Choosing Life or Death in the Conflict in the Middle East (New Beginnings UMC)

I said last week that I was feeling led to address the

conflict in the Middle East, particularly between Israel and

Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and and ask for prayer on that.

I've spent a lot of time praying on that.

I am following through with that this week and I want to preface

what I'm the the sermon and the message by saying this.

For what it's worth, this is the hardest message I've ever had to

prepare and ever had to preach. I'm not even exactly sure why,

but it it, it has been very challenging to prepare and to

preach. One of the reasons I'm running

late today is I went along at, at Rock Springs and at Chester.

I'm going to try not to do that here today, here at New

Beginnings. My goal in this is not, again,

not to be partisan. I, I, I believe what I'm going

to be preaching isn't, isn't a promotion of any political

agenda, any political ideology, certainly not of any political

party. I, my goal is to present a

biblically sound, gospel faithful way to look at and

respond to what's happening in the Middle East right now.

And, and that's my goal now. I, I am a human being, I am

flawed, I make mistakes. And I have said before and I

will say again, no one's ever going to go to hell for

disagreeing with me. And, and if I say something

today or many things today that you find distressing that you

find disagreeable, please contact me.

I'm going to, I'm going to be out of town this week, but

contact me this week anyway. We'll get something on the

schedule. We can get a cup of coffee or

river roasters or eat a slice of pizza foxes, wherever we can sit

down and talk about it. And I want to hear your thoughts

on that. And I want to say that upfront

that that because this topic is so divisive, even though I don't

want to drift into ideology and politics, if I do drift in that

direction, I pray that that portion of what I say will be

forgotten. But also anything that you say,

man, I just can't believe he said that or I can't believe he

believes that. Let's, I'm happy to talk about

that. OK, so all of that said, we're

going to be talking today about choosing life and death.

And I am, I have only one slide today.

I thought that would make things easier.

It's turned out that that's made things harder, but I, I, I'm

going to try to work through this in a, in a way, and I've

already lost my place. I'll need to use my notes a

little more than I usually do, but I don't want to use them too

much because that slows me down. Choosing life and death.

We have seen, and this sermon was never intended to be part of

The Walking Through the Bible series, but but what we've been

looking at in Genesis bears on what I'm talking about today

because we see from the very beginning that our God is a God

of life. He's a God of life, not a God of

death. That God created the world and

God created life in the world. And when it came to human life

in particular, God breathed into us his own breath, his own

spirit of life. God is about creating life.

God put human beings in the garden and gave them everything

they needed for an abundant, peaceful life.

There was a tree in the garden. That was the tree of life.

There was another tree that we know of, the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil. And God said, don't eat from

that tree. If you eat the fruit from that

tree, you will surely die. And Adam and Eve did, and they

brought death into the world. And then Cain literally brought

death into the world when he killed his brother Abel.

And then things just went down from there until by the time of

Noah, God looked out onto the world and saw that the new norm

for human thinking, human feeling, and human doing was

violence and death. Death is the opposite of what

God wants and intends for us. We see Jesus state this

explicitly when Jesus he said and and and the and the Gospel

of John, he said I'm the Good Shepherd and I'm the gate for

the sheep. The sheep know me, they know my

voice and I know them said the thief just comes to steal, kill

and destroy. But Jesus said, I have come so

that you can have life and have it to the full life.

Life, the tree of life, we're told at the very end of the

Bible, at the end of the Book of Revelation, the tree of life

grows sprawled over the river of life that flows from the city of

God. God's intention was and always

has been life and not death. So one of the ways we can look

at situations in which we find ourselves, look at situations in

the world around us and and try to understand where is God and

what's God doing in this and how can I faithfully respond to it

is to look at it and ask ourselves what, who and what is

bringing life in this situation and who and what is bringing

death. God is on the side of life.

God is on the side of life. We can look at our own actions

or my thoughts or my actions. Are they bringing death to me

and to others in some form or another?

Are they bringing life to me and to others in some form or

another? A way of recognizing where God

is and where God is not in a particular situation and

circumstance. Where is the life?

Who's bringing the life? But before we even get into the

details of that, I think it's worth asking what does this have

to do with us anyway? This conflict has been going on

for many, many, many, many years.

And and even more recently, it was reignited by the attack of

Hamas on Israel on October 7th, 2023.

