Mary - blessed shame for better glory

(photo- screenshot from a Whatsapp status post)

The first Sunday of Advent has arrived….as we move into this week and think about the coming of our Saviour into the world as a humble baby, we also anticipate his return to this world as the reigning King of Kings.

The arrival of 'Advent' led me to think about the fact that this is less than one month out from Christmas. Although the time of our Saviour's birth was probably not December, Advent is still the time we mark in the weeks leading up to our Saviour's birth in Bethlehem. I began to also ponder that this point in the 'time line' is the time at which Jesus was not yet born, and the Shepherds and Wise Men were not yet alerted to his birth….but his birth was still anticipated by his parents, who were well aware of identity of the baby Mary was carrying.

As protestants I feel we can sometimes shy away from thinking too much about Mary, for fear of deifying or idolising her. However, Scripture tells us she is 'blessed among women' and the reality is that God chose her body to be the 'home' of God the Son from 'conception' till birth, and her life and testimony has much to teach us.

There is a modern song often sung at Christmas which asks the question: 'Mary did you know?' …if you don't know it,  The song poses various thoughts, phrased as questions you might want to ask Mary about various things we know now as we look back, but might wonder if she knew about at the time. The reality is that Mary did know some things about her special calling and mission. She was not totally walking 'blindly' unaware through her specially begun pregnancy and parenthood. The angel Gabriel had told her some facts about who this baby was going to be, and it's not something she could have just 'forgotten'. But she also didn't know all the details. Gabriel didn't tell her everything.

SO….As I ponder about this 'Advent' point in the lead-up to the birth which we remember at Christmas, 

I am reminded that Mary:

• would have been heavily pregnant and just a few weeks from the anticipated birth. Her days of waiting for this baby would soon be over and she would hold him in her arms. And maybe the census call had already gone out and she and her husband Joseph had to process the reluctance to travel at such a critical time, especially for her first pregnancy

• has had to move through the months of a pregnancy becoming evident, amidst the shame that she and Joseph had to bear from their entire community of 'becoming' pregnant before their full wedding had taken place. After all, how many people are going to believe some story of 'becoming pregnant by the Holy Spirit'?

• accepted a life-road of earthly shame by becoming the mother of Jesus. 

• gives me an example that what looks shameful to the world can be God working the glory of his purposes and plans.

• shows me if we are walking in God's will and calling, we will be misunderstood, mistreated, and maligned, as the world has no concept or category for God's work when it moves out of their sphere of understanding and experience.

• and her story highlights how a miracle (the virgin birth) in God's agenda can feel like a mystery or even a mire of false accusations and insults. Not only as we walk with God must we not rely on our own understanding (Prov 3:5-6) but we must also not gauge glory by whether other people understand or give glory or not. 

• had to trust God more than friends, family or community. 

• had to wait for the birth, and she would have had a mix of eager anticipation and anxious anticipation. She knew that her 'son' was going to be the Messiah, but she didn't know all that it would mean and she and Joseph would be entrusted with the immense responsibility of the earthly nurture and instruction of the Messiah as he grew.

• understood that God chooses the humble, lowly and unexpected, not the proud or elite. She understood that God's glory doesn't come the world's way.

•  sees herself as blessed and accepts the reality of the words that she is 'favoured'. 

• knew that to be 'favoured' by God can mean being shamed by the world.

• had to live in the experience of being shamed by the world in order to be favoured by God, but this prepared her for the unfolding of the story of the One she carried in her womb. Because... the Angel did not tell her every detail of what her baby's life would entail, or that her boy would have to die on a shameful cross. 

• also had to walk by faith. That which is recorded of what her cousin Elizabeth told her, and what the Shepherds and Wise Men told her, didn't mention the way he would be the Saviour and peace-bringer (Luke 1:41-45; 2:17-19; Matthew 2:11-12). Simeon however (Luke 2:45), told Mary when they took Jesus to present Him at the temple, that a sword would pierce her son's soul to accomplish something related to the needs of people's hearts. How much Mary understood, is not clear. But as much as Mary knew some things, there were other things that Mary didn't understand, at least at first. She, with Joseph, didn't understand what he was telling them when they couldn't find him one year on their trip to Jerusalem (Luke 2:50). She did know, however, that Jesus was the one to ask when shame of running out of wine at a wedding needed to be overcome and the host's loss of honour needed to be avoided (John 2). The Jews' understanding of the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, was to reign and rule in glory and release them from foreign rule. Mary seems to give no clear indication that she knew or understood about what was really coming for her son in relation to the cross. 

