A current news reporter has just called for a “cleansing” of people who support the President of the United States. Ethnic or political cleansing is not new to our world. Wikipedia defines it this way-- “Ethnic cleansing is the systematic and systemic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and/or religious groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, often with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. The forces which may be applied may be various forms of forced migration (deportation, population transfer), ethnic dilution, intimidation, as well as genocide and genocidal rape.” Wikipedia goes on to say, “Ethnic cleansing is usually accompanied by efforts to remove physical and cultural evidence of the targeted group in the territory through the destruction of homes, social centers, farms, and infrastructure, as well as through the desecration of monuments, cemeteries, and places of worship.”
I am not predicting what will happen but I find this rhetoric by a major news network disconcerting at the least. However, let us not fear. Let us find instruction and strength from the first Christians. They were persecuted as the party of the Sadducees wanted them out of Jerusalem. They arrested the apostles and later told them they could not speak in the name of Jesus and later wanted them killed.
So cleansing is not a new method in producing a homogeneous society. However, the question we must ask is what did the first church do? An angel of the Lord came to them in prison and let them out with these instructions, “Go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”(Acts 5:20) And so they did.
We need to understand that political change was not possible in their world. They depended entirely on the favor of the Lord to complete their mission. The mission was to preach about the Kingdom of God. As the church, we need to be reminded that there is only one opportunity to enter the Kingdom of God, and that is during our lifetime. We can not enter after death. We must enter now, “today is the day of salvation.” Though we as Christians are to be nice, the mission of the church is not about being nice. The mission is--go, stand, and speak.
So what are we to do as the church in a hostile world--go, stand and speak. Speak “all the words of this--Life.” The apostles knew exactly what “this Life” meant, for they had experienced and found the Life only Jesus can give.
They beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus...” and every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” (Acts 5)
