“USA! USA! USA!” the chant goes as the United States’ hockey team skates down the ice hoping to score a goal. All Americans wish to see the United States’ hockey team win, even those who don’t like or understand hockey. There is solidarity when our national team is playing. It’s more than a game; it’s about national pride.
In the weeks after September 11, there was a surge of national unity. People stopped looking at others as different. The bounds of race seemed to melt away. The bounds of social class seem to be vaporized. News reports indicated that in most major cities, crime dropped in the days after the attacks. There was solidarity. The United States had been attacked. It wasn’t a white and black issue. It wasn’t a rich and poor issue. It was a national issue. Our national security was violently shaken, and we all pulled together.
Last spring when Jessica Lynch was taken captive with her maintenance unit in Iraq, she became the symbol of the POWs. The petite girl from West Virginia looked like the girl next door. She was young, innocent looking, and she caught the hearts of the nation. There was solidarity. That could have been your daughter or sister or your best friend. We identified with her, because we knew her, or at least someone like her. Many thought, “What if that was my sister? What if that was my daughter? What if that was my friend?”
I remember a young couple that we used to attend church with. They had a little boy. They were an all-American family. Then she had a miscarriage very close to her due date. They were devastated. I saw my dad put his arms around them. There was solidarity there. My parents lost their first child a year and a half before I was born. They identified with the unspeakable pain of losing a baby. The mention of that loss must have brought back a flood of memories for my parents. The pain was relived. The questions were asked again. The ache in the heart was there.
We join in feeling the pain of others when we share a common experience. Someone who has never lost a child can never fully understand the pain of losing a child. Someone who has never been divorced can never fully understand the pain of divorce. Someone who has never faced the humiliation of racial prejudice can never fully understand what that is all about. Someone who has never been thrown in prison for passing out Bibles or telling someone about Jesus can never understand what that experience is like.
In his closing exhortation, the author of Hebrews writes, “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” That is chapter 13, verse 3.
We have all heard the old saying, “Out of sight; out of mind.” It’s easy to forget something when it’s not constantly in front of us. As the memory of the World Trade Center attacks faded into the back our minds, we became less and less conscious of it, and things returned to the way they were before. Religious leaders proclaimed that a corner had been turned in reaching Americans for Christ. Church attendance surged. People were seeking God. The sad fact is that within a month church attendance returned to pre-9/11 levels. What happened? Quite simply, the memory faded.
“What does this have to do with anything?” you ask.
I’m glad you asked.
This is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. The week of November 9-16 has been designated as the week to pray for our brothers and sisters who are suffering for the name of Jesus Christ around the world. Persecution? Wasn’t persecution a long time ago? Didn’t that end centuries ago? We don’t see persecution anymore. People aren’t really dying for Christ, are they?
The answer is yes. People are dying daily for the name of Christ. Others are imprisoned for preaching and teaching about Jesus. Some are imprisoned for passing out Bible. People are ostracized from their families for believing in Jesus. Persecution is as mild as losing a job. It is as severe as losing your life. It is real and it exists today. In fact, more people were martyred for their Christian faith in the 20th century than in the previous 1900 years combined. It shows no signs of letting up any time soon. Over 120 million Christian were killed for their faith in the 20th century. That’s more than the number of people who died as a result of war.
How can that be? The western world has traditionally been a relatively “safe” place for Christians. The rise in persecution is due mainly to the success of missionary endeavors of Christians. There are more Christians in the non-western world today than there are in the western world. Many of these areas are openly hostile to Christianity and its followers.
Take the case of Ruth Hussein from northern Iraq. Her husband, Monsour Hussein, was gunned down on April 21, 1997 at a Christian bookstore. The only real motive was that he was a bold Christian. Monsour had received numerous death threats. That didn’t stop him from telling his friends and neighbors about Jesus right up until the time he was killed. Monsour left Ruth and two sons behind. Ruth has no Christians in her family. She lives in constant fear of her life. Her life is lived under constant threat to her and her sons.