• stood at the foot of the cross looking up at her son when many others had fled and at least some of his earthly relatives had earlier thought him a mental health case (Mark 3:21). She was one of the few who were willing to stand in shame with the shamed one hanging on the cross. 

• was not just accepting shame in the eyes of the world as part of the 'package' of being Jesus' earthly mother, but she chose shame in the eyes of the world. She could have stayed away from the cross like so many others did. But she, with the other women (and John the disciple), willingly chose the associated public shame of being 'with' the shamed one being crucified. 

• knew that what seems like shame in the eyes of the world, may not be shame at all in God's eyes…it might be favour, it might be blessing, it might be glory. She knew that in God's plans, what earthly eyes see is never the whole story. Her song (Luke 1:46-55) tells us that she understood that God can turn the world's honour codes upside down. She would have had some idea that the shame of the cross might be God doing something else. And maybe it was her personal testimony story of assurance of God's blessing in the midst of the world's shame, that gave courage to a few other women and the one disciple John who stood with her at the foot of the cross watching in faith filled hope and trust, that even if it felt bad and others only accused or fled in fear, God was still doing something that they didn't understand. Mary Magdalene who was with her also certainly knew that Jesus could bring God's glory into situations of earthly shame.

• can teach me a great deal in regard to accepting, facing, enduring, and choosing shame and lack of honour in the eyes of this world, and trusting in God's better glory. In the light of the sure knowledge that as a servant of the living God and letting life be according to His word, we are given the gift of being able to look at circumstances with a different perspective. We can have the confidence that being divinely blessed can require being earthly shamed, and that's ok. It does not mean God has forsaken you, but rather in the midst of it all we can be assured that God is with us. We need to have eyes like Mary that weren't blind to God's favour just because of the appearance of earthly circumstances.

I am reminded that a few days after she stood at the foot of the cross, she would have given him honour and bowed down at his resurrected feet. She would have remembered once tiny feet that were now not just grown and road-worn, but permanently scarred and nail pierced. Her son had become her Saviour in a way she never dreamed of, and way beyond any thoughts she had pondered back when the angel visited her. 

I am reminded that one day those nail-pierced feet will return to earth again, and I with Mary and millions of others await His appearing.

I am reminded that in heaven I will get to meet Mary, the humble girl who willingly endured shame to be a blessed submissive obedient vessel, so that both she and I could receive the same salvation from the same Saviour, the gift of undeserved glory. 

I am reminded though that she will not want any glory for herself and will just point me and others to the Risen and glorified Christ, just as she did at the Cana wedding (John 2:5)

I am reminded as another Christmas nears to praise the Lord, that God by His grace, continues to grow my awareness of His grace more and more and little by little expand my understanding of the what the glory of Christmas really means.

Daniel's Deliverance and Stephen's Stoning - The Prosperity Gospel in Africa and God's Sovereignty in Suffering

We all like to hear stories with 'happy' endings.

When sin came into the world, it destroyed the happy ending.  On an earth level there is no happy ending anymore.

Yet we still desire it.  We know that the damage sin causes isn't 'right' or 'good'.  We long for something more.....and we give eternal praise to our loving Creator who made a way for a 'happy ending' to be returned.  But its not the happy ending of an 'earthly' definition and level - its one far greater and one that enables us to get through the story until then.  

One day there will be a 'happy ending' to surpass all happy endings when our sorrows and suffering will be replaced by joy and peace in the presence of our Saviour in the house of our Father.

But until then, happy endings on an earthly scale are not promised to us.  This earth is under the curse of the fall.  Our world is not perfect.

Unfortunately many churches like to promote the idea that if you come to Christ, everything will go well from then on - no sickness, disability, suffering, poverty etc etc.  Across Africa the Prosperity Gospel has promoted the idea that Christians get immunity not only from eternal suffering, but from present suffering.

