Love God Love People
That ole God. You never know what He's gonna do. We spent the evening talking about loving people. The most troubling thing is we realize how hard that can be. Loving, by its very nature requires sacrifice. Sacrifice, as we probably all have learned, is difficult. I mean, sacrifice requires one make, well, a sacrifice. Jesus proves to be a good example of this. However, we Christian folks that follow Christ can have the hardest time living His example.
Kyle brought up the most poignant example of how difficult love really is. A Kevin's note version of Kyle's comments follow.
Kyle took a class in which the professor showed a French documentary concerning the holocaust. At some point in the rather long documentary the filmmakers took a holocaust survivor to a town that was in route to a concentration camp. It happened that the filmmakers choose to go to this town the same day a local church was having some sort of church festival. The holocaust survivor and the filmmakers went to the church festival. As you could imagine this created an awkward situation. It seems the church property bordered the railroad track that carried the trains into the concetration camps. From time to time the church members would hear the trains go by and likewise the cries of the people on the trains. The church members, alive at the time, remembered the cries they heard during their worship service. They also remembered the deacons at the time deciding that they would have to close the windows.
That ole God. You never know what He's gonna do. We spent the evening talking about loving people. The most troubling thing is we realize how hard that can be. Loving, by its very nature requires sacrifice. Sacrifice, as we probably all have learned, is difficult. I mean, sacrifice requires one make, well, a sacrifice. Jesus proves to be a good example of this. However, we Christian folks that follow Christ can have the hardest time living His example.
Kyle brought up the most poignant example of how difficult love really is. A Kevin's note version of Kyle's comments follow.
Kyle took a class in which the professor showed a French documentary concerning the holocaust. At some point in the rather long documentary the filmmakers took a holocaust survivor to a town that was in route to a concentration camp. It happened that the filmmakers choose to go to this town the same day a local church was having some sort of church festival. The holocaust survivor and the filmmakers went to the church festival. As you could imagine this created an awkward situation. It seems the church property bordered the railroad track that carried the trains into the concetration camps. From time to time the church members would hear the trains go by and likewise the cries of the people on the trains. The church members, alive at the time, remembered the cries they heard during their worship service. They also remembered the deacons at the time deciding that they would have to close the windows.
Please bare with me, I know this reads like an urban legend.
But I do trust Kyle and he did watch a French documentary.
I may have some of the facts off; I have never seen the documentary,
however I will attempt to find it to see for myself.
Now at this point you expect me to cry out in outrage. You want me to ask how a church can be so stupid? What do you mean closing the windows? People were doomed to die directly outside the church. The trains where just a short walk away. "Where" you might ask, “was the love?" Well the answer is obvious, the love sat in the seats behind closed windows. It is sad. What can I say, it is a commentary on the church, but not just the church 6o years ago in Europe.
Imagine, without 60 years of hindsight, what you would do. Would you stop singing, praying, or listening to the preacher to go outside? Of course, our 60 years of separation screams yes, I would go outside. But really, what would you have done? Could you have even done anything? What’s more, what would have happened if you tried? What we know of the Nazis indicates that you might have been on the next train to roll past the church.
It grieves me, as a Christian, to hear this story. Go in the box; ignore the noise outside. It is the safe thing to do. If we stop the train it could cause us to have to sacrifice. Anyway, the Jews killed Jesus. Right!
Kyle closed his retelling of what he saw in the French documentary by relaying the account of one of the scenes the filmmakers set up. The one lone Jewish survivor stood in the church crowd at the festival. The viewer looked into the face of the Jewish man with the crowd of Christians in the background. One can imagine his reaction. The church that shut the windows standing all around, while years earlier they let the Jewish man, and many others, pass right by.
Knowing what we know I imagine that looking into the face of that Jewish man would have to be hard for anyone.
Loving will require sacrifice. Had that church decided they did not want to stand for what was going on it could have cost them their lives. They could have been put in prison. They could have lost their families. They could have become slave labor in some factory. Who knows? It is scary to think that loving can cause such pain. Not to sound like a crafty church boy, but I implore you to look into the face of the Jewish man.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28(NIV)
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
Imagine, without 60 years of hindsight, what you would do. Would you stop singing, praying, or listening to the preacher to go outside? Of course, our 60 years of separation screams yes, I would go outside. But really, what would you have done? Could you have even done anything? What’s more, what would have happened if you tried? What we know of the Nazis indicates that you might have been on the next train to roll past the church.
It grieves me, as a Christian, to hear this story. Go in the box; ignore the noise outside. It is the safe thing to do. If we stop the train it could cause us to have to sacrifice. Anyway, the Jews killed Jesus. Right!
Kyle closed his retelling of what he saw in the French documentary by relaying the account of one of the scenes the filmmakers set up. The one lone Jewish survivor stood in the church crowd at the festival. The viewer looked into the face of the Jewish man with the crowd of Christians in the background. One can imagine his reaction. The church that shut the windows standing all around, while years earlier they let the Jewish man, and many others, pass right by.
Knowing what we know I imagine that looking into the face of that Jewish man would have to be hard for anyone.
Loving will require sacrifice. Had that church decided they did not want to stand for what was going on it could have cost them their lives. They could have been put in prison. They could have lost their families. They could have become slave labor in some factory. Who knows? It is scary to think that loving can cause such pain. Not to sound like a crafty church boy, but I implore you to look into the face of the Jewish man.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28(NIV)
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
posted by Kevin at
10:43 PM
6 Comments:
I found the name of that documentary, though getting hold of it might be quite a challenge. It's Cluade Lanzmann's "Shoah". It's nine hours long, but if you get a chance to se it then don't pass it up. It will challenge you in ways you never thought possible (or, at least, it did me).
Here is the wikepedia link to info about the film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoah_(film)
Well, I found it. Amazon has it for the low low price of $135.00. I think I will look into some library possibilities.
Apparently they also have release a book that has the complete text of the movie. It is only $12.00. Of course you could not see the man's face.
Give it up for the world wide internet. Kyle, thanks forteh name. They have the film at the FSU library.
STROZIER, Multimedia Center -- VHS -- D810.J4 S52 1999
Yeah, speaking of loving one's fellow man. Please pray for my Uber Boss. She needs lots and lots of love. Especially since she is going insane.
Hey, embarrassing moment of the day: I actually own the $12 book of "Shoah" and looked in it today to find that scene. I found that last night I was remembering it wrong. the stuff about the church being next to the tracks and all that isn't in there (though I do remember hearing that story in the context of that class, so it's out there somewhere... I'll try to find out where exactly.)
What really happens in "Shoah" is a dude in the crowd surrounding Simon Srebnik (the sole surviving Jew of this concentration camp) says that he "knows" why the Holocaust happened. He recounts a story he apparently heard from someone else. I'll quote from the book, which is quoting from the movie:
Man in the crowd: The Jews there were gathered in a square. The rabbi asked an SS man: "Can I talk to them?" The SS man said yes. So the rabbi said that around 2,000 years ago the Jews condemned the innocent Christ to death. And when they did that, they cried out: "Let his blood fall on our heads and on our sons' heads." Then the rabbi told them: "Perhaps the time has come for that, so let us do nothing, let us go, let us do as we're asked."
Interviewer: He thinks the Jews epiated the death of Christ?
Man in the crowd: he doesn't think so, or even that Christ sought revenge. He didn't say that. The rabbi said it. It was God's will, that's all! So Pilate washed his hands and said: "Christ is innocent." and sent Barrabas. But the Jews cried out: "Let his blood fall on our heads!" That's all; now you know!
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