And at that time I thought for a moment maybe I should address

this from the pulpit. I think it's appropriate to

address from the pulpit events that are significant events in

the world. And this was certainly a

significant event in the world. But I thought, you know, and

maybe it was cowardice that I didn't, but I also thought this.

I thought, you know what, the conflict is literally half a

world away. We don't have a significant

Jewish population in Meggs County.

We don't have a significant Muslim population in Meggs

County. the United States is not actively involved in what's

going on. I really don't know that this

it's about us right now. And if it's not about us, then I

don't believe in preaching about it from the pulpit because this

is for this is sermons for us and and the mission that we have

in the ministry we have in this world.

But then a couple of things happened. 1 is the United States

got actively involved when we dropped bombs on Iran.

The other is a conversation that I had at a local retail

establishment recently and I went to this.

I was in a hurry. I'm always in a hurry because

I'm always running behind. I was like procrastinate and and

I was in a hurry picking some some up and getting out someone

folks in line ahead of me and and I was eavesdropping because

I do that. It's entertaining and

interesting. This time, though, I can't be

blamed because the guy was talking really loud and I got

the conversation in progress. I don't know what had been said

before, but I was, I walked up. What I was hearing was, and you

know, there's going to be an attack on an American ship in

the Middle East, and it's going to be a false flag attack.

The attack, it's going to come under the flag of Iran, but it's

really going to be an Israeli ship that's going to attack one

of the American ships. But they're going to pretend to

be from Iran. They're going to put up the

Iranian flag to get us involved in the war on their side against

Iran. And me being me, I looked at him

and I said that is ridiculous. That is just ridiculous.

United Israel is one of the strongest allies of the United

States. They are not going to attack one

of our ships. They're certainly not going to

do it under a false flag of Iran.

And then we conversed a little bit more.

And then the other person that was there said, and you know,

well, I know what he said then in response to that was, don't

you know, the Jews run the media, the Jews run the banks,

the Jews run the government. And then the other person that

was there said, well, in Germany, they're protesting and

demonstrating for our freedom. Have to admit, I was

dumbfounded, Like, I don't know what that means.

And so I looked at her and I said, freedom from who?

And she said from the Jews. And I realized, this is our

issue. This is our issue. anti-Semitism

is a, is a, is an ugly beast. It's it's a non Christian, anti

Christian. It stands against everything

that Christ did for and leads us into any kind of bigotry,

anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, racism, all

these different kinds of bigotries and isms and phobias.

All of these things, all of these things are contrary to the

scripture, contrary to the life of the Kingdom of God to which

we are called, antagonistic to it, destructive of it.

And once again, anti-Semitism is rearing its ugly head, not just

in this country, but around the world.

Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating around the world

chanting globalize the Intifada which is a call whatever folks

are saying it is a call for the killing of Jews and and

anti-Semitism is not it's not new.

It's been around at least 2000 years and and Christian nations

and Pagan nations and atheistic nations and Muslim nations have

all engaged in it at one point or another and often in cycles,

scapegoating Jews, problems in the world around us, problems in

our country, economic problems, diseases, political problems,

these things. Who's to blame?

It's the others. It's the people that aren't like

us. And time and time and time

again, one of those people are the Jews.

And they get persecuted, they get cast out, they get driven

out, their their rights get limited and curtailed.

And in the worst cases, they are killed.

And it's not a, it's not a partisan issue.

It's amazing the the the far left and the far right can't

agree on just about anything. And they don't agree on just

about anything. But the far left and the far

right agree on blaming the Jews. The far right Nazis in the 20th

century murdered 6,000,000 Jews. The far left communists in the

Soviet Union murdered, we think around 7 million Jews.

We don't have the records because they killed so many.

They killed so many. Those two countries disagreed on

just about everything, except they agreed on blaming the Jews

for their problems. And this is a real problem.

And I think that that it's important to address it.

And the way I want to look at it is this is is to look at the 2

civilizations, not not the people groups.

I don't want to drift into Islamophobia any more than I

want to drift into anti-Semitism.

But but the leadership and the civilization being produced by

the governments and the ruling bodies and those countries and

areas. I want to look at those and see

if one of those is producing life and one of them is

producing death. And in the middle of a conflict,

in the middle of a war, that's that's hard because both sides

are producing death in a war. You don't go to war without

killing people. That's the purpose of war at its

most basic level is to kill enough of your enemy that they

stop fighting back. There is no war without death.

There is no war without destruction.

And, and war, I cannot remember who said it.