But even if we are not part of a Prosperity Gospel context, it is easy to still focus on God's power as being primarily related to our physical life and positive outcomes on this earth.  We 'rejoice' when a disabled child 'beats the odds' and God intervenes in such a way that all the doctor's predictions of disaster don't come to pass. - a Daniel-type Deliverance.  We rejoice when a person gets the news that their cancer is in remission. We rejoice when a long awaited baby is born.  And there is nothing wrong with rejoicing in these circumstances - there would be something wrong if we didn't.

But we have to also be careful that we don't give the impression that God is good and God is answering prayer more when we get 'Daniel Deliverances' than when we see Stephen Stonings.  

We must not simply equate God with the circumstances we see.  

God can use circumstances we see to show His goodness, but God's goodness is far greater than the circumstances we see.  

As human beings living in the circumstances, this is very hard for us to take in at times.  

Circumstances can seem overwhelming.  

But if we focus on what we determine in our wisdom is a 'good' outcome, we run the danger of not doing 'good' to those God wants His 'goodness' to be shared with.  We can overlook those who are discouraged and suffering who need to be reminded and encouraged with the goodness of God's eternal loving purposes even though they are not seeing any 'Daniel Deliverances' in their life.

A few years back a 'Daniel Deliverance' situation occurred in the church we attended - a baby was born and the birth was a 'mess' to say the least.  It would be a miracle if the baby survived but the prognosis wasn't good.  He lived.  Not only did he live but apart from needing spectacles early on, there is hardly anything to suggest he had such a traumatic start to life.  Everyone rejoiced. His mum wrote a book sharing how good God was as He answered their prayers.

Yes God did deliver Daniel from the mouths of lions, but then Scripture also records Stephen's stoning. There was no deliverance.  He died from those stones.  God didn't divert them or paralyse the hands that tried to throw them or enable Stephen's body to remain undamaged by them.

I have just read a blog about another Mum who's son was also born with a bad prognosis.  She prayed and believed God could heal and enable her son to 'beat the odds'.  But years later he still hasn't beaten any odds.  We have dear friends who had two sons and both developed a genetic degenerative condition and died before they reached 25 - they didn't 'beat the odds'.  Another friend has a son with cerebral palsy and is still changing his nappies/diapers in his 20s - he hasn't 'beaten the odds'.

As I write this blog from my horizontal position while others enjoy the freedom of walking around at the shops or taking a walk through the bush, I am reminded that God was no less God at Stephen's stoning than He was at Daniel's Deliverance.  He was still working His purposes.

As my doctor starts asking me questions about menopause and has never had the need to ask me questions yet about how a pregnancy is progressing, I am reminded that God is still God whatever His purposes are.  Circumstances might not be my choosing but God isn't limited by what humans determine are good 'outcomes'.

Instead, God is working for His great eternal outcomes.  

He is working for the healing of souls from sin, not just the healing of bodies from disease and disability.  

He knows that a soul that trusts Christ in this life is saved from sin and thus automatically rescued from physical suffering in eternity.  But a body that is rescued from physical suffering in this life is not automatically saved from sin and death eternally. He doesn't enjoy seeing His creation suffer, and Jesus spent much of His earthly years healing people's bodies, but God has a higher priority than the temporal.

We need to be very careful when we rejoice with those who thank God for relief from physical suffering, that we explain the 'full story' in the process of preaching and discipleship .  

We need to make sure we focus on more than the 'physical' needs of people in our praise and in our prayer.

Some of you are probably familiar with the movie 'Facing the Giants'  - its a great movie in many ways, but while I rejoice for the many women who praise the Lord for answered prayer for a child, I feel for the many women who, like myself,  know that the gift of a child is not simply a result of our 'prayer', because they have prayed many prayers and still there is no child. 

Prayer is dependancy on God no matter what the outcomes, not manipulation of God to achieve our outcomes.  

So many around us here in Africa are yet to understand that.  

Prayer is not a ritual with magic powers.  Prayer is resting in the sovereignty of His Majesty the King of Kings.

