I said last week that I was feeling led to address the
conflict in the Middle East, particularly between Israel and
Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and and ask for prayer on that.
I've spent a lot of time praying on that.
I am following through with that this week and I want to preface
what I'm the the sermon and the message by saying this.
For what it's worth, this is the hardest message I've ever had to
prepare and ever had to preach. I'm not even exactly sure why,
but it it, it has been very challenging to prepare and to
preach. One of the reasons I'm running
late today is I went along at, at Rock Springs and at Chester.
I'm going to try not to do that here today, here at New
Beginnings. My goal in this is not, again,
not to be partisan. I, I, I believe what I'm going
to be preaching isn't, isn't a promotion of any political
agenda, any political ideology, certainly not of any political
party. I, my goal is to present a
biblically sound, gospel faithful way to look at and
respond to what's happening in the Middle East right now.
And, and that's my goal now. I, I am a human being, I am
flawed, I make mistakes. And I have said before and I
will say again, no one's ever going to go to hell for
disagreeing with me. And, and if I say something
today or many things today that you find distressing that you
find disagreeable, please contact me.
I'm going to, I'm going to be out of town this week, but
contact me this week anyway. We'll get something on the
schedule. We can get a cup of coffee or
river roasters or eat a slice of pizza foxes, wherever we can sit
down and talk about it. And I want to hear your thoughts
on that. And I want to say that upfront
that that because this topic is so divisive, even though I don't
want to drift into ideology and politics, if I do drift in that
direction, I pray that that portion of what I say will be
forgotten. But also anything that you say,
man, I just can't believe he said that or I can't believe he
believes that. Let's, I'm happy to talk about
that. OK, so all of that said, we're
going to be talking today about choosing life and death.
And I am, I have only one slide today.
I thought that would make things easier.
It's turned out that that's made things harder, but I, I, I'm
going to try to work through this in a, in a way, and I've
already lost my place. I'll need to use my notes a
little more than I usually do, but I don't want to use them too
much because that slows me down. Choosing life and death.
We have seen, and this sermon was never intended to be part of
The Walking Through the Bible series, but but what we've been
looking at in Genesis bears on what I'm talking about today
because we see from the very beginning that our God is a God
of life. He's a God of life, not a God of
death. That God created the world and
God created life in the world. And when it came to human life
in particular, God breathed into us his own breath, his own
spirit of life. God is about creating life.
God put human beings in the garden and gave them everything
they needed for an abundant, peaceful life.
There was a tree in the garden. That was the tree of life.
There was another tree that we know of, the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. And God said, don't eat from
that tree. If you eat the fruit from that
tree, you will surely die. And Adam and Eve did, and they
brought death into the world. And then Cain literally brought
death into the world when he killed his brother Abel.
And then things just went down from there until by the time of
Noah, God looked out onto the world and saw that the new norm
for human thinking, human feeling, and human doing was
violence and death. Death is the opposite of what
God wants and intends for us. We see Jesus state this
explicitly when Jesus he said and and and the and the Gospel
of John, he said I'm the Good Shepherd and I'm the gate for
the sheep. The sheep know me, they know my
voice and I know them said the thief just comes to steal, kill
and destroy. But Jesus said, I have come so
that you can have life and have it to the full life.
Life, the tree of life, we're told at the very end of the
Bible, at the end of the Book of Revelation, the tree of life
grows sprawled over the river of life that flows from the city of
God. God's intention was and always
has been life and not death. So one of the ways we can look
at situations in which we find ourselves, look at situations in
the world around us and and try to understand where is God and
what's God doing in this and how can I faithfully respond to it
is to look at it and ask ourselves what, who and what is
bringing life in this situation and who and what is bringing
death. God is on the side of life.
We can look at our own actions
or my thoughts or my actions. Are they bringing death to me
and to others in some form or another?
Are they bringing life to me and to others in some form or
another? A way of recognizing where God
is and where God is not in a particular situation and
circumstance. Where is the life?
Who's bringing the life? But before we even get into the
details of that, I think it's worth asking what does this have
to do with us anyway? This conflict has been going on
for many, many, many, many years.
And and even more recently, it was reignited by the attack of
Hamas on Israel on October 7th, 2023.
And at that time I thought for a moment maybe I should address
this from the pulpit. I think it's appropriate to
address from the pulpit events that are significant events in
the world. And this was certainly a
significant event in the world. But I thought, you know, and
maybe it was cowardice that I didn't, but I also thought this.
