Do not fear what they fear... In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to testify to whoever asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. (1 Peter 3:14-15)
But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. (Luke 21:12)
 |
| [ source ] |
First century Christians were a religious minority in the Roman Empire, and they were perceived by the majority of the empire’s citizens as a threat.
This had been a problem for the church
since the very beginning,
but now, in the time in which our texts were written,
the problem was coming to a head.
+++
The early church was born in the Roman empire,
under Roman Rule.
Decades after Jesus was crucified under the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate (decades after that)
in 54AD, an Emperor named Nero came into power.
About ten years after that, while he was still in power,
a world famous tragedy struck,
a great fire, (right?) known as
the Great Fire of Rome in 64AD,
hundreds died, thousands were made to be homeless.
And people did what they do in times of crisis:
they looked around for someone to blame.
They looked around for Others in order to point their fingers.
Many blamed Nero for the fire.
Nero blamed the Christians.
+++
Now, in Nero’s time as emperor,
as in the decades before him,
Christians were increasingly getting death threats,
accused by the powerful
(and the angry mobs alike)
of all sorts of things:
they were accused of…
 |
| [ source ] |
of being atheist because they didn’t share Rome’s gods,
and would not pay them homage or light incense in their honor,
They were accused
of being terrorists and insurrectionists
because their founder was a convicted criminal
who spoke of a new “Reign of God”),
a founder they referred to as “Lord and God,” ever-present, ever-powerful
(a title, in Rome, reserved for the emperor).
they were accused
even
of being cannibals because they claimed to eat the Lord’s “body and blood” in order to become his body here and now.
+++
These Christians, obviously, became easy scapegoats,
and easy to identify.
 |
| [ source ] |
And after Nero blamed them publicly, life in Rome for Christians, for a while, became nearly intolerable.
Through the decree and actions of Nero,
Christians were publicly arrested, tortured, nailed to crosses, burned, dressed in animal skins, humiliated, and killed in all sorts of horrible and public ways,
just like their founder, Jesus had been, as well, just three decades earlier, under Pontius Pilate.
“Go home.” perhaps people wrote on their doors.
“You are un-Roman, anti-Roman.”
“Where’s you allegiance anyway? Not to Our Great Country, not to Our Great King!”
“You don’t belong here.”
Who knows what else they said, what else they did?
How much fear the Christians must have felt.
“The People of the Way.”
“Children of God.”
+++
In times of crisis,
It was socially acceptable to hate these people.
Because they were different.
Just like it’s always socially acceptable to hate those who are different when the going gets tough.
It became acceptable socially, but it’s never acceptable in the Spirit of Love.
Hate and wrath and fear are never, anywhere, ever listed as Fruits of the Spirit.
+++
It was easy to blame “them,” the Christians, for the rest-of-the-country’s own collective pain,
it was easy to blame them for poverty,
for lack of education and good jobs,
for increased crime, for my own insecurity in a time of scarcity.
They were easy to blame, those Christians.
 |
| [ source ] |
Largely because they were easy to identify.
First, they were an ethnically diverse group, all walking
around together,
but also,
The women wore long hair, and they wore veils.
They covered their heads. (1 Corinthians 11), they wrapped their heads, and wore something that looked pretty much exactly like a hijab—a custom that over time, and in different cultures, many of them would give up,
but a custom that gave them away in the meanwhile,
made them easy to identify,
point out,
to caricature,
and, so, easy to blame.
The Christians were easy to blame
even though it was the emperor
(and the emperor’s friends, most of whom were related)
(literally the 10% who controlled 90% of the wealth in Rome)
who had the power to change,
and did nothing,
The Christians were easy to blame
even though it was the emperor and the elite,
(the 10% who controlled 90% of everything)
who held the resources from which the everyday people were deprived…
 |
| [ source ] |
The Christians were easy to blame
even though it was the Emperor and the elite who watched the city burn… (perhaps fiddling while it did so, according to some traditions)
And rejoiced they could now build the sweet new condos and luxury-living developments that they were dying to build…
Giant buildings reading NERO, dedicated to the gods…
But it was easier to blame the Christians.
