Counting the cost of war

Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. Luke 14:31-32.

This week the Revised Common Lectionary cites a biblical passage in which Jesus calls on his followers to focus all their attention on discipleship.

In words often misunderstood, Jesus says:

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-27.

Jesus is using a slight hyperbole. He doesn’t mean you have to hate your family. Rather, he is calling upon his followers to put discipleship first in their lives, and to put everything and everyone else second.

But he’s warning you: don’t commit yourself to discipleship without counting the cost.

It’s a bit of a surprise when he cites military planning as an example of cost counting. No king, he says, is going to try to defeat an enemy army twice as big as his.

Some people point to the fact that Jesus does not judge the king for evaluating his prospects in a potential war. The same people conclude that Jesus accepted and perhaps approved the notion that you need a lot of might to make right. Some people think it means Jesus was no pacifist. 

But I think what Jesus wants us to grasp is that following him may lead to all sorts of upheavals in our lives – loss of friends, loss of jobs, loss of respect, loss of income, loss of property – and you need to prepare for that. You need to calculate, like the king, whether you have enough gumption to do it.

Christians experience this every day. Your office colleagues ridicule you when you confess Jesus as savior. Missionaries leave lucrative jobs, comfortable homes, and beloved parents to teach and preach in foreign lands. Relatives avoid you because they think you are too religious. Young men and women give up everything they know and own to enter a life of service in a religious order.

And there are Christians living as beleaguered minorities in countries where their faith has endangered them. 

This Sunday, as we follow Jesus’ lead to count the cost of discipleship, we think particularly of Christian sisters and brothers living in Syria.

President Obama asked the Congress for authorization to launch a “limited, no boots on the ground” air attack on Syria to punish the Bashar al-Assad regime for using sarin gas against a civilian population.

Much of the debate in Congress, because of security demands, took place behind closed doors. 

Outside Congress, the debate is less restrained. Fewer than 20 percent of the U.S. public supports an attack on Syria, according to a Reuters poll released on Friday. A meme that stated, “Pearl Harbour, Not Actually an Act of War, Just a Limited Air Strike With No Boots on the Ground,” went viral.

Faith groups are fully engaged in the debate. Some church leaders oppose a missile strike on Syria. Others point out that Bashar al-Assad, for all his flaws, has protected minority Christians in Syria, and they worry radicals warring against his regime may try to exterminate Christians.

And many church leaders call on the president to refrain from attacking Syria because war is ungodly and unchristian.

Mr. Obama would have us believe that a surgical U.S. military strike would keep collateral damage to a minimum, but of course that cannot be controlled. 

The National Council of Churches warned this week that any action “may have consequences beyond U.S. planning and control, including more death and widespread destruction.”

War “is always contrary to the will of God,” the NCC said. Even so, while decrying Syria’s use of sarin gas, the Council stopped short of opposing a strike, and urged President Obama to “use restraint” in deciding upon a military solution.

“We condemn the use of chemical weapons by the government of Syria that has killed and maimed thousands of innocent children, women, and men,” an NCC statement said Monday. “This senseless, evil act is horrifying, even against the background of the unspeakable carnage each side has already wrought against the other. All who have been responsible for this chemical attack must search their consciences and ask God for forgiveness and for the courage to refuse to participate in future attacks.”

“We welcome the resolve of President Obama and other leaders to stop future chemical attacks against an innocent populace,” the Council said. “However, we are deeply skeptical that U.S. military action against Syria will prevent future attacks.”  

Whatever President Obama decides to do, any U.S. action will lead to more death and destruction. 

How should the churches advise the president?

I think my generation of Boomers was profoundly influenced by the disaster of the War in Vietnam. We didn’t take polls in the Air Force, but when I was discharged in 1968, I knew very few GIs who thought the war had been a good idea. When I started college that fall, virtually all the veterans in class became leaders in the student peace movement.

As I matriculated at Eastern Baptist College, I was deeply influenced by the examples of many who counted the cost of discipleship and made courageous decisions to oppose war: Martin Luther King, Jr., an early opponent of the war in Vietnam; Edwin T. Dahlberg, an American Baptist pastor, who was accused of being a Communist because he was a pacifist during the Second World War; and Walter Rauschenbusch, a Baptist social reformer who opposed the First World War. I took classes from John L. Ruth, the Mennonite writer and historian, whose biblical exegesis of pacifism has affected me all my life. 

The basic idea these theologians have in common is that Jesus opposed war.

Well, of course he did. Jesus’ messages of love, acceptance, and forgiveness flow from his mouth like a waterfall. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). “Turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39). “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

I think if Mr. Obama sought his advice, Jesus would be very clear: “Don’t do it, Barack. These people have suffered enough.”

Increasingly, the same message is coming from Christian leaders around the world. 

Pope Francis urged Mr. Obama to abandon the “futile pursuit” of a military solution in Syria and laid out a case for a negotiated settlement that guarantees rights for all Syrians, including minority Christians. Francis set Saturday, September 7, as a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, and most Protestant denominations have announced they will follow suit.

In the meantime, President Obama announced Friday he would address the nation Tuesday to make a case for attacking Syria.

In that case, my prayer would be that the president – like the cautious king in Jesus’ sermon – would count the cost of his decision.

Presidents of the United States rarely sue for peace because there are no armies in the world bigger than the U.S. military. But there are other costs that should be considered.

No matter how surgically precise cruise missiles may be, or how carefully chosen the targets, the attack will spill more blood in a country drowning in blood.

The attack may not prevent continued use of Sarin gas as a weapon.

The attack will certainly lead to unplanned and unpredictable consequences that may have a disastrous effect on Middle East stability.

Worst of all, the attack will not diminish and may increase the fighting between government and rebel forces in Syria. Innocent civilians – children, women, men, the elderly – will continue to be trapped in the cross fire on the ground and, perhaps, inadvertent targets of cruise missiles from above.

One does not have to be a military strategist or geopolitical pundit to suspect a cruise missile attack in Syria is will make matters worse than they are now.

And one does not have to be a theologian to suspect that the pope’s call for a negotiated settlement in Syria cannot make matters worse and may improve daily life for all Syrians, including the Christian minority.

Let this be our prayer: Mr. President, count the cost. Listen to the growing chorus of religious leaders begging you to seek an alternative to missiles and blood.

We are praying for you, Mr. President. 

Jesus’ blessing is warmly extended to peacemakers, and peacemaker is a mantle we hope you will embrace.

But don’t wait too long. No one wants you to go down in history as the worst Nobel Peace Prize winner since Yasser Arafat.