Sunday, March 2, 2014
Ukraine now has a Baptist pastor for
a president in an amazing turn in the series of extraordinary events
there. Government corruption led to
protests, which led to government troops violently cracking down on the protestors
including killing of many. The now
deposed president is wanted for mass murder.
During the height of the tensions,
we in America saw the stunning pictures of Orthodox priests standing in the
line of fire. These Christian clergymen
saw their home country torn apart by deadly violence. Their response, as men of God, was to stand
right in the middle of it and pray. When
people were being killed, they came alongside them, put themselves in harm’s
way, and looked to God for help and for hope.
No one was doing that last fall in
the locker room of the Miami Dolphins.
In professional football, the largest human beings are the offensive
linemen. They typically stand 6 and a
half feet tall and well in excess of 350 lbs.
They are behemoths. They are
Goliath-big. We would not think such a
giant could be bullied, even by his peer.
It happened.
Jonathan Martin, a lineman as big
and presumably as tough as the rest, was the victim of hazing and bullying by
his teammates. Other linemen hurled
racial slurs at him – language that would qualify as horrifically
offensive. In NFL locker rooms, it is
thought that this destructive, belittling conversation is harmless banter. But deep down, Martin was harmed and he
didn’t know how to defend himself. He
was having terrible problems.
His teammates who were not involved
stood by and watched. They either did
not notice that Martin was deeply troubled.
Or they noticed, but did not care.
The three teammates who were verbally harassing him piled on. After Martin left the team searching for
psychological help, many commentators blamed him. The commentators, mostly former players
themselves, said the locker room is a tough place and the only way to survive
is to the stand up and fight the tormentor.
That’s the culture of the NFL, they said. Martin, by telling what happened and telling
it outside the locker room, broke some insider code. He, the victim, was to blame.
One commentator though
disagrees. Mark Schlereth played a dozen
years in the league on the offensive line.
First, he was on a Super Bowl winner with the Washington Redskins and
was a part of their legendary offensive line known as the hogs. Then, he won two Super Bowls with Denver
where their success was largely tied to the line’s aggressive blocking. By all counts, Schlereth is an NFL tough guy.
He takes issue with the voices
blaming Martin for his victimhood in the Miami bullying situation. Schlereth tells of times early in his own
career when veteran linemen defended him.
He talks of incidents later when he was the veteran. He noticed a younger player being
harassed. He sensed that the younger
player was unable to verbally and psychologically defend himself. So, Schelereth confronted the tormentors and
shouted “Enough!” And it was over.
Clearly these are two very different
accounts. In one, we see riled
protestors falling under the gunfire of Ukrainian government security
troops. Priests armed with only their
Bibles and prayer books stand in the line of fire. They get involved.
In the second situation, a young
man, a second year NFL player, is unable to deal with the culture of vulgarity
and harassment in the locker room. Most
onlookers, his teammates, idly sit by saying nothing, professing ignorance. The tormentors, who are also his teammates,
harass and intensify the verbal abuse.
And one veteran says it is a total lie that people didn’t know he was
troubled. The other Miami Dolphins
knew. They just chose to not do
anything.
We live in a world that drips red
with sin. Sin manifests in numerous
ways. One of the ways we sin against
each other is by hurting one another.
People injure each other physically and psychologically, and when a
person is hurt by another’s force, the victim is always injured emotionally. The emotional wounds run the deepest and
cause the most damage. It is often life
altering destruction. This is so whether
we are talking about one individual bullying another or a group of people
persecuted by another, more powerful group.
When sin pollutes the world in the
form of injury inflicted by one person onto someone else, by a powerful group
onto a more vulnerable group, there is always a third party in the story –
those in the watching crowd. In the case
of the prophet Obadiah, Edom was the third party. Obadiah’s word from the Lord God is a word
about how God reacts to the actions of the third party – those watching.