In prayer and praise let's be sure to rejoice in God's purposes even when circumstances 'go wrong'.

Let's teach people in word and example to pray, trust, rejoice and rest in God's sovereignty no matter what the circumstances.

Both Daniel and Stephen entrusted themselves in prayer to their Creator for His purposes.  Their earthly circumstance 'outcomes' people saw, were different at the time.  But their eternal outcomes were the same.....they both died physically (Daniel still died at a later date) and they both live eternally.....and I look forward to meeting both of them in the resurrection!

And as a PS...we might think a Stoning is not deliverance, or a child that 'doesn't beat the odds' isn't deliverance, or infertility is not deliverance, but ultimately as Christians we are part of the greatest deliverance of history - Christ died for us.  

He brought eternal deliverance!  And the ability this gives us to rejoice in Christ's work and the Father's purposes no matter what the circumstances, is a greater deliverance. 

We are delivered from being defined and directed by our circumstances.  

We are part of a greater story than just what we see during our small window of time on this earth.

As the Mum in the blog mentioned above, said " Deliverance hasn't come from our circumstances.  But God doesn't need Calvin [her son's name] to beat the odds in order to prove his goodness, faithfulness, power and salvation. Our weakness is precisely what he is using to show his power and presence."

The "Mary" Honour Blessing that Prosperity Churches Don’t Want

Christmas has just passed and many of us will have heard the Christmas story read in our churches from chapter 1 of Luke or Matthew

In these passages we read about how the Angel Gabriel brought news of pregnancy both to Elizabeth and her young cousin Mary. Both refer to the messages as evidence of God showing them His favour. 

Two Women, Two Miracles

The news to Elizabeth brought a removal of her shame: 

Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people

Some translations use the word 'disgrace' instead of 'reproach', but both mean shame.  The New Living Translation, instead of saying 'among people' gives cultural meaning to the words by saying 'disgrace of having no children'.  In other words the blessing was that God removed her cultural and earthly shame of infertility.

The news to Mary, however, which was almost identical in that it was an announcement that she was to have a baby, had a different immediate earthly outcome.  Both babies were unexpected miracles that seemed to be outside the realms of possibility (Elizabeth being humanly too old to conceive and Mary not having 'known' a man in a sexual way), and Mary's miracle is also described by the Angel as evidence of God's favour in Luke 1:28,30:

And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!"

And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

 But the news to Mary didn't remove any public shame.  Instead it brought shame for Mary and for Joseph.  

Joseph, when he found out the news, wanted to divorce Mary quietly and 'privately' so as to avoid public shame and disgrace.  However, with God's intervention through the angel's visit to Joseph in a dream, he didn't divorce her. Instead he and Mary had to live with the rumours, stories and shame that went with a baby being concieved by Mary while they were still in the betrothal period.

So we have two women, two stories of good news of a baby, and two stories of favour from God, but one brought relief from earthly shame and one was the very means of bringing earthly shame.

Earthly Shame in Eternal Honour

This raises a significant issue that Prosperity churches, here in Africa especially, don't talk about.  

It's the issue that honour from God may equal shame on earth.

It's an issue I've spoken about before on this blog and an issue that needs to be re-calibrated for many Africans.

Culturally for Africans, earthly shame is the only shame to factor into life.  When a person becomes a Christian, they think that the type of honour God gives, is honour according to how they understand honour.  And so if Scripture says believers 'will not be put to shame' (eg Romans 9:33), it is understood Christians will never experience shame on earth if they are truly living in God's favour, blessing and honour.  It is believed that blessing from God always equals earthly shame removed.

But here, in Scripture, are two women, who God tells us in His word, were godly, blessed and favoured, but the outcome for one of them was only earthly shame compounded and heaped on.

Yet, did Mary seek God to remove her shame and seek a prophet for deliverance from such a curse, deciding it could not be of God because it brought shame to her and her husband? No. 

Mary recognised that God's honour can result in earthly shame, but God's honour always, always is supreme over any earthly shame.  

As we look at her praise song, often called the 'magnificat' (in Luke 1:46-55), she knew that God looks on the humble, and exalts the humble.  He feeds the poor and hungry and sends the rich away empty. God humbles the proud and brings them down.  God's accounting system of what is of high value honour status and what is of low value was the opposite of her culture's accounting system of honour and shame.

