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If you're unaware, there are two international stories right now about violence commited against Christians. It's a small world. Two days ago a British-South African Christian aid worker was shot by extremists in Afghanistan. This woman went to Afghanistan with a Mongolian from the organization I teach English at. One of my students is her best friend. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081020/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan In the same hemisphere, there has been onoing violence against Christians by extremists in India. There are confirmed murders, rapes, assaults, and burned churches. There are also stories of people being sawed in two, which doesn't sound unrealistic after reading the story in the second link below. http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/08/pray-for-india.html http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/09/some-background-on-india-violence.html Keep these stories in mind as you pray today, this week, and always. As if we don't often forget the eternal consequences of what being a Christian means, from the safety of our Western Christianity we're apt to forget the temporal consequences that being a Christian carries in some parts of the world. I have to ask, is "Christian" an interchangable adjective to us, a Facebook/Twitter status update? This quote from Diedrich Bonhoeffer comes to mind. “It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing. They remember, as the Psalmist did, how they went ‘with the multitude . . . to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday (Ps. 42:4) … Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living in common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren." Remember this as you gather on Sunday, this week in your small group, or when you simply get to enjoy friendship and community with other Christians. |
Comments
Nick, a stark and vivid reminder of the distress being suffered by our Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. I saw the article about the slain aid worker in Afghanistan in the LA Times and posted it. But your commentary and exhortation to pray for those who are putting their lives on the line for Christ and compassion add flesh and bones to the story. Thanks for doing this.
On a side note, your comment about the "safety of our Western Christianity" deserves reflection. I find it interesting that right now we Westerners think we're in a terrible place, what with the state of the economy and all. How vain we are to think that these troubles measure up in any way with the physical and emotional anguish being inflicted on people in other parts of the world by tyrants and religious zealots. It's not that we don't have reason to be concerned, but as we pray for our own recovery, we need to doubly pray--as you suggest--for our Christian brothers and sisters who are truly suffering.