God of peace, help us to understand your
word so that we might share it with the world in all we say and do. Amen.
After some
pressure from friends, including one of them lending me a set of DVDs, I
finally gave in. I started watching Game of Thrones.
It’s a very compelling story, even though
there’s gratuitous nudity and too many sex scenes for my taste. I guess that’s
what you get with HBO.
The basic
premise of Game of Thrones is that
there’s a country that has been ruled by various families in the different
regions, and now they’re fighting to see who can rule the entire kingdom, with
each family laying claim to the throne. Meanwhile, there’s a group of folks who
are not supposed to be allied with any one family, who are trying to fight off the
monsters who live behind an enormous wall that has been protecting the kingdom
from impending winter and destruction.
Dysfunctional
fighting within and between families, with even more dangerous threats coming
to them all from outside sources.
It’s not exactly a happy story. But, as I said, it’s compelling.
One of the most
interesting things to me about this series is how complex the characters are.
There’s no single protagonist. As soon as you start thinking that a particular
person is the true hero who really deserves the throne, she or he does
something that you can’t quite understand, that makes you like them a little
less.
Now, to be sure, there are some
characters who are more likeable than others. But there’s no clear good side or
bad side, and alliances are constantly changing. It’s not like Harry Potter or
Star Wars or a comic book or one of Grimm’s fairy tales.
Many of our favorite stories have a
blatant divide between good and evil. In Game
of Thrones, however, everyone falls somewhere in between.
Perhaps this
is why the series is so compelling. It’s more realistic than many of the
stories that we love. It would be nice if the whole world could really be
divided into wicked witches and heroic princesses – and that’s why we love our
fairy tales. But real life is much more complicated than that.
Take Syria,
for example.
In 2011, peaceful protestors were imprisoned
and killed by the government, led by Bashar al-Assad, who is still the president
of Syria. Some military folks rebelled against the government by joining the
protestors and starting their own Free Syrian Army, with the goal of
overthrowing Assad.
In the past
five years, rebel groups have been reimagined a few times, and the Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria has joined in the conflict against them and Assad. The
Kurds are fighting against ISIS, the government and the rebels. Outside countries including the US, Russia, Turkey,
Iran and the Gulf states have taken sides. By providing money, weapons, and
soldiers, some of these outside forces support Assad’s government, some support
ISIS, some support one of the rebel groups, and some support the Kurds.
Sources include: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/syria-civil-war-explained-160505084119966.html
It’s a
complicated conflict, with more than two sides, with changing alliances, and
with no clear “good guys” or “bad guys.”
And while all the fighting continues,
the folks that are taking the biggest hit are the civilians who have not taken up arms.
The first
casualties of the war were peaceful protestors, fired on by Assad in 2011. This
is what started the civil war.
In 2013, Assad first used chemical
weapons against rebels – the kind of weapons that always kill bystanders as
well as the intended targets.
And the
violence continues to get worse. As you’ve heard on the news, millions of
Syrians are displaced, who have fled their hometowns and in some cases their
home country in search of somewhere safe to live.
And when I say millions, I mean about
half of the country’s population. That’s a lot of displaced people.
And as you’ve
probably heard on the news in recent days, people in Aleppo, which is the
largest city in Syria (or used to be), are basically under siege and awaiting
evacuation, but a series of cease-fire agreements have been made and violated
and ignored.
Even those who are waiting to be taken
out of the city fear that they won’t be taken to a place of safety – because
there are so many sides to this conflict, the place that is taking in the
refugees still might not be a safe place for everyone.
What most
citizens want is simply to be able to live in their homes without fear of
violence or attack.
But the multi-faceted conflict in Syria
has ensured that everyday citizens can’t have what they want, at least not
right now. While they wait, they are being killed or displaced or denied access
to food and medical care while their homes and neighborhoods have become
battlegrounds.
The Syrian
people have been caught in the middle of the deadliest conflict in the 21st
century. They are experiencing war crimes.
The
situation in Syria is dire.
So why am I talking about it today?
Today is the
last Sunday in the season of Advent – the season of hope and joy and peace and
love, during which we prepare for the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, as well as
the coming of Christ again someday.
There are several ways in which the
current situation in Syria relates to our Christian faith, particularly in this
season of Advent.
First, and most obviously, there is a
geographic and historic connection between the Bible and the conflict raging in
Syria today.
Ahaz is a
king of Judah, who speaks with God in Isaiah 7.
Ahaz fears losing
his kingdom to a threatening army, so he goes against God’s will and makes an
alliance with a stronger army, from Assyria.
