Missing the Point!

The lighthouse at Nauset Beach no longer stands at the shoreline -- it's been moved inland a bit following beach erosion.  Its companion lighthouses known as the "Three Sisters" are now in a park that can't be seen from the water.  They, and the Nauset Lighthouse, are now memorials to what they used to be and do.  They are no longer serving as active lighthouses, but they look the part.  Sometimes our most precious institutions are like these lighthouses -- a memorial to what they once were.  They look marvelous,  but  you need a sign to tell you where the lighthouse is! 

The same is true in some churches -- if you didn't have the sign out front, you couldn't tell.  

This weekend the plans of an independent church in Gainesville, Florida  to burn copies of the Koran on September 11th  has been all over the airwaves.  Most of the commentators have entirely missed the point.  The confrontational aspect of the proposed burnings and its potential impact on US military stationed in harms way seems to be the principal objection.  It's not hard to find claims that Islamophobia is the motivation and primary issue.  However, the commentators simply don't get the real point.

Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount -- "Just as you want people to treat you, treat them in the same way."  (Luke 6:31).   Most of us learned that verse as the Golden Rule -- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  The pastor and congregation of Dove World Outreach Center haven't understood or applied this simple commandment from the One they name as Lord. 

Is there a Christian church anywhere that would not be profoundly outraged and offended by the burning of the New Testament?  Why, if Christians desire that others respect our sacred books, do we not extend the same respect to the books that others hold to be sacred?  Precisely because I hope that the Bible will be given its due respect, I will respect the feelings of Muslims everywhere and treat the Koran with honor.  That doesn't mean that we agree with it or with the claims that Muslims make for it, but we must extend to it a recognition that many hold it dear.

One of my favorite verses from the New Testament is found in Peter's first letter ... "always being ready to give every man a reason for the hope that lies within you, with gentleness and respect."  (I Peter 3:15)  There are two keys to Peter's command to the church -- that the hope that Christians have should be evident from our joy and peace and that when we talk to others about that hope, we are gentle and respectful.  In the almost thirty years that I have served Jesus, I've never met anyone who became a follower of Jesus Christ because they lost the argument!   Conversions happen when hearts are turned, not when the debate is over.    How will burning a Koran open a dialog with the very people you hope to reach with the Gospel?

As we approach September 11th and the circus begins in Gainesville, it should be the church of Jesus Christ which says to the world -- these people are being disobedient to the clear commands of the Bible, they're wrong and we object to their poor witness to the love and mercy of our Savior.

Keep the faith.