RANDOM ACTS OF CULTURE

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Cor 3:17 NIV)

On the day after the Al Qaeda attack on a Catholic Mass in Iraq I had a rather extraordinary experience in contrasts. I took a break from studying to prepare for the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church and opened an email from an old friend. It took me to a Youtube video of a self-described Random Act of Culture. The Youtube caption explains:

On Saturday, October 30, 2010, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together over 650 choristers from 28 participating organizations to perform one of the Knight Foundation's "Random Acts of Culture" at Macy's in Center City Philadelphia. Accompanied by the Wanamaker Organ - the world's largest pipe organ - the OCP Chorus and throngs of singers from the community infiltrated the store as shoppers, and burst into a pop-up rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah" at 12 noon, to the delight of surprised shoppers. (See it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU or search Opera Company of Philadelphia Hallelujah.)

I watched the video with tears in my eyes, remembering the thrill of singing that song with a chorus of hundreds in years past. Then I sent my friend the link to the Resurrection Sunday Dance in Budapest, Hungary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dSIL358NM ). Both videos elicit deep emotions of joy for our freedom in Jesus Christ along with longing for the day he returns.

That’s when the extraordinary contrast hit me. Just before viewing the Hallelujah Chorus video I had watched painful, first-hand accounts of persecution from fellow believers in Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Egypt, and Iraq. The brothers and sisters were under extreme pressure and spoke with great feeling and urgency asking us to pray and to speak up for religious freedom in their countries. I groaned within as they told their stories. And their oppressors? Fundamentalist Muslims and Islamic governments.

I sat back in my chair and took a deep breath and reflected. What are the Random Acts of Christian Culture? Glorious music performed in public celebrations with complete freedom, joyous dancing by thousands of young people in ancient city squares where atheistic communism once ruled. And the Random Acts of Muslim Culture? Well orchestrated and Sharia-law legalized oppression of human rights, annihilation of entire Christian congregations, brain-washed boys and girls with bombs in their clothing, premeditated ambushes on defenseless fellow soldiers, airliners crashing into sky-scrapers.

What to do in the face of such things? Keep singing. Keep dancing. Keep praying and advocating for the persecuted. And keep telling the world that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is true freedom.