I've read the name. I've been told the name.

I can't remember who said it. But the simple reality is they

were right when they said whoever said it, that war is

hell and urban warfare is the worst sort of hell.

Because then more and more civilians, men, women, children,

who are not involved in the conflict in a military capacity

are killed, sometimes brutally, sometimes instantly, sometimes

over periods of time, through starvation and disease in the

aftermath of war. The carpet bombing of Dresden in

World War 2 and the dropping of nuclear bombs on Japan in World

War 2 are are egregious examples of the hellishness of war to

civilians, including women and children.

And you can't have war without it.

And so one possible solution is to say just be anti war, to be

pacifist. I I think that is an incredibly

powerful and potent position and many people have taken that

position out of a Christian faith and have nothing but

respect for that. Our our our Amish brothers and

sisters embrace that perspective, and I believe, and

they've they would rather be driven out or killed than take

up arms and violence against another human being for whom

Jesus died. Quakers in the past have held

that same belief in a deep way and at great cost to themselves.

The challenge with pacifism is that it doesn't seem to be

possible at a government level simply because there are always

other bad actors in the world that are willing to fight and

kill you and your people, even if you're not willing to fight

back. And so one of my processes has

been through this is looking at someone like Benjamin Netanyahu,

who is certainly flawed as a political leader.

Sir, I'm flawed as a pastor. So that's not a, you know, not

throwing stones. It's just stating reality.

He's flawed as a political leader.

But I got to say, I don't want his job.

What would I do? What would you do if you were

suddenly put in charge of the nation of Israel?

And as their leader, your responsibility is to protect

your citizens. And you have an enemy with an

explicitly stated goal of destroying your country and

killing as many of your citizens as they can manage.

And they're firing their guns and their rockets from behind

women and children and hospitals and places of worship and

preschools. What do you do?

How do you respond to that? I don't want to make those

decisions. I don't want, I don't want that

responsibility that that turns my stomach just imagining having

that responsibility. And so one of the things I have

been working on, and it's hard for me is exercising humility

and analyzing the decisions that others are making because I, I,

I find it difficult even to imagine myself being in the

position where I had to make decisions in that situation.

It was my, I couldn't just say, I'll pass, let someone else

decide. But if we look at the 2, the

civilizations as a whole, and we have to look at the

civilizations where in terms of the, the, what the government's,

what the, the ruling bodies are seem to be trying to produce.

And, and it doesn't mean that all Jews are all Jews aren't

good, just like all Muslims aren't bad, just like all

Christians aren't good and like all atheists aren't bad.

They're bad actors in every group.

And there's, you know, I've, I've yet to meet a political

body that didn't have some good actors in it either.

But on the whole, what are they producing?

Let's look at Israel and, and Iran and Hamas.

We'll compare those. I, I will say this, I, I don't

have time today. I and I, I'm going over time

even when I'm not doing this. But I say I, I, I've got

documentation, source, citations, whether you agree

with them or not, they seem to be credible to me.

And, and if you want to hear those and receive those, I can

share those with you, just not during the sermon.

But I'm not making this stuff up.

Israel versus Iran and Hamas in terms of the civilizations that

they are producing and promoting.

Israel is a Liberal Democratic state.

They have free and open elections in which all citizens

are able to participate. Jewish, Christian, Arab, Muslim,

Druze, others can participate in the elections.

They have a diverse government, mostly Jewish for sure.

I believe something like 20% of the Knesset, which is their

version of Congress, is Arab. They have.

I believe it's certainly an Arab person, and I might be

misremembering. I believe it's a Palestinian

person on the Supreme Court of Israel.

Hamas is a military dictatorship.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has been in power since

1979. Iran was a very different

country before then also not perfect, but different.

But the Islamic Republic is a a theocracy and authoritarian

theocracy. Elections are not.

Free and open in either of those areas, when elections are held,

they're held to produce a specific outcome, and that

outcome is always the one the government wants or the military

leadership wants. There hasn't been an election in

Gaza since Hamas took power there in 2007.

There's no freedom. To vote and choose your leaders,

Much less diversity among the leadership.

Interesting, I did not know this until recently.

The largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of

Israel is in Iran. It's in Iran.

Iran's official government documents explicitly state their

intention to bring about the government or the destruction of

the nation of Israel and the end of Zionism.

It's in their constitution. It's in, they do.