The setting is the 6th
century BC, the decades after Babylon invaded Judah. Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC. Judah’s army was annihilated. King Zedekiah was executed. The wealthiest and most powerful of society
were taken from Judah into slavery. They
would remain in exile in Babylon, modern day Iraq, for 70 years. The Jews not taken were the poor, the
landless, the aged, and the disabled.
Obadiah’s prophecy is a word against
Edom because of Edom’s reaction to what happened to Judah. Judah and Israel were the Jewish kingdoms,
made up of people descended from Jacob, the son of Isaac, who was the son of
Abraham. Edom was the nation to the east
of Judah. The Edomites descended from
Jacob’s twin brother Esau. They were
close cousins to the Jews. Yet the
relationship between to the two people had always been full of strife. So when the Edomites watched Babylon overrun
and thoroughly wipe out Judah, they were thrilled. The Edomites laughed and taunted and
celebrated as Judah was ravaged.
All the while, God was watching Edom
as Edom kicked Judah when Judah was down.
Obadiah speaks God’s word against Edom – a word from God against the
crowd staying uninvolved, refusing to help when someone needs helps. This is God’s judgment on anyone who takes
advantage of another’s misfortunes.
God clearly says, “The day is coming
when I, the Lord, will judge the nations” (Ob. 1:15). This idea of a day of judgment runs through
the Bible from Old Testament into the New.
It is something to hope for and something to dread. For those in right relationship with God,
nothing could be greater than the day of the Lord. The prophet Joel says, “In that day the mountains shall drip sweet
wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall
flow with water; a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord” (Joel 3:18). Peter, speaking in the books of Acts and
quoting from Joel, associates the Day of the Lord with Jesus. He was the promised one. When we put our trust in Him, even though we
know we are sinners, we are forgiven. He
makes us new, free of sin.
So
we need not fear judgment. The Day of
the Lord, besides judgment is also the day of resurrection and His second
coming. All our New Testament hopes come
to fruition. Between now and then, we
remember that as forgiven people, we are to live as Jesus lived. We are to forgive others. We are to love all people. And we are to go out of our way to show
compassion, help the hurting, and come alongside people who are being put
down. Whether it is the bully’s victim,
Ukrainians crying out for freedom, or orphans going hungry, the people of God
are responsible to help. When we say we
follow Christ – we are among the people of God.
The
word of God in Obadiah is to all who do not help, but rather do the
opposite. This prophet singles out the
Edomites who rather than come to Judah’s aid instead stepped on Judah’s
throat. God’s people were already
beaten. God had allowed it, allowed
Babylon to ruin the temple and enslave the Jews. It was punishment for sin and punishment for
neglecting the poor. Now Obadiah comes
along to say just as God punished Judah, God’s wrath will rain down on Edom
because Edom laughed at Judah.
10 You were cruel
to your relatives,
the descendants of Jacob.[e]
Now you will be destroyed,
disgraced forever.
11 You stood there and watched
as foreigners entered Jerusalem
and took what they wanted.
In fact, you were no better
than those foreigners.
the descendants of Jacob.[e]
Now you will be destroyed,
disgraced forever.
11 You stood there and watched
as foreigners entered Jerusalem
and took what they wanted.
In fact, you were no better
than those foreigners.
12 Why did you
celebrate
when such a dreadful disaster
struck your relatives?
Why were you so pleased
when everyone in Judah
was suffering?
13 They are my people,
and you were cruel to them.
You went through their towns,
sneering
and stealing
whatever was left.
14 In their time of torment,
you ambushed refugees
and handed them over
to their attackers.
when such a dreadful disaster
struck your relatives?
Why were you so pleased
when everyone in Judah
was suffering?
13 They are my people,
and you were cruel to them.
You went through their towns,
sneering
and stealing
whatever was left.
14 In their time of torment,
you ambushed refugees
and handed them over
to their attackers.
Edom’s sin is clear – “You were cruel … you stood there and watched
… you went through their towns stealing.”
God’s response is just as clear.
“The day is
coming when I, the Lord, will
judge the nations. And, Edom, you will
pay in full for what you
have done.” I have been reading the Contemporary English Version. The NRSV
is even clearer in its rendering of verse 15: As you have done, it shall be
done to you;
your deeds shall return on your
own head.”