I thought, you know what, the conflict is literally half a
world away. We don't have a significant
Jewish population in Meggs County.
We don't have a significant Muslim population in Meggs
County. the United States is not actively involved in what's
going on. I really don't know that this
it's about us right now. And if it's not about us, then I
don't believe in preaching about it from the pulpit because this
is for this is sermons for us and and the mission that we have
in the ministry we have in this world.
But then a couple of things happened. 1 is the United States
got actively involved when we dropped bombs on Iran.
The other is a conversation that I had at a local retail
establishment recently and I went to this.
I was in a hurry. I'm always in a hurry because
I'm always running behind. I was like procrastinate and and
I was in a hurry picking some some up and getting out someone
folks in line ahead of me and and I was eavesdropping because
I do that. It's entertaining and
interesting. This time, though, I can't be
blamed because the guy was talking really loud and I got
the conversation in progress. I don't know what had been said
before, but I was, I walked up. What I was hearing was, and you
know, there's going to be an attack on an American ship in
the Middle East, and it's going to be a false flag attack.
The attack, it's going to come under the flag of Iran, but it's
really going to be an Israeli ship that's going to attack one
of the American ships. But they're going to pretend to
be from Iran. They're going to put up the
Iranian flag to get us involved in the war on their side against
Iran. And me being me, I looked at him
and I said that is ridiculous. That is just ridiculous.
United Israel is one of the strongest allies of the United
States. They are not going to attack one
of our ships. They're certainly not going to
do it under a false flag of Iran.
And then we conversed a little bit more.
And then the other person that was there said, and you know,
well, I know what he said then in response to that was, don't
you know, the Jews run the media, the Jews run the banks,
the Jews run the government. And then the other person that
was there said, well, in Germany, they're protesting and
demonstrating for our freedom. Have to admit, I was
dumbfounded, Like, I don't know what that means.
And so I looked at her and I said, freedom from who?
And she said from the Jews. And I realized, this is our
issue. This is our issue. anti-Semitism
is a, is a, is an ugly beast. It's it's a non Christian, anti
Christian. It stands against everything
that Christ did for and leads us into any kind of bigotry,
anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, racism, all
these different kinds of bigotries and isms and phobias.
All of these things, all of these things are contrary to the
scripture, contrary to the life of the Kingdom of God to which
we are called, antagonistic to it, destructive of it.
And once again, anti-Semitism is rearing its ugly head, not just
in this country, but around the world.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating around the world
chanting globalize the Intifada which is a call whatever folks
are saying it is a call for the killing of Jews and and
anti-Semitism is not it's not new.
It's been around at least 2000 years and and Christian nations
and Pagan nations and atheistic nations and Muslim nations have
all engaged in it at one point or another and often in cycles,
scapegoating Jews, problems in the world around us, problems in
our country, economic problems, diseases, political problems,
these things. Who's to blame?
It's the others. It's the people that aren't like
us. And time and time and time
again, one of those people are the Jews.
And they get persecuted, they get cast out, they get driven
out, their their rights get limited and curtailed.
And in the worst cases, they are killed.
And it's not a, it's not a partisan issue.
It's amazing the the the far left and the far right can't
agree on just about anything. And they don't agree on just
about anything. But the far left and the far
right agree on blaming the Jews. The far right Nazis in the 20th
century murdered 6,000,000 Jews. The far left communists in the
Soviet Union murdered, we think around 7 million Jews.
We don't have the records because they killed so many.
They killed so many. Those two countries disagreed on
just about everything, except they agreed on blaming the Jews
for their problems. And this is a real problem.
And I think that that it's important to address it.
And the way I want to look at it is this is is to look at the 2
civilizations, not not the people groups.
I don't want to drift into Islamophobia any more than I
want to drift into anti-Semitism.
But but the leadership and the civilization being produced by
the governments and the ruling bodies and those countries and
areas. I want to look at those and see
if one of those is producing life and one of them is
producing death. And in the middle of a conflict,
in the middle of a war, that's that's hard because both sides
are producing death in a war. You don't go to war without
killing people. That's the purpose of war at its
most basic level is to kill enough of your enemy that they
stop fighting back. There is no war without death.
There is no war without destruction.
And, and war, I cannot remember who said it.
I've read the name. I've been told the name.
