© 2015 The Wired Word
www.thewiredword.com
Last week, the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, observed the 70th
anniversary of the atomic bombing of their cities on August 6 and 9, 1945,
respectively. The bombs, dropped by American forces, were the first and only
times atomic weapons have been detonated during warfare.
Because the bombings obliterated many people, estimates of the dead in the
two cities run the wide gamut between 129,000 and 226,000. Many were killed
outright, and many others died in the days and months following from injuries,
burns, radiation sickness and other illnesses.
Japan announced its surrender to the Allies on August 15, 1945, effectively
ending World War II.
While the bombings' role in Japan's surrender and the ethical justification
for employing the atomic weapons are still debated, one of the reasons the
United States decided to drop the nuclear bombs was the assumption that an
invasion of Japan to end the war would prove even more costly in terms of
lives, among both the Allies and the Japanese. In other words, in the reasoning
of those in the U.S. responsible for directing the war, and especially
then-President Harry Truman, of the available options to end the war, none of
which were appealing, the bombings were considered to be the least costly in
terms of Allied lives and the most likely to end the war quickly.
Since that war, the term "nuclear option" has come into the common
parlance. While it has a specific meaning related to the U.S. Senate (changing
that body's rules to enable judicial and executive nominees to be confirmed
with just 51 votes instead of 60, a change that would figuratively blow up the
Senate), it more commonly means "the most drastic or extreme response
possible to a particular situation."
More on this story can be found at these links:
More on the Nuclear Option
In our lives, there come occasions when we consider -- and sometimes
actually employ -- nuclear options regarding some situation. Obviously, nothing
can truly compare to the horrors of nuclear war, but here are some examples
members of The Wired Word team thought of:
• Parents of a teenager who continually refuses to obey household rules
finally decide, after his most recent and outrageous misbehavior, to have him
arrested.
• The husband of a woman who has a serious alcohol problem but won't
acknowledge it calls in friends, family members and her employer to together
confront her and tell her of how her drinking is affecting them (this is
typically called an "intervention"), with a view toward having her
agree to enter a treatment program.
• Judges who order young offenders into short-stay "shock
imprisonments" in hopes of keeping them from becoming repeat offenders.
• Parents who decide to take away their kids' cell phones to stop them from
spending so much time using them at the expense of family time.
• A man who deals with his addiction to online pornography by ripping out his
Internet connection.
• A married woman who deals with her temptation to have an affair with a man at
work by changing jobs, even though she earns less at the new job.
The Big Questions
1. When have you faced a situation so difficult that you exhausted all of
the common solutions without success, and thus confronted the situation with a
drastic means that you would not normally have considered? How did your nuclear
option work?
2. What are the Christian principles we should weigh whenever we consider
using an extreme means to deal with a persistent problem?
3. When the only solution we can think of to a problem is drastic and may
have long-term unpleasant repercussions, can it still be a Christian
action? Why or why not?
4. Are so-called nuclear options examples of the ends justifying the means?
If so, what does our Christian faith have to say about that?
5. Are there times when it seems Christian principles must be abandoned
because we live in a fallen world?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Mark 9:43, 47
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to
enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable
fire. ... And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for
you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be
thrown into hell ... (For context, read 9:42-48.)
Call this "the amputation cure." While we are certain that Jesus
did not mean these words to be taken literally, the very rawness of the
metaphor of cutting off your hand and plucking out your eye points out that he
was talking about taking drastic measures to avoid remaining in sin. If nothing
else, it was a vivid, metaphorical way of saying that we must stop doing those
things that harm us and others.
And let's be clear that Jesus is talking about very dangerous stuff. Our
Bible version has Jesus saying, "And if your hand causes you to stumble
...." Another translation says "And if your hand causes you to sin
...." But in either case, the underlying Greek word Jesus used is scandalon,
which in one form means the bait-stick in a trap -- the arm on which bait is
placed to lure an animal to its own destruction.
