Thursday of the Second Week of Easter
“We must obey God rather than men.” That’s a big statement coming to us from Acts.
It reminds me of a beautiful film, Of Gods and Men (2010), that tells the story of nine Trappist monks who lived together in a monastery in Algeria. For years, they were beloved by the local Muslim community in large measure because of the medical services that they offered to the community through their clinic. But also because they immersed themselves in that community such that they too studied the Koran and sought to glean its wisdom.
Life was very good among these Catholics and Muslims for many years. And then, suddenly, they all found themselves facing hard life-and-death choices thanks to a civil war that none of them wanted or believed in.
One of the things that the film captures so beautifully is the humanity and vulnerability of these monks. When Islamic extremists make it clear to the monks that if the monks don’t serve the extremists by, for instance, giving up their medical supplies, their lives will be at great risk. The monks know very well (and are very clear with the extremists) that they can’t surrender their medical supplies. Those supplies are for their community.
And so they are forced into a choice: Leave their beloved community and save their lives or remain and likely lose their lives.
In one memorable scene, three of the monks are talking with leaders from the local Muslim community. The monks are telling their Muslim neighbors that (though they don’t want to) they think they will probably have to leave since it is obviously unsafe for them to remain. Their Muslims neighbors respond by telling them that they can’t go. They have become too important to the community. A sage woman in the room tells them that they (the monks) are the branch and they (their Muslim neighbors) are the birds. If the branch goes, where will the birds be?
This word weighs very heavily on the monks. And so they spend a lot of time in prayer and in song and in contemplation and in deliberation and in conversation to try to discern what they should do. For a while there is real division among them. Some, understandably, want to leave Algeria and spare their lives. They can surely serve elsewhere. Others want to stay. They want to continue to serve where they are.
In my favorite scene of the film, the monks are seated for dinner. Typically during dinner, one of the monks reads from the Bible while the others eat. There is no dinner conversation. On this night, however, one of the more senior monks brings in two bottles of wine and puts on some beautiful classical music. I think it is from Swan Lake. This is all very unusual for them. They laugh. They enjoy the good wine. And then they become very sober. Tears fall.
And so the monks decide to remain. I won’t say any more here in the hopes that you will watch the film. But I should mention that the film is based on a true story.
We are called upon to “obey men” all the time. And we do. When we stop at a traffic light. When we exit a building because the fire alarm goes off. When we respect the outcome of an election. We even “obey men” when we’d rather not—like on the day our taxes are due.
And all that obedience, it turns out, is a good thing. I am grateful that others stop when their light turns yellow/red. I’m relieved when I know that everyone is safely outside a building as the fire trucks arrive. I really appreciate that my streets get plowed and teachers in my school district get paid and dilapidated bridges get replaced.
And I am grateful for people who, throughout the ages, have chosen to obey God (at enormous cost to themselves) and live the way of service, peace, and love.
I pray that we may continue to stop at red lights (something that seems to becoming more of a rarity these days). I pray we make the hard choices for service, peace, and love. Like the guy who they killed by hanging him on a tree.
Amen.
-Sue Trollinger