Word to the Wise
Monday, May 18, 2009 - Monday in the Sixth Week of Easter
[Acts 16:11-15 and John 15:26-16:4A]I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God.
Acts of religious terrorism are hard for us to understand in our day! Yet, history is replete with examples of Christian folks being told that they will be rewarded by God if they go to the Holy Land to take it away from the Moslems, or if they will go into battle against a particular foe! Should we be surprised then by Jesus' comment that religious belief may motivate someone to kill Christians? Despite the pleas of contemporary popes, the slaughter of one people by another for religious, tribal, economic or political reasons (usually all mixed together) continues. We Christians are not free of blame. Anything resembling true peace will only come when the world's major religious groups realize that their own futures depend not on getting rid of others but in living peaceably with them. AMEN (Note, I misidentified May 19 with May 18. This is Monday's scriptures, the earlier one is Tuesday's. I'll be on the road a couple of days to Austin, TX)