Not in their constitution, in their chartering documents, or

in the official statements of their leadership express a

desire for genocide of Jews. However, Hamas, whom Iran

supports and trains and equips, and their charter explicitly

calls for the destruction of Israel and the death of as many

Jews as they can manage. They softened the.

Language some when they revised that a few years back, but their

leadership has not softened their tone and their language.

One leader in 2024 and I've got lots of quotes.

I used way too many in Chester. Was way late for Rock Springs

but one of the leaders in Hamas in 2024 after the attacks of

October 23. Called upon the.

Millions of Palestinians living around the world and said there

are Jews all around you, it is your responsibility under God to

kill as many of them as you can. Israel has killed civilians in

the war, there was no doubt about it.

The international standard, and I could be misremembering this.

This is 1. Again I I I did not go back and

check my source so I might be getting the numbers wrong but

I'm like 80% confident this is right.

International standard for civilian deaths in an urban

military conflict is 3 civilians for every 1 military personnel

killed in urban conflict. That's the standard.

That's the gold standard for urban warfare in the world.

According to international standards and law.

There's 300 military combatants in an urban area and you want to

kill? I'm sorry, if there's 100

military combatants in an urban area and you want to kill them,

you can kill up to 300 civilians in your attempt to kill the 100

military. That's the gold standard.

Israel. And again, there's conflict and

different reporting on the numbers, but Israel right now,

according to credible sources, is at a one to one ratio and

urban warfare in Gaza. They're doing everything.

They can, according to some sources, to limit the death of

civilians. Which is very different.

Than what Hamas did on October 23, October 7th, 2023 when they

deliberately targeted and killed civilians.

Raping women. Multiple women taking hostages

of civilians, murdering children, putting babies in

ovens. And recording it.

On social media and reveling in it and glorying in it.

Civil rights. In Iran and in Israel and Hamas

are very, very different. Israel.

Has. Built into their.

Constitution into their legal structure.

The freedom of speech, press and religion.

Freedom of speech Press. You can criticize the government

personally out on the street. You can organize and protest

against the government. You can criticize the government

in print media, social media, broadcast media without fear of

legal consequences for doing that.

You can do that whether you're Jewish, whether you're Arab,

whether you're Christian, whatever in Israel.

You can do that in Iran and and under Hamas's military

leadership, you cannot. Criticism of the.

Government is not allowed. Media.

And speech are controlled and restricted by the government.

Social media is monitored and and restricted and censored.

And if you if. You say negative things about

the government on social media, online, you will be tracked.

If you protest. Against the government, you will

be arrested. Imprisoned.

Sometimes tortured treatment of women, Israel.

Women have the same. Rights as men.

They get a vote. They can have the same

education, they can pursue the same kinds of jobs and civilian

life and government life. They can dress how?

They want to dress. They can marry who?

They want to marry and they can get divorced if they want to get

divorced and they are treated as equals in custody battles if

there is a divorce by the courts.

In Iran and. Under Hamas's leadership,

women's rights are severely limited.

In Iran, they have. Modesty laws Hamas to if.

You show too much. If you don't wear the hijab,

everyone, every woman is required to wear the hijab in

Iran under the Islamic Republic, even if you're not Muslim and

and if you show, if you don't wear it properly, you can be

arrested, beaten, imprisoned. Some cases you have.

To get permission from a male relative to travel.

You can be highly. Educated, but your job

opportunities are limited. Your role in government is

limited. In Israel, there's.

Freedom of religion. Christian.

Jewish. Muslim, Druze, other types of

religions. You can express your religion

freely. You can worship openly.

Christians are even allowed to proselytize in Israel.

They're allowed to seek converts from other people, including

Jewish people. There are some restrictions that

we don't have in the United States.

You can't proselytize children without their parents

permission, and you can't offer incentives for, you know, like

financial or other kinds of incentives for conversion.

You're not allowed to do that, which I think any church doing

that anyway has got other issues, but that's near here

than there. There are churches in Iran, but

they can't proselytize, they can't seek converts, and they

are restricted and limited in what they can do.

LGBTQ Israel recognizes gay marriage.

People can be. Openly gay.

Lesbian. Other.

Expressions of, you know, transgender, bisexual, you can

do that in Israel. With no legal.

Ramifications. There are some groups within

Israel, particularly the Orthodox Jews that look

unfavorably upon that. And so there is some cultural

pressure to be discreet or to hide that.

