Things you don’t expect a vicar to say: I agree with ISIS.
Of course there are a few subtle differences on tactics but on the two key points I agree with ISIS.
- Loyalty to God always comes before loyalty to my country.
- I believe in destroying the enemies of God.
Let’s start with the second because it is probably more controversial. I believe in destroying the enemies of God.
It’s only on the tactics that I disagree with Isis.
Cutting people’s heads off is a remarkably ineffective way of reducing the number of God’s enemies.
We Christians tried it during the crusades. Hundreds of us went to the middle East to kill as many of the infidel as we could. And it didn’t work. 800 years later, and we in England may have forgotten the crusades, but they have not forgotten them in Middle East. Mention the word “crusade” in Syria or Iraq or Egypt, and you will provoke a visceral hatred. 800 years after murdering, burning and cutting the heads off thousands of middle eastern Muslims there are more Muslims in the middle East than there were then and they still resent the crusades.
Cutting people’s heads off is a remarkably ineffective way of reducing the number of God’s enemies.
My dear friends in ISIS - do you really think that murdering people in Paris makes them more likely to worship your God. Having people been flocking to the Mosques since you committed those terrible murders? No - they have been singing John Lennon's “imagine” - a song that is about as atheist as you can imagine.
It’s a bit like the hydra in Greek mythology: if you remember the story, every time you cut it’s head off, 7 heads grow up in it’s place.
Cutting people’s heads off is a remarkably ineffective way of reducing the number of God’s enemies.
So how else can you destroy enemies?
To paraphrase - “I destroy my enemies by making them my friends”
Jesus tells us “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. [Matt 5:44 see also Luke 6:27]
Today is the feast of Christ the King - and yet what do we hear in our Gospel reading - but of the King Christ about to be killed on a Roman Cross. “are you a king?” asks Pilate “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over." [John 18:33, 36]
The Roman Empire was one of the mightiest Empires ever ever known. Apart from Persia and a few German barbarians they controlled almost all the known world. They built the largest city ever - Rome with a million and a half people. Many had tried to rebel against them and they had crushed every single rebellion. And here is Jesus - a captured King about to be crucified. helpless - without a sword or a soldier. And yet within less than 300 years, he will have conquered the whole Roman Empire. What is even more remarkable is that Jesus will have conquered the whole Roman Empire without killing a single one of his enemies. Many of Jesus’s followers will have died to win this great victory. But not one of their enemies will have been killed. And so the whole Roman Empire submits to Jesus.
“My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over.” God does not win his battles by getting people to kill people.
God destroys his enemies by making them his friends
Sometimes as Christians we have forgotten that. And every time we have forgotten that, we have committed terrible attrocities. But then someone points us back to our roots, and we remember that is not what Jesus does.
Roots are important.
In the aftermath of the murders in the Bataclan nightclub and the murders in Beiruit and the murders in Kenya and the murders in Mali, people are asking “Why is this happening? what is the problem with Islam that makes groups like Isis emerge?”
The problem with Islam is not Muslims. Perhaps I shouldn’t generalise, but every Muslim I have ever met has been a kind loving, caring person. the sort of person you would want to live next door to your elderly mother because you know they would watch out for her. The problem with Islam is not Muslims: the problem with Islam is Muhammad. Muhammed was a warrior who spread his views through the sword. The Muslims you or I will meet are kind people, who not unsurprisingly try to sweep that under the carpet. But every now some nutter will go “look back to our roots” - and because those roots are clearly written in the Quran, they can’t can’t be hidden. To my Muslim friends I say - you are kind caring people. You are nothing like Muhammed - embrace a messiah who shows the kindness you already have. Embrace Jesus.
And my Muslim friends may say to me - but what of all the atrocities christians have committed? And they are right. Christians have committed many atrocities. You don’t even have to go very far back. In the 1980s in Lebanon, people fighting under the banner of Jesus, a “Christian militia” entered the Shatila refugee camp and massacred Palestinian men, women and children. Christians have committed some terrible atrocities. But every time we do, someone will point us back to our roots, to the King Jesus who says “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over.” to King Jesus who says “you have heard it said “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” But I say to you do not resist an evil person, whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him too” “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.
It doesn’t mean that Christians should never fight in armies. Armies can defend against the enemies guns. Armies can stop innocents getting slaughtered. We don’t have to be pacifists to be Christians. But armies alone are not enough. As Solzhenitsyn put it “the dividing line between good and evil goes through the human heart”. We need to win the battle for people’s hearts. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
The other thing where I agree with Isis is that loyalty to God comes before loyalty to England. We hear in our reading from Daniel that to Jesus was given “dominion, glory and kingship that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him”[Daniel 7:14] and in Revelation Jesus is described as “the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth”[Revelation 1:5]
Like Isis, Christians have a long history of disobeying the state. It’s just that we have a very different view of what God wants us to do. We see Christians like Bonhoeffer and Corrie Ten Boom and Maximilian Kolbe at the forefront of resisting the Nazis. 2720 clergy were sent to Dachau concentration camp by the Nazis for putting loyalty to God before loyalty to the state. and in this country even during the second world war, Bishop Bell tried to stop the carpet bombing of civilians in germany. After the Falklands war - the Church of England caused great controversy by refusing the Government’s demands that we pray only for the British dead, and insisting for praying for the dead on both sides.
Today Alfie and Finley are about to be Christened. As the water is poured over them they will be joined to Jesus. That’s like being given a new passport to a nation where every type of people are citizens. I don’t know how many different nationalities are represented here in St Barnabas today, but it’s quite a lot. And it is only a tiny fraction of the number of nationalities represented in the worldwide church. Even in nations like Saudi Arabia and North Korea where Christianity is illegal - Alfie and Finley will find Christian sisters and brothers. As we heard in the book of Daniel, King Jesus, Christ the King is given “dominion glory and kingship that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him” As one vicar I knew put it “welcome Alfie and Finley to a family of 2 billion people: Don’t worry, you don’t have to send them all Christmas cards”
And finally - everyone - your challenge, your homework. I invite you to write on it one thing that you can do to turn enemies into friends, and particularly God’s enemies into God’s friends. It might it might kindness you can do to someone in the office you really can’t stand or it might be to invite someone to church or tell about Jesus. That’s your homework - to destroy the enemies of King Jesus - by turning them into friends.Amen
