Westwood Presbyterian Church

      "You will be sheep among wolves." Is not the kind of thing that recruiters are likely to use to attract people to their cause, to their company, to their vision. But that is exactly the words that Jesus used when he was telling his followers what they could expect when they went out to live their Christian lives. They would be like sheep living among wolves.

      We who live in North America may feel that that is a very harsh description of how people who are not Christians treat those who are Christians. But in much of the rest of the world, our Christian sisters and brothers would have no trouble recognizing the fact that they are sheep living among wolves. They are constantly aware that they may be asked to pay with their jobs, with their freedom, with their lives for their decision to follow Jesus Christ.

      When I was in my early teens, my family and I lived in Shiraz, Iran. In Iran the weekend was Thursday and Friday - Saturday was the first day of the work week. So we went to church on Friday morning. The church we attended had two congregations - an English speaking congregation and a Farsi (Persian) speaking congregation. The minister of the Farsi speaking congregation was Rev. Sayyah. Rev. Sayyah had two teenage boys who were friends of mine. Rev. Sayyah was a convert from Islam. A faithful follower of Mohammed, Rev. Sayyah found in the Christian message something that deeply touched his soul and he became a Christian, eventually becoming an Anglican minister.

      We left Iran in 1976. In 1978 the Shah was overthrown and the Islamic Revolution was underway. It was a difficult time for the church in Iran. Being a Christian was dangerous. But even as it was dangerous to be a Christian, more Muslims were asking questions about Christianity. The sales of Bibles was higher in Iran during the Islamic Revolution than at any point prior to that time. There was great spiritual searching going on. Instead of fleeing the country, Rev. Sayyah chose to stay and to minister to his flock and to those who were asking spiritual questions. One day after Rev. Sayyah had met with a young man who claimed to be wanting to know about Jesus - some militants came into Rev. Sayyah's study and killed him. His 13 year old son found him dead when he went to call his father for supper.

      The church in Iran knows only too well that they have been sent as sheep among wolves. They know that they live in a world of trouble - their habitat is trouble.

      You may have heard about the events that took place in south-eastern Turkey in April of this year. Islamic fundamentalists broke into the offices of a small Christian publishing house and killed one missionary and two Turkish Christian. Two of the widows of those murdered were interviewed by a Turkish TV crew and they forgave their husbands' murderers. In a part of the world where it is seen as a right for people to take revenge on those who have hurt them of their families - the statement by these two women were offering forgiveness created a stir throughout the country. Many Turks were profoundly moved and began to ask questions about Christianity and what about Jesus' life would motivate forgiveness on this kind of level.

      As news of the murders and the forgiveness offered by the widows spread through Turkey there were marches through the streets of many cities in Turkey demanding true religious freedom for all in that country. These marches were not started by Christians, but rather by intellectuals and the press.

      In the wake of the murders Turks are turning to Christianity in larger numbers then ever before.

      The church in Turkey knows what it is to live in a habitat of trouble - but they have discovered that God can be trusted. They have discovered that God will give the words that are needed when they are needed. They are growing in the habit of trusting God.

      We are all aware that parts of Colombia are controlled by the drug lords. Anyone who speaks against the drug lords is putting their lives at risk. In the 1990's in one of the areas where the drug lords are powerful, a Baptist preacher began speaking against the kind of control the drug lords had, and against what the drug economy was doing to the area where he lived. He was warned to stop, but he wouldn't.

      One Sunday morning as he was leading worship in his church, two gunmen entered the church and walking halfway down the aisle they opened fire on the minister. The bullets hit the minister. Everyone expected him to fall down dead, but he didn't. He was not wearing a bullet proof vest or anything like that. Simply the bullets did nothing to him. So the gunmen tried again to kill him, but with no success. The bullets had no impact on the minister - it was like they passed through him without hurting him.     

      At that point the gunmen put down their weapons and fell on their knees praying that God would have mercy on them, because they had met a God who was stronger than the drug lords .. A God who could stop the impact of the bullets.

      The church in Colombia knows it lives a habitat full of trouble, but they also know that God is worthy of their trust, they can make trusting God their habit.

      Some may be asking, why did God save the life of the Baptist minister and not the lives of Rev. Sayyah or the three men in Turkey? I don't know why. I am not even going to speculate. Somehow in the mystery of God - in God's good purposes for the world ­this is the way things have happened. There comes a point where we need to trust that God knows what God is doing.

