On this Memorial Day, I will remember Steve Farley. Peacemaker. Friend. Patriot. If you want to know his story, read on .... 2014 years since the full revelation of God’s love was shown to us in the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. 2014 years since the Holy Spirit was poured out on “all”. I want to lift up a testimony of Donna Farley, and her children. Donna is the widow of my friend, Steve Farley. Steve Farley and I served in the Navy together. Genuine. Honest. In the Navy we called folks like that a “sailor’s sailor”. Respected. Openly Christian. Great man. His father was a WWII veteran. His brother a Vietnam Veteran. Steve finished his 25 years in the Navy and retired. Started his own business. 9/11 happened. When the tide turned and it was becoming clear we were going to defeat Al Qaeda, the State department began extensive efforts to equip and train the folks of Iraq for democracy. Capitalism. Business. The State department asked Steve Farley to go and help stand up the Sadr City Chamber of Commerce and city Council. Steve and Donna had had just celebrated a birthday of their granddaughter, Rebekah. Rebekah was the apple of Steve’s eye. He and Donna had 3 boys. Steve did what patriots do, and went to Iraq. He came back a changed man. I can remember asking him… “how’s that gonna turn out over there?” He told me they were awesome people. Great people. I remember asking, what do they want? He said “same thing you and I want”. They want to be able to raise their families without fear. They want to be able to worship God without fear of the government telling them what to do. They want to love their children and their grandchildren. They want to prove that Osama Bin Laden does NOT represent their beliefs or their religion. Steve told me he “danced in their tents” and ate supper with them as often as they invited him, and it seemed almost every night. They wanted to learn and grow jobs and find peace and stability for their country. Steve brought some of them home to the states with him, to take him to our chamber of commerce meetings. They danced in his living room to George Strait songs. He said they never did get cotton eyed joe figured out. In late 2007, Several of us got a call from Steve with a prayer request. They were doing such good work in Sadr City and He was planning to go back for another one year assignment. However, Steve found out that he found out there was a $1mm bounty on his head. Muqtada Al Sadr wanted him dead. We prayed for Steve, and he went back. On June 6th, 2008, Steve and 7 Iraqi city council members were killed when a bomb exploded in the meeting room. It was one of the worst days of my life… but nothing compared to what Steve’s wife Donna went through. And his boys. We just never imagined it would happen to Steve. Why do I tell you this story? Because Donna Farley told me that she, and all her family, have forgiven the bomber. She’s forgiven Muqtada Al Sadr. It was hard to do, very hard. She came to realize that it was maybe not humanly possible to do so. She prayed and asked God to give them the grace to forgive them. God is faithful. They would not let the anger and bitterness destroy their family. They see Steve’s story of what we are called to do. Go to the risky place. Go and seek peace. Few of us will be called to go and make peace with a $1mm bounty on our heads. Praise God for the courage and life and contributions of all those who go to defeat evil, and pay the ultimate price for free people everywhere. Our next reading continues where that question.. “who is my neighbor”… left off… Luke chapter 10: verses 29-37 After the second reading: Crossing the road to help the victim of evil. Do you suppose the people of Sudan could fit into that parable? How do we “know” when it’s evil we need to oppose? The killing of the innocent. Starvation. Genocide. When they don’t let girls go to school, that’s usually a sign. Osama Bin Laden picked a “few” verses out of the Koran and turned it into a theology of hate. Or the folks in Libya? When you kill to stay in power, that’s a sign of evil. The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. That’s how Jesus described evil. Let’s be clear about this: No one in the military service - past, present, or future, wants to go to war. People who go to war have seen the price we pay. Our children who survive, come back damaged, terribly, with Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injuries, amputations, horrific wounds. No warrior wants to go to war. We want the diplomats to work out a peaceful solution. No General or Admiral can sent troops into war. Only a civilian President can. Warriors also understand that you cannot negotiate with evil bent on destruction. Stalin killed millions. Hitler killed millions. Mao Se Tung killed millions. Some estimate as many as 200 million people killed by those three evil persons. War is never the answer, but it is sometimes necessary. Pray for the diplomats that they can bring a cease fire. I hope and pray we will never have another war. Its an overused quote, but I believe its true. The only thing necessary for evil to win, is for good people to do nothing. Will you join me in our opening hymn? Let there be peace on earth… UMH 431. It’s our tradition to stand to hear the gospel. Matthew 18: Brother and Sisters, at the Ministerial Alliance Meetings and all over town, I’ve been hearing about the “Simpsons” family. Real family. I’ve changed their name to the Simpsons. Don’t be mistaken: Sinners. Unrepentant sinners. Possibly thieves. Like I’ve mentioned before, in small towns, every body knows everybody’s history and business. I’ve yet to meet a soul in Mason county that hasn’t heard of the “Simpsons” family. And there is, what appears to be, 100% consensus that they are sinners. Many folks suggest they may be guilty of the sin of Lot and his daughters in Genesis.. or the sin of Judah and Tamar At the alliance meetings, I’ve been told the churches “used to” help them. Helped them a lot; and often. And the churches were taken advantage of. More than once. I’ve heard stories about how the “Simpsons” family figured out how to get 7 free turkeys instead of 1 turkey. Several hams, instead of 1 ham. A few weeks ago, one member of the “Simpsons” family was