“In Ethiopia, Tsige, the widow of an Ethiopian church leader, often feels very alone in her small rented room. She is the only evangelical Christian in her town, the nearest Evangelical Church being an hour and a half away by bus. Her husband, Dantew was martyred in July 2002, hacked to death by militant Orthodox priests and their followers, while Tsige and Dantew’s two teenage sons, Zalalem and Dawit watched in horror. In order to complete their schooling, the boys live apart from their mother, a teacher.”
“In Eritrea [which is just north of Ethiopia] 77 soldiers, 15 of them women, are in military prison for refusing to deny their ‘Pentecostal’ beliefs. They are tortured, assaulted and sexually abused by the prison staff.”
“In North Korea, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea and Mexico, Christian men and women suffer in jail, while their families miss their presence at home. Miss Li from Jiangsu, China, writes, ‘We have suffered great persecution. Many of the church leaders have been arrested and fined. Some were beaten and thrown in jail. Brother Cui was sentenced to five years. Please pray for his wife, ‘sister Li.’”
There are other stories. Kidnappings are commonplace. Beatings are routine. Imprisonment is likely. I guarantee that they don’t have cable TV in those prisons. Intimidation is there. Threats are present. Rape is almost guaranteed for female prisoners.
Anyone of us can walk into any store that sells books, from Barnes & Noble to Wal-Mart to a Christian bookstore, and buy a Bible. We can freely drive to church, any church, without having to pass checkpoints with armed guards. We can keep the curtains open here, because we don’t have to fear the secret police bursting in and arresting us. We can sing as loud as we want. We can read our Bible anywhere. We can tell others about Jesus. We aren’t going to be handcuffed and carted off to a dungeon. When we became a Christian, we weren’t ostracized from our families.
We can sit around and debate different theological positions. We can argue Wesleyanism and Calvinism. We can debate this and that. We hang denominational labels on each other. Are you a Pentecostal? Are you a fundamentalist? Are you a Baptist? Are you a Catholic? Are you a Methodist? Are you Quaker? Are you Holy Roller? Are you a Nazarene? Are you this or that? We get so hung up on that stuff. It’s ironic, how all of these mentioned victims of persecution had no such label attached to them. They were merely identified as Christians. It doesn’t matter if they were Baptist or Nazarene. It doesn’t matter was their theological positions were. All that matters is that they were followers of Jesus Christ.
Just like in the days immediately following 9/11, we were all Americans. We weren’t black and white or rich and poor. We were all Americans. When people are attacked for the name of Jesus Christ, labels don’t matter then either. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of what vein of theology we follow or what country we’re from. There is solidarity.
Americans are also victims. About a year ago, two young American ladies were imprisoned in Pakistan for sharing the gospel. After appeals by various leaders, including the president, they were released, but told to leave and never come back.
Missionaries to the Philippines, Martin and Gracia Burnham were kidnapped by Islamic militants and held captive. They were captured on May 27, 2001, while celebrating their wedding anniversary. It was 376 days until the ordeal ended. June 7, 2002 saw an attempt to rescue the Burnhams. Gracia suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Martin was not so fortunate. He was killed during the rescue attempt.
That brings to mind the martyrdom of another missionary nearly fifty years ago. Jim Elliot was a missionary to the Auca Indians of Ecuador. Jim and four other men headed into an uncharted area of Ecuador. They took the gospel message to this tribe of Auca Indians. They didn’t last long. Jim Elliot was only 29 years old when he died. His widow, Elisabeth, eventually went to Ecuador with their daughter Valerie, and lived and worked among the Aucas. Jim Elliot wrote in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim realized that our life is not ours to keep. He gave his life wholly to God to gain eternal life that cannot be lost.
Songwriter, Scott Wesley Brown, inspired by the words of Jim Elliot, wrote the following song:
I’ve lost track of all the Sundays
The offering plates gone by
And as I gave my hard earned dollars
I felt free to keep my life
I talk about commitment
And the need to count the cost
But the words of a martyr show me
I don’t really know His cross
For he is no fool
Who gives what he cannot keep
To gain what he cannot lose
Yes, he is no fool
Who lays his own life down
I must make this path I choose
Obedience and servanthood
Are traits I’ve rarely shown
And the fellowship of His sufferings
Is a joy I’ve barely known
There are riches in surrendering
That can’t be gained for free
God will share all heaven’s wonders
But the price He asks is me.