Regarding these destructive behaviors, we can pray for two things: First, we
can pray for the courage to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves -- to not kid
ourselves but to view clearly when we are trying to pretty something up rather
than see it for what it is. And second, we can pray for the ability to
understand what things we can take responsibility for ourselves.
Question: In what ways can the church help us to stop doing
things that are destructive to our well-being?
Exodus 11:1
The LORD said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and
upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you
go, he will drive you away." (For context, read 11:1-8; 12:29-32.)
This is the introductory sentence to the account of the 10th plague God sent
upon the Egyptians. That plague, the death of every firstborn among the
Egyptians but not among the Israelites, is the one that finally caused Pharaoh
to let the Israelites, who had been slaves in Egypt, leave the country. While
all of the plagues were harsh, the first nine were all {ITALIC}lesser methods
than this 10th one, which, unlike the others, was irreversible. It was, in
effect, a nuclear option.
Questions: When have you had to employ irreversible means
to deal with an intractable problem? Were there any other viable
options? Do you have any regrets? How does God help you be at peace with what
you decided to do?
Luke 18:22
There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the
money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.
(For context, read 18:18-25.)
Jesus spoke these words to the rich, young ruler in response to the latter's
question, "... what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (v. 18). It
was an answer tailored especially for this man's circumstances, and called for
action drastic enough that we can dub it a nuclear option.
Sadly, the young man chose not to exercise it.
But consider someone from recent times who did: Before co-founding Habitat
for Humanity, Millard Fuller was successful in business. But after his wife,
Linda, left him, he realized that his material wealth was blocking him from
serving God. He traveled to New York to try to convince Linda to come back to
him. She was not easily convinced that he could turn back from his headlong
rush for material wealth. Millard recalls: "We were in a taxi right after
Linda and I had a very tearful session. We'd gone to Radio City Music Hall and
they showed the movie Never Too Late. It was about a woman's getting
pregnant after she thought it was too late. The message was that it's never too
late to change anything."
Fuller continues, "I had a sensation of light in that taxi. It was not
anything spooky. All I can say is it just came into my head: Give your money
away, make yourself poor again and throw yourself on God's mercy. I turned to
Linda and said, 'I believe that God just gave me the idea to give all our money
away; give everything away.' She said, 'I agree. Let's do it.'" Friends,
family, even pastors tried to talk them out of it. "I told them no, if I
think about it I won't do it, because it's not logical. But I believe that God
is calling us to do this."
Questions: When have you felt God was calling you to do
something you would never have considered on your own? How did you test that
calling? How did you respond? What was the outcome? Have you ever turned your
back on an opportunity to really commit to a ministry to which you felt called?
How do you now feel about that outcome?
John 13:3-5
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and
that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off
his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a
basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel
that was tied around him. (For context, read 13:1-17.)
One form a nuclear option can take is the radical example. Here in this text
about an event at the Last Supper, Jesus taught his disciples about serving
others by departing from the usual practice of a master being served by others
and taking on the lowly task of washing their feet, a practice normally
performed by a slave.
Questions: What principle might you need to demonstrate
with your life to positively affect an ongoing problem in one of your
relationships? What limits have you placed on your participation in ministry
and service to others? How comfortable are you with these limits?
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (For context,
read 3:1-17.)
When the TWW team was talking about examples of nuclear options, team member
Peter Surran said, "Of course, the entire Christian story -- God becoming
human, suffering, dying and rising again for our redemption -- might be
considered the ultimate nuclear option!"
Indeed.
Questions: Did the extreme lengths God went to in sending
his own Son to die for humankind have any impact on your decision to receive
Jesus? If not, what part of the gospel message did?
For Further Discussion
1. Discuss this, from TWW team member Mary Sells: "To me, the nuclear
options of God are really about radical change, things done that transform life
and cannot be undone -- from which there is no turning back. In a sense, that
is faith history of the entire Bible.
