Over the past few months this question has been hanging in my head. Sometimes at the front other times deep in the recesses, but it is a question that I've been pondering of late, "what are you willing to die for?"
The question first presented itself when I was preparing to show the film Bonhoeffer at my internship site. As part of the screening we invited community members to have conversation after the film. This was the question that I used to entice viewers - and it worked. We drew a large crowd of people intrigued by the film and the conversation. Ultimately no one answered the question for themselves, but for Bonhoeffer it was clear that he felt it was worth going to the gallows for his belief that Hitler was wrong!
This reminds me that a friend of mine, upon learning I was planning to attend seminary, said, "I would ask a pastor of any church I would attend one question. If you were alive during the holocaust would you have stood up for the Jews?" It's a tough question. My answer was, "I would like to think that I would have." But would I have really done so?
It got me thinking about our modern day - are there any issues that I would be willing to bet my life on? Issues that I feel so passionately about that I would face certain death over. I'm pretty sure right now, the answer is "very few." I would stake my life on my faith in Christ, but it's not like that will get me killed in the U.S. I would put my life on the line to save my family. But somehow that is not the same as what Bonhoeffer stood for.
In the last few weeks I watched the Epic films Gods and Generals and Gettysburg. As I watched these films, I was captured by a few themes that seemed to be central to the story that was being told. One was that the faith of these people was real and lived - they read their Bibles and quoted scripture in ways that I've not heard anyone do in my lifetime. Two (which is really the more important point to this post) was that they were willing to stand for their cause even though it meant facing certain death.
I recall a scene early in Gods and Generals where a family was gathered to send their young boys (probably teenagers) to serve in the army. There was no doubt in that scene that the mother was not expecting to ever see those boys again. Contrast that to how we send our military out today - we send them out with this assurance that they WILL return ... and most do ... but they certainly don't return unchanged (that's another topic for another day - and probably another writer).
I was also taken by the battle scenes of Gettysburg. Mostly it was the final battle scene where General Armistad essentially told General Robert E. Lee in no uncertain terms that Lee's decision to attack the Union soldiers was foolish and would mean the annihilation of the Confederate forces. Lee of course ordered Armistad to lead his troops into battle anyway. And Armistad did. And sure enough, it happened just as he predicted, the Confederate troops were annihilated. (this scene reminded me why I would not make a good soldier ... I would have continued to question Lee's logic on leading soldiers into certain death).
These were but a few of the scenes that kept me asking the question, "what am I willing to die for" and beyond that "what is this generation willing to die for"?
I think there is a grand sense of entitlement among those of us who are under 40 ... maybe even under 50 ... that somehow by our birthright we should have all that we want and more! We snub our noses at the political process and talk about how broken it is without attempt to do anything to fix it. We are against everything but don't offer a legitimate alternative to anything. We assume "it will all work out."
I write "we" because I sense in myself that this might very well be how I've lived my life for all of these years. I'm not sure what it will take to change it. What catalyst will get those of us who have had a "good life" to get our dander up and fight for what we believe in or what we want in our lives? What will truly be the issue that I will risk all that I am for?
For Jesus Christ, it was humanity. He staked his entire life on saving humanity. And because he paid the price, we certainly reap the rewards!