     When I think of these stories, and the thousands of other stories that could be told of the trouble Christians in our world face, and the amazing trust in God that they reveal - I am reminded of the words that we read from Hebrews 11. That passage has been called the Hall of Fame of Faith. And while I know that we are not supposed to add to the Bible - I feel like saying - "There are other names that we know - other people from our time ­from our world who need to be included in the Hall of Fame of Faith. People who like those in Hebrews 11 have lived the faith with great courage - have trusted God in a world of trouble.

      The other thing that stands out for me is that God's ways are not our ways. Who but God would think that the Islamic Revolution would lead to more Bibles being sold than ever before? Who but God would think that offering forgiveness to murderers would turn a nation on its head? Who but God would think that gunmen could come to faith in God on the spot like in Colombia? God's ways are backwards - it is out of weakness, out of death, out of brokenness that God's kingdom grows.

      A tangent for a couple of moments.

      Christians should be at the forefront of the call for religious freedom in our world. We should be pushing for religious freedom for two reasons. First, Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. Some 160,000 Christians are killed every year for their faith in Jesus Christ. The Jewish Human Rights group - B'nai Brith - argues that Christians will be the most persecuted religious group in the 21st century in our world. Hear that that claim is being made by a non-Christian group.

      Second, we have nothing to fear in the face of complete religious freedom. If the Triune God who sent Jesus Christ to live among us, and who has given us the Holy Spirit can stop bullets from hurting people - then what do we have to fear from anything. For people who are honestly searching for spiritual fulfillment - they will find everything else unsatisfying until they meet Jesus Christ.

      We need to be people who ask for religious freedom for all groups in Canada, so that we have the credibility to ask for religious freedom for our Christian sisters and brothers in other parts of the world.

      But I want to end with a question that may be running in your minds - because it runs in mine - Why are people so opposed to Christianity that they will kill to stop it from spreading?

      The answer is there is a struggle going on for people's loyalty. Bob Dylan used to sing a song with the line, "You gotta serve somebody." And Dylan was right. In this world, we as human beings have to place our loyalty somewhere. What are we going to be loyal to?

      Emperors -like the Roman emperors demanded(loyalty - they demanded that every person in the empire go once a year to the local Roman governor and declare that "Caesar is Lord." Christians refused to do that - because they knew that someone else was Lord ­- and that was Jesus Christ. Since they were unwilling to state that Caesar was the number one loyalty in their lives they faced persecution.

      And this is why people are afraid of Christians - Christians have a loyalty that goes beyond commitment to a political power that goes beyond loyalty to country or flag, a loyalty that goes beyond even allegiance to a football team. We are people who are loyal to Jesus Christ.

      In the baptism that took place earlier this morning, we all participated in a dangerous activity - an activity that in some parts of the world could have got us locked up in jail. Why? Because at the heart of baptism is the claim that we belong to God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and that God is the highest authority in our lives. That to God and to God first and foremost we will be loyal. And so people who want our loyalty - who want us to put work, or government, or a particular economic system, or a person as the primary loyalty in our lives - they are deeply angered that we would put something ahead of the loyalty they demand of us.

      Jesus has sent us out as sheep among wolves - He has sent us - together with our Christian sisters and brothers into a world of trouble. And He has invited us to be loyal to him as we live in that world of trouble. To be blunt - it is our loyalty to God that gets us in the world of trouble. In our loyalty to God - the Christian community through the ages has found that God can be trusted to give us the words we need, the wisdom we need, the courage we need, when we need it. And all of that simply raises our trust and our praise to this God who has invited us to be the people of God - the followers of Jesus Christ ­those gifted by the Holy Spirit.

      I know no better way to end this sermon than to play the Newsboys song, "He reigns" -- the lyrics are below.

 

He Reigns

by Steve Taylor and Peter Furler (Newsboys)

It's the song of the redeemed

Rising from the African plain

It's the song of the forgiven

Drowning out the Amazon rain

The song of Asian believers

Filled with God's holy fire

It's every tribe, every tongue, every nation

A love song born of a grateful choir

 

It's all God's children singing

Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns, He reigns

It's all God's children singing

Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns, He reigns

 

Let it rise above the four winds

Caught up in the heavenly sound

Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals

To the faithful gathered underground

Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation

Some were meant to persist

Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples

None rings truer than this

 

Chorus

And all the powers of darkness

Tremble at what they've just heard

'Cause all the powers of darkness

Can't drown out a single word

 

When all God's children sing out

Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns, He reigns

All God's people singing

Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns, He reigns