceptable. The school where these girls were being educated, the girls themselves, represent a threat to the Islamic fundamentalists of Boko Haram because they are Christian. This is a “new-but-not-new” series of behavior. It is a twenty-first century Inquisition. But the tables have been turned and now it is Christian children who are at the center of a political/religious/economic fueled rage. Five hundred and twenty two years and we are still doing the “same old-same old.” We are still people of faith fighting, hurting, and killing each other.
Jesus was the victim of this “same old-same old” mentality. He was different. So he was a threat. So he was killed. Jesus died for our sins. But perhaps the biggest sin Jesus wrapped his crucified arms about was the sin of our stubbornness and stupidity. Stubbornness and stupidity, which bred hurtfulness and hatred. Hurtfulness and hatred which bred fear, and fueled the growth of downright evil. God tells it like it is about the human species in one of the most incredible passages in the Bible: "My Spirit will not contend with humans forever…their days will be 120 years" (Gen.6:3). We are a contentious, cruel, "hard‑headed" species.
This is why the kidnaped Christian girls have been recorded and posted online as repudiating their Christian faith, while forcefully swathed in traditional Islamic burkas, and repeating Islamic prayers. They are our twenty-first century “conversos” and “Moriscus.” They are doing what they have to do to survive. They are children. They are trying to survive. Have you been praying for them? Have you prayed that they remain strong in faith and trust despite the physical and psychological abuse? Have you prayed that they will be able to forgive those who persecute them or who fail to support them in their time of trial? Have you prayed that they will experience and love, joy and peace from God in this time of torture? Have you prayed that they will walk humbly in their identification with Christ’s sufferings and be fruitful witnesses to others? Have you prayed that these girls will be able to stand up for their dignity, yet respond in grace and love? (With thanks to “Release International” for some of these thoughts).
In this week’s gospel text Jesus defends and empowers a group of “children” who are terribly frightened and hoping to survive. That wimpy, wussy group of “children” is today known as “the disciples,” but better dubbed the “duh!-ciples” — those who are revered as the foundation of what we know today as the Church.
But on Passover, before the crucifixion, they were still just “duh!” … still just “clueless.” Yet Jesus, knowing what he had to face in the next few days, knowing what torture was before him, looked out at his disciples and proclaimed them to be the fulfillment of his mission and the future of God’s mission. It was like Jesus was looking out at a table full of Edsel’s and declaring that Detroit was golden. Jesus’ confidence came from his seat of power. He had been empowered by God, and he passed on that power and presence to those who followed him: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world” (vs. 6). Jesus knew his followers were fragile and faltering. He had witnessed the fractures in their faith throughout his ministry.
But Jesus had faith. He knew that he had fulfilled all that he has been commissioned by his Father to complete. He passed along the words of forgiveness and acceptance, which was the divine mission: “For the words that I gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth, that I came from you” (vs7).
As the twenty-first century population of Jesus’ disciples we are in exactly the same position. We are weak and unsure of our power and position. The Westminster Confession, chapter 25 (“On Church”), point 5 still applies:
The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated, as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall be always a church on earth, to worship God according to his will.
We are being persecuted and pursued by those who hate us. 80% of the religious persecution in the world today is directed against Christians. 80%. Not only is Christianity the most persecuted religion in the world today, but more Christians were martyred in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined. Here are some statistics culled from various reputable sources about the extent of religious persecution in the world today:
*About 170,000 Christians are martyred for their faith each year (that’s over 400 per day)
*Currently over 200 million Christians are being persecuted worldwide
*Christians are persecuted in 131 of the world's 193 countries [Pew Forum study]
*North Korea: in 2014 it continues to be the worst country in the world for persecution
We may be persecuted. But we are uniquely empowered by the fulfillment of Jesus’ mission and God’s dream for humanity. We are sketchy and scared. But we have a secret power source. We belong to Jesus, and Jesus declares that “all mine are yours and yours are mine and I have been glorified in them” (vs. 10).
