The symbol says it all. Last Thursday, January 6, Coptic Christians in Egypt celebrated Christmas Eve. Just days before on New Year's Eve Islamic militants killed twenty-one Christians in a brutal attack on Saints Church in Alexandria.
As Coptic Christians, referred to in Egypt as "Copts," gathered for their celebrations of mass in churches across Egypt, they were joined by thousands of Muslims. The Muslims were offering their bodies as human shields in a witness of protective solidarity.
Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts businessman, is credited with the idea of human shielding. His words have become a slogan. "Either we live together, or we die together." Among other shields were popular Muslim televangelist and preacher Amr Khaled and the two sons of Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt.
Millions of Egyptians changed their Facebook profile pictures to the symbol above. The symbol expresses the sentiment "Egypt for all."
In Romans 12:1 the Apostle Paul urges Christians to present their bodies as a living sacrifice. I've preached this text many times. I've never really lived it as have the thousands of Muslims who presented their bodies as human shields to protect their Christian friends.
In our faith history, as recorded in the Hebrew Bible (or "Old Testament" as many call it), God chose Cyrus of Persia, a pagan king, to free God's people from exile. Good God. Imagine the dismay among many of the "chosen" of God when they realized a pagan would free them.
Surely God is at work in Egypt. Are you surprised that God has chosen Muslims to teach us lessons in peacemaking? Would you...would I...be so willing to present our bodies as living sacrifices as did the Muslims in Egypt?
As my friend Roger Lovette says...the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.
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