On the Side of the Angels

On the Side of the Angels
by Joseph D'Souza and Ben Rogers

In preparing for a small group at which we will be discussing "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake," I read this book (finally); it was also triggered by reading an article by Ziya Meral, "Bearing the Silence of God," in Christianity Today (March, 2008). Ziya is Turkish, grew up Muslim and became a Christian when he was 17. He works with Christian Solidarity Worldwide, as does Ben Rogers. Our son, Ben, met Ziya at the University of Toronto while attending a summer course on genocide, and has spoken of him often. Ben Rogers has been to Church of the Apostles several times as a guest of Tom and Lisa Yearwood; Ben human rights work focuses on Pakistan, Burma, and Sri Lanka. Lisa told me Sunday of Ziya and Ben Rogers' connection at CSW.

The book is a call to Christians to become advocates for human rights. One of the strengths of the book is its strong emphasis that Christian human rights advocacy is indeed our kingdom mission calling, and that it is not to be aimed just at human rights for Christians, but for all people regardless of their faith. We are to love all our neighbors, and this includes working for freedom, which demands freedom of faith... which means we love our neighbors who freely choose not to be Christians.

In the chapter, "Good and Evil," the authors suggest that perhaps the best description of the kingdom is found in the beatitudes. Then they share that in the book The Lost Message of Jesus, Steve Chalke and Alan Mann "describe the kingdom as 'the in-breaking shalom of God,' available to us all. We often think of shalom as being synonymous with peace, but in fact the word, used many times throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, incorporates 'contentment, health, justice, liberation, fulfilment, freedom and hope' and affects us in every aspect of life - 'socially, economically, spiritually, and politically.'"

In the chapter "Salt and Light," D'Souza and Rogers describe how Christians in India (in particular, the All India Christian Council, of which D'Souza is the president) have stood with and advocated for the rights of both Muslims and Dalit (the continuing untouchable caste). Even after many Dalit chose to convert, not to Christianity, but to Buddhism, Christians supported their right to be free and reaffirmed their love and support for them. They conclude this section with the beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

In the chapter "What Next" they speak of our human and Christian responsibility, and requirement, to make a difference, specifically to be advocates for justice. There are two equally valid and interdependent categories of advocacy - private and public forms of advocacy, or described as engagement and protest. They point out it would be difficult for an individual or organization to do both of these.

There are two sets of essential principles to guide efforts on behalf of the oppressed. (1) Pray, protest, and provide. Mostly prayer is private, and protest and provision is public. In the service of advocacy (2) authenticity, aid, and accountability overlap and deepen the first three.

Prayer is first and foremost, especially for Christian human rights advocacy. Brooke prays everyday through a couple of prayer lists provided by International Justice Mission and Voice of the Martyrs. Every year in November we observe the "International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church."

One form of protest that they write persuasively about is letter writing - to officials who are charged with responding to their constituents concerns and to work for the public good, and to those who are suffering injustice (even if they don't receive them, their captors may read the letters). They quote a letter that Francesco Miranda Branco, an East Timorese prisoner of conscience, sent in reply to an activist in the UK:

My brother, God is very kind and just, and he loves us, you and me who believe in Him. We can never feel angry and upset at God when we suffer, because behind all the suffering He has a beautiful surprise for us.

Secondly they discuss demonstration, both in one's own country (basically safe) and in the country where injustice is occurring. [I could not help but think of Martin Luther King. I recently finished reading "The Autobiography of Martin Luther King" (by MLK, Jr, and Clayborne Carson). Of course, it was really more about nonviolent resistance to unjust laws, or the lack of enforcing just laws, but usually in the context of peaceful demonstration.]

In terms of provision they cite time (volunteering with a human rights organization); financial sacrifice; material assistance (books, clothing, medicine, etc.); providing expertise in various fields (law, computer technology, medicine, construction, land mine clearance, agriculture, etc.); or pursuing a career in order to be an influence for advocacy (such as elected office, State Department, the World Bank, or journalism).

Finally, they conclude in the chapters entitled "Never Give Up!" and "Faith in Action" to call for perseverance in serving the Kingdom mission and doing God's will, for integrating faith and action.

"A Christian approach to human rights is distinguished by love. It is not simply about a cause, a political movement, or a philosophy - it is about human relationships, love, and dignity. As Philip Yancey writes,

A political movement by nature draws lines, makes distinctions, pronounces judgment; in contrast, Jesus' love cuts across lines, transcends distinctions and dispenses grace. Regardless of the merits of a given issue... political movements risk pulling onto themselves the mantle of power that smothers love. From Jesus I learn that, whatever activism I get involved in, it must not drive out love and humility, or otherwise I betray the kingdom of heaven" ( in The Jesus I Never Knew). (p. 183-184)

those who mourn

The second beatitude continues this initial theme of emptiness being filled:
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4)

Again, the scene is Jesus speaking directly to his disciples gathered around him, and to the crowd. Just as he spoke to the believing poor, now he speaks to believers who mourn. He comforts those who trust in him and whose hearts are broken by grief and loss - and also those whose trust in him leads to or intensifies this mourning.

