BEING BI-LINGUAL

Today is a critical day in a critical time. The president of our country is meeting with the leaders of Great Britain and Spain in the Azores to plan next steps in the conflict with Iraq. When we return here next week, our country may be at war. That is a sobering thought. It would be even more sobering if we were meeting at14367 Hackett Road in Baghdad. Imagine what it would be like to gather for worship today in Baghdad. What songs would we sing? How would we pray? What would the pastor preach? What would you tell your children? How would you live this week? As a nation, we too readily go to war and that as a nation considered to be a Christian nation by many people. Unfortunately, the label gets mixed up with perceptions of Christian faith by others in this world. Christianity then becomes the enemy just as Islam does for some in our nation. I wonder if we as a nation would be more reticient to go to war if there would be bombs falling here. Many of those nations who are more hesitant, who want more time to give peace a chance are nations that have a more recent memory of war in their neighborhood.

We have been called by our Mennonite Church USA moderator, Jim Schrag, to pray and to fast for peace to break out instead of war.

The Bible continues to speak and maybe more so in times such as these. I firmly believe that the Bible has a word for us no matter what situation we find our selves in. There are no exemptions from Biblical obedience. Someone once said when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I would say when times are tough, that is the time more than ever when our Christian faith should kick in. There is never a time to lay our faith aside and take things in to our own hands though tempting that surely is.

So the Scripture that has been read, is , I believe, relevant in a number of ways. I confess that over the last several weeks as I have reflected on this scripture, that my thoughts have followed a meandering path influenced by the events of the times. And, again, I believe that is as it should be. There are times when the immediacy of a situation calls for a change of focus and this is, I believe, one of those times.

The first two verses in Romans 12 is about commitment. To be committed to something requires something on our part. In fact, true commitment requires a lot. Ask anybody that's married. Talk to any athlete. If you belong to a club, there are requirements you must meet. It is ironic that there is probably no organization that requires less of it's members than does the church. You don't have to pay any dues. You don't have to attend members meetings. In many cases, you really don't have to do anything once you are in except die to be taken off the roll.

Knowing what we do about the Apostle Paul, we know that he was not one to try to just get by with the basics or the minimum. He was committed. He was the kind of person you want on your side. He was passionate about what he believed in and others died because of that. After he was reborn in Christ, his passion continued but it was focused on spreading the good news with all of his being; his whole heart and soul and mind and body you could say. The first part of the book of Romans is a doctrinal statement about salvation, about God's free gift of grace, of eternal life though the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is nothing that you can earn. You can't do anything to deserve it at all. In fact Paul says that after we do everything that we can, we are still nothing but undeserving servants. No, God's gift can only be accepted, only received as what it is, a free gift. But in light of that, because of that, out of gratitude for what God has done, give yourselves to God in return. Paul, in Romans 12, when he calls us, no begs us to give our whole selves, our bodies as a living sacrifice, lock, stock and barrel (is that a military phrase?) to God, he's not calling us to something that he hasn't already done. He knows what he's talking about. To do so is our spiritual worship our offering to God who has saved us in Christ.

The first verse of Romans 12 leads into the second. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I have been painting and wallpapering in the house where my parents lived for many years, getting it ready to rent. Some of their things are still there such as a couple of Dad's straight coats. I was tempted to wear one of those coats today as a symbol of non-conformity but, as you can see, I didn't give in. That coat was a symbol of being distinctly Christian. With any symbol there is a danger that the symbol become more important than the principle it represents. This statement by Paul reflects two different ways of being, of living in the world. The Bible says in another place that we are in the world but not of the world. Paul is not talking about the natural world which we see but the world as representative of all that is outside the will of God. We very much live in this natural beautiful world which God has given to us as stewards. When Pauls exhorts us not to be conformed to the world, he is talking about that sphere of influence, that sphere of activity that is in rebellion against God and his purposes in the world. Don't let that world, that sphere press you into it's mold.

We are not giving ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, as a spiritual act of worship if we are not being transformed. If our lives are guided by the values, by the thinking of the world we are not giving ourselves to God. And we will not be able to discern the will of God. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds is Paul tells us . It would seem to be clear here that a lot of this is our responsibility. It is a decision we make, a choice we follow through on to be transformed. Obviously, we can't do that on our own without the Holy Spirit's work in us. But there is the prerequisite of offering ourselves if we are to be transformed. And that is what Paul is calling us to do. The rest of the scripture read this morning flows out of these first two verses. We are called to live our lives with our minds transformed by the Spirit.