I can't remember who said it. But the simple reality is they
were right when they said whoever said it, that war is
hell and urban warfare is the worst sort of hell.
Because then more and more civilians, men, women, children,
who are not involved in the conflict in a military capacity
are killed, sometimes brutally, sometimes instantly, sometimes
over periods of time, through starvation and disease in the
aftermath of war. The carpet bombing of Dresden in
World War 2 and the dropping of nuclear bombs on Japan in World
War 2 are are egregious examples of the hellishness of war to
civilians, including women and children.
And you can't have war without it.
And so one possible solution is to say just be anti war, to be
pacifist. I I think that is an incredibly
powerful and potent position and many people have taken that
position out of a Christian faith and have nothing but
respect for that. Our our our Amish brothers and
sisters embrace that perspective, and I believe, and
they've they would rather be driven out or killed than take
up arms and violence against another human being for whom
Jesus died. Quakers in the past have held
that same belief in a deep way and at great cost to themselves.
The challenge with pacifism is that it doesn't seem to be
possible at a government level simply because there are always
other bad actors in the world that are willing to fight and
kill you and your people, even if you're not willing to fight
back. And so one of my processes has
been through this is looking at someone like Benjamin Netanyahu,
who is certainly flawed as a political leader.
Sir, I'm flawed as a pastor. So that's not a, you know, not
throwing stones. It's just stating reality.
He's flawed as a political leader.
But I got to say, I don't want his job.
What would I do? What would you do if you were
suddenly put in charge of the nation of Israel?
And as their leader, your responsibility is to protect
your citizens. And you have an enemy with an
explicitly stated goal of destroying your country and
killing as many of your citizens as they can manage.
And they're firing their guns and their rockets from behind
women and children and hospitals and places of worship and
preschools. What do you do?
How do you respond to that? I don't want to make those
decisions. I don't want, I don't want that
responsibility that that turns my stomach just imagining having
that responsibility. And so one of the things I have
been working on, and it's hard for me is exercising humility
and analyzing the decisions that others are making because I, I,
I find it difficult even to imagine myself being in the
position where I had to make decisions in that situation.
It was my, I couldn't just say, I'll pass, let someone else
decide. But if we look at the 2, the
civilizations as a whole, and we have to look at the
civilizations where in terms of the, the, what the government's,
what the, the ruling bodies are seem to be trying to produce.
And, and it doesn't mean that all Jews are all Jews aren't
good, just like all Muslims aren't bad, just like all
Christians aren't good and like all atheists aren't bad.
They're bad actors in every group.
And there's, you know, I've, I've yet to meet a political
body that didn't have some good actors in it either.
But on the whole, what are they producing?
Let's look at Israel and, and Iran and Hamas.
We'll compare those. I, I will say this, I, I don't
have time today. I and I, I'm going over time
even when I'm not doing this. But I say I, I, I've got
documentation, source, citations, whether you agree
with them or not, they seem to be credible to me.
And, and if you want to hear those and receive those, I can
share those with you, just not during the sermon.
But I'm not making this stuff up.
Israel versus Iran and Hamas in terms of the civilizations that
they are producing and promoting.
Israel is a Liberal Democratic state.
They have free and open elections in which all citizens
are able to participate. Jewish, Christian, Arab, Muslim,
Druze, others can participate in the elections.
They have a diverse government, mostly Jewish for sure.
I believe something like 20% of the Knesset, which is their
version of Congress, is Arab. They have.
I believe it's certainly an Arab person, and I might be
misremembering. I believe it's a Palestinian
person on the Supreme Court of Israel.
Hamas is a military dictatorship.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has been in power since
1979. Iran was a very different
country before then also not perfect, but different.
But the Islamic Republic is a a theocracy and authoritarian
theocracy. Elections are not.
Free and open in either of those areas, when elections are held,
they're held to produce a specific outcome, and that
outcome is always the one the government wants or the military
leadership wants. There hasn't been an election in
Gaza since Hamas took power there in 2007.
There's no freedom. To vote and choose your leaders,
Much less diversity among the leadership.
Interesting, I did not know this until recently.
The largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of
Israel is in Iran. It's in Iran.
Iran's official government documents explicitly state their
intention to bring about the government or the destruction of
the nation of Israel and the end of Zionism.
It's in their constitution. It's in, they do.
