Our hearts break for the senseless murders this weekend in Norway.
The violence was fueled by a highly combustible mixture of hate and fear. Before it was announced that the murderer was a right wing Norwegian who hated Muslims, you could sense that the right wing in our country was poised to cry out for revenge and violence against Muslims. In their mind, only Muslim terrorists could be capable of such terrible violence.
This thirst for blood is not the way of Brother Jesus.
In the time of Luther, the question was, "How can I find a gracious God?"
The question for our time is, "How can we find God in our enemies?"
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We can no more save ourselves from our enemies than we can save ourselves from sin . God’s amazing grace offers to save us from both.
nFalse prophets today cannot mention love of enemies . Listen to the voices on the right wing of our political and religious spectrum. Their thirst for blood is sickening.
They will tell you that the way of Brother Jesus is impractical, idealistic, and out of touch with the "real world." The evidence of the "real world" totally repudiates such thinking.
In 1989, 13 nations – 1.7 billion people – 32% of humanity experienced non-violent revolutions. Add up all countries touched by major non-violent actions since 1986 the figure reaches 3.3 billion people – a staggering 64% of humanity. All this in the teeth of the right wing claim that – “non-violence does not work in the real world.”
No such irrelevancy is charged against the myth of redemptive violence even though evidence shows that violence almost never works. Imagine our world if the followers of Jesus had been successful in stopping the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003. A trillion dollar war would have been averted. We created more terrorists than we could ever kill and we will pay that price for a long time.
No such irrelevancy is charged against the myth of redemptive violence even though evidence shows that violence almost never works. Imagine our world if the followers of Jesus had been successful in stopping the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003. A trillion dollar war would have been averted. We created more terrorists than we could ever kill and we will pay that price for a long time.
God is all inclusive. Jesus says love your enemies because God does – Matt 5:45 – Luke 6:35. Much of what passes as religion denies the existence of such a God. Jesus became one of us not because judgment is an end but a beginning- not to consume but to purify – not to annihilate but to redeem. Jesus forgave sins – now you can repent.
God loves you – now you can lift your eyes to God
This is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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