The challenge for us to do this today is as big as it ever has been. In some respects it is easier to be clear about who we are if we live in a culture or society that is antagonistic to Christian faith. Those who are Christian stand out distinctly from the rest of society. The boundary lines are clear. It is often more difficult to live as clearly Christian in a setting such as ours where Christianity is tolerated and respected by many, where in some respects it is seen as part of the dominant culture and in fact is sometimes hard to see as distinct from the culture. This is especially true when we want to be well thought of and respected and who doesn't? Christian language permeates culture. We like to see "in God we trust" on our coins. But having that on our coins does not make it so. It feels good to have the 10 commandments on display in city hall. They are good reminders. Jesus would probably say, "it is good to do that but not leave the other undone; justice, mercy and faithfulness." Christian language is used by political leaders in a way that we want to feel good about. We crave that kind of public acknowledgment of God. As a result, we may unwittingly buy into a way of thinking that does not reflect Jesus' concern because it may have a certain ring of validity. The danger, we all know, is that we can use the Bible to support about anything we want to do if we are not letting the words of Jesus judge our thoughts and our lives. We need to be vigilant or we can find ourselves being seduced by the values and messages of our culture instead of the values of the kingdom.

Jesus is Lord, we say, and to say Jesus is Lord often seems like a fairly benign statement. In reality, it is a weighty proclamation. You see, "Jesus is Lord" is a political statement even though we don't intend it to be. The 1st century Roman government understood that. It means that Jesus is King and that we follow his directives even when it goes against the policy of the Roman government or our own for that matter. Peter knew that very keenly when he responded in Acts 5 to the Sanhedrin by saying "we ought to obey God rather then men" In other words, we get our directions for life from Jesus even though they conflict with the directives from the world. There are countless examples of the people of God taking their cues from God for how they lived their lives; from the time that Moses' parents who hid him, disobeying the command of the Pharoah, to our Anabaptist ancestors who met in secret to worship God. In January, I met up with my son, Benjamin, in Spain, did some traveling together and ended up in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland where our ancestors came from. While there, we visited Zurich and did the anabaptist walk, seeing the street where Conrad Grebel and others on that January night in 1525 rebaptized each other and began the Anabaptist/Mennonite movement. It was a special experience several days earlier to trudge through snow for several kilometers to visit the Anabaptist bridge and the Anabaptist cave where our spiritual forefathers and foremothers met in secret to worship God according to their consciences. In doing so, they disobeyed the authorities. Jesus was Lord for them. They trusted him with their lives.

The question is do we trust Jesus? Do we mean it when we say Jesus is Lord? Or what does it mean when we say that? We trust Jesus with salvation. Can we trust Jesus with life? Or does a time come when we lay our faith aside and take things into our own hands. In the present context, how do we think about enemies and how to deal with them especially bad enemies. Jesus' words about enemies are hard words for us even though we have been taught them all our lives.

Don Olive is head of the Philosophy department at Carsen-Newman College. He tells a story of an experience he had during the Persian Gulf war. At the time, he was an interim pastor and his church hosted a city-wide prayer service (rally). After several rousing patriotic songs he as host pastor was to lead in the first prayer for victory. Instead, he read he words of Jesus, You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your father in heaven (Matt. 5:44) and then asked for 5 minutes of silent prayer for Saddam Hussein in obedience to Jesus. He says he added 30 seconds more because he was such a bad enemy. Another pastor chastized him after the service. When Don responded that he had only asked Christians to do what Jesus said to do, the pastor became so angry that he responded, "how could Jesus be so wrong?"

Before we too readily criticize that pastor maybe we need to honestly look at ourselves and acknowledge that we too are tempted to think the same thing sometimes. This is not about how bad an enemy is. This is about following Jesus, about whether Jesus meant what he said, about whether Jesus got it so wrong.

