Jamie Strickler
Mission of the Triune God II
Summer 2009
Final Paper
Visit to Islamic mosque
July 18, 2009
I love Jesus! There is no doubt that I could not have repented of my past sinful ways unless a power greater than myself had taken over and lead me out of the darkness. That is not to say that I don’t still sin. I still sin but I desire not to; as St. Paul what I will to do I do not do but what I will not to do I do. Before the Holy Spirit came to me, through God’s ordained preachers of the gospel of Christ, I had an uncontrollable desire for alcohol, parties, depravity, and an unhealthy lust for money, material things, and the world. Now I only desire Jesus and to be like Him in every way. Even though I know that it is an impossible task to adhere to God’s holy law and be exactly like Jesus, I ask God everyday to make me less like me and more like Jesus.
Growing up in Iowa may sound like heaven as per the Kevin Costner movie, “Field of Dreams.” However it isn’t any different than growing up in any other part of America when it comes to the binding of the human will to the endless tread mill of compete and perform, compete and perform. I must say that any success that I had ever achieved was limited and never lasted. In the end I failed miserably at everything I tried to use to justify myself outside of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My loving Father in heaven knew this about me. He knew my pain and He wanted to deliver me from it so He sent His only son to die on the cross to atone for all my sins. When I say all sins I mean all sins past, present, and future. Christ’s dying on the cross and rising from the dead for me meant that I may eventually be free from God’s good and precious law. And although I am now free from God’s holy law, which only brings about sin and death, I may now follow God’s holy law with the confidence, love and freedom that exist only through faith in the saving bold of Jesus Christ given to a believer through the preached word of Jesus Christ by a true preacher. This preached word of Jesus Christ delivers the Holy Spirit that indwells me, God’s baptized and chosen disciple, creates faith where there was no faith before putting to death the desires of the flesh and rising to new life a new creation for the purpose of love and service to the neighbor. I, and anyone who has had a preacher and believes, now exist with Christ in the conscience and the law in our appendages for our neighbor. To Jesus Christ be all the glory and honor forever and ever!
So if this is a paper about my experience at an Islamic mosque, you may be asking yourself, then why am I reading a testimony, about what Christ has done and can do in the life of a wretched sinner, filled with Lutheran theology? That would be a great question and the answer would not be, just trying to take up space in a ten page paper. The answer would be that Luther’s theology of law and gospel, taught to me by a true preacher in my undergraduate classes, truly unbound me from the endless treadmill of compete and perform, compete and perform. But the real answer would be that my love for Christ and the appreciation of what He has done for me, and for whoever believes in Him and His finished work on the cross, has been deepened by the experience of visiting a Muslim mosque. There I encountered the law of God without the Gospel of Christ. But I am getting ahead of myself; let me start from the beginning.
On Friday July 17th two friends, Matt Magara and Michael Peuse, and I visited Columbia Heights Mosque in Columbia Heights Minnesota. We were hosted by Mr. Owais Bayunus the President of the Islamic Center of Minnesota. I had previously contacted President Bayunus by phone and asked him for his permission for us to attend an event at his mosque. He was very excited to welcome us and eagerly started telling me about all the interfaith work and dialogue that the Islamic Center of Minnesota is involved in. They are a part of the oldest interfaith dialogue group in Minnesota. Their mosque will host this dialogue group the third Sunday of July. He gladly invited us to join them the Sunday after the Friday prayer service appointment we had set. I had to regretfully decline as I have three children and my wife works on Sundays however I will keep it in mind for the future.
We were supposed to arrive shortly before 2:00p.m. for a 2:00p.m. Friday prayer service. However we were running late because Michael Peuse had to primp himself and he drives like an old lady. Matthew and my cars were with our wife’s at their respective work places. So, we arrived at 2:05 p.m.
There were about 50 Middle Eastern looking men visiting with each other outside the building. President Bayunus hurriedly came off the porch, of what looked like an old church, to greet us. Keep in mind I have never met him before but I guess he picked three white guys out of the crowd of Middle Eastern looking folks as the Luther seminarians. After our introductions and my apologies to him for our tardiness he quickly ushered us inside the building to an entry way. Here he instructed us to remove our shoes and place them under a bench which was defiantly a refurbished church pew. Like a moron I tried to put my shoes on the bench which was frowned upon by President Bayunus. I quickly figured out my error and corrected it.