We could add to these stories, many stories from the Bible. We may think of Daniel being tossed into the lion’s den. The three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, being thrown into the fiery furnace are another example. There’s the account of Jeremiah being dropped into an empty, muddy cistern. Then we think of the first Christian martyr, Stephen being stoned to death. Then there was James the apostle who was killed by king Herod. Then Peter was thrown into prison. The leaders harassed them. The leaders told them to shut up about this Jesus. The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 says, “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”
Earlier I mentioned that Jim Elliot was 29 years old when he died. It seems so senseless. He had so much life ahead of him. How could he be cut down at such a tender age? Then there was a man who was only 33 years old when he was put to death. He had done nothing wrong, other than rock the boat of conventional thinking. He was unapologetic when expressing himself. He told people about the love of God, and how God wanted to save all humanity. He was killed for it. His name was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died that we might have life eternally with God through Him. He was cut down in the prime of his life. The Good News is that he didn’t stay in the grave. Three days after his brutal execution by means of crucifixion he rose again. (Crucifixion is still occurring in parts of the world today. It is used to kill followers of Jesus.) Because Jesus conquered death, we have eternal life. Eternal life is not here on earth, but it is with God in heaven. As Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” We cannot keep our life, but we will have eternal life. To lose our life on earth is to enter into eternal life in heaven.
Where do we go from here? What does all this mean? This is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. The very least we can do is pray for these brothers and sisters who are suffering and dying for the name of Christ. The Hebrew writer said, “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” Remembering them entails more than just calling the horrible situation to mind. It means to identify with them. Similar to when we watch Team USA play on TV, we identify with them because that’s our team. These brothers and sisters that are dying, being raped, suffering beatings, being ostracized, and tortured are on our team. We are all a part of Team Jesus. If we don’t care, who will? Pray for them. There are numerous organizations that track this problem. Voice of the Martyrs is probably the most well known. There are numerous websites that have this kind of information. Pray for them. Then when you have done that, pray again for them. Keep praying.
If you have been wondering about all the beeping this morning, it’s because every time my watch beeped, another Christian was killed because of their faith. “Voice of the Martyrs reports that every 190 seconds [that is 3 minutes and 10 seconds], a Christian is kill because of their faith!” That is nearly 19 people every single hour that exit this life to enter eternity with their Father in Heaven.
If I could sum up the life of those brothers and sisters living in harms way in one word it would be: COMMITMENT. They are committed. They are committed to Christ. They go through great pains to fellowship with other believers. There is Tsige, from Ethiopia, who travels an hour and a half by bus to go to church. In the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, the government is systematically closing churches. There are stories of how believers are forced out to the countryside to worship in a remote area.
A pastor from Turkmenistan offers this example: “As believers we can’t get together in official churches any more, so we try to meet in someone’s house. Of course we don’t meet every time at the same place, nevertheless the Security police seem to get wind of where we are. One evening we arrived in a town at about 10 p.m. to meet with our brothers and sisters there. Not one of them knew that we had arrived. The next morning we all went out of town and had a service on a riverbank. Within 20 minutes three Security police officers arrived on the scene and started to register everyone’s name. As we had come from a different town, they took us to their office where we had to stay until the evening. Afterwards we got a police escort who took us back home. At every checkpoint on the road details of the car were registered and orders were given that we were never allowed to return.
“Another time we got together in a different town in the west of the country, also in someone’s home. It wasn’t during the weekend, but during the week. We stayed for a while and on Friday the people there urged us to stay for the weekend, so we could preach Sunday. The next morning we got up a 5 o’clock and left the town. That same day a large group of policemen and Security people came looking for us. They knew where we were and when we had arrived.”
Commitment is the name of the game for those who face persecution. The simplest way to stop the persecution would be to simply deny they were followers of Jesus. They don’t do that. They can’t do that.
When Peter and John were warned not to speak about Jesus, they said, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
That is commitment. They worship with other believers at any cost. They tell others about Jesus at any cost. They spread the Good News about Jesus at any cost.
How do we measure up to that?