He is not speaking of requirements. These are not imperatives, but blessings - pronouncing the blessing of God on what is, and yet drawing us on to imitate him as the Blessed One. The beauty of them has an imperative impact upon us.

We mourn the brokenness and pain brought on by sin, ours and all around us; we mourn the loss of innocence, of joy, and peace. We mourn for those who are abused and for those who abuse. We mourn hardness of heart, and greed, and hate, and insecurity, and fear. And as his disciples we mourn at the cross. Bonhoeffer continues to bring us to the cross in his section on the Beatitudes in "The Cost of Discipleship."

It is very possible that Jesus and/or Matthew has Isaiah 61 in the background here. Isaiah 61 was the passage the Jesus used for his first sermon in Nazareth (Luke 4), and some of the themes addressed there show up here in the beatitudes - and none more than those who mourn being comforted.

1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.

There is mourning in Zion because the righteous suffer, wicked prosper, and God has not acted to reverse the situation. They mourn because their sins have brought this upon them. But one will come anointed with the Spirit of the Lord to heal, set free the captives, proclaim good news to the poor, and comfort those who mourn. What is devastated will be raised up and what is ruined repaired.

Why would the disciples of Jesus mourn?

I think it's for themselves, for one another, and for the world. In just a few verses we will hear "blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake..." So we will mourn the pain and loss we will experience in following Jesus. But we also will mourn our own sins (James 4:9). We may mourn the failures and sins of those to whom we minister (2 Corinthians 12:21).

But I think we will also mourn because God's will is still not being done fully and finally on earth as it is in heaven, and so we are to pray (6:10). We mourn with those who mourn. We mourn with the hungry and the hopeless, with the poor, the persecuted, and the powerless.

Jesus promises that "they shall be comforted." Whereas the first and the eighth say, "theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (present reality, present blessing), this beatitude begins a series of them where the blessing promised is future. The comfort promised for those who mourn perhaps is promised for when the king comes to make all things right.

When we were discussing this in our group, one of the members shared that she was reading Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini's book "Christ Walks Where Evil Reigned." She was very disturbed that a child who was pulled out alive from under his parents massacred bodies, who still mourns and is deeply damaged, does not have, from this beatitude, the promise of comfort here and now.

As we discussed it, we realized that part of our calling in mourning with those who mourn is also to comfort those who mourn. In this way we become a sign of the inbreaking kingdom that does promise healing and hope and fullness when Jesus appears.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Finally, we see Jesus weeping for his dead friend (John 11), and lamenting a deaf and hardhearted holy city (Matthew 23:27-29). Jesus, who is the Blessed One, mourns the separation, pain and loss caused by sin, sickness and death. And as we watch him and listen to him, as we go to the cross and mourn with him and for him, we see the reality of the devastation and ruin that we have brought on ourselves, those we love, the world, and most of all, on the beautiful, holy Son of God. And yet, rather than retaliate and pour forth the judgment of God on us and cause more grief, he bears it. He continues to reach out his arms to us, he continues to bear the the blows and the crushing weight of abuse and sin and hate, he continues to embrace us, he continues to forgive us. Even on the cross he comforts his mother and his friend; and as he appears to the eleven he says, "Peace." Thanks be to God.

the way of life and peace

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Prayer for Monday of Holy Week)

I pointed out in my sermon yesterday that the Palm Sunday prayer asks that we may follow the example of Jesus' great humility expressed in his becoming human and dying on the cross, as I shared from Philippians 2:5-11.

I note that this prayer appointed for the Monday in Holy Week, which is also a prayer recommended for Fridays, asks God to "mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace." I do believe that this way of living to which we are called, a "baptized life," a "crucified life," will heal us. Not just that we have to go through it to get to the other side. Not just that it's the way God appointed "for the joy set before" us. But it is the way the life of Christ is worked in us and worked out through us.

It has something to do with the very structure of the universe as God intends it, the very essence of divine life entering human life is simply expressed this way: servanthood, laying down one’s life, emptying oneself, not taking advantage of any status or privilege, humility, patient suffering, choosing powerless submission, non-violent resistance to whatever Powers are encountered...

It is not only the way of life and healing for us and our relationships - but the way of life and healing for the world, which for now is being put right through the church... (Ephesians 3:10)