As followers of Jesus we need to claim this plug-in to the ultimate power grid. Jesus came to unite us. Jesus did not come to separate us or divide us. We can always have different tastes and tribes and traditions. But we can also always have a common identifier: love. We can also always have a common identity: love for Jesus.
The kidnaping, incarceration, and forced “conversion” of the young women in Nigeria is a wake-up call to our Christian call to love. Our call to pull together as a community of faith. A call to reach out in compassion to parents who have had their children ripped away from them. But even more, a call to proclaim the love of Christ over the forces of hatred and evil.
And it is a time to look inward, to look closer to home. Acceptance and love starts next door, not in the next time zone. Acceptance of different opinions starts with those you pass the communion plate to in your pew, not in some government sponsored chat-room. Acceptance starts at the table of the Last Supper — where Jesus looked out and saw a Judas, and a Peter, and ten other frail and fragile followers, and yet proclaimed to God in prayer that “those whom you gave me from the world . . . they have kept your word.”
The disciples did not do a good job of being “disciples” until after the miracle of Pentecost. After the crucifixion, before the Ascension, they were understandably shaky. Yet even before he was nailed to the cross Jesus was calmly convinced that he had “fulfilled his mission.” He was convinced because he knew he had communicated the ultimate story of God to this small group of followers. And Jesus knew the power of truth, the power of the greatest love story the world has ever known.
It was transformation. It was life changing. It was world re-arranging. It was the message of salvation and forgiveness that all humanity had been searching for. It still is.
We keep fighting the same battles. We keep committing the same sins. We keep being horrified by the same actions. But we have had an answer for the last 2000 years. It is not new. It is not fancy.
It is Jesus: “Jesus, the name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease; 'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 'Tis life, and health, and peace!” (Charles Wesley)
Let us pray:
Father,
Help me to see myself as you see me.
Help me to accept myself as you accept me;
Help me to forgive myself as you forgive me;
Help me to love myself as you love me;
Help me to receive the enlightenment of your divine spirit to see others, to accept others, to forgive others, to love others, as you do to me.
Or:
Here are some suggested prayers from “Release International” for persecuted Christians everywhere:
Sovereign God, we worship you and acknowledge that you know all of those who suffer in your name (1). We remember those who are imprisoned for their faith (2) and ask that they would join with the Apostle Paul to see that even though they remain captive, their chains have furthered the gospel, not frustrated it (3). May they inspire and embolden their fellow believers to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly (4).
God of all comfort, for those who are tortured both in body and mind, give them the grace to endure and to see their suffering as part of following in Christ’s footsteps (5).
Merciful God, for those asked to pay the ultimate price; who are martyred because of their love for you, may they truly know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death (6).
Father God, for those who are widowed and orphaned may they know the comfort that comes from your promised presence (7) even when they walk through the valley (8). May they be strengthened by your Spirit, enabling them to rejoice with the psalmist as they proclaim that the LORD will not abandon them in death (9).
Heavenly Father, we ask that you would make us ever mindful of our brothers and sisters around the world who need us to stand with them (10) as they suffer in your name. Teach us what it means to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony; we pray that we would not love our lives so much as to shrink from death (11).
O Lord, hear our prayer.
(1) Romans 5:3, Romans 8:17‑18, 1 Corinthians 12:26, 2 Corinthians 1:5‑11
(2) Hebrews 13:3, Colossians 4:18
(3) Philippians 1:12‑13
(4) Philippians 1:14
(5) Romans 15:5‑6, 2 Thessalonians 1:4‑5, 11‑12
(6) Philippians 3:10
(7) Deuteronomy 31:8, Matthew 28:20, Hebrews 13:5
(8) Psalm 23:4
(9) Psalm 16:10
(10) Hebrews 13:3
(11) Revelation 12:11
Almighty God, who has taught us through your Son Jesus Christ that those who follow Him may be persecuted; strengthen, comfort and encourage all those who suffer harassment, violence, imprisonment and even death for being followers of Jesus. We pray for those who persecute your people; may their hearts be turned towards you through the faithful witness of those they persecute. Protect members of the families and church communities of those who are persecuted and bless the work and ministry of those who support those who are suffering and seek to be a voice of persecuted Christians. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.