For members of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) Jos, Nigeria, has always meant one thing: missions. On March 17, 2010, the world learned that Jos is a place of conflict, a community where the Muslim descendants of Ishmael killed about 500 and burned 75 houses of the Christian descendants of Isaac. In other villages children and pregnant woman were among the dead. The sectarian violence has a long history.
Thousands of women marched with branches protesting the slaughter of Christian villagers in Jos. Will their government hear them? Will the Christian vice-president of Nigeria do anything? Can he stop this violence? Who will end this violence (Gen. 16:21)? Where is God in all this?
That first Palm Sunday was misunderstood by many. Humble, seated on the foal of a donkey, Jesus was anything but a conquering hero. Well, not like a conquering Roman general. Nevertheless, the road to his cross was paved with the laments and cries of distress of the people Christ came to save; the cross itself was a battlefield. Will the risen Christ, seated at the right hand of the God the Father Almighty, respond to the cries of his people in Jos, Darfur, or in parts of Indonesia where certain forces of Islam oppose Christianity with military and political power?
Thousands of women marched with branches protesting the slaughter of Christian villagers in Jos. Will their government hear them? Will the Christian vice-president of Nigeria do anything? Can he stop this violence? Who will end this violence (Gen. 16:21)? Where is God in all this?
That first Palm Sunday was misunderstood by many. Humble, seated on the foal of a donkey, Jesus was anything but a conquering hero. Well, not like a conquering Roman general. Nevertheless, the road to his cross was paved with the laments and cries of distress of the people Christ came to save; the cross itself was a battlefield. Will the risen Christ, seated at the right hand of the God the Father Almighty, respond to the cries of his people in Jos, Darfur, or in parts of Indonesia where certain forces of Islam oppose Christianity with military and political power?
When brandishing branches in churches this Palm Sunday, may Nigerian Christians, should Nigerian Christians, sing Psalm 68:1 and 2? Should their ministers preach from Psalm 79? May the congregations recite all the verses of Psalm 137, ending with the scandalous: “O Daughter if Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us—he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks”? Are only some Psalms appropriate for Christian liturgy? Is any Psalm which petitions God to do justice by his might, right for Palm Sunday?
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