She knew that in God's system of things, honour and shame were not just about today and what people around might say today.  She didn't just live for today.  She was a woman who lived for God's eternal purposes.  She knew that a day would come when future generations would call her 'blessed' even if they didn't just now.  What God thought of her, and that God chose her, was of far, far greater value to her than what others around might say. 

In the events which spelt 'Earthly shame' for Mary, she described as her 'mighty' and 'holy' God doing 'great things' for her.

This is the message we have to preach, preach, preach, counsel, counsel, counsel, teach, teach, teach, live, live, live……especially here in Africa.  Because it is a message that is mis-understood - in endemic proportions!

Sadly its a message of truth that is not only opposite to cultural honour and shame values, but it is opposite to the teaching of a huge number of churches and TV preachers across this continent.

It's passages like the first chapter of Luke and Matthew that have to be looked at with non-Western eyes and seen for the rich truth they have to speak powerfully into honour/shame dominated hearts.

Be Willing for a "Mary" Plan 

Yes, we can be thankful when God's plan and favour include a removal of earthly shame, like for Elizabeth. 

But we need to help folk understand that instead of an 'Elizabeth plan', God might have a 'Mary plan'. ….a plan that from our temporary, 'now', earthly perspective looks shameful, but from an eternal, future and heavenly perspective is of great blessing. 

If God brought His greatest gift to the world through a 'Mary plan' of earthly shame (of which Jesus' conception was only the beginning of much earthly shame for him and his family), then why should we even begin to doubt that He can bring great blessing to us and the world through what seems to us as shameful means in the eyes of those around us?

Let us lift our eyes to heaven just as Mary did and praise and thank the Lord for whatever situations He chooses for us - whether honourable or shameful in the eyes of the culture around us - trusting that God sees more than we do, knows more than we do, has much bigger plans than we do and loves us more than we can imagine.  

The honour God wants us to enjoy is on a 'Mary' scale - He wants us to know the type of joy Mary had as she praised her Lord and Saviour for the great favour and honour He bestowed upon her even though it meant her life was about to be clouded in earthly shame.

Let's not choose joy and honour limited by worldly and cultural terms.  Let's choose joy and honour that supercedes earthly definitions!  Let's not just seek God for 'Elizabeth plans', but be eagerly willing and rejoice in 'Mary plans' too!

False Christmas Hope.....and the True!

…it’s one of the words often seen as part of Christmas decorations or on Christmas cards, and its because the true message of Christmas brings true HOPE and we should never lose sight of it.

The World needs it more than anything.

Recently it was reported that Michelle Obama was interviewed by Oprah and she expressed her thought that she felt that under her husband’s administration there was ‘hope’ and that this was evident by the fact that she believes there is now a lack of ‘hope’.  She went on to say:

"Hope is necessary. It's a necessary concept….

"I mean, he and I and so many believe  what else do you have if you don't have hope?

"What do you give your kids if you can't give them hope?”

…...Hey, it's gonna be OK. Let's remember the good things that we have. Let's look at the future. Let's look at all the things that we're building'."
"All of this is important for our kids to stay focused and to feel like their work isn't in vain, that their lives aren't in vain,”

How sad!

But this is a reflection of how people understand hope.

The hope they seek is based on what they see.  Mrs Obama wants people to ‘look’ at the good things we have, what we are building and what we think the future is going to be.

Unfortunately, much of the reason people don’t have hope is because of what they see.

And when we start building hope only in what we see, in what we do, and what we have and what we think lies ahead, we are building false hope on unstable sinking sand.

You see when we are brutally honest with ourselves we know we are not the biggest and most powerful force on the planet.  An accident, bad health, terrorism or the evil of others, and our own foolishness or inadequacy can wipe out or prevent what we put our hope in.  Deep down, apart from God, we know our lives and efforts are all in vain….just have heart-to-heart counsel with a few people and read the book of Ecclesiates.

We are fearful because we have lost hope in what we see and have no hope beyond our human existence with its limitations and risks and even our smallness in the face of natural disasters.  We know we are not all-powerful, and when life looks ‘uncertain’ to any degree to our own eyes, we lose hope.