We
are reminded of Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats. The sheep were invited to inherit the Kingdom
of God while the goats were condemned to eternal punishment. Why?
The sheep fed the hungry and visited the sick in hospitals. Jesus said whenever they did that, they were,
in essence, doing kindness to Jesus himself.
Conversely when the condemned goats wondered why they were banished from
the Kingdom forever they were told that in this life they had neglected the
poor and hungry, they had left the homeless on the street and refused to
help. Their refusal to extend kindness
amounted to withholding love from Jesus.
It is not enough to avoid evil.
We must proactively seek out the poor and the brokenhearted. When in our travels in the world we happen
upon hurting folks, we must go out of our way to help them.
Even non church goers have heard of the Good Samaritan. In Jesus’ story, a Samaritan man happens upon
a beaten Jew. Jews hated Samaritans and
Samaritans likewise disdained Jews; but not this one. The Good Samaritan stopped on a road known to
be frequented by gangs of thugs and thieves.
He helped the wounded man, paid extended care, and, pledged to return to
see how the man fared. He went the extra
mile just to help. That’s what Christ
followers do.
We remember these teaching of Jesus. We remember the hope in the prophecy of Joel
as it pertains to the Day of the Lord.
Consider these things in contrast to God’s harsh words in Obadiah. Obadiah is challenging. The main story is Judah and Babylon, King
Zedekiah and King Nebuchadnezzar. Edom
is side story; definitely not the front page.
However, most of us don’t live life on the front page. Most of us spend most of our time in the
crowd. Edom’s cruelty toward Judah and
the Samaritan’s kindness toward the fallen Jew are two options for the
crowd. Which option do we choose? Which way do we respond to the world? Our answer determines how we will experience
the Day of the Lord. It is a day to hope
for or a day to dread. How you and I as members
of the crowd respond to the world around us indicates what the day will be like
for us.
Reading the Bible and believing what we read leaves us with this:
the Day of the Lord is inevitable. It
will happen. We don’t know when, but
there is no doubt. A second conclusion
we cannot avoid is the lives we lead are tied to how we stand before God.
Our church fills me hope. When
HillSong hears of people who are struggling we respond. We sponsor poor children in Ethiopia and go
to visit them; or to Romania or Uganda or Haiti or South Africa. We give our money to give a hand up to people
in our own town who are just one paycheck away from eviction. We build wheelchair ramps because we know
Jesus saw physical disability as a sign of Satan’s hatred of God and
humanity. We participate in the Crop
Walk because when we help feed the hungry Jesus considers it as if it is done
for him. Our church is involved in all
this for the right reasons.
The orphan crisis; the plight of the handicapped; these and the
other concerns – these are not ours, not directly. We are the watching crowd. But we know that God is watching right along
with us. God not only sees the child
suffering in poverty. God sees how we
react to the child suffering in poverty.
God will help that child with or without us. Whether we are in good standing with God has
a lot to do with how we react.
As I said, I consider the hearts of the people here and I have
great hope. We are not Edom as Edom
laughs at Judah. We see Judah in rags,
starving, and we help Judah get new cloths.
We help get food into Judah’s hungry belly. I am so grateful to be part of this body of
believers.
I close by asking, are you part of it? Have you, as an individual, received
forgiveness of sins and received Jesus into your heart? If you have not, today is the day. Do not let the moment pass. Receive Christ.
If you say, ‘yes, I belong to Jesus,’ then, are you looking at the
world through lens of compassion? Is
your compassion driving you to do things, both intentionally and spontaneously,
to help people up when they have fallen?
How you answer this reveals how much you understand what it means to
follow Jesus. And it is an indication of
how you will fare on the Day of the Lord.
Be part of it. You’re in a church
full of opportunities to help Judah, to feed the hungry, to house the
refugee. Step out of the crowd and into
the work of the Kingdom. Do it
today.
AMEN