The emum had already started his sermon and as we entered the mosque I noticed that there were about 10 little boys sitting on the floor in the Northeast corner of the building in front of a pulpit from which the emum was delivering his teaching. In the rear of the building in the Southwest corner sat all the women. They were not on the floor however they were sitting in church pews against the back walls. There were women of all ages there in long dresses and head coverings. President Bayunus seated us in church pews set against the South wall of the mosque. He then explained to me that the sermon would last about 30 minutes and then promptly at 2:30 p.m. there would be a prayer service which would be comparable to our worship service.
I noticed that whenever we were being addressed I was the one that was being addressed. Even after the service when Michael asked a question the speaker answered his question looking at me. I believe that I remember hearing that in the Middle Eastern culture elders have respect. I’m only 34 but I am a couple of years older than Michael and quite a few years older than Matthew. I think that it was oblivious to them that I was the oldest and this was the reason that I was the one being addressed.
The emum’s sermon was about the requirements of the law concerning accusations of adultery and he was attempting to discredit any teachings about mercy killings. He stated that if there were to be any mercy killings they weren’t carried out in the name of Allah or Islam rather mercy killings were a cultural thing. He claimed that they could be called Egyptian or Pakistani but never Islamic. He went on giving example after example of how people could be falsely accused before a judge and that Islam required four witnesses.
There was once a woman, he said, that had left her caravan to go to the bathroom. When she returned to her caravan she realized that her necklace had fallen off so she went back to the spot where she had been to find it. When she returned to her caravan it had moved on without her so she sat down to wait for someone to come along. A man came down the road and honorably sat her on his camel and took her to catch-up with her people. When her people saw her mounted on a man’s camel, that wasn’t her husband, they began to gossip about her and her previous whereabouts. The gossiping was, he explained, human nature but was forbidden by Islamic law.
The emum told another story of three men who heard some noises coming from a closet. When they opened the closet they found two people fornicating. They then proceeded to go out to find a fourth to be a witness against these two people. When the judge asked the fourth what he saw he answered that he saw two people in a closet, a woman trying to cover herself and a man crying. The judge continued to ask the fourth man if he actually saw the sexual act and the fourth man said no so the judge ordered 80 lashes be given to all four men as they did not have four witnesses; kind of harsh if I do say so myself.
As the emum’s sermon progressed the mosque slowly filled up with men who prostrated themselves three times before sitting on the floor to listen to the rest of the teaching. I was somewhat relieved because by their standards we were way early.
There were all kinds of men, older, younger, children and teenagers. They were primarily Middle Eastern or Egyptian but there were some African Americans and one Caucasian man that I guessed to be in his twenties. The women were all Middle Eastern or Egyptian except for one girl who looked Caucasian and didn’t quit fit in with the rest. We later found out that she was a student from Bethel College observing that day like we were. I did observe two young girls about 6 or 7 that went onto the main floor accompanied by their fathers. This I found out of place, Matthew and Michael agreed. Maybe Matthew and I are the orthodox police for the Muslims as well.
The emum repeated at least 15 times that there must be four witnesses before anyone could be convicted before an Islamic judge. He then told the crowd; the three of us included, that there was no such call from the holy Qur’an for the killing of the people convicted rather they received 80 lashes. He had a thick Egyptian accent so I had trouble making out the whole sermon but I wondered how he was applying this passage to life today. Was he saying that people should be beaten for breaking the laws today just like in the times of Muhammad? I never got the answer to that question but I will return to Friday July 24th with Phil Roushey and I will ask him then. Some of the sermon was in Arabic. The Arabic parts were when the emum was quoting the Qur’an. I had never heard Arabic spoken so fluently by anyone; it was almost hypnotic.
The inside of the mosque had Arabic writing all over it. The writing was painted in gold on white walls. There were only two pictures hanging in the building, one of Mecca, the other of an extravagant mosque somewhere in the Middle East. The floor was bare and carpeted. There were church pews lining the inside walls of the building. No one seemed to use the pews except for the women and the visitors. There was a smell of a type of incense that I had never smelled before but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from and I didn’t want to ask about the smell for fear that there wasn’t any incense and I would then have offended our gracious hosts. In the pew on the Eastside of the mosque were all kinds of Islamic literature and Qur’ans which were offered to us after the service.
