Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi at sunset.

Photograph by Viktor Solomonik via Unsplash

“Now after [the Magi] had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him,’… When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi.” (Matthew 2:13, 16)[i]

“The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ‘When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.’ But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.” (Exodus 1:15-17)

In case you haven’t been keeping up with the news lately, the words of our Lord Jesus sum the current situation up fairly well. He warned us: “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars… For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places,” (Matthew 24:6-7). Whether we look to Ukraine or Palestine or South Korea or even outside our own front doors, we can easily see that the world is in a state of emergency right now.

During Advent and in the days following we remind ourselves of the birth of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, and as part of that we remind ourselves of the corrupting nature of political power and how it can be misused and abused. Caesar Augustus and his governor Quirinius turning the world upside down for the sake of increased tax revenue (i.e. theft), Herod “the Great” committing the massacre of the innocents (i.e. murder), and Herod’s son Archelaus forcing the Holy Family to avoid returning to Judea and move instead to Nazareth all serve as graphic examples of the abuse of power in the hands of corrupt politicians.

And these are not the only times that such sins and injustices come up in Scripture. Back in Exodus, we read of Pharaoh’s attempted genocide of the Israelites through murdering the infant Hebrew boys, and how the Hebrew midwives bravely disobeyed him. Nor did such political evils end with the closing of the canon of Scripture. King James of Scotland and England, sponsor of the much-lauded Authorized King James Version of the Bible, was committed to that project in part because the earlier Geneva Bible contained study notes that both called out the evil of abusing political power and lifting up the good of resisting such abuses. Speaking of Pharaoh, it noted the midwives’ “disobedience herein was lawful,” and of Herod, “God hath infinite means to preserve them,” that is, the innocent, “from the rage of tyrants.” King James saw a condemnation of himself in those Protestant notes and instead of reforming his character and behavior, he sought to rid his realms of the scriptural notes that called him out.

With this in mind, I’m writing to you all – my brothers, sisters, and siblings in Christ – about the plight of our kin both in the Church and in the human race in the country of Georgia. Like us, they recently had an election. Unlike ours, theirs was not run fairly or democratically. The President Emerita of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili, the minority parties in Georgia, and all the representatives of western Europe and the United States have noted that the elections in Georgia, administered by the ruling Georgian Dream party, were marred by intimidation, ballot stuffing, and other illegal activities aimed at keeping their party in power. Furthermore, as I wrote to you all here in the Christian Citizen back in August, prior to the election the Georgian Dream party pushed through a number of repressive laws designed to silence opposition, to pull Georgia into the Russian sphere, and to keep Georgia out of the EU (membership in which was enshrined by the Georgian people in their constitution).

Since the election, thousands of Georgians have been protesting the results, protesting the abuse of power by their leaders, and calling for free and fair elections. And it isn’t just individuals, but media, nonprofits, and religious leaders – including my friends Metropolitan Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili and Bishop Rusudan Gotsiridze, both of the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church of the Republic of Georgia, together with priests from Orthodox and Catholic churches, and representatives from the Jewish and Muslim communities – are standing on the front lines calling for liberty and peace. Not only are they on the front lines in protests and marches, but they are also serving behind the lines ministering to the people of Georgia as they fight for their liberty. Metropolitan Songulashvili, who is also a professor, has been giving public lectures on the danger of abusing power – religious and political – to obtain political ends. Bishop Gotsiridze has been using her artistic talents to lead art therapy sessions for the protestors, to help them deal with the stress they are under.

I cannot impress on you enough that the situation in Georgia is incredibly stressful for the protestors. Police have been arresting people, raiding their homes, physically assaulting them to the point that they must be taken to hospitals, torturing and even threatening to rape those they arrest.

But you know what? In the middle of what our Lord said about wars and famines, he said something else. He said, “see that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet,” (Matthew 24:6). Do not be troubled, for not only is the end not here yet, and we are not alone. Listen again to the Lord Jesus, “remember, I am with you always, to the end…” (Matthew 28:20) and “I will never leave you or forsake you,” (Hebrews 13:5). No matter where injustice and oppression in the hands of governments rear their ugly heads, there you will find the Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace, God Pantocrator (i.e. the ruler of the universe) standing and proclaiming, as he did to the corrupt governor Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom does not belong to this world,” (John 18:36).

No country and no government – especially not those who pervert justice and promote the abuse of power – are God’s kingdom. No, rather, “the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21). The Kingdom of God is in the hands of the Tbilisi protestors with their signs. The Kingdom of God is in the voice of Metropolitan Songulashvili in his public lectures. The kingdom of God is in the paintbrushes of Bishop Gotsiridze as she seeks to heal the mental wounds inflicted upon the protestors. There are many other places the Kingdom of God is making itself known – in the arms of the Ukrainian soldiers defending their innocent countrypersons or in the voices of imams, sheikhs, priests, and pastors of Gaza trying to bring some peace to the hearts of “the alien, the orphan, and the widow” in their midst.

But what about us? What can we do to help? How can we serve the people of Georgia – our brothers, sisters, and siblings in Christ and in the wider human race – as the country of Egypt once served the Holy Family as they fled Bethlehem and the tyrant Herod? We can do three things:

Pray: we can pray for the people of Georgia, for their freedom, self-determination, and safety – not just once, but we can keep them in our daily prayers.

Advocate: we can call on our representatives – of whatever political party or affiliation – and encourage them to stand up for the liberties of the Georgian people as our forebears did on the world stage in the twentieth century’s times of strife.

Give: we can give of the resources God has blessed us with to help the people of Georgia (both the protestors specifically but also the people generally).

Whatever you do, please, remember that “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). We are all kin in Christ and in the human race. And, like Cain, we are our brother’s keeper. So please, keep the people of Georgia (and the people in other places of unrest around the world) in your daily prayers and do what you can to help them. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

You can support the Baptists of Georgia through the Alliance of Baptists by donating here, adding “Aid for the Baptists of Georgia” in the comments.