Just finding ways to instill greater hope in ourselves and our world doesn’t ultimately build hope - its destroys hope….because it excludes the only ONE who can bring a sure hope to us.  To tell ourselves over and over that we determine our own destiny, or that we can do anything, or that we are in control, and even that we can instil hope in others, is to set ourselves up for a fall!

photo credit: CreativeCommons2.0

BUT, in the midst of reminders that what we do see is not secure,  Jesus brings hope for what we don’t see.  

When He came into this world, he didn’t come to encourage hope for this world, but to bring hope despite this world and beyond this world.  The Jews, like the Obamas, and so many like them, were/are looking for a change in politics, circumstances, education, health cover, and laws to bring hope.  The Jews wanted Jesus to change their circumstances and be a new earthly ruler to conquor their enemies.  

But Jesus came to be an eternal ruler to conquor the greatest enemy - sin and death.

People in our world are looking for hope through rescue from their earthly fears and concerns, - through better circumstances as they understand it.

But the message of Christmas is that the hope promoted by the Obamas is an empty and false hope and will ultimately dissapoint in this life, and destory, bringing death in the ‘life' to come. It doesn’t matter which human being or which human ability or which human achievement we put hope in, it is not a secure or sure hope.  It will not only be empty of all it promised but it will bring the opposite of all it promised.  It will bring heartache and turmoil and despair, because at some point it will fail us.

But Jesus is the one in whom we can have true hope - He brings answers and enabling and joy and peace to this life and brings the true and sure hope of victory over death. He brings eternal hope.

I started this post by saying how sad it is that this world is only looking to itself for hope.

But I want to finish with how glad I am that this world is verbalising that it is looking to itself, and that at this Christmas time, we can agree that it is hopeless if we only look at this world. To tell ourselves something is hopeful when it is hopeless is foolish and destructive, because God says a ‘fool has said in his heart there is no God’. When we only look to this world for hope, we are functioning as if there is no God.

Recognising the hopelessness of what can never truly offer us hope anyhow, is actually a good start on the road to discovering there is true hope on offer - from the ONE who is not only bigger and more powerful and in control of what we aren’t, but He is our Creator and loves us and wants the best for us……

And then the good news is that God has not ceased to exist or care just because we have rejected or ignored Him…..that is why He sent Jesus, to be and bring THE hope which we had lost sight of. He reminds us this world is not that which will give us hope, and it was never meant to be.

God alone, in Jesus - Immanuel, God with us, brings true hope.  

Don’t settle for the false.  

And this Christmas, share this truth with the world!….and REJOICE in the wonderful HOPE we have!

"Privileged" - Dr Helen Roseveare - goes to be with her Lord

This week Dr Helen Roseveare went to be with her Lord aged 91

Famous for her books and speaking at conferences around the world, she served the Lord as a missionary medical Doctor in the Congo (which became Zaire and is now the DRC-Democratic Republic of Congo just a couple of countries to our north.)

Her unwavering faith and commitment to serve her Lord and His faithfulness to her in the midst of some of the most horrifying of circumstances including rape by rebel soldiers, has been a great example to me from long before I ever became a fellow missionary in Africa.

I remember hearing/seeing her speak at a Keswick Convention I attended with my parents when I was young. She shared our lunch table on one of the days too, and her name and stories were firmly etched into my memory. They played a part in the picture I formed of a 'missionary' as a child.  I read some of her books that my mum had on her bookshelf and have some on my own bookshelf now too. Probably the two main things that impacted me from her life was that there is a cost to serving the Lord but that at the same time God is totally faithful and able to do above and beyond what we ask or think.

In more recent days one of the stories from her life went viral on the internet - the story of the prayed for hot water bottle and little doll.

As she would speak in various places she would emphasise that God's grace is sufficient.  She would also repeatedly emphasise that she felt her walk with Christ including suffering for His sake, was just an amazing privilege....another word for privilege is 'honour'....she is such a wonderful example of the great peace, joy, contentment and thankfulness that comes into a person's life when they feel the great undeserved favour and honour of God in being His child.