When the prayer service started the men were all instructed to stand toe to toe shoulder to shoulder no gaps. This was to insure that the devil would not sneak through, we were told later. The emum, as well as all the men and women, faced northeast and began to pray. The emum would chant and the rest would repeat after him. Now some of the women were off the benches and were prostrating themselves toward the northeast. It is significant that the men had their backs to the women as it was explained to us that the reason for the separation of men and women was for the reason of decency. The women were seated behind the men because they were stronger than the men when it came to sexual temptation. A woman prostrating herself in front of a man might lead his mind to wander away from God and render his prayers unheard. I being a man of sane mind can understand their point.
After the service the emum and some of his flock came over to us to visit. They were very adamant to explain that women in Islam were to be considered equal with men. They went into detail to explain that men and women were separated for the reason of decency not because they were unequal. I am suspicious of this idea. This may be the case in their mosque however traditionally Islam women have been considered property and below men. Every piece of literature I picked up referred to the Islamic man and uses gender specific langue. I appreciate the profession of these Islamic people but the evidenced does not add up and there was a lot of emotional voltage behind their explanation. As a matter of fact the hour that we visited with them after the service was spent proving that Jesus was not God and defending preconceived misconceptions that they believed we had about Islam. I noted that they spent very little time telling us what they stood for and a whole lot of time telling what they stood against and what others falsely believed about their religion. Please don’t misunderstand they were cordial and welcoming; I just believe that they have some emotional voltage about the way they have been received, or lack thereof, in America. They were all 1st generation immigrants and I believe that they feel that they have not been treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve. I am in no place and in no way would minimize their feelings. I believe if that is how they feel then that is their reality and therefore valid.
I also noted that they hated Fox News as they pointed out that you wouldn’t hear the good things about Islam on that network. The emum also told us about an Islamic woman who was stabbed to death in a court of law in Germany by a man who wasn’t Islamic. He said that we heard nothing about this in American and that this wasn’t the type of thing that Fox News is interested in reporting. However if the man had been Islamic and the woman a Christian it would be breaking news on Fox News. This may be true but again there is emotional voltage in this communication. I personally am a Fox News fan but I was not insulted because this seemed to be an outlet for their pain. However I find it hard to believe that one news network is responsible for all the misconceptions about Islam.
When I visited this mosque I saw over 100 good God loving people trying their best to live up to God’s law. These people were more pious and upright in their behavior then I have seen in almost any Christian church; however they did not seem to me to be free and happy. I recognized in them that same desire that I had in the past, the desire to live up to the law under my own power. They were on a treadmill; the endless treadmill of religious piety, the endless tread mill of competes and perform. It broke my heart when I heard the emum tell us that there was no original sin only our personal sin and on the Day of Judgment every one of our appendages will testify against us before God. Our tongues will say they made me lie, our hands will say they made me steal, and our feet will say they made me walk in unclean places. I wanted to jump up and say, “Yes, yes, that is true, that is all true but then when my God looks at me He will only see His Son Jesus Christ and I will be righteous in His sight.” I wanted to give them that same freedom.
Don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. I love these Muslim people and I have an appreciation for the beauty that is their prayer service and their devotion to God and the piety that Islam tries to instill in its members. I picked up a brochure that was entitled, “The Man Islam Builds.” This brochure talked about da‘wah, mission, which is the mission of Islam to work its “brainstorming” in its men to make them “supermen.” The da‘wah, “becomes an extensive course of action through which one’s personality develops day by day, until one reaches the highest level of intellectual and spiritual development.” I witnessed and read about the law without the gospel.
I had extreme compassion for them as their burden seemed heavy and almost unbearable. Perhaps I was projecting my personal feelings upon them but this was my observation and my reality. I wanted to deliver the Word of Christ to them and set free from the burden of the law and the treadmill of compete and perform. But this wasn’t the time or the place. I believe that conversations like that come after a relationship has been established. This was their mosque, their holy place of worship. We were invited to it as their guests and a trusting relationship had not yet been established. These was a time for them, for the venting of their pain and as called Disciples of Christ it was our duty to listen and to and hear their confession; although this was not easy at times especially when they quoted the Bible out of context as if we would not know the difference.
