TRUE TERROR

Ezekiel 31:1-32:32; Hebrews 12:14-29; Psalm 113:1-114:8; Proverbs 27:18-20

“They struck terror in the hearts of people everywhere, but now they have descended as outcasts to the world below. Now they lie in the pit and share the shame of those who have gone before them. They have a resting place among the slaughtered, surrounded by the graves of all their hordes. Yes, they terrorized the nations while they lived, but now they lie in shame with others in the pit, all of them outcasts, slaughtered by the sword…. They once struck terror in the hearts of people everywhere. But now they are outcasts, all slaughtered by the sword. They are not buried in honor like their fallen heroes, who went down to the grave with their weapons—their shields covering their bodies and their swords beneath their heads. Their guilt rests upon them because they brought terror to everyone while they were still alive.”

“You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.”

“Who can be compared with the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high? He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth. He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, even the princes of his own people! He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother.”

“As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.”

It seems almost strange, given the times we live in, that the Spirit has not lead me to deal much with political issues or, most particularly, terrorism. I have been intentional about trying to avoid all but the most general statements of secular ideology because the Lord had no interest in this blog becoming any sort of manifesto. Still, the balance between politics and religion matters. Whatever our founding fathers may have felt about the separation of church and state, the fact remains that our country was founded on theological principles and many of those who gave it birth professed a strong sense of spiritual guidance and reliance. Moving to the present, one need only look at the nearest newspaper to see how closely religion and politics tend to effect each other. The heart of terrorism is, as it has always been, a religious zealotry that provides one individual with the justification for preferring their individual agenda over the rights and safety of others.

This much is obviously clear: any theology that gives its proponents the presumed right to deal with others as if they were disposable has taken a very wrong turn. Any spirituality that provides a basis for judgment and condemnation of our fellow humans has jumped clean off the track. Any religion that believes its followers are just intrinsically better and more worthy of the Lord’s grace needs to have its tenets more closely analyzed with a much more intentional focus on the word “why.” Any or all of these failings can give rise to the phenomenon we now refer to as terrorism (and which we Christians used to consider simple expansionism and “conversion” of the masses back in the Middle Ages). But the foundation of terrorism, I believe, rises from something even more basic. Terrorism directed at others is a manifestly visible sign of a far deeper terror being experienced by the actor. That is a terror nearly all of us face at one time or another. It is the primal fear that we may have got it wrong, and that the only way to avoid the humiliation of having been clearly misguided is to preach (or rant) while holding the biggest weapon, the greatest fear, one can muster to direct at others. Then, there’ll be no one to criticize, no one to point out the emptiness of our lives and our doctrine.

Terror is always grounded in fear. There is the obvious fear of the victims who do not see or understand the forces directed so callously against them. But more important, perhaps, is the fear that motivates the terrorist: fear of exposure; fear of failure; fear of being a fool. Most of us have learned to deal with such fears more productively, or at least less destructively, than those we know as terrorists. But most of us also understand – in the dark reaches of our souls where even we do not often venture for fear of what we will find – what it is to be terrified.

Christ has a simple solution to all the forms of terror in the world: “Fear not!” The diet of terror is fear. Without fear, there is no terror. Jesus says something else which bears on this problem as well. “Perfect love casts out fear.” Putting it all together, Scripture decrees that if we are perfectly engrossed in love, we are beyond terror. We are secure and strong where we once were weak and needy. We become new creations where we once were fundamentally flawed.

If we want to avoid fear, we need to focus on love, until our obsession with love just expels all thoughts of fear. Easier to say than do, of course. But until we absolutely commit ourselves to immersing ourselves in Love, we should not give up the theory as unworkable or too idealistic. The Holy Spirit may actually know a thing or two about what He would teach us, however utopian our cynical hearts may be tempted to see it.