Run to the battle

Study the picture to the right.

Scrunch up your face, get really close to the screen – grab a magnifier if you have to – and read the copy beneath the AP photo.

"Two Coptic Christians ward off Coptic youths trying to enter a mosque during a riot clash between Coptics and police Saturday in Alexandria, Egypt. The riots followed an attack by a suicide bomber on a Coptic Church."

I ran across this photo in an old prayer journal while moving a few months ago. It's cut from the Manhattan Mercury's January 2, 2011, edition. The grisly story details the suicide bombing of a church as Christian worshippers left a New Year's midnight mass.

Al-Qaeda's Iraqi tentacle took responsibility for the 23 deaths and 97 injuries. When claiming responsibility for an earlier bombing in an Iraqi church that killed 58 Christians, Al-Qaeda declared that all Christians in the Middle East would be considered "legitimate targets."

In a country that helped demonstrate the power of the God these folks worshipped, Coptic Christians have been marginalized and abused…just for their faith. And former president, Mubarak, and his henchmen have been accused of – at worst – colluding with the attackers and – at least – preferring reconciliation of bombers and victims rather than prosecution. I'm all for reconciliation, but not as a means to blind Justice. 

But that is only the background for the photo above.

Persecuted. Marginalized and mourning and at great personal risk, these two men ran to the battle.

They did not take up arms against the Muslims who may or may not be associated or sympathetic with Al-Qaeda. They did not run to retaliate against their possible enemies in a time of great grieving. 

Instead, they stood their ground on behalf of their enemies as their Coptic brothers rioted and roused in righteous anger against perceived foes.

Now look again at that photo.

Do you see the rocks and shrapnel littering the mosque's sidewalk beneath the feet of the two men? Some of it could be from the bomb that exploded the night before.

You see, the Saints Church and Masjid Sharq Al-Madina Mosque had been across-the-street neighbors for a long time. Though Coptic Christians were exclusively killed in the attack and represent the wide majority of injuries, their Muslim neighbors were also injured.

While their church community wept and raged in anger, these two men ran to the battle on behalf of their oppressors – of their "enemies" because they saw that a greater grievance was brewing. Hate.

Hate and rage kill more than bombs and tanks.

And somehow via this photo, I've learned a lot from these two men – brothers in the faith.

Courage to face the assault of an enemy.
That mercy can triumph over justice.
That the battleground we run to may be a fight we didn't ask for or deserve.

That God meant it when he said, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you." (Check out Matthew 5 for a fuller view of this.)

What is the take away on this?

I'm not sure what you will take away, but I've got a few ideas that I need to let saturate my soul:

• sometimes people will spit on, curse, and use you – your heart will be broken. whether you've earned their wrath or not, God promises to be with you and to love them, too. get over it. if we demanded absolute justice and fairness, we'd have no hope for our own unearnable redemption
• sometimes the battle is at home and "running to the battle" means dropping to your knees, setting boundaries and keeping them; and giving any welling up of hate over to a God who transforms lives and futures and who wastes nothing
• only a loving and untamed God would motivate two men to stand between the wounded and the accused while mothers and fathers put the pieces of their children into body bags for burial
• i can only guess the grief and persecution these men endured for their actions; i can do no less – and though it causes fear to jangle in my heart – i stand on one of my favorite quotes, "no one has permission to stand aside"
• wisdom will come when we ask for it and seek it. perhaps your battleground is at work, at home, with a neighbor or friend. can you ask for help standing for them – even in prayer – for their best as they carve your heart out with a fork? i can't, but i am trying.
• i am not without guilt. the righteous indignation and pain that i've felt is symptomatic of the human condition – falling into an abyss – where love atrophies when not cultivated and our thirst for power and significance taunts us into using and abusing others.
• i am no different than the one who curses me. except for grace – not of my own hand – mercy unwarranted and love covering a multitude of my sins were gifted to me underserved

Our weapons are not earthly, but holy.*

The enemy is not the spaced out angry person spewing poison or waving a pistol to our ear.**

We do not travel this battlefield alone.***

The end of our story is not the end of the reason to be. We have an opportunity to live in a way so that others may learn hope and encounter freedom and become part of a family – though flawed – seeks love over hate and community over capital, power, and position.

I'd fight for that.

*   *   *   *   * 
*2Corinthins 10:4, The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

**Ephesians 6:12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

***Isaiah 41:10, Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.

This is why I left the great loves and friends of my Flint Hills life and launched into the unknown with Adventures in Missions. I had been given so much and could no longer stand aside. 

And I'm not "there" yet.