Easy isn’t our calling as Disciples of Christ. Easy is saying live and let live or to profess to each their own as communicated in Diana Eck’s book, “Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras.” But live and let live or to each their own is not what we are called as Disciples of Christ to do; we are not called to always be popular. We are to profess Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the sinner even when it is not a popular message. But we must be smart about how we go about this. We must not run into a situation and ram our faith down someone’s throat in hopes of a conversion no matter what the consequences. We must pick our time and first be the gospel to them, showing them how much we love and care for them before we can share the gospel with them. We must be patient and listen to their concerns and identify the source or sources of their pain and then speak healing into their pain once we have established their trust. And we must pray for each and every one of those people that God has called us to be preachers to with the hope that God is at work around them before our preaching arrives; that way their hearts are prepared to hear Christ’s message of salvation. However true this approach may be we are also not called as Disciples of Christ to go along quietly when a spirit is present that is in opposition to God’s law and the gospel and is forcing its self upon us. But no one was forcing anything on us in this situation so it was a time not for preaching rather it was a time for us to listen and build a relationship.
I have now seen what it looks like to have law without gospel. It is not a sight that I admired but was one that I had compassion for. I know that in Galatians 1:8 St. Paul warned of an angel form heaven coming and preaching a gospel contrary to the one in which he preached. He said that this angel was to be accursed. This warning came almost 700 years before Muhammad received his teaching from an angel. Muhammad’s teaching communicated many things; the most blasphemous being that Jesus was not God incarnate. 1 John 2:23 professes, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” Are the Islamic people being deceived by the enemy of God? Are the Islamic people condemned to hell for their unbelief in Jesus? These are questions that I have asked myself over and over for years and years. These are questions that seem obvious however I have a hard time looking at these God fearing pious people as condemned to hell. Luther was and single predestinationist; he believed that some are chosen and that is where he left it. I take Luther’s perspective. Who is condemned or who is saved is God’s prerogative and I trust that whatever He decides is fair. After all He is God all powerful, all knowing, and creator of all. I do know this; no one comes to the Father unless drawn through Jesus Christ. The rest is not my concern. I am to preach to those that I have called to preach to and let God be god in all matters of salvation.
Today I am a thankful and grateful Disciple of Jesus Christ. I am in no way perfect in my faith or in my actions. The reality of the power of God’s forgiveness through the gospel of Jesus Christ has taken upon a new depth for me and for that I give thanks and glory to God.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sermon on Ephesians 1:3-14 delievered to St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church 07/12
John was a man I met while serving as a chaplain at a homeless shelter. It seems like all my sermons start that way but believe me serving there had a profound effect on my life. John was a huge man standing 6 foot six and weighing about 250 lbs. His hands were bigger then my whole head and I have a big head. John was a black man from the streets of Chicago. Now it didn’t matter to me if John was black, white, green, purple, or even poke-a-dotted but to him I was a white man and therefore could not be trusted. He wore a jacket with the words, “Gangster for Life” embroidered on the back. He put up this persona of a very angry man who demanded respect and demanded to be feared.
John came to Des Moines in an unusual and scary way. He was involved in drugs and gang violence in Chicago and a rival gang had committed an act of aggression against his group. The rival members, who had committed this act of aggression, fled to hide in Des Moines and John was set to Des Moines to take them out. John was a hit man. When he shared this with me I wasn’t excited about making him angry.
However John is a child of God and had been redeemed through the blood of Christ as verse 7 in our reading in Ephesians tells us today. The idea of being claimed by Christ for the Kingdom of Heaven came to John as he was traveling to Des Moines and he had a change of heart; he decided to give his intended victims a pass and he was now hiding in the mission from his own people.
John was assigned to my case load and I trusted that God wasn’t looking for me to leave this earth just yet, so I engaged him in a conversation about his faith. He knew a great deal about the Bible and the finished work of Christ on the cross. He knew of the inheritance that he had received in Christ that Ephesians 1:11 speaks of. I couldn’t understand how he had fallen into a life of drugs, crime, and gangsters and I certainly couldn’t see how this gangster could change his devotion from his gang to his God so quickly. But as our Ephesians text for today says in verse 4-5, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” John wasn’t going to stay a “Gangster for Life” as his jacket professed for God and chosen John, in Christ, before the creation of the world to be Holy and blameless in His sight.
In the Old testament God chose Abraham to be the Father of the coming nation of Israel Genesis 12:1-3
1 The LORD had said to Abram,
"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
God also chose Jacob over Esau when they were in the womb, Genesis 25:23
The LORD said to her,
"Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger."
He chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Exodus 3:10
“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
God chose King Saul and King David by having Samuel anoint them, 1 Samuel 1:19
When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD said to him, "This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people."
1 Samuel 16:1
The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
1 Samuel 16:12-13
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
He chose Jeremiah as prophet, Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Jesus, God in the flesh, chose twelve disciples and later St. Paul who was known as Saul at the time.
Our God is a God who chooses His people. Now this can be a scary thought. Martin Luther devoted an entire work to this subject entitled “The Bondage of the Will.” How does one know if they are one of God’s elect or chosen? How does one become elected or chosen? In Romans St. Paul address these questions, Romans 10:14-15
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Further in Romans 10:17 he says
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
How does God choose? Well, God sends a preacher with the Word of Christ on their lips and in their hearts. A Word meant just for you. How does one know if they are chosen? Why you have heard God’s preacher concerning the Word of Christ and you have received the Holy Spirit through this Word. The Spirit then created faith within you and you believed in Christ the one sent by God. Those who believe are chosen.
John had received his preacher long before I knew him. He was raised in a Christian home and his mother had taken him to church often. The Holy Spirit was at work inside of John almost his whole life. Why then did he turn to drugs, crime, and gang violence? Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, now the rest of the story.
John and I became friends. He reminded me daily that he could not believe that a short, fat, balding, white guy would be one with which he could talk about faith and share his deepest pain. I asked John if he would enter the S.T.E.P. program at the shelter. S.T.E.P. stands for Spiritual Training and Evaluation Program. This is a 30 day program where participants are given Biblical lessons to read and learn. They are breathalyzed every time they enter the building and they stay in a separate 20 bed dorm away from the other 100 beds. After 30 days they are drug tested and transferred to Hope Ministries’ other men’s shelter outside of town, called The Door of Faith where they spend the next 18 -24 months in a recovery program. The night John was to be drug tested he showed up in my office, high, begging me to look the other way while poured clean urine that he had purchased in to the test receptacle. He claimed to have been clean all thirty days and had only fallen into temptation that day. I tried to convince him to talk to the pastor in charge of the S.T.E.P. program and tell him the truth and ask for mercy and grace. But it was to no avail. John then disappeared. Before he left that night I gave him a rock with the inscription of a cross on it and told him to stand firm on his faith. I didn’t see John for almost 6 months.
I had just arrived at the shelter for the evening shift to a ringing phone in my office. The desk man said that John was at the door asking to see me. I told the desk man to send him in. John came into my office closed the door and sat in a chair between me and the door. He stared at the floor in what seemed like an hour of silence but was most likely only a moment. I have to admit I was scared for my life and I had not escape from this monstrous sized man. After a few silent prayers for my life I asked John where he had been. Still staring at the floor he recounted the last 6 months of his life. “Well,” he started, “I went back to Chicago to face the music with my gang and I was jumpted out.” Jumpted out is the term used for getting the crap kicked out of you by the whole gang as a way of getting from your obligation to the gang. He continued, “I then found my old girlfriend and stayed with her. She is a drug user and the temptation was too much so I got back into drugs. I went from pot to crack to heroin.” He confessed. “My girlfriend kicked me out and the rest is a blur. But two days ago I woke up in an alley, beat up, tired, and a needle still stuck in my arm. There was a trail of blood from the needle down to a puddle in my hand and in my hand was this.” He held up the rock that I had given him. “And in my other hand was a bus ticket to Des Moines. I’m here now and I want you to do something for me.” I must admit after his last request of me I feared the worst. But this man was one of God’s chosen and the Holy Spirit had been at work inside him and was now taking over his flesh and its desires. He looked me in the eye for the first time since he had been in my office, “Tell me how to completely surrender to Christ,” he pleaded. Then the water works started. I don’t know who was crying more him or me. I was sure that Christ was now present in that office. I was also now sure that this wasn’t the day I was going to die. John entered the S.T.E.P. program and was moved to the Door of Faith. He didn’t stay at the Door however but went to another treatment facility.
Through the grape vine of the homeless John got word back to me that he was one year clean and sober is now working in a large metropolitan area with homeless teens. Why if John was chosen by God before he was born did he have to go through hell to find his calling? Well, like me, it’s his past that gives him the right, the desire and the ability to reach out to those who are still in hell and be their preacher; to be Christ’s vessel to guide the hurting to their inheritance in Christ.
