PURSUING HAPPINESS: Persecuted for Righteousness
Matthew 5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
2 Timothy 3:1-5; 10-12
1. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
• What a day to deal with the topic of persecution as we prepare to go on our annual church picnic immediately following this service.
• The contrast is so stark! Following this message our thoughts will immediately switch to barbequed meats, all kinds of salads, deserts, and cool drinks and more food than we can comfortably consume.
• We’ll laugh, listen to and catch up on each other’s latest news, and just have a jolly good time together.
• About the only hardship we might endure is getting too much of the hot sun.
• A day not too unlike many another Sunday here in Morton or anywhere else in the USA.
2. So what relevance does this final Be-Attitude from the introduction to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount have for us as Christians in the United States in 2006?
• Sure, we know that Christians in the early church suffered a great deal. Every one of the apostles, except John, died a martyr’s death for the faith.
• We know that many died horribly gruesome deaths in the Coliseum in Rome and elsewhere – eaten by lions, sawn in half, crucified, beheaded, dipped in tar, stuck on sharp posts and set alight to entertain the Emperor’s party guests and many more brutal atrocities.
• We may recall in more recent times, Christians like Dietrich Bonnhoeffer suffering and dying for his faith in Nazi Germany. Or Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, a Jewish believer in Christ who was arrested in 1948 and spent 14 years being brutally tortured in a Romanian prison for his faith in Christ.
• Some of us are also aware that in many other parts of the world today Christians are being targeted for harassment, beatings, and even execution for their commitment to Jesus Christ.
David Barrett of the World Evangelization Research Center writes, “In one part of the globe, over 10,000 Christians have been killed every year since 1950, due to clashes with anti-Christian mobs, infuriated relatives, state-organized death squads, and so on.”
Barrett’s statistics in fact reveal that deaths of Christians for their faith have shown a marked upsurge since the 1900’s when there used to be around 35,000 a year to the last few years when the figures are up around 260,000 a year!
Here’s a report from just last Sunday in India: While Pastor K. K. Jwala was conducting a worship service on August 20th in the town of Sheopur, not far from Jhalsy in Central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, a group of Hindu radicals stormed his Christian meeting. The militant mob, headed by a local Hindu leader, disrupted the Sunday morning service at approximately 10:30. Once inside, the attackers mercilessly struck Pastor Jwala and several members of the congregation with hockey sticks.
After the brutal beatings took place, Pastor Jwala and a number of his congregants were taken to the police station. Jwala was charged with violating Sections 3 and 4 of the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Conversion Act. He and other Christians attending the service, including three teachers from South India, remain in jail. None of the believers were granted bail.
Earlier this month, legislation in Madhya Pradesh passed anti-conversion bills targeting Christians. These so-called “Freedom of Religion” bills make it mandatory for people to apply for permission to change their religion 30 days before the desired date of conversion. The district collector reserves the right to decline any request, and those not conforming to the new laws face punishment of up to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 rupees ($215 U.S.). The radical Hindu BJP party was a primary force in getting these anti-conversion laws passed.
3. Well, we can listen to these disturbing and tragic stories and then comfort ourselves that we live in these United States where thankfully we have and enjoy the freedom to pursue and exercise our faith without restriction, harassment, or persecution of any kind.
• Well that was exactly what I thought, growing up in South Africa – a country that professed to be Christian – that enforced laws protective of the sanctity of human life, that prohibited the pursuit of business on the Lord’s Day, that saw to it that Bible instruction was incorporated in the public school curriculum, and many other reminders that I was privileged to grow up in a country favorably disposed to Christians.
o Until my conscience was awakened in the late 1960’s to the injustice and brutality of Apartheid that was sanctioned, approved, and blessed by the leading Christian denomination in the country and condoned by many other denominations that believed and preached that Christians should never get involved in politics.
o I increasingly came to the conviction that I could not be faithful in my witness to Jesus Christ and ignore the way the Black, Coloured, and other ethnic groups in our country were being treated.
o Speaking out in that climate immediately labeled you as a “Communist conspirator”, “subversive”, “traitor to your race” and brought you under the radar screen of the notorious Security Police.
o The week of June 16,1986 our Methodist Church in King Williamstown had planned to hold a Day of Prayer for Peace and in remembrance of the Black students in Soweto who had died in a revolt against the police. A couple of days prior to the vigil I was visited by three Security Police Officers who interrogated and sought to intimidate me for almost four hours.
o The day of the Prayer Vigil my wife and I and other church members had just gone across the road to the sanctuary to commence the time of prayer when our oldest daughter, just a young teenager at the time, took a call that came to our house warning that a bomb was set in the church to explode at any minute. You can imagine the hysterical terror that produced in her and our two younger daughters.
o Fortunately no bomb was found – but for some weeks following we would be awakened at all hours of the night by phonecalls with just the sound of a clock ticking and then the words, “You have been warned!” In a climate where some clergy had already been secretly whisked away and held indefinitely without access to lawyers or family, where churches had been fire bombed, and people set ablaze by “necklacing” (car tires doused with gasoline and set alight over individuals) – we were beginning to experience a small taste of what Jesus promised to those who committed to follow Him.
