Mar. 30, 2003

Lent 4

Sermon: War and Christianity

We need to talk about e-mail messages regarding war. There has been a lot of e-mail flying over the Internet about the war, and some of it you need to think about more carefully before you send it out to others. Beware of portraying all Muslims as “the enemy”. When people say “We win” what does that mean? Win what? People are dying. It’s time to PRAY.

Last week in her presentation of “Christ In The Passover”, Carol Joseph taught us that at one point in the Passover celebration the Jewish people pause to remember with sorrow the suffering that came upon Egypt because of Pharaoh’s disobedience to God. It was a great reminder to us that we rejoice in liberation of the oppressed, not the suffering of the enemy. Please be careful about e-mail that rejoices in the suffering of the enemy or exalts patriotism above prayerful discernment of God’s will.

On the subject of the war, let’s talk some more. I think I have been negligent. I have not preached anything about the war, and I know there are a lot of questions. I’m going to put the preaching about vision and apostolic fellowship on hold for today and address the subject of war.

There was a song by the Beetles popular in the 70s called “Imagine.” The song went like this. “Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us only sky. Imagine there’s no country... nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.”

Now, if you’re a song writer strung out on drugs, it’s not surprising that you come up with this kind of world view. You would like to retreat into your safe, imaginary world and just make reality go away. But if you’re a Christian living a responsible life of faith in the midst of a dangerous fallen real world, you need to go a lot deeper than “Imagine” to find the answers. Let’s go deeper.

There are some people today saying that war is never justified, that all this killing and dying never accomplishes anything, and that there is nothing in this world that is worth killing, or dying for.

The question of the day is this: Is there anything worth dying for? Is there a legitimate reason to kill? Is war ever justified? Does God ever call us to go to war, or is Christianity synonymous with “pacifism?” Let’s begin by looking at the Bible, the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles, and the early theologians of the church.

In the Gospel, John the Baptist was approached by soldiers who had listened to him proclaiming the kingdom of God. They asked him, “What should we do?” He did not tell them to leave the army and join a peace demonstration. He told them to be content with their wages, and not to extort money by threatening people.

Jesus had followers who were soldiers. Specifically the Roman centurion whose servant was ill and was healed by Jesus. Jesus did not tell him that he could not be a soldier and a worshiper of God. In fact, when he saw the complete faith that the centurion had in Him to heal, Jesus said of this man, “Not in all Israel have I found anyone with such faith!”

The first Gentile convert received into the church by St. Peter was a man named Cornelius, a centurion. We even have the name of his unit in Acts 10:1. He belonged to the “Italian Regiment.” This is his story:

“Cornelius and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. ³ One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius, your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. ⁵ Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.”

⁷ When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. ⁸ He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.”

The early church Fathers, Clement of Alexandria and Origen in the third century recognized that soldiering could be an honorable vocation. Eusebius, the fourth century church historian records the fact that Christians, under Constantine, were allowed to fight on behalf of the Emperor. St. Ambrose likewise taught that Christians could fight in war as long as the authorities acknowledged God, and that love should be the motivation behind the Christian soldier. In fact, said Ambrose, the Christian who stands by and watches while his neighbor is attacked and does nothing is not virtuous at all. Like John the Baptist, Ambrose believed that the soldier has a calling based on love to protect the weak.

St. Augustine defended the practice of war on a very limited basis when it was undertaken for the good of society, that is, when the purpose of the war was to increase the security and peace of society by putting down tyranny or oppression.

In the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (page 875) our own tradition teaches us that the civil authorities deserve our respect and obedience in so far as they are appointed by God to uphold justice and restrain evil. That sometimes requires force.

1. Distinction between personal discipleship and the responsibility of leadership.

In the Bible there is a distinction between the responsibilities of an individual believer, a disciple, and the responsibilities of government leaders. Most of the Bible verses you hear being quoted to our national leaders right now were in fact addressed to the individual disciple. For example, forgive those who wrong you, turn the other cheek, do not resist an evil person. Yes, Jesus taught all of those things in the Sermon on the Mount, which was entirely addressed to us as disciples. It is a grave mistake to read this as a prescription for international political policy because that is not what Jesus was talking about.

