Faith and War

Intro

Dear brothers and sisters, I know, it seems that the topics are getting more depress as we continue to engage with soceity. But today we touch I topic that looks so far away but sometimes so close as well. A month ago, one of my daughter asked me, is there going to be World War 3? What will happen to us? The truth is since the beginning of human’s history war has been one of the constant, but one of the worst tragedy, and it is very important we understand it, especially as followers of Christ. As like last week, you might have some questions, feel free to shoot up. We will try to answer after the response song.

Our faith should affect how we contribute to society, and postively, but so often, in the history of Christaiality we do not follow Christ, it becomes an embrassessment to our Lord. And that happen in history as well, especially in the civil war of Rwanda. If you know what happen, 90% of the country claimed themsevles CHristians, it is a Chrisitan country. But what Jesus has taught did not seem to get into their hearts, get into how they see race and society. And so 90% of the killers and victims were CHristian. Twenty -eight years go, a plan was shot down, killing the pResident, started the civil war. close to one million Rwandans, mostly Tutsi Christians, had been killed by their fellow Rwandans, mostly Hutu CHristians. One third of the murders took place on church property, often with the complicity of clergy from nearly every denomination represented. In one report, 1200 men and woman and children shot and hacked to death in a church where they sought refuge. You may ask, how could Christians do that to each other? How could something so bad happen? Recently, I also was not aware I could have these dark thoughts. Somebody hurt me a lot that I really have thought in my mind I have thought about physically hurting this perseon. Just to make sure it’s not any of you here. But I have to come to Lord and ask for forgiveness.

And when we look again today in our world, maybe we haven’t improved. Many countries have a even more military mindset, the belief that a country should maintain a strong military capabiltiy and to be prepared to use it agressively to defend and promote national intersts. This includes a lot of big countries, and even Australia and increased billions in spending. There are still many wars that is happening, including the one that might trigger a bigger wars. But what does our faith say, what does our requires us. Indeed God has many things to say to us, only if we were to listen. And so today, let’s humble ourselves and listen to God’s word.

War in Isaiah

Today we’re quite ambitious, we would like to see what the whole bible says about war. I guess we could go on for the whole day, but I picked three passages that are significant in the course of the whole redemptive story. As we always do, we go back to Genesis where everything was as God creation intended, the whole point of Sabbath day where God created is to enjoy this peace with human, with nature and with God. But since sin entered world in Genesis 3, war happened, first in the two brothers, Cain and Abel and extended to countries, where Israel wanted to a king and military power like nations around him. So there is David and Solomon and other kings where they involved in all kinds of warfare, many God hates.

And as we enter Isaiah, we come into a period where Assyria a military empire tries to conquer the middle East. During Isaiah’s ministry, they set their sighs on Jerusalim. And so in these earlie chapters of Isaiah, it asked an important question, what should Israel do the prepare for Assyria impending attack? Isaiah once and once again tell the kings to trust in the Lord, not submission, nor military strength. But probably more singificant, Isaiah through God’s vision envision a kingdom shaped by Edenic harmony, a demilitarized dominion not of this world, a newly created people whose very identity will be marked by nonviolent peace.

And that is what we read today Isaiah 2:4 “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” The purpose of describing God’s future kingdomwas to present a vision of what God will ultimately do in Zion, so that audience can choose to be part of GOd’s plan or reject it. God here will settle differences in countries and will remove the reason and source for war. There will be no need for swords to kill people, so a marvelous reign of peace will begin. All war preparation can end when people focus on God, who is the true source of their security, all effort would be used for productivity, for life, so that all swords and rehsaped into plowshares and prunning hooks. What a visionary and beautiful picture. This vision is so beautiful that the United nations used it for their statue.

But how does God bring in this new vision, new kingdom, and this is through His Messiah Isaiah 9:6-7 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.” The idenity of the Messiah will be one of peace. And he will win this peace by absorbing violence. Again when he comes, Isaiah 11:6 “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:9 “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Such peace is a major theme of the latter part of Isaiah and is hsared by other prophets as well. And it’s not just the prophets who long for peace, many biblical writes living aftert the monarchy distance themselves from warfare and cultivate the messianic hope for peace.