But legally speaking and and many folks are very openly LGBTQ

identifying within the nation of Israel.

In Iran. You will be arrested under

Hamas. You will be killed if they even

think you're gay. Hamas is known.

For taking folks that they believe are gay up to tall

buildings and throwing them off. I say all of.

This. To say that it.

Seems to me that the civilization that Israel is

trying to produce in that part of the world is, while not

perfect, no country, no nation, no human civilization is

perfect. That on the whole, Israel is

promoting life. Where the Islamic.

Republic of Iran not all the people of Iran, but the Islamic

Republic of Iran and Hamas are promoting death and seeking

death and. Destroying.

Life. Now.

Again, none of us has a decision making responsibility in this.

We can write. Our congressmen and senators,

whether that helps or not, or is even heard or not, I have my

doubts. We can write the.

President even less likely to be heard or read or have any

impact. But we do have.

Responsibility for how we engage in conversation about these

things, for what we listen to. We have a responsibility to

promote life and I believe to defend others who are promoting

life. We have, certainly.

Have a responsibility to stand up against and actively resist

bigotry, however it presents itself, whether it's

Islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, racism, anti-Semitism.

And when we hear that and when we see that, to push back

against it, when, whether it's, you know, getting in fights

online is always a losing battle.

I can't remember who said this. Mark Twain.

Never argue with a stupid person.

They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with

experience. And, and, and I know because

I've engaged in engaging in arguments online makes me

stupid. I don't do arguments online.

I get stupid when I do that. But what we post?

Online matters, and I'm not saying you have to post the same

things I post. I'm not saying anyone here has

to agree with me. No.

One goes to hell for disagreeing with the pastor, particularly

when the pastor is me. But as you're posting, as you're

conversing, as you're listening and hearing what others are

saying, we all have a responsibility to say how can I

promote life in this rather than death?

How can I stand against those who are promoting death rather

than life? How can I stand up for folks who

are suffering under the grip of those who are promoting death

rather than life? And this stuff is not easy to

sort out. And if you feel like that I

have, I have not faithfully reported and and shared facts

here today, then please come talk to me.

Don't, don't walk away just hating me.

You're free to do that. You can hate me as much as you

want. You're free to do that.

But I would much. Rather, we talk about it and if

I'm wrong, show me. If my facts are.

Wrong show me but. This is what I.

See, and this is what I know. That in the United.

States and in so many other countries that anti-Semitism

rises up again and again and again as a scapegoat for

problems and to get blamed. Israel is being accused of

genocide. Being accused of.

Genocide against the Palestinians?

Just one Palestinian citizens in Israel.

These are not folks living in Gaza or the West Bank.

These are citizens of Israel. 1948, when the modern nation of

Israel was established, there were 156,000 Palestinian

citizens of Israel. As of 2024, there were two

million Palestinian citizens in Israel.

Israel gained control of Gaza and the West Bank in 1967.

At that time, there were 1.4 million Palestinians living

Gaza, in the West Bank, living in Gaza, in the West Bank.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in the West Bank in 2005.

Palestinian Authority, I believe, had leadership in the

West Bank, took leadership in the West Bank.

Hamas took leadership in Gaza. But in 1967, there were 1.4

million Palestinians in Gaza in the West Bank.

As of 2024, there were five and a half million.

It's not genocide. It's it's just not.

And when when these kinds of slogans are repeated that are

just patently false, why does it so often seem to be against the

Jews? Why is that?

And decade after decade, century after century, millennia after

millennia, when things are not going good, why do so many

cultures, so often everything from the far right Nazis to the

far less communists in the Soviet Union, say it's the Jews.

It's the Jews. That was the claim of the Nazis

and the the Soviets. The Jews are wrecking our

country. They are destroying us.

That's why we have to destroy them.

And those same lies are getting repeated again and hundreds of

thousands of people are demonstrating to promote those

same lies. And I I believe we as followers

of Jesus Christ. Have a responsibility.

To stand against that. Not to drift to.

The other side and engage in a lot Islamophobia or or other

types of death dealing rhetoric or attitudes.

But to look as much. As we can at what's really

happening. And say where is.

God and this awful situation. And how can we?

Support life in this awful situation.

That is what I. Believe God has called us to.

In this in. This world.

I know I make mistakes. I suspect you do too.

And. And trying to make these kind of

decisions faithfully. So we pray for the mercy and the

guidance and direction of God in all of that.

In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.