To stand while books burn tears at the heart. When the Library at Alexandria burned, the greatest treasury of human wisdom vanished amid the flames. In the days before Gutenberg’s press the burning parchment destroyed knowledge. The human spirit abhors the conflagration of books.
In the Jewish tradition, books containing sacred works are never intentionally destroyed. When a book becomes too tattered and faded for further use it is lovingly placed in an area of reposed to allow the forces of nature to turn it into time’s ashes. In Christianity, there runs the tradition of laying sacred texts into the ground. In Gainsville, Florida text considered sacred to 1/5 of the world’s people will be cast into the flames of fear and hate. And the act is called “Christian” and the flames called “freedom of speech.”
All attempts by people of faith only re-enforce the fervor. The books will be burned. The voice of the One teaching stories of the traveling Samaritan and preaching sermons of the Divine import of loving the other and the enemy is silenced.
We fellow Christians stand around wringing our collective hands hoping for civil intervention. From whence cometh our help.
The Father preserved the beloved son of Abraham, Ismail, when hate drove him from the faithful. The Father blessed him with the promise of many descendants. The Almighty provided Ismail water from a rock and shade from sburning desert sands, a great mercy He would later bestow upon the Children of Isaac during the time of Moses. The sons and daughters of Ismail became one of the 3 great tribes of the Book.
We cannot pour the waters of compassion on this book-burning fire. We can only stand with those whose look upon the burning of their sacred text in their grief. This cannot be merely an intellectual affirmation. We must show that we, too, feel the pain of loss and shame. We must do the unthinkable. If one book sacred to sons and daughters of Abraham must be consigned to the flame, so must they be all.
We must burn our scripture. We must build bonfires and cast our bibles into the flame. It is an act of defiance not unlike that of Christ’s overturning the tables in the sacred precincts of the Temple. Believers were causing hardships to other believers for the motives of personal gain and ego. Christ’s action that day as he wielded the rope and released caged animals stopped the offering of continuous sacrifice to the LORD. No atonement could be made that day. No blessings could be bestowed. No praise could be lifted up. The spiritual life of a people was caused to stop by the brash action of a traveling Rabbi. Later that week an ineffectual government official bowed to the pressures of priests allowing an innocent man to undergo a horrific death. He, too wrung his hands at his perceived lack of authority in the matter before him. He asked for a bowl of water.
We, as followers of Christ Jesus cannot ask for the laver of inaction. For upon our response rests the lives of innocent men and women. We must suspend our spiritual practice of honoring the book which contain the words of our atonement, blessings and praise. For on that day, it must join in the flames and become one in the sacred ash. We must petitions our Gainville brothers and sisters to be our voices and build pyres in sight of the bonfire of hate -altars of sacrifice to raise up the smoke of holiness beside Cain’s altar of Iniquity. The Almighty will pour His blessings upon our actions. He will remove the deadly scorpion’s sting from an act meant for evil. And we will confirm that we are His dear compassionate children walking in the path of His Beloved Son.