And this vision continues today. There is this tree of life sculpture cated by four artistis in Mozambique. It was commissioned and then installed in the British Museum in 2005. It was built from the surrder of 600000 weapons that was converted into art, supported by Christian Aid. Two year sof the country decolonized in 1975, a civil war erupted and is discribed amongst the worst in contemporary times. FOr the next fifteen years, Mozambicans hacked each other and over one million people died, half of whome were children. Half of its sixteen mission citizens were affected, THey were raped, abused, tortured, blinded, dismembered, kinapped starved, ensalved, exiled. Even after the war end, more than 7 million guns remained buried in caches across mozambique, this posed a real threat to volitate situation. So with internation support, one of the initiative was the Christians -backed Tools for Arms project, inspired by this passage. IN order to draw out the weapons from the bush, people were given an instrument of agricdulture in exchange for every weapon turned in. And what did they do with all those weapons? They turned them into symbols of peace. They hamered them into trees of life.

War in Jesus

So let’s continue the story of the Bible. During Isaiah time and JEsus times, things didn’t turn any better, Jesus was born in a violent world. Zealous Jews took up the sword and three of the yoke of their Gentil overlords, masscaring thousands in their wake to reclaim their religious and political freedom. But only to be crushed again by Roman general Pompey who killed twelve thousand Jews while taking control of the land. This was the world JEsus entered, a world ruled by violence. Many Jews sought freedom through bloodshed. Many Messianic figure rose up just to be crushed. Despite the failure of these revolts, the earlier success of the Maccabbes ensured that messianic zeal was not easily snuffed out. And so during JEsus ministry, he prevented people to call him Messiah for exactly this reason, because the title is loaded with violent images of revolutation. And os Jesus says, John 18:36 “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Jesus kingdom is not of this world unjust eocnomic systems, dehumanizing social classification and violence.

But what is this kingdom? Jesus sought to establish a counter-cultural, counter Maccabean, non-Roman kingdom whose citizens would embody a different reign over the earth. And on one Galilean afternoon, King Jesus sat down to tell His followers wehat this unconventional kingdom look like. His instruction are contained in one of the most cherished passages in the bible - the sermon of the Mount. It is the definitive charter for the life of the new covenant commmunity.

Matthew 5:38-48 ““You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. “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 sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? ”

While Jesus intensifies the law’s prohibition of murder, this 10 verse talks specifically about retaliation. Jesus here doens’t direct victim to settle in court, by tells the victim do not resist the one in evil. The greek word here resists, specifally refers to vilent resistance. Jesus then fills his command with five different examples of what such nonresistance look like. This five examples shows do not resist evil scatters it across all of life. First, slapping of cheek, talking about physical violence. Christ folowers are attacked with shame, pain, they should not respond with violence. They are to respond with unconditionall love that comes from being redeemed by God who loves his enemies. The second is a legal attack. In judaism, if someone had an unpaid debt, the debtor would give up his cloak as collateral until the debt was paid. The cloak is much more valuable. Once again, Jesus intensifies the love that his followers are to have toward those who wrong them. The third pertains political oppression by a foreign army. He is thinking here first-centrury Palestine, where Roman soldiers force Jews to carry their packs. The fourth- and fifth situations deal with unpleasnat financial system. Give to the ones who beg and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Under the theme it’s talking about some evil lies behind the one asking you for money. They probably don’t deserve it. Jesus says we should give money when it doesn’t benefit us. GO above and beyond, Respond differently to evil. See Jesus gives us a number of examples of what not resisting evil look like: Physcial attack, social shame, legal injustice, poltiical oppression, economic hardship. Jesus invades every spehre of our lives.

But finally, Jesus take the initiative and fight against evil, by loving your enemeies. Jesus takes a familiar Old Testament command love your neighbor and streches it to its limit. Jesus takes the law’s incremental steps to the top of the mountain, and the mountaintop looks a lot like Eden. In Jesus time, loving your enemies is the ideal. For early Christians, enemy-love was the hallmark of what is meant to believe ine Jesus. So who is our enemy, there is nothing in context that limits the meaning of our enemy, it could be used in broadest sense include religiious, political, personal, even military enemies. Just as Samaritian in the enemy of Jews, Jesus redefines neighbour include everyone -even enemies like the Samaritian. I wonder who would stand in for the enemies in this passage, maybe annoying neighbour, abrasive coworker, drug dealer, terrorist. Jesus calls us to his upside-down kingdom, light will beam accross our dark world as we love the spouses who don’t love us back, keep our word when it hurts, judge ourselves instead of others and most shockingly - love our enemies who are harming us. When we are hated, we love, when we are robbed we give. WShen we are struck, we don’t strick back with violence. A person who choose to love enemies can have no enemies but neighbours.

