November 2001
Page 1 - When Love Means War by Dr. Mark Herringshaw
Page 2 - Our Response to Suffering by Dr. Joe Johnson
Page 3 - The Master's Institute Opens Its Doors by Kathryn Calvert - Director of Administration
Page 4 - Directors Note
When Love Means War
by Dr. Mark HerringshawJesus' words are inconvenient today. As the horror of the New York and Washington attacks settles into the cracks of our souls, one bitter question resounds: how do we love these enemies? Since September 11th we have stumbled through cycles of crushing emotion. On Tuesday we sat around kitchen tables or in office cubicles in stunned disbelief. On Wednesday we stood awkwardly over our children's beds trying to comfort their fears. On Thursday we lay awake into the night, haunting images of falling towers and weeping widows playing in our brains. On Friday we prayed, a nation so awkward on her knees. On Saturday we woke with the bile of rage fuming in our bellies. War is at once everywhere and nowhere, with each one of us a citizen soldier alongside the tireless firemen in Manhattan and the heroic hostages who stormed the cockpit over Pennsylvania. Right now we are looking for some stitch to seam up the tatters. And what do we find? Jesus' words, agitating rather than comforting our souls. "Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you."
Our rage is real. And it is good. Anger like ours is a sign of health, for our morally lethargic society is finally calling something absolutely evil. Some wonder, "Is this God's judgment; has our sin removed God's protective hand?" Perhaps. But God never begets chaos. He is, even now, using it to bring about His better purposes, but such carnage is nothing but the spawn of hell. These deeds were evil and we are right to respond with anger.
But right anger is a dangerous companion. It can turn and pollute our souls. Animals lash back against assault with defensive instinct. We know this impulse, for we are, on one level, animals. But we are not mere animals. We are spirit creatures made in God's image, called by God to rule our instincts with spirit. So we must distinguish righteous anger from vengeful wrath.
And we draw this line with love. Yes, love - the startling marriage of anger and love. Which leads then to a first question: How can I love my enemies when there is not a flicker of natural tenderness within me? In one sense this is the essence of being Christian: we can never obey any command of Jesus. In fact the entire Christian life is impossible. Only Jesus can be a Christian, and only Jesus can live His will and way through me. As Pastor Morris Vaagenes is so fond of saying: "I can't, You can, please do, thank you."
But then, a second question: how do I love my enemies… or more accurately, how do I let Jesus love them through me? Here we find some surprises.
1. We bless them. Paul speaks directly: "Bless those who curse you" (Romans 12:14). "To bless" is something far more than to simply "wish the best." Covenant blessing is a supernatural release of grace from one person to another, an unction that the blessed one might fulfill his/her supernatural destiny. Jacob (Genesis 49) "blessed" his twelve sons that they might each live out their intended purposes. To bless is to literally impart upon someone the presence of God, which will mean goodness as well as judgment. To bless our enemies is to ask that the weight of God's fullness would be heavy upon them, and that they would submit under the pressure of His holiness and realize the full potential of their lives.To bless Muslims has particular significance. For our Muslim cousins (even those few who sanction this kind of holy war against the West) are aching for favor from God. Their bitter hunger goes back to Genesis 21 when Ishmael, the son of Abraham not granted the promise of covenant, was sent away to the desert to live by his own wits and strength. In the desert Ishmael's children remain-the Arabs of today. The good news we bring to them is that in Jesus the same blessing of Isaac is available to all Gentiles-to Ishmaelites as well the rest of us. What they bitterly fight to gain can be theirs by faith! So we bless our Muslim cousins with the knowledge of the favor of God's covenant for them.
2. We pray for them. Jesus directs us: "Pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). Why pray? Prayer is an act of intentional passivity, asking God to act where we cannot. Before Nehemiah confronted Artaxerxes, the Persian King who held the Jews in exile, he prayed. As a result, God bent the man's intention (Nehemiah 1:10, 2:4). We might strike an enemy's physical life, but no human can reach in to alter the heart or intent of another soul. In fact, whenever one soul tries to bend the will of another, the effort ends in bitterness. God, however, can mold motives and attitudes, even the intentions of our enemies. In this, our greatest weapon against their violence is prayer for their souls.
3. We forgive them. In the prayer Jesus taught us we utter: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass…" Forgiveness is imperative! In fact, if we do not forgive even the worst offenses against us, we ourselves are not forgiven (Matt. 6:14). But what is genuine forgiveness? It is not a warm emotion. It is not mustering the will to "like" our foes, or overlook their offense. Biblical forgiveness is a legal matter, a covenant agreement. When we forgive, we release a justified charge against another and in the process turn the prosecution over to God. He will exact the justice. Paul says it this way: "Leave room for God's wrath" (Romans 12:19). And so we shall. By forgiving, we step aside to allow God to lift his leveling hand. For all His ways are just, and unlike our imperfect vindictive forces, His wrath is strategically redemptive.
4. We overcome them. Evil begets more evil. But when we intervene to "overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21), we turn their evil deeds to an end that their perpetrators did not intend. Joseph wept before his brothers saying, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good" (Genesis 50:20). Paul claims that the injustice of imprisonment was turned to good because he redeemed the situation and made it an opportunity to share the gospel with Roman soldiers (Philippians 1:12). But how is this love for our enemies? When we do good in the face of evil, we stop some of the effects of wickedness. We cover some of their guilt and lessen their eternal accountability for havoc wrought in God's order. The heroic deeds of firemen, the blood donated, and the financial gifts to families have birthed good in the world that was not here before September 11th. But heroic love intended for victims turns out, ironically, to be love for the terrorists as well, for it dims their shame.
5. We stop them. Love has many faces. And there are times when we must lift a hand and halt the evil. Revenge belongs to God (Romans 12:19). Still, at times we must institute force to stop the chaos of wickedness. Jesus himself was not above using force in His ministry. He did so in the temple when He turned over the tables of usury (Luke 19:42). This proves true, even if that force involves death. In the original language the commandment is "thou shalt not murder," not "thou shalt not kill." Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer made a choice to join an assassination plot against Hitler, and he called it love, love for the victims but also for Hitler himself. How? C.S. Lewis, echoing St. Augustine who wrote of "just war" says that love must sometimes act forcefully. If we believe in an eternal judgment, then stopping an evil person, even by killing him, can be merciful, for it stops him from further polluting the world and thus incurring darker damnation upon himself and those he influences. Worse things than death can happen to a human soul.
All of this is starkly relevant for us today. We are a nation at war. But we are not the first to face this question of right violent resistance. Every generation of followers of Jesus has wrestled with the reality-some of you in the Second World War, in Korea, in Vietnam, in the Gulf, or as police officers or reservists today. Our purpose, as Christian-Americans is: 1) to support our government, and 2) to stand as a prophetic voice reminding our government of the love and mercies of God. Even in the midst of military fury we must insist that actions be driven not by vengeful wrath, but by aggressive, persistent, creative love-love in forms that on the surface may not look familiar, but are nonetheless vigilant mercies.
Dr. Mark Herringshaw is the Senior Pastor at Vision of Glory Lutheran Church in Plymouth, MN. Mark and his wife, Jill, live in Vadnais Heights, MN with their four children.