Assyria, of course, includes the region that we now know as Syria.
Ahaz’s
alliance falls flat when the king of Assyria demands allegiance from Judah, and
eventually takes away their independence.
The example
of Ahaz can teach us that compromising your God for the sake of your country is
never a good idea.
And, at least as important in today’s
political climate, Ahaz’s mistakes can remind us that Israel, Syria, and
neighboring places have been in conflict for thousands of years. There have
been long-standing struggles for power, alliances made and broken, and
complicated conflicts that make it seem like no one is truly the good guy or
the bad guy, but that everyone falls somewhere in between.
This is the
political climate that the Hebrew people lived in, every day.
This is the uncertainty that exists in
the Middle East, and specifically in Syria, today.
This is the
environment into which Jesus, our savior, was born.
So, the first connection between
today’s news headlines and the story of Jesus is geographical and historical.
Second, and
more theoretical or ideological, the current situation in Syria is connected
with our Christian faith because God tells us to love and act on behalf of
those who are oppressed.
The prophets tell us that true worship
is to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. (Micah 6:8) The Lord’s command to the people is
to act with justice and righteousness, delivering others from their oppressors,
and protecting the strangers and the powerless people in society. (Jeremiah
22:1-3)
In the
Psalms, we hear that God is a stronghold for the oppressed, but crushes the
oppressor. (9:9; 72:4)
Basically, the conflict in Syria
matters to our Christian faith because the people caught in the middle are the
ones that God loves – and they are the ones that God expects us to love.
The history
of God’s people is full of stories about God sending some kind of salvation to
the people when they are in their most dire need – this is the basis of the
Exodus story, and even of the birth of Jesus.
This brings
us to the final and most important connection between our preparations for
Christmas and the current conflict in Syria:
Jesus himself.
We are preparing to celebrate the birth
of a child whose parents were displaced from their homes, who had to flee from
government persecution shortly after the child’s birth, and who were innocent
bystanders in the political games that were being played in their society. Our
savior, Jesus, has more in common with the civilians in Aleppo than he does
with nearly anyone else you’ll ever meet.
Mary and
Joseph had traveled to Bethlehem because of a governmental decree, which is why
Jesus was born in a stable. It was the only shelter available.
Jesus was a refugee as a child. When
Herod issued a death sentence for all children born the same year as him, Jesus
and his parents fled to Egypt to escape the violence.
Throughout
his ministry, and even through his trial and execution, Jesus was caught in the
middle of power struggles. He was tried by the Roman authorities and the Jewish
authorities, and by the masses, after being betrayed and denied by his own
followers. Jesus was caught in the middle of multifaceted conflicts.
If we are
going to celebrate the birth of our Messiah, who lived close to present-day
Syria, in lands that once were ruled by the same empire – Jesus, who spent time
as a political refugee, and who was caught in the middle of complex power
struggles – if we want to show our devotion to this Savior, who gave his life
for us and through whom we are promised eternal life – if we hope to honor the
Gospel, the good news that Jesus is to the world – what better way to celebrate
Jesus than to support the victims of the Syrian civil war?
The birth of
Jesus is good news.
Even Joseph, who didn’t know what to
make of Mary’s pregnancy at first, came around with just a slight nudge from
the angel in his dream. He stayed with Mary and raised Jesus as his own son.
And until
Jesus comes back to earth again, or until the day when we get to meet him face
to face, as followers of Jesus, it is our job to continue his work in this
world.
Heal the sick, raise the dead, and bring good news to the poor. (Matt 11:5)
Bring down
the powerful from their thrones and lift up the lowly. Fill the hungry with
good things and send the rich away empty. (Luke
1:53-53)
Help those who are in any need, knowing
that by doing so, we are serving Christ himself. (Matt
25:40)
This is what
the holiday season is truly about. Advent, as we prepare the way for the Lord,
is a time for us to look around us, to find those who are in the most desperate
need, and to give of ourselves until it hurts so that they can have their most
basic human needs met.
It is what Joseph and Mary did for
Jesus.
It is what Jesus did for us.
So in this
Advent, as we await the coming again of our Savior, I pray that we all will
find ways to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, shelter the refugee, and care
for the sick and wounded. Especially those from Syria. It is our Christian
calling.
Amen.
A sermon originally preached on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 18, 2016. For audio of the sermon, visit http://lelc.org/sermons.aspx
A sermon originally preached on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 18, 2016. For audio of the sermon, visit http://lelc.org/sermons.aspx
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