War in Revelation

But the sermon of the mount is not the final word of Jesus. At the end I want to take all of you to the last book of the bible - revelation. A lot of people thought this book support violence, this book support war of God and is dipped in blood. For some scholars it “instruct his people to engage in that future warfare.” Christ himself will enage in actual blood-shedding, life taking warfare when he returns to set up his kingdom. In fact, when we see that although there is a lot of bloodshed, it often flows from the veins of Christ and his followers, not from His enemies. Make no mistake, Jesus will return as judge and will pour out his wwrath, but because he suffers by their hands as a slaughtered lamb. In this book, victims,and lamb-like warriors conquer their enemies by first being conquered.

Let’s look at our passage Revelation 12:10-11 “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

The kingdom of God is breaking into history and toppling Satn’s rule because believers “have conquered him by the blood of the lamb by the word of thier testimony” Here there are two very important message from God I wanted to look at. The first, the blood of the lamb. The most powerful message against war is again the image of Jesus, Jesus becoming man and suffered on the cross, three days resurrected. As we thought again about the situation of Jesus. Nonviolence sinks its root deep into the narrative of a crucuiform God, which streches from a graden to a manger, a jmanger to a cross. Again Philippians 2:5-8 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” When August created an empire through military might, Jesus who is also called son of God entered human history in a whisper - through a virgin womb of young Jewish girl. It made no sense in the Roman worldview that a suffering, cruicified Jew would rule the world. But he did, he does, and he always will. Our King reclaimed his throne because he first served and suffered. It is the deepest reason CHristian are against war.

But not only that, we conquered Satan by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. For us believers we are to follow Jesus who became a servant to die for and at the hands of his enemies. We are to preach this gospel with our testimony, we are to join his suffering by picking up our cross and following the Lamb whever He goes, these martyrs participate in the Lamb’s victory of santanic empires. He invites us to journey with Him to Calavary.

Apply:

And so the early Christians, the four centuries after the book of revelation, Christinality is a pacifist religion. Origen one said, we Christians no longer take up sword against nations, nor do we learn to make war anymore, having become children of peace for the sake of Jesus who is a leader. In one hundred years after the conversion of Constantine, the emperor who made Christian their official religion, however, the majority of Christian came to embrace a just-war position. They insisted to use lethal violence dare only be a last resort to correct injustice and repel attack, but it was necessary to use the sword. When you learn about just war, it means seven criteria, which pertain both tot he cause of gfighting and the means used in battle. This includes last resort, just cause, right attitude, prior delcaration of war, reasonable hope of success, noncombatnat immunity, proportionality. However, Christians nations fought each other again and again under this theory, because often all sides are just. And this debate between pacifist and just war continue till today. Recently, a number of prominent Christian theologians developed what we called a third approach: just peacemaking. Instead of withdrawing totally from war or justifying a war, it try to settle disputes nonviolently and earlier, just like what we did with conflict managment earlier, we decided to have peace making team. Thet techniques used include support nonviolent actions, take independent intiatives to reduce threat, use cooperative conflict resolution, acknolwedge responsibility for conflict and injustice, seek repetanncen and forgiveness, promote democracy, human rights and religious liberty, foster just and sustainable economic development, work with emerging cooperative forces in the international system, strengten the united Nations and international efforts for cooperations, reduce offensive weapons and weapon trade, encourage grassroots peacemaking grouops. And so as Christians, let’s be faithful in peacemaking, be agreesive iin using nonviolent approach. I will like to end odays sermonw with a story.

Illustrate:

Don’t know if you have heard about the Desmond Doss 美國陸軍退役下士，第二次世界大戰期間曾任軍醫. 德斯蒙德·杜斯出生於維珍尼亞州林奇堡。1942年參軍，但因為多斯是基督復臨安息日會信徒而拒絕攜帶武器和殺死敵人，因此他被任命為軍醫，被派往太平洋戰場。德斯蒙德·杜斯因在沒有攜帶任何武器的情況下在戰場上拯救了多達75名傷員而聞名，This humble man placed all his trust in God. During the Battle of Okinawa, he saved the lives of 50–100 wounded infantrymen atop the area known by the 96th Division as the Maeda Escarpment or Hacksaw Ridge.[12] Doss was wounded four times in Okinawa,[13] and was evacuated on May 21, 1945, aboard the USS Mercy.[14] Doss suffered a left arm fracture from a sniper's bullet while being carried back to Allied lines and at one point had seventeen pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body after a failed attempt at kicking a grenade away from him and his men.自己曾3次受傷。後確診感染肺結核，久之後便在1946年退出服役離開部隊。之後度過了5年時間的休養和治療。1945年良心拒服兵役者多斯獲授榮譽勳章.