Sunday Devotions: In the Land of Persecution - Not!

Today's lectionary verse: Psalm 123:3 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.

One thing that I have noticed about some Christians in America is that they can be a bunch of whiners. For the past couple of years, we've seen people get very upset about Supreme Court decisions, the placing of the Ten Commandments, and the infringements of religious rights. They whine that their Christian faith is being assaulted by the arrogant, massacred by the media, and persecuted by the powerful.

Well, whoop de do. Every week, I read about Christians being stabbed, stoned, or killed in other lands. I hear about priests and pastors being imprisoned and tortured by dictatorships and communist regimes. I'm sent information about Sunday school teachers being arrested and put on trial in Islamic nations, but I don't hear about the Christian communities over in these places making a big fuss, spoiling for a fight, or over-inflating their case for freedom.

Compared to what Christians are suffering throughout the world, we're getting it very easy. If, instead of using up all of our witnessing power upon getting our own way in this land, we rather focused on the religious rights of others in far more terrible places, we might be respected across this land. But so long as we act like the spoiled brats and pampered chosen of the Christian faith, we're not going to be able to increase our influence over the length and breadth of our nation.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we are so sorry that we disappoint You at times with our pharisaical and privileged ways. Instead of winning this nation for You, we're whining across this land. Instead of witnessing for Your Kingdom, we're too busy suing school systems, making court appearances, and appealing to the State for our rights, instead of looking to You for mercy and grace, patience and perseverance. In Your Holy Name, we humbly and shamefully pray. Amen.

Sunday Devotions: The Quiet Life

Paul urges us to lead a quiet life, minding our own business, and working with our hands. It's a Christian pipe dream, because the world always invades our space. In China, a Christian businessman has been arrested for national security reasons because he was letting other Christians worship there. The crime is punishable by death.

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1 Thessalonians 4:11 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you.

It sounds like the ideal way to live a Christian life. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all just get along together? Leading a quiet life and minding my own business seems like an idyllic way of existing. No squabbles, no arguments, no worries, and no concerns. Just keeping your head down, working at your business, and getting on with life. It would be heaven on earth.

But then reality invades my world and I realize that this is just a Christian pipe dream of Paul’s. Life is far from quiet and is in fact much too noisy. No matter how hard I try to mind my own business, someone always says or does something that affects me. And often, when I go to do my work, something occurs which changes my schedule and I have to set aside the projects I wanted to accomplish. I would love for Paul’s Utopia to exist, but unless I joined a silent monastery in a far off place, I’m never going to accomplish it.

I’m also reminded that Christians around the world don’t have it so easy either. Take Alimujiang Yimiti for example. He was quietly working at his business in Uyghur, China in September last year, when Chinese government officials closed it down. They stated that he was using his business as a cover for “preaching Christianity among the Uyghuri people.” Four months later, Alimujiang was arrested and accused of “subversion of the national government and endangering national security.” This crime is punishable by death. Ali has been in prison for six months awaiting trial.

So much for just living a quiet life and working with your hands! Ali became a Christian more than ten years ago and has been an active member of the growing Uyghur Church.

We Westerners get so upset in our churches when things don’t go our way, but I really wonder what we would do if we were threatened with arrest for national security reasons just because we are Christians? The things that are perhaps important to us pale into insignificance when we put them beside what Alimujiang and thousands of other Christians in China are enduring.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we all want our lives to be smooth and trouble-free. We want our needs to be met and our desires to be fulfilled. Sometimes we forget that our wishes and ways are not what You ask of us. Sometimes we need to be reminded that faith isn’t a leisure pursuit or a group activity; it’s a serious life commitment and one that others are being imprisoned, tortured, and even killed for, across the world. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to: pastor@erinpresbyterian.org