• In August of 1997, while I was serving as Chaplain and Religion Teacher at one of our United Methodist Schools in New Mexico, I was confronted with what I saw as a moral and spiritual stand I had to take on the issue of homosexuality. At the start of the school year, without there having been any consultation on the issue with staff, we were presented with a notice in our mailboxes that the school would make “no discrimination” on the basis of all the customary issues of race, religion, gender, age, etc. and then added to the list was “sexual orientation”.
o The school then went on to hire a practicing homosexual as a teacher, included a practicing lesbian who had allowed herself to be artificially inseminated, on the school board, and were permitting an unmarried school teacher to live in campus housing with her boyfriend.
o I immediately requested the opportunity to address the school board on this matter and was told that I would be limited to just 5 minutes.
o As the one entrusted to be the spiritual guide for the children and the staff, I called on the board to repent and turn from this course of action.
o Support for my stand was mixed. Some became openly hostile and abusive to me. Some were secretly supportive but did not want to make their position known for fear of harassment and possible firing. The School Business Manager and the Alumni Association backed me to the hilt and even encouraged me to obtain the support of a Christian attorney in Albuquerque. Letters began to be written to the school from supporters around the country indicating that they were withdrawing their financial support.
o When I was ordered not to enter into any discussion with students on the matter of the Bible and sexuality – in a part of the country that is rife with teen pregnancy and promiscuity – I decided that the only option left to me was to resign.
o The decision was by no means a light one since I had just completed another Master’s degree and now was faced with loan payments and no job.
4. I share these stories with you just to remind you of Paul’s words to Timothy from our Scripture lesson that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
• The truth is that there are only two realms in this world – the Kingdom of God/Light and the dominion of darkness. And all those who have chosen to walk with Jesus are going to be traveling in a different direction and marching to a different drum beat from those who live by the standards and philosophies and values of this world.
• And being willing to stand up and be counted – not on our pet hobby horses, not on our personal likes and dislikes, but on crucial matters of faith and practice – on issues that concern the righteousness of God - when others prefer to remain seated or move in the opposite direction is always going to cause a rub, is always going to bring about varying degrees of scoffing, ridicule, alienation, accusation, harassment, and yes, even persecution.
• The ones who are blessed in this action, are the ones who proceed without arrogance and without self-righteous pride.
o They do so in poverty of spirit, fully aware of their own spiritual bankruptcy.
o They do so, not considering themselves better than others, but mourning their own condition
o They do so in meekness and gentleness, with their strength under God’s control
o They do so hungering and thirsting for God’s righteousness
o They do so in mercy, fully mindful of the mercy they have themselves received
o They do so with a pure heart, having submitted their motives and intentions to the blazing scrutiny of the Holy Spirit
o They do so as peacemakers who recognize that they can never water down or compromise on truth – who do not believe in “peace at all costs” – but who are willing to persevere in building bridges and melting walls and allowing their own lives to become the place on which others can walk across the divide.
5. The blessing for the persecuted is seldom immediately experienced. The prophets of old were stoned and killed. Even God’s Son “was despised and rejected and acquainted with grief”.
• As He hung broken, bruised, and bleeding on that Cross, He cried out “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?”
• Paul wrote in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians of the sufferings for the Gospel he and his companions endured in Asia – being so “utterly, unbearably crushed that (they) despaired of life itself” – feeling that they had “received the sentence of death”.
• But, he concludes, “that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead”.
6. Persecution has a way of focusing our attention on the One who raises the dead. When all the other props and supports on which we have relied are removed, those who are persecuted have the opportunity to experience first hand the precious immediacy of the Lord’s glorious and heavenly presence.
• I close by sharing with you a poem written by 11 year old Aleah Mailliard and posted on the family website dedicated to Cassie Bernall – the young teenager from Columbine High School who died on April 20, 1999 along with 11 other students and one teacher, while professing her faith in God.
• http://www.cassierenebernall.org/