Now as for you all, you are here, most of you every week, listening to the Word of Christ being preached. You all have pasts and you all have stories. Not to mention that you all are chosen in Christ and have a calling to love God and love and serve your neighbor. If you still are in doubt let me clear it up for you; you are all God’s chosen. Is there a John in your life? For your sakes I hope your John isn’t an hit man for a street gang however you all know of someone in need of a preacher. That person lonely and forgotten in a nursing home, the folks who join us here on Thursday night’s coffee house, that neighbor in the hospital, that couple next door who work long hours and have trouble making ends meet with child care, that son, daughter, niece or nephew that you talked to for a while, that homeless person begging for money on the interstate, You fellow office worker who is overwhelmed with life’s demands, that lawyer who helped you write you will or plan your estate, the check out person in the grocery store of gas station; these people are all in need of a preacher and you are all called to preach to them and pray for them. Oh yeah and don’t forget to pray for that seminarian who preaches from time to time at your parish and proclaims the wildest ideas. Believe me I know him and his family and they need your prayers. You have been given the greatest inheritance ever, the righteousness of Christ. And it is yours to give to those you chose. And it should and out of pure joy and gratitude, not out of a sense of duty that you want to give it freely. Leave here today with joy and peace in your hearts knowing that you are God’s chosen and you have the power to choose others. May the peace of Christ be with you all. Amen
John came to Des Moines in an unusual and scary way. He was involved in drugs and gang violence in Chicago and a rival gang had committed an act of aggression against his group. The rival members, who had committed this act of aggression, fled to hide in Des Moines and John was set to Des Moines to take them out. John was a hit man. When he shared this with me I wasn’t excited about making him angry.
However John is a child of God and had been redeemed through the blood of Christ as verse 7 in our reading in Ephesians tells us today. The idea of being claimed by Christ for the Kingdom of Heaven came to John as he was traveling to Des Moines and he had a change of heart; he decided to give his intended victims a pass and he was now hiding in the mission from his own people.
John was assigned to my case load and I trusted that God wasn’t looking for me to leave this earth just yet, so I engaged him in a conversation about his faith. He knew a great deal about the Bible and the finished work of Christ on the cross. He knew of the inheritance that he had received in Christ that Ephesians 1:11 speaks of. I couldn’t understand how he had fallen into a life of drugs, crime, and gangsters and I certainly couldn’t see how this gangster could change his devotion from his gang to his God so quickly. But as our Ephesians text for today says in verse 4-5, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” John wasn’t going to stay a “Gangster for Life” as his jacket professed for God and chosen John, in Christ, before the creation of the world to be Holy and blameless in His sight.
In the Old testament God chose Abraham to be the Father of the coming nation of Israel Genesis 12:1-3
1 The LORD had said to Abram,
"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
God also chose Jacob over Esau when they were in the womb, Genesis 25:23
The LORD said to her,
"Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger."
He chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Exodus 3:10
“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
God chose King Saul and King David by having Samuel anoint them, 1 Samuel 1:19
When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD said to him, "This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people."
1 Samuel 16:1
The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
1 Samuel 16:12-13
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
He chose Jeremiah as prophet, Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Jesus, God in the flesh, chose twelve disciples and later St. Paul who was known as Saul at the time.
Our God is a God who chooses His people. Now this can be a scary thought. Martin Luther devoted an entire work to this subject entitled “The Bondage of the Will.” How does one know if they are one of God’s elect or chosen? How does one become elected or chosen? In Romans St. Paul address these questions, Romans 10:14-15
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Further in Romans 10:17 he says
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
How does God choose? Well, God sends a preacher with the Word of Christ on their lips and in their hearts. A Word meant just for you. How does one know if they are chosen? Why you have heard God’s preacher concerning the Word of Christ and you have received the Holy Spirit through this Word. The Spirit then created faith within you and you believed in Christ the one sent by God. Those who believe are chosen.
John had received his preacher long before I knew him. He was raised in a Christian home and his mother had taken him to church often. The Holy Spirit was at work inside of John almost his whole life. Why then did he turn to drugs, crime, and gang violence? Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, now the rest of the story.
