It’s been a week. A week of uncertainty. A week of heartache. A week of anger and frustration. A week.
One of the unfortunate impacts of the proliferation of technology and social media is that we’ve been able to watch an invasion live-streamed, or live-tweeted, without the context or competence to interpret much of what we’ve seen. The reality is that the vast majority of us are neither military strategists or experts on Post-Soviet bloc political affairs. So, as we process the unfolding events in Ukraine, we come to different conclusions about what’s happening and what the world’s response should be. And, Christians, it is possible to take differing standpoints on what an appropriate national response might be to such events. As is often the case, things are not nearly as cut-and-dry as we would like them to be.
For the saints of God, however, there is one thing that stands out in the midst of such uncertainty … one thing which is cut-and-dry. It’s the theme of the Transfiguration that we celebrated this past weekend: God is Holy, and He sits enthroned above. We can take great comfort in this one truth, because this singular idea reorients our chaotic world. It is an island of rest and peace in the midst of the storm. It is this truth that so many of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters are clinging to this day.
A pastor acquaintance of mine has spent time in a Baptist seminary in Ukraine, helping to equip pastors in that land. He told the story recently of a trip he took about a decade ago. Walking into the seminary chapel where he was about to speak, he noticed black and white pictures of bearded men hanging there with a Cyrillic inscription beneath them: Hebrews 13:7 – “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”
His interpreter informed him that the men pictured were all the past presidents of the Ukrainian Baptist Union. All those men, save the then president of the Union, had died in a Soviet prison camp. To be elected the president of the Baptist Union was a death sentence; of all the men elected, not a single one ever turned it down.
I write this to encourage you today. I write this to encourage myself. It seems that there is not a whole lot we can do … but we can pray. We can ask the Holy God enthroned above to strengthen His Church. We can cry out with the saints in every age, “Lord Jesus, come quickly.” We can pray for justice, absolutely sure that it will one day be meted out. We can pray for peace. Like our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, when we feel helpless and powerless, we can pray.
Pray for Ukraine.
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.
(Anglican Book of Common Prayer)