A tribute on The Gospel Coalition website posted this quote of Dr Roseveare's

God never uses a person greatly until He has wounded him deeply.
The privilege He offers you is greater than the price you have to pay.
The privilege is greater than the price.”
—Helen Roseveare

Here is an interview she had on 100 Huntley Street (its in four parts so you have to click on each part to watch it) - and if you click across to watch them on YouTube directly many other videos will come up of her sharing in one-on-one interviews or with hundreds in large audiences.

Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me! - X - NotTrue!

Last weekend I had a small discipleship session with a couple of ladies.

One of the topics that came up that they had questions on was in regard to persecution as Christians.

November - the month for prayer focus for the persecuted church 

In the Western church we have heard of and pray for those suffering persecution around the world.  In fact this month - November - is deemed the month of prayer for the persecuted church around the world.  

As Westerners we may think persecution is something only experienced by people far away.  

This perspective maybe comes from an understanding that persecution is primarily physical persecution - torture, imprisonment, loss of homes, jobs, violent invasion of communities, people dying at gunpoint.  We think of people like John and Betty Stam or Richard Wurmbrand.

Physical suffering and persecution is a horrible situation and certainly deserves our attention and prayers.

Something beyond physical persecution

But there is another side of persecution - the psycho-social side......shame.

Physical persecution and suffering involves both the threat and taste of physical death through everything from minor discomfort to intense pain - its about separation from life and life-giving provision.

Psycho-social persecution and suffering involves both the threat and taste of psycho-social death through everything from minor embarrassment to intense shaming - its about separation from relationships and the protection of community.

In the West, we have begun to experience on a much greater scale in recent years, the power and prevalence of public shaming through social media.

And in China there has begun a process to implement a new 'social credit' system that aims to pressure people to conform to expectations economically and socially. (Thankyou Jackson Wu for bringing attention to this on your blog) If people do not conform, strong shaming measures will be enforced. What they are calling 'sincerity' and 'trust-keeping' is to be desired in all aspects of society and everyone is to know that if they don't do what is expected then they will experience punishment via blacklisting and other withdrawal of privileges systems.  

The document says the system is to ".....shape a thick atmosphere in the entire society that keeping trust is glorious and breaking trust is disgraceful, and ensure that sincerity and trustworthiness become conscious norms of action among all the people."

If you conform, your name (reputation) will be positive, whereas if you don't conform your name will be an embarrassment and cause you shame and separation.  There is hope that the fear of the latter and yearning for the former will drive behaviour.

Interestingly this seems to be a situation of a very strong honour/shame culture wanting to find continued success on the international playing field and in the process discovering their own society has been influenced by non-China-approved beliefs and behaviours.  As a result they want to find a way of forcing the populous to obey laws through social pressure to conform - via fear of shaming for non-conformity and reward of honour for conformity.

They are putting what the West would term as 'breaking the law', in terms of 'breaking trust', as they understand the concept of trust based on loyalty to the greater community.  They want to protect the reputation of China in the eyes of the world as well as preserve the power of the governing Socialist party and political system.

This could bring a very interesting new wave of persecution.

There is impact whether formally or informally enforced

And lest the West sit back and believe it could never happen in the West, beware!  China is simply trying to make formal what the West through social media and public opinion is already doing informally......and also beginning to do formally as we consider the current debates and law changes surrounding same-sex marriage.

Both China and the West thoroughly understand (whether consciously or unconsciously) the fallacy of the Western proverb that 'names will never hurt me'.  

And its time for the West to 'wake up' to that reality.

And furthermore, its time for the Western church to wake up to the honour/shame realities within their own culture and within every human heart....To realise that shame before people as a manipulation tool for destruction will only be overcome when the church realises what Scripture teaches about honour and shame, and how that it is only in Christ that shame can be covered and true honour bestowed.

As the church teaches members what it means to persevere under persecution, the first step is to realise that persecution means more than physical torment.
Preparing for only physical persecution will fail the church in preparing her for psycho-social persecution.

As we pray for the persecuted church this month, let us also be alert to how we can better prepare for persecution and bear up under persecution that is flowing fast toward the Western church.