driving and flipped the vehicle over. A young woman named Amanda Boone, of London, was killed. Her funeral was yesterday in Junction. The Question is: should we help the “Simpsons” family? The daughter is in jail; her driving, it appears, has led to the death of Amanda Boone. She must need some help … don’t you think? Do you believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be THE REVELATION OF GOD? IF YOU BELIEVE THEM TO BE THE REVELATION OF GOD, do you believe them to be the only infallible rule of faith and practice? IF SO, what kind of people does God expect us to be? I suppose we struggle mightily with these questions of how long we forgive or how many times we help someone who takes advantage of us, because sometimes it feels like its not humanly possible. I want to suggest to you that if we look at the world through the Bible, and our great and loving God, we’ll see that tragedies are where God does great work. God is in the resurrection business. I’ve been fortunate to have known many WWII veterans. All of them describe the horrific damage done to Europe and Japan. Some of them have described the Jews they found alive in the Prisoner of War death camps. They all tell me, it was impossible to imagine anything good. They were beat up, traumatized, and had experienced the death of many of their friends. Today Germany and Japan are great allies of our country. Today Germany and Japan are great forces of stability and good in the world. In 2000, the President of Germany, on the invitation of Elie Wielese, went to the Knesset, the Congress of Israel, and asked the Jewish people to forgive the German people. No one ever imagined that could have happened. The Jewish people never imagined the Germans would come and ask, and the Germans never imagined the Jewish people could ever forgive them. They did, and they did. Praise be to God. I know Korean war veterans. at the cease fire, the same story. Korea was a wasteland. Devastated. No one there could imagine any good coming from it. Today, S. Korea is a thriving country and economy. Korea, per capita, sends more Christian evangelists into the world than any other country. Eleven years after 9/11, there is greater cooperation among nations, for the defeat of terrorism, than anyone could have imagined. Much good will continue to come out of the 9/11 attacks. More good than you and I can imagine. That’s the story of our God. Time after time, after we sin against each other, rebel against God’s ways.. and cause much destruction and death… God shows up and makes good out of what some folks intended for evil. How much good? Well that depends on you and I. You see, without us, God won’t… and without God, we can’t. God invites us to be in the reconciliation business, too. God invites us to make peace in our families. In our churches. In our towns. But it starts with you and I. We serve a great loving and giving God. God invites us to forgive the unforgivable because that act of love might be the time they choose to repent and believe the Good News. And it’s a double blessing. Because when we ask God to fill us with the grace and Spirit necessary to forgive the unforgiveable, we get blessed. We get changed. We get transformed. We can witness to the power of God’s love to change our hearts. We want to ask: Lord, if Al Qaeda causes destruction and death to my loved ones, my fellow citizens, in my backyard, why do I even need to forgive once? “Lord, if the “Simpsons” family continues to sin, and take advantage of our giving, why do we need to give them even one more box of food”? And Peter asked, “how about 7 times”… ? would that meet your standard Jesus? Look at that question again, on the front of the bulletin: Do you believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Revelation of God? Our teaching today from Jesus is straightforward. No big analysis needed. 7 times 70. Forgive like God forgives you. It might sound like this: “since I have been forgiven by God, of ALL my sins, past, present, and future, how could I DO anything but forgive you”? Jesus says throw your calculators away. The width and depth of God’s love is unlimited. Don’t limit God’s grace. Get rid of that calculator. And we believe God is working, 24/7 to reach the “Simpsons” family. They are his children, too. Pray, church, pray, that Al Qaeda, the “Simpsons” family, and all those God puts in our path … pray that they see God’s love in us, and that they might choose to repent and enter recovery. When our great grand children begin to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the United States of America.. what will they find in the archives? What did we stand for? What did we “DO” during the great drought of 2011? Were we a Bible believing country? Did we do the hard work of forgiving those who don’t deserve it? Did we still go to combat evil wherever it showed its ugly face on the planet? Did we still go to fight for the Bibi Aisha’s of the world? When Al Qaeda or the Taliban or whatever the new name of evil is… starts cutting the noses off women who don’t obey, will we go? Steve Farley did. Will they find that we believed the scriptures contained in the Old and New Testaments were the revelation of God, and those scriptures called us to be a radically forgiving church … a loving church? Would that be good fruit? Could our legacy be that we were so radically obedient, our “reputation” was that we were too forgiving and too loving? Too loving, that is, in the worldview of the religious people. Not too loving, when we read what Jesus said. 7 times 70. Forgive like God forgives you. Maybe our legacy was our membership was full of gentiles, sinners, and tax collectors. Maybe full of forgiven sinners, trying to repent, and live like they believe the Good News. Will God ever reconcile the Muslims, the Jews, the Christians, the outsiders, the least, the lost, and the lonely? Yep, sure will. Read Revelation 21 and 22 for a brief description. When will God do this? Don’t know. What shall we do til then? Remember Steve Farley. Choose a faithful response when you see your neighbor on the other side of the road. That’ll keep us on the “right road” Amen.
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 12:43:19 +0000
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