I am against this pending war because I believe that it will increase hatred among our enemies. I am against this war because I believe that many innocent people will die. I am against this war because Iraq has not been proven to be an imminent threat to our country. I am against this war because not all other options for resolving this conflict have been exhausted. I am against this war because we have to learn to do a better job of resolving conflict in peaceful ways because until we do, none of us is safe. These are, I believe, good reasons to be against this war. Peace is patriotic.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a two days at Rosedale Bible College during their missions week as a representative of MCC. It was an opportunity to share service opportunities with young people who are considering different options for their lives. During one of the class sessions, I went to the library and picked up the current issue of The Mennonite Quarterly Review. I read an article by Ted Koontz, professor of ethics, etc. at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, IN. In the article, his intent was to reflect theologically on the conflict with Iraq. He talked about us as Christians speaking 2 languages. We speak a primary and a secondary language. In other words we are bi-lingual as we live in the world. You know the value of being bi-lingual. Some of you, especially those who are older, are bi-lingual. I mentioned earlier that I traveled with my son in Europe. Let me assure you after traveling in France and Switzerland where it was a challenge to order a meal, it was good to return to Spain again where I could communicate with some ease. So, it is good to be able to speak the language of the people we are with. Koontz said in the article that our primary language is our faith language; it speaks ultimately as to what guides our lives. We live in a world much of which does not understand our primary language, our mother tongue so to speak. So to be able to communicate to people where they are, we use a secondary language, a language which they understand and speak. It is important that we are aware of which language we are using when we speak to other people. Paul did that on Mars Hill when he encountered an altar to the unknown god. In his conversation with worshipers there, he began with where they were.

When I listed the reasons why I am against this war I was speaking in that secondary language. I am using a language that everyone understands. I am appealing to what I believe to be in the best interest of our nation and the world. It is in our best interest as a nation to learn to resolve conflicts peacefully. It is in our best interest not to do things that increase the number of our enemies. It is in our best interest that innocent people not die. I even believe it is in our best interest as a nation to give up some of our power in the interest of working together more with the community of nations. To listen and respect more others' points of view. When individuals or nations have too much power they have to expend too many resources and energy to protect that power.

But, I am against this war more than anything because I am a Christian and the one I follow says to love enemies and pray for them. I am now speaking my primary language; a language that many people will not understand, a language that many people will consider naive and irrelevant unless they, too, believe that Jesus meant what he said. There are no military exemptions from the teachings of Christ says Brian McLauren pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, MD.

So let us pray and witness for peace in all of the languages available to us. Let us pray for our leaders. They face incredible pressures and forces. And they struggle with their egos as we all do. Pride and maintaining honor are powerful motivators that lead to unwise decisions. On one hand, it is a human temptation that when someone has been used for someone else's purposes and then discarded that they are not likely to walk out the door just because you want them to. On the other hand, it is also difficult for someone with overwhelming power not to use that power to force others to do their will. Let us implore God that he heal the wounds in the souls of Presidents Bush and Hussein and turn their hearts towards peace so that their nations' peoples can live in peace and let us pray that God's kingdom come and God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And let us live as though that were already the case.

And what does this have to do with missions? Our God is not a tribal God. Only a tribal god can be called on to bless our warring ways. Our "enemies" in this day and age would often include our sisters and brothers in Christ. How can it be that if our first allegiance is to God and his kingdom that we would kill each other because of a secondary allegiance to particular national flags. A friend of mine once suggested that even if we kill a Christian brother who is an enemy soldier in war, the moment after death, we could embrace each other as brothers in Christ. I wonder. If we can't do it before death, why would we think we could after death. And how do we think we can be instruments of peace and agents of reconciliation in the world, to use Paul's language, if we succumb to the world's way of dealing with problems.

We are not favorites. Our God created the world and all that is in it. He created and loves all people from all ethnic groups from all the corners of the world if you can say that about a round world. He loves you just as much as me no matter how I feel about you. When he looks at the world, he doesn't see national boundaries. He doesn't have favorites. He loves our almost 1 million Iraqi sisters and brothers in Christ as much as he loves us and just as he loves non-Christian Iraqis. Our task is to share the good news of the Gospel of Christ with all. That message is not communicated well with a weapon in one hand and the Bible in the other. And the message becomes diluted when our own self interest or that of our country is part of it. There is a lot of truth to the contention that the medium is the message. How we live as Christians in the world is the message that people hear about Christian faith and that's why Christianity so often gets a bad rap. It is not because of Jesus that people often reject Christianity but because of the lack of Jesus in the lives of those who call themselves by his name. Let us give ourselves as a spiritual offering to God and allow him to continually transform us into the image of Christ so that others will see him in us and be drawn to him.