What Would it Take?

Judas did it for a paltry 30 pieces of silver. (Then the down side is that Judas went and hung himself. It will be one of those questions that will not be answered until the Judgment - whether Judas was forgiven for being a pawn in the salvation of humanity and and consequently, if he did find grace after being THE accessory to the murder of the CHRIST, we'll get to meet him in Heaven.)

How much would you sell out for? What's your price. Allegedly everyone has a price. A price for which he will sell his soul - if his soul belongs to God. And it could be so mundane as actually being 30 pieces of silver. 

Let's say you are convinced that you have stumbled upon the magic formula, the new alchemist's dream, endless free energy from hydrogen in sea water. But you're actually a missionary sent to St. Pierre, Martinique - by God - and there ain't a lot of people who can speak Creole Martiniquais (I actually went to high school with the daughter of missionaries from the Caribbean and she could speak Creole and she may or may not be the reason I took French as my Foreign Language Requirement rather than the more utilitarian Spanish. Eh, C'est la vie.).

Now the last time God actually paid much attention to St. Pierre was in April of 1902. He started sending them signs that their BIG stratovolcano, Mt. Pelee,  was about to pop. I don't know what these people did to piss off the King of Kings but finally on May 8th, sometimes in the remaining seconds of 8:02 AM, local time - for the city telelgrapher was broadcasting at 8:02 and signed off, reportedly before 8:03AM, at which time the telegraph line went dead. And then God lit the proverbial fuse. Some in ships just outside the harbor say the city just disappeared. Indeed. 

30,000 people, give or take, on May 8th, 1902 - Ascension Day for some Christians who celebrate the day that Jesus went back to Heaven - burned to death in practically the blink of an eye. There was no where to hide. You're sitting on an island in the Lesser Antilles and the volcano is almost as big as the island. You wanna know what Hell might be like, read the accounts of the 1902 Mt. Pelee eruption. C.S. Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity, "This is the fix we are in...God is our only comfort; He is also the supreme terror..." Verbal Kint may believe in God but he better realign his sense of fear...(Inside joke for some...) 

But I digress.

Oh, let me say this: the people died so quickly and so gruesomely because of what geologists, vulcanologists and experts in fluid dynamics all call pyroclastic flows or, to the French, "burning clouds" (nuee ardente).

St. Pierre was approximately 4 miles from the summit of Pelee. Multiple Pyroclastic Flows took off like bats out of hell from the exploding summit. Traveling at 450 MPH or BETTER, temps close to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hugging the ground, lava, steam, mud, ash, and Carbon Dioxide, like a tsunami, covered St. Pierre and every living being in that city and hardly paused before it hit the Caribbean and kept moving, FASTER. Some say the flow went for more than a kilometer from shore and when these nightmares hit the water, they actually pick up speed as heavier materials precipitate into the ocean. 

So...you're a missionary to close to 5,000 citizens of St. Pierre (that's all who dare live there now, in what was considered in the 19th century as the "Paris of the Caribbean"). God sent you.  And in the middle of the night He wakes you up. Your dresser is burning but nothing is on fire. God's voice booms out of the burning dresser. "Joe! In 3 weeks I am going to light Mt. Pelee again. It is more important that you preach salvation than prophesy the impending doom. I'll order you a new dresser from Ikea. You wont need it long anyway. Goodnight. Oh, and I bless you."

Maybe it's time to evacuate for some Laissez les bon temps rouler in New Orleans or, you know, get the Hell outta Dodge! Maybe you gladly mount the U.S. government jet or the Gulf Stream that Royal Dutch Shell sent for you so you may finish your research on cold fusion and not want for anything till the day you die. Or do you get up the next morning and as a fool for Christ, you preach salvation like you have never preached before. Maybe God gets you and your family out before St. Pierre is burned and buried alive again. Maybe He wants to recall His ambassador (that would be you). Does it really matter if you live or die? 

So...you'll either save your hide - and the hides of your family - and let, what? How good of a preacher are you? Jonah hated the Ninevites with a passion but he saved - or rather, he says God saved, 150,000 Ninevites, There were prophets in the Old Testament that weren't that good at all and the society in general would have preferred them dead. How many would you save?

At midnight local time, the acting French Governor of the French Islands in the Lesser Antilles sent a French warship to investigate what had happened to St. Pierre. It arrived at about noon off the burning coals of St. Pierre but they had to wait until 3:30PM before the heat abated enough that a shore party could go ashore to investigate.

On May 12, 1902, President Roosevelt ordered the Secretary of the Navy to send the cruiser Cincinnati lying at anchor in Santo Domingo and the tug Potomac in the harbor of San Juan to make way for St. Pierre to help. He told Congress one of the "greatest calamities in history" has befallen Martinique. "The City of St. Pierre has ceased to exist!" 

So preacher, what's your price? Maybe you only get 10 people to accept Christ. Are 10 people worth saving billions with your energy thingie? 

Oh, you say, as per usual, you come up with the stupidest examples! Well, consider this: yesterday was the Aurora, Colorado Theater Massacre. (I swear I half expected to see Air Force jets chasing King Kong through the streets!) One of your friends from church approaches you to join what amounts to a Star Chamber that would have a vigilante body to execute its orders. Secretly, a large number of guys think this is a pretty good idea and we are here to do God's will, afterall!

Now...what's your price? Squirming around with murder and telling your conscience that God's law trumps man's. Hey, you just as well get on the Net and find all the abortion providers and women's clinics and oh, anyone associated with gays or lesbians (of course no one at church knows you and your wife are both bi-sexual) and get to doing your duty. 

See how easy you can be bought; the price of vigilantism for "good" is just your soul. Hey come on! 

Don't label me "holier than thou." I think of these things almost daily with me being asked to sell out. Then I have to wonder, as you do once you have the metaphorical 30 pieces of silver in your hand, will God take me back?

Something to think about. 

Later, 

† Scott, V.D.M, ev

BTW, I am reliably informed that Pelee is due for another catastrophic eruption sometime soon. I suggest if you know Creole that maybe you should keep your skills unknown to your respective missionary boards. Two words: Pyroclastic Flows