"A nuclear option is God battling Pharaoh for the
release of his people through the person of Moses, hidden by God in a radical
way (an Israelite baby raised by the oppressor), who would lead God's people
through many changes toward freedom and faith. God is revealing himself to be
the one true God to a chosen group of people, a radical change from their
worship of multiple gods or mythological characters that was common then.
"A nuclear option is wiping out all but the selected
ones. Noah carries them on the ark through the great flood so that a new world
can be established. There are ongoing examples of God's intervention in the Old
Testament to try to make a good life and great relationship with his people,
yet the people always went backward from God toward other temptations.
"Eventually that leads to the biggest nuclear option, the personification
of God in Jesus walking among the people and offering a new path to a right
life and eternity with God via the death and resurrection of himself."
2. Respond to this from TWW team member Charles Alkula: "I was
stationed in Iwakuni, Japan (about 30 km south of Hiroshima), as a chaplain
with the U.S. Marines. I've been to both Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and they are
very sobering places to visit. As an American, I was painfully aware that
everyone who saw me there knew it was my country that did this. That was the
primary reason U.S. personnel were forbidden to venture off base on the
anniversaries of the bombings.
"As an interesting point, the target point in
Hiroshima is across the street from where the Hiroshima Carp play baseball. It
is strange in a fashion to be cheering for the team and at the same time
hearing the peace gong being rung."
3. TWW team member Doug Hargis comments: "One of the problems facing
America today is the problem of Iran's nuclear ambitions. That's a problem
worth figuratively using the nuclear option -- an extreme and all-out attack on
a problem. As Christians in today's world, Jesus calls upon us to do everything
in our power to be makers of peace with Iran. Jesus could not be clearer than
this: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God'
(Matthew 5:9). The apostle Paul in Romans 12:20 quotes Proverbs 25:21-22: 'If
your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to
drink.' The effect is to turn an enemy into a friend -- real peacemaking."
What would constitute an "all-out attack" on the
problem of Iran's nuclear ambitions? What tactics would be excluded as
inappropriate? Does the current proposed treaty with Iran go far enough? Does
it go too far? How would you advise your congressional representatives to vote
on the proposed treaty? How could the United Nations be involved in solving
this problem? What can your church do to impact a peaceful coexistence with Iran?
What action could you take personally with someone from Iran in your community?
Responding to the News
Jesus' words about cutting off our hand or plucking out an eye remind us
that when the results of a certain course of action or a certain way of thinking
are likely to be disastrous, then drastic measures -- the equivalent of
amputation -- are necessary. But often, despite the danger, we cling to our old
habits, behaviors and attitudes that have gotten us into trouble in the past.
We recycle them throughout our lives as if each one were made of the most
precious resources available. There are some obvious things we can say -- and do
-- about this:
• If you want to be healthy, ... stop doing those things that harm you.
• If you want harmony in your life, ... stop doing those things that cause
discord.
• If you want peace in the home, ... stop doing those things that lead to
conflict.
• If you want a closer relationship with your children, ... stop doing those
things and saying those things that build up walls between you.
• If you want to rekindle the romance in your marriage, ... stop doing those
things that create animosity.
• If you want to live in a close-knit, caring community, ... stop hiding behind
your front door.
• If you want a spiritual life that fills you up, ... stop pouring all your
energies everywhere but toward God. (This list comes from TWW's sister
publication for pastors, Homiletics.)
Perhaps this makes it sound like we're in control of our own salvation,
though if that were the case, evangelistic preaching would tell us to just stop
sinning and thus be saved. That's not what the gospel says. It tells us to
trust God and ask him to forgive us, to invite Jesus to come into our lives.
There's not one word about saving ourselves.
But once we have turned to God, there's a good bit of stuff we can and should
be responsible for. For example, if we get into trouble every time we hang out
with certain friends, then the remedy is not to pray that God will change that,
but to stop spending time with those particular friends.
Closing Prayer
O God and Heavenly Father, grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that
which cannot be changed, courage to change that which can be changed, and
wisdom to know the one from the other. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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