Read through the Sermon on the Mount and you will find a challenging call to serve the good of others by giving up your own rights. It sets a very high standard for our personal witness. But if you try to read it as a prescription for national leaders, it makes no sense at all. When we see a nation or a people group suffering under the brutal rod of oppression, or tyrants who threaten to attack their neighbors, what sense does it make to say we are turning the other cheek by doing nothing? The responsibility of governors and leaders is to use legitimate power to uphold justice, to restrain the violent, and to punish those who break the law. In fact, the entire purpose of government, as described in the Bible, is to provide a force of authority that can come to the aid of those who suffer wrong.

Simply put, justice is the job of the state. Mercy is the option of the individual. If someone steals your car, you have the option of trying to get it back, or letting him have it. But if a policeman sees a car theft in progress he is required to act to stop it. If you are being threatened by a violent person you have the option of trying to prayerfully talk them out of it and save them from doing something terrible. But if you see another person in danger and you take no action to help them, you can be held liable for their injury or death. We call this the “Good Samaritan” law, and you know where it came from.

War must be judged by the same clear distinction between individual and national responsibilities. It is the job, and the divinely instituted responsibility of national leaders to protect their citizens, and to uphold justice wherever their sphere of influence calls them to do so. As St. Paul put it, “For he (the king or governor) is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” (Rom. 13:3)

Moses as an example:

In the Old Testament, Moses is described as “the most humble man who ever lived.” Over and over again we see how true this is. When Moses was attacked by people who resisted his leadership, when he was insulted by people who didn’t like the way he was leading them, when his critics tried to take his place, he never took revenge on them. He took a very passive role toward personal attacks. He went into the tabernacle, the place of worship, and said to the Lord, “O Lord, these are Your people. Tell me what to do for them.” He took his role as a personal disciple of God very seriously, and he would not allow his desire for revenge to cloud his judgment. His first job was to serve his neighbors, not to avenge himself on them.

But when an enemy came against the people, Moses was anything but passive. And this particular passage from Exodus 17 illustrates how important his leadership and blessing were to the survival of the people:

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. ⁹ Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”

We do not speak of “holy war” in the church. That is not a Christian concept. But we have a long standing tradition of defining what is a “just war.”

1. The damage being inflicted by the aggressor against another nation or a community of nations must be lasting, grave and certain. (the threat must be real)

2. All other means of putting an end to the aggression must be shown to be impractical or ineffective. (war is a last option)

3. There must be a serious prospect of success. (lives must not be risked on foolhardiness)

4. The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders greater than the evil to be eliminated. (collateral damage must be kept to a minimum.)

As Christians we believe there are some things worth dying for. Faith is worth dying for. Family is worth dying for. Freedom is worth dying for. And the safety of our neighbors, our people, our nation, should be worth dying for.

You can question and even challenge the meaning of this particular war, and you should. And use these four points of definition for “just war” to guide your thinking.

1. Was the threat from Iraq real?

2. Were diplomatic efforts shown to be ineffective?

3. Is there a serious prospect of success?
4. Have we kept the damage to innocent bystanders to a minimum?

If you think that our leaders have not thought this through completely, you have an obligation to say so. But please, don’t let me hear anyone in this parish say that war is never justified. If you do I’m going to think that I have wasted ten years in this pulpit and have failed miserably to teach the truth of God’s Word.

Let me close with passage from a sermon by the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen. He was the founding pioneer of radio preaching, and in one of his sermons he said this about war.

“Our blessed Lord in saying to us, “Give back to Caesar what is his” means: Pay your taxes; support public schools; when the government seeks enlistment of your life’s blood to subdue the tyrannies of the world, give that blood; when it summons you to public service, obey, for the authority of the government is from God.

“In the name of God, in the name of America, may we be honest and wise enough to see that he who prays is he who serves his country best. Because my knees bend to my God, my elbow does not refuse to unbend to salute my flag! It is because we love God and try to serve Him that we are good citizens, good Americans.”

Amen.