Not in their constitution, in their chartering documents, or
in the official statements of their leadership express a
desire for genocide of Jews. However, Hamas, whom Iran
supports and trains and equips, and their charter explicitly
calls for the destruction of Israel and the death of as many
Jews as they can manage. They softened the.
Language some when they revised that a few years back, but their
leadership has not softened their tone and their language.
One leader in 2024 and I've got lots of quotes.
I used way too many in Chester. Was way late for Rock Springs
but one of the leaders in Hamas in 2024 after the attacks of
October 23. Called upon the.
Millions of Palestinians living around the world and said there
are Jews all around you, it is your responsibility under God to
kill as many of them as you can. Israel has killed civilians in
the war, there was no doubt about it.
The international standard, and I could be misremembering this.
This is 1. Again I I I did not go back and
check my source so I might be getting the numbers wrong but
I'm like 80% confident this is right.
International standard for civilian deaths in an urban
military conflict is 3 civilians for every 1 military personnel
killed in urban conflict. That's the standard.
That's the gold standard for urban warfare in the world.
According to international standards and law.
There's 300 military combatants in an urban area and you want to
kill? I'm sorry, if there's 100
military combatants in an urban area and you want to kill them,
you can kill up to 300 civilians in your attempt to kill the 100
military. That's the gold standard.
Israel. And again, there's conflict and
different reporting on the numbers, but Israel right now,
according to credible sources, is at a one to one ratio and
urban warfare in Gaza. They're doing everything.
They can, according to some sources, to limit the death of
civilians. Which is very different.
Than what Hamas did on October 23, October 7th, 2023 when they
deliberately targeted and killed civilians.
Raping women. Multiple women taking hostages
of civilians, murdering children, putting babies in
ovens. And recording it.
On social media and reveling in it and glorying in it.
Civil rights. In Iran and in Israel and Hamas
are very, very different. Israel.
Has. Built into their.
Constitution into their legal structure.
The freedom of speech, press and religion.
Freedom of speech Press. You can criticize the government
personally out on the street. You can organize and protest
against the government. You can criticize the government
in print media, social media, broadcast media without fear of
legal consequences for doing that.
You can do that whether you're Jewish, whether you're Arab,
whether you're Christian, whatever in Israel.
You can do that in Iran and and under Hamas's military
leadership, you cannot. Criticism of the.
Government is not allowed. Media.
And speech are controlled and restricted by the government.
Social media is monitored and and restricted and censored.
And if you if. You say negative things about
the government on social media, online, you will be tracked.
If you protest. Against the government, you will
be arrested. Imprisoned.
Sometimes tortured treatment of women, Israel.
Women have the same. Rights as men.
They get a vote. They can have the same
education, they can pursue the same kinds of jobs and civilian
life and government life. They can dress how?
They want to dress. They can marry who?
They want to marry and they can get divorced if they want to get
divorced and they are treated as equals in custody battles if
there is a divorce by the courts.
In Iran and. Under Hamas's leadership,
women's rights are severely limited.
In Iran, they have. Modesty laws Hamas to if.
You show too much. If you don't wear the hijab,
everyone, every woman is required to wear the hijab in
Iran under the Islamic Republic, even if you're not Muslim and
and if you show, if you don't wear it properly, you can be
arrested, beaten, imprisoned. Some cases you have.
To get permission from a male relative to travel.
You can be highly. Educated, but your job
opportunities are limited. Your role in government is
limited. In Israel, there's.
Freedom of religion. Christian.
Jewish. Muslim, Druze, other types of
religions. You can express your religion
freely. You can worship openly.
Christians are even allowed to proselytize in Israel.
They're allowed to seek converts from other people, including
Jewish people. There are some restrictions that
we don't have in the United States.
You can't proselytize children without their parents
permission, and you can't offer incentives for, you know, like
financial or other kinds of incentives for conversion.
You're not allowed to do that, which I think any church doing
that anyway has got other issues, but that's near here
than there. There are churches in Iran, but
they can't proselytize, they can't seek converts, and they
are restricted and limited in what they can do.
LGBTQ Israel recognizes gay marriage.
People can be. Openly gay.
Lesbian. Other.
Expressions of, you know, transgender, bisexual, you can
do that in Israel. With no legal.
Ramifications. There are some groups within
Israel, particularly the Orthodox Jews that look
unfavorably upon that. And so there is some cultural
pressure to be discreet or to hide that.
But legally speaking and and many folks are very openly LGBTQ
identifying within the nation of Israel.
In Iran. You will be arrested under
Hamas. You will be killed if they even
think you're gay. Hamas is known.
For taking folks that they believe are gay up to tall
buildings and throwing them off. I say all of.
This. To say that it.
Seems to me that the civilization that Israel is
trying to produce in that part of the world is, while not
perfect, no country, no nation, no human civilization is
perfect. That on the whole, Israel is
promoting life. Where the Islamic.
Republic of Iran not all the people of Iran, but the Islamic
Republic of Iran and Hamas are promoting death and seeking
death and. Destroying.
Life. Now.
Again, none of us has a decision making responsibility in this.
We can write. Our congressmen and senators,
whether that helps or not, or is even heard or not, I have my
doubts. We can write the.
President even less likely to be heard or read or have any
impact. But we do have.
Responsibility for how we engage in conversation about these
things, for what we listen to. We have a responsibility to
promote life and I believe to defend others who are promoting
life. We have, certainly.
Have a responsibility to stand up against and actively resist
bigotry, however it presents itself, whether it's
Islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, racism, anti-Semitism.
And when we hear that and when we see that, to push back
against it, when, whether it's, you know, getting in fights
online is always a losing battle.
I can't remember who said this. Mark Twain.
Never argue with a stupid person.
They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with
experience. And, and, and I know because
I've engaged in engaging in arguments online makes me
stupid. I don't do arguments online.
I get stupid when I do that. But what we post?
Online matters, and I'm not saying you have to post the same
things I post. I'm not saying anyone here has
to agree with me. No.
One goes to hell for disagreeing with the pastor, particularly
when the pastor is me. But as you're posting, as you're
conversing, as you're listening and hearing what others are
saying, we all have a responsibility to say how can I
promote life in this rather than death?
How can I stand against those who are promoting death rather
than life? How can I stand up for folks who
are suffering under the grip of those who are promoting death
rather than life? And this stuff is not easy to
sort out. And if you feel like that I
have, I have not faithfully reported and and shared facts
here today, then please come talk to me.
Don't, don't walk away just hating me.
You're free to do that. You can hate me as much as you
want. You're free to do that.
But I would much. Rather, we talk about it and if
I'm wrong, show me. If my facts are.
Wrong show me but. This is what I.
See, and this is what I know. That in the United.
States and in so many other countries that anti-Semitism
rises up again and again and again as a scapegoat for
problems and to get blamed. Israel is being accused of
genocide. Being accused of.
Genocide against the Palestinians?
Just one Palestinian citizens in Israel.
These are not folks living in Gaza or the West Bank.
These are citizens of Israel. 1948, when the modern nation of
Israel was established, there were 156,000 Palestinian
citizens of Israel. As of 2024, there were two
million Palestinian citizens in Israel.
Israel gained control of Gaza and the West Bank in 1967.
At that time, there were 1.4 million Palestinians living
Gaza, in the West Bank, living in Gaza, in the West Bank.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in the West Bank in 2005.
Palestinian Authority, I believe, had leadership in the
West Bank, took leadership in the West Bank.
Hamas took leadership in Gaza. But in 1967, there were 1.4
million Palestinians in Gaza in the West Bank.
As of 2024, there were five and a half million.
It's not genocide. It's it's just not.
And when when these kinds of slogans are repeated that are
just patently false, why does it so often seem to be against the
Jews? Why is that?
And decade after decade, century after century, millennia after
millennia, when things are not going good, why do so many
cultures, so often everything from the far right Nazis to the
far less communists in the Soviet Union, say it's the Jews.
It's the Jews. That was the claim of the Nazis
and the the Soviets. The Jews are wrecking our
country. They are destroying us.
That's why we have to destroy them.
And those same lies are getting repeated again and hundreds of
thousands of people are demonstrating to promote those
same lies. And I I believe we as followers
of Jesus Christ. Have a responsibility.
To stand against that. Not to drift to.
The other side and engage in a lot Islamophobia or or other
types of death dealing rhetoric or attitudes.
But to look as much. As we can at what's really
happening. And say where is.
God and this awful situation. And how can we?
Support life in this awful situation.
That is what I. Believe God has called us to.
In this in. This world.
I know I make mistakes. I suspect you do too.
And. And trying to make these kind of
decisions faithfully. So we pray for the mercy and the
guidance and direction of God in all of that.
In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.