John and I became friends. He reminded me daily that he could not believe that a short, fat, balding, white guy would be one with which he could talk about faith and share his deepest pain. I asked John if he would enter the S.T.E.P. program at the shelter. S.T.E.P. stands for Spiritual Training and Evaluation Program. This is a 30 day program where participants are given Biblical lessons to read and learn. They are breathalyzed every time they enter the building and they stay in a separate 20 bed dorm away from the other 100 beds. After 30 days they are drug tested and transferred to Hope Ministries’ other men’s shelter outside of town, called The Door of Faith where they spend the next 18 -24 months in a recovery program. The night John was to be drug tested he showed up in my office, high, begging me to look the other way while poured clean urine that he had purchased in to the test receptacle. He claimed to have been clean all thirty days and had only fallen into temptation that day. I tried to convince him to talk to the pastor in charge of the S.T.E.P. program and tell him the truth and ask for mercy and grace. But it was to no avail. John then disappeared. Before he left that night I gave him a rock with the inscription of a cross on it and told him to stand firm on his faith. I didn’t see John for almost 6 months.
I had just arrived at the shelter for the evening shift to a ringing phone in my office. The desk man said that John was at the door asking to see me. I told the desk man to send him in. John came into my office closed the door and sat in a chair between me and the door. He stared at the floor in what seemed like an hour of silence but was most likely only a moment. I have to admit I was scared for my life and I had not escape from this monstrous sized man. After a few silent prayers for my life I asked John where he had been. Still staring at the floor he recounted the last 6 months of his life. “Well,” he started, “I went back to Chicago to face the music with my gang and I was jumpted out.” Jumpted out is the term used for getting the crap kicked out of you by the whole gang as a way of getting from your obligation to the gang. He continued, “I then found my old girlfriend and stayed with her. She is a drug user and the temptation was too much so I got back into drugs. I went from pot to crack to heroin.” He confessed. “My girlfriend kicked me out and the rest is a blur. But two days ago I woke up in an alley, beat up, tired, and a needle still stuck in my arm. There was a trail of blood from the needle down to a puddle in my hand and in my hand was this.” He held up the rock that I had given him. “And in my other hand was a bus ticket to Des Moines. I’m here now and I want you to do something for me.” I must admit after his last request of me I feared the worst. But this man was one of God’s chosen and the Holy Spirit had been at work inside him and was now taking over his flesh and its desires. He looked me in the eye for the first time since he had been in my office, “Tell me how to completely surrender to Christ,” he pleaded. Then the water works started. I don’t know who was crying more him or me. I was sure that Christ was now present in that office. I was also now sure that this wasn’t the day I was going to die. John entered the S.T.E.P. program and was moved to the Door of Faith. He didn’t stay at the Door however but went to another treatment facility.
Through the grape vine of the homeless John got word back to me that he was one year clean and sober is now working in a large metropolitan area with homeless teens. Why if John was chosen by God before he was born did he have to go through hell to find his calling? Well, like me, it’s his past that gives him the right, the desire and the ability to reach out to those who are still in hell and be their preacher; to be Christ’s vessel to guide the hurting to their inheritance in Christ.
Now as for you all, you are here, most of you every week, listening to the Word of Christ being preached. You all have pasts and you all have stories. Not to mention that you all are chosen in Christ and have a calling to love God and love and serve your neighbor. If you still are in doubt let me clear it up for you; you are all God’s chosen. Is there a John in your life? For your sakes I hope your John isn’t an hit man for a street gang however you all know of someone in need of a preacher. That person lonely and forgotten in a nursing home, the folks who join us here on Thursday night’s coffee house, that neighbor in the hospital, that couple next door who work long hours and have trouble making ends meet with child care, that son, daughter, niece or nephew that you talked to for a while, that homeless person begging for money on the interstate, You fellow office worker who is overwhelmed with life’s demands, that lawyer who helped you write you will or plan your estate, the check out person in the grocery store of gas station; these people are all in need of a preacher and you are all called to preach to them and pray for them. Oh yeah and don’t forget to pray for that seminarian who preaches from time to time at your parish and proclaims the wildest ideas. Believe me I know him and his family and they need your prayers. You have been given the greatest inheritance ever, the righteousness of Christ. And it is yours to give to those you chose. And it should and out of pure joy and gratitude, not out of a sense of duty that you want to give it freely. Leave here today with joy and peace in your hearts knowing that you are God’s chosen and you have the power to choose others. May the peace of Christ be with you all. Amen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