They were right there, right?
“Please report any suspicious activity” said the signs that Nero put up.
And these Christians, they always seemed pretty… suspicious.
+++
A persecuted minority in a violent, repressive regime,
this was the community to whom much of the New Testament,
much of the Bible, was written.
First Peter (specifically) is addressed to people who were escaping this persecution,
people escaping Nero,
who they referred to as
“Satan”
and
“A Roaring Lion looking for the next person to devour (1 Peter 5:8).”
People searching for a new land to call home.
Literally. They were refugees. From the Middle East.
+++
And so 1 Peter begins with these words:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood: May grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Literal persecuted religious minorities,
literal refugees,
literally escaping the persecution of an intolerant regime,
finding themselves in the land to which they escaped, still persecuted, feared by their new neighbors, unwelcome by their new neighborhoods.
+++
In this context,
in this mess,
what a strange thing it is that 1st Peter says:
what strange words:
“Always be ready to testify to your hope.” “Jesus is already Lord of your heart.”
And Jesus:
“They will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over and imprison you, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.
This will give you an opportunity to testify.”
“Always be ready to testify.”
What a strange thing.
In the face of opposition, of persecution,
of estrangement, in the face of rabid nationalism and growing fears:
You will be given the opportunity to testify
to the Reign of God that has already begun in your hearts.
You will be given the opportunity to testify
to the Reign of God that Jesus said
is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in a field; and even though it is the smallest of all the seeds,
when it has grown up, it grows up really big, and it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree,
so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
You will be given the opportunity to testify to
the Reign of Love, which Jesus said, “is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until entire gigantic loaf of bread was leavened.”
You will be given the opportunity to testify.
When the world says some deserve food and others deserve death
You will be given the opportunity to testify
in the words that Jesus said:
“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.”
You will be given an opportunity to testify.
When the world says some deserve to live, and others deserve death,
Some deserve welcome, and others deserve a prison, or a deportation, a food desert or a desert wall,
You will be given the opportunity to testify in the words that Jesus said:
I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing.”
Loving God is loving the neighbors God gives to us. Loving God is loving the persecuted, the abandoned, the refugee.
You will be given an opportunity to testify.
When the world says that one’s health should be valued only in proportion to one’s pocketbook, and that those who have less somehow deserve less, that they are of lesser value, that their lives, your lives “don’t matter,”
You will be given the opportunity to testify in the words that Jesus said:
“I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” “Whatever you did unto the least of these, you have done unto me.”
You will be given an opportunity to testify.
+++
In the face of fear and rage and uncertainty, you will be given an opportunity to testify to God’s Reign, our hope,
to God’s reign already in your hearts.
You will be given an opportunity to testify.
You will be given an opportunity to testify
to the Reign of Love,
where the last become first,
where the lowly are lifted,
where the hungry are filled,
and where the powerful tyrants are removed from their thrones…
You will be given an opportunity to testify.
Things might seems dark,
things may become difficult,
foreboding,
dangerous.
It might seem like the end is near.
You might wish to God it was.
But “Fear not.”
“I am with you.”
“Fear not.”
“I reign in your heart.”
“Fear not.”
“I am the Way and the Life.”
“Fear not.”
“I am the truth that will set you free
in the face of all that is to come.”
Fear not.
And I call you to Love.
Fear not.
I call you to be love.
Fear not,
with all the Love you can muster,
and in the face of those who demand your life, your silence,
you will be given the opportunity to testify.
+++
May we be granted the same opportunity to testify.
And may we fearlessly show only Love and solidarity to those who are persecuted, caricatured, and marginalized by fear and scapegoating today, for in the same way they persecuted our ancestors in the faith.
May we proclaim Christ’s Love in the face of any fear and any hate that dwells in and around us.
Amen.
Hymn: When Our Song Says Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment