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Amjad-Ali Bible Study at General Assembly;
The theme of this conference has been built around three commands as Paul writes to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. They have implications for our faith, discipleship, gratitude and even liturgy. These imperatives are:
As these imperatives stand they sound like a wonderful exhortation, and appeal to our sense of righteousness, faithfulness and sanctification. However, in themselves they do not reflect the critical context in which they were penned by Paul. We must make sure that they are not read in a banal way expressing empty optimism and meaningless positive reinforcement, for Paul is writing largely a pastoral letter to those who are suffering and facing persecution, this then is the reason for these exhortations. In this sense this bible study attempts to do what Michel Foucault talks about when practicing criticism, i.e., “to show that things are not as self-evident as one believed, to see that what is accepted as self-evident will no longer be accepted as such. Practicing criticism is a matter of making facile gestures difficult” [i] and making banality unacceptable. I have just come from Pakistan and I am a witness to a church which is undergoing just this kind of a persecution. So when I was asked to do this bible study I clearly saw that these three imperatives cannot be seen, or understood, or deciphered as some isolated feel good mantra, but have to be placed in the context of the high level of difficulty and persecution, which is clearly the context of Paul's exceedingly affectionate, emotional and praiseful letter. To give some context, Thessalonians is the earliest existing letter by Paul written somewhere between 51-52 AD, it is also the earliest letter to the Gentiles. The Thessalonian Church was almost exclusively gentile who “turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God” as Paul states it in 1 Thess 1:9. The letter was written following Timothy’s pastoral visit to Thessalonica in the context of their persecution to show support and solidarity with them, as well as to encourage and strengthen them. So Paul writes to them in chapter 2 verses 19 to 20 that "... what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? Yes, you are our glory and joy!" It is therefore an affectionate letter based on the good news that Timothy brought back to Paul about the character, practice, and sustaining faith of the Thessalonians under persecution. Timothy's visit here reminds me of the World Council of Churches long standing program of what they call the Living Letters Visits which follows Paul's reference to the Corinthians in II Corinthians 3: 2-3. Although this letter to Thessalonians has often been read for eschatological and apocalyptic purposes and there is indeed an eschatological element in it, such a reading however ignores the critical centrality of the persecution that Paul highlights both vis-à-vis the Thessalonians and his own ministry and mission while discussing this eschatology. So there are at least fifteen references to persecution in this short epistle with the clear assumption that the Christians will inevitably be persecuted, therefore Paul says in chapter 3 verses 2-4 that "... we sent Timothy ... to strengthen and encourage you for the sake of your faith, so that no one would be shaken by these persecutions. Indeed, you yourselves know that this is what we are destined for. In fact, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer persecution; so it turned out..." Looking at these texts we have to ask why certain churches face persecution, dislocation, and threats to life, to property and to their freedoms, while others go merrily without that challenge which Paul assumes, and Christ assumes, to be the case for every Christian as Mark notes in 8: 27-38. Persecution is clearly because of perceived threat and because of the challenge a group poses to the status quo ideology and traditions. We must always ask ourselves whether we have compromised the gospel and whether we have always discerned the spirit and critical prophecy, or have we tested everything, or held fast to what is good and abstained from evil? The question is whether we have been so domesticated to the society around us that it doesn’t feel threatened by us enough to cause us persecution or to be judged as “maladjusted” to quote Martin Luther King, Jr., who called upon “… all [people] (original men, sic) of good will to be maladjusted because it may well be that the salvation of our world lies in the hands of the maladjusted.” [ii] Last winter I was part of the WCC’s Living Letters team to Pakistan. This October I was in Pakistan for ten days to lead a discussion on the issue of Christian ministry and mission in the context of growing Islamic fundamentalism and parenthetically the persecution of the church. What I have to report briefly is that in the last four months since the end of July, quite a few Christians have been burnt, their churches, houses and property destroyed and burnt and a number of them are being tried for blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad and/or against the Qur'an the punishment for which is death. These are not persecution carried out by the state or part of its agenda but rather by some miscreants who also use fanatical religious sophistry and use the existing laws which were introduced during the heyday of Islamic resurgence especially as supported exogenously by the US and Saudi Arabia to fight the USSR in Afghanistan. So the Christians do not face persecution from the state, but they are persecuted heavily nonetheless. What is truly ironical is that this persecution of the Christians who are seen, on the one hand, both as irrelevant and untouchable because of their dalith heritage; are seen on the other hand as the representative of the US Empire (and by extension the West) and its hegemonic and evil power. The Christians thus bear the brunt of all that the West does wrong vis-à-vis Islam; this is the external element behind their persecution. Internally, the state has been coerced and pressurized by the radical Muslim forces to the point that till very very recently their actions went mostly unchallenged and unchecked especially when it came to their oppression and persecution of the minorities, including Christians. These radical Muslims also see the Christian persecution as utilitarian since they get a high international publicity in the media, without even the loss of their suicide bombers. So while the state itself may not persecute the minorities and Christians, it doesn’t care enough or have enough will to challenge and prosecute the perpetrators of crimes against the Christians. Ironically during the recent times, similar acts have been committed against Christians in India in Orissa, Rajasthan, Andra Pardesh, etc. The publicity of these events are however minimal in the West even though at times the persecution of Christians, burning of their churches, even raping their nuns, have happened more frequently and on a larger scale in India than in Pakistan. We in the West have ostensibly picked up the Christian persecution but not always that carried out in India. This to me shows that we are not just concerned about the Christians but more worried about the Muslims and thus becomes part of our over all prejudice against them. So we face the challenge of ensuring to encourage and stand in solidarity with all the Christians and say with Paul in chapter 3 verses 8-9, "For we now live, if you continue to stand firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly..." But in all this we must remember what Paul says in the verse just before the verse of the theme of this assembly, "See that none of [us] (you) repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one and another and to all." (1 Thessalonians 5:15). Following this we are reminded of the full list of our vocational imperative to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances... Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thess. 5:19-22). Now "May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound," and may "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you" and strengthen you in the face of persecution and may the Spirit keep remind you to Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances," and make sure that we "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good. i. Michel Foucault, "Practicing Criticism," in Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-1984, ed. Lawrence D. Kritzman (New York: Routledge, 1988), p. 155 ii. See, the famous commencement address of the Rev. Dr. martin Luther King, Jr., entitled, "The American Dream," given at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania on June 6, 1961, cf. James M. Washiongton, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. (San Francisco: Harper & Row,m 1986), pp. 208-216, esp. p. 215-216.
General Assembly Media Contacts: Photo by Kathleen Cameron |
Gracious
God who has created us, saved us and sustained us, be with us this morning,
give us the wisdom and intelligence to study and explicate your scriptures,
and to apply them to our lives so that we are better witnesses to the love
and reconciliation you have shown and achieved for this world. Amen