A couple of things have been on my mind this week:

The first is quote from the movie Glory that I watched over the weekend. Loved the movie, can't believe it's almost twenty years old and I've never seen it. Anyway, there is a quote near the end when the black troops are marching through the south on the way to fight and the women and children - now freed black women and children - along the road are just marvelling at what is happening. They can't believe free blacks could take up arms and fights for them, it's just too much to be true. But as they stand in awe Morgan Freeman walks by and says:

That's right, Hines. Ain't no dream. We runaway slaves but we come back fightin' men. Go tell your folks how kingdom come in the year of jubilee!

Kingdom come in the year of jubilee! WOW! What Kingdom language. Two of my favorite passages figure into this quote, the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Matthew 4:17, "From that time on Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,'" and Luke's similar account of the genesis of Jesus' time of ministry when Jesus unrolls the scroll in the synogague in 4:17-21 reads from Isaiah 61:1,2, sits down, and says, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

I don't know enough to expound on the year of Jubilee (though I've begun John Howard Yoder's The Politics of Jesus which deals with this subject, but have not gotten far enough in it to be able to comment), especially as it relates to us today or in Kingdom terms, but I understand the powerful language of what Freeman is referring to here with the slaves being freed every seventh year and then the year of Jubilee being the 50th year or year following the seven cycles of Sabbatical years and the profound meaning it has for us today as Jesus has released us from eternal slavery and freed us to take part in His Kingdom. How great for the African-Americans at the time, how great for us in all eternity.

The other thing on my mind comes from the movie Welcome to Sarajevo, which I've commented on below. There was a scene that continues to haunt me, and I'm looking for a solution. The premise of the movie is that there is this reporter who gets attached to a group of orphans and promises one of them that he would get her out of the country, and through the course of the movie this becomes a reality and a small group - maybe 20 or so - are on a bus being taken to Italy until the war is over. On the way, though the group has all the proper papers and a UN escort, Bosnian troops pull them over and take out a group of children on the bus - maybe 6-8 - who appear to have Muslim names - no Muslim children would be allowed to escape - they were surely to be killed.

Here is my issue, there was a UN escort taking this bus across the border, and they did nothing to prevent this kidnapping from happening. I understand the politics of the issue, but from my perspective, though I am usually a pacifist, why not threaten the troops with your weapon, fire a few warning shots, and ultimately do all in your power from letting this happen (even opening fire on the soldiers), do all in your power to save these 6-8 lives who were going to be tortured, probably sexually abused, and surely killed? Here, in my opinion, is why the UN is a useless organization. It's own charter contradicts itself, stating in the preamble that it's mission is to both to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small..." and to "ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest..." This begs the question, which is more important, the dignity and worth of all human beings - in this case the 6-8 children who were to be slaughtered - or that force may not be used. The UN has chosen the latter, and that is reason #476 that I have no faith in the UN and it sickens me to imagine and then see and hear and read the massive atrocities that are being committed around the world while we sit back and watch in the name of diplomacy and peaceful efforts.