Sex Trafficking and Our Hope in the Gospel

This past Sunday I preached on a short passage in the book of Genesis. It was a passage that a number of people told me they didn’t even know was in the Bible while others said they’ve read a number of times without quite realizing what was happening. The passage was Genesis 12:10-20. Here the new protagonist of the book, Abram, does the unthinkable. He pimps out his wife. He cowardly and selfishly sells his wife to a foreign, idol-worshiping king (Pharaoh in fact) in order to save his own skin. 

This inevitably led to a portion of the sermon being about sex-trafficking (Abram’s sin), it’s victims, and the reality of it in our city. This is not just something that only happened in ancient times or today in developing countries. 

•    In 2003, Minneapolis, Minnesota was identified by the FBI as one of 13 cities with a large concentration of child prostitution enterprises.
•    By very conservative measures, a November 2010 study found that each month in Minnesota at least 213 underage girls are sold for sex an average of five times per day through the Internet and escort services. This number does not include hotel, street or gang activity.

This issue is a reality here in our city. 

And like Sarai (Abram’s trafficked wife), many of these women and children are victims. Victims who’ve been abused and used by others. Victims who feel as though they have no other options, resources, or hope. Victims who would get out if they could. 

Many of them come from abusive homes/relationships and are homeless, runaways, or in foster care. The common age for victims entering trafficking is 14-16. They’re often kidnapped or lured with promises of protection, love, home, opportunity, and adventure. And once in, threats of violence, abuse, or being turned into the cops keeps escape from being an option. Also substance addictions, a need to provide for their kids, and a lack of resources and opportunities makes them feel like they have no other option but to stay in the sex industry. 

Sex trafficking (as well as things like prostitution, porn, one night stands, etc.) dehumanizes people, turns them into objects and a means to an end, rather than someone made in the image of God and so loved by him that he’d die for them! 

Sex trafficking is the antithesis of the gospel. It says I can use and abuse someone at their expense and see them as less than human, because I am better, more important, or more powerful than my victim. 

Whereas the gospel says Jesus chose to empty himself, to give up his power and importance, to be used in our place, in order to give us life and full humanity. Jesus was abused and taken advantage of (like Sarai) and all for our sake. 
 
Throughout the Bible, God calls his people to protect the vulnerable, to show mercy and kindness, and to fight against evil and injustice because he has first done that for them. We were once imprisoned to death, powerless to gain our freedom, and oppressed by our sin but God rescued us, saved us, and restored us. And that is why his people are called to reflect him and his gospel. 

So there is hope. Hope for victims and perpetrators alike. Through the gospel both the Sarais and Abrams of the world are offered (both physical and spiritual) rescue, redemption, forgiveness, and new life. Not only that but through the gospel they are offered a place where they are wanted, have security, receive a new identity, and belong to a spiritual family (the church). 

On a large scale, there are great local and international organizations (many faith-based) that are helping rescue victims in a holistic way. If you want to learn more, hear victims’ stories, or begin to help, here are some resources (note that some of the content will be mature due to the nature of sex trafficking). 

INTERNATIONAL

LOCAL

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

SPENCER PETERSON / COMMUNITY LIFE PASTOR

Why we preach at Hiawatha Church

Even if you're new to Hiawatha Church, you've probably already learned that we highly value preaching. Every Sunday you'll hear a 45 minute sermon (many even longer). We're passionate about preaching because we believe in a God who speaks, and the Bible teaches that it is through hearing the gospel that people come to faith and repentance. Romans 10 says, How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

We believe that everyone needs to hear the gospel, whether it is for the first time or the millionth. So preaching the Gospel in a corporate setting on a Sunday morning is both for the believer and the unbeliever alike.

As we preach to those who already believe, we are reminding them of who they are in Christ and who they are called to be, reorienting them to the gospel that continues to save them daily. The preacher heralds the good news (that is what gospel means) of Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death for the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God. The true effect of gospel preaching is the same for both believers and nonbelievers in many ways. Both can and will be convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, both are able to hear, learn, and believe the truth of scripture and the gospel, and both are called to repentance. Nonbelievers are called to respond to Jesus for the first time every week and are told of what spiritual riches can be theirs if they repent and believe in Jesus.

Although preaching in general can be quite missional by its very nature (meaning a way in which people can hear about Jesus), at Hiawatha we choose to be very intentional in making it even more accessible to who might be more biblically illiterate. We want there to be no stumbling blocks aside from Jesus and his grace. As Tim Keller says, we preach and speak positively about our city and neighborhood, we speak in a language that is accessible to nonbelievers and isn’t filled with pious talk, unnecessarily technical terms, or Christian jargon (and when we do use theological and biblical words, we take time to define them carefully), and we connect with the culture of South Minneapolis to build bridges and show how Christ is the ultimate solution to their desires and problems.

We also aim to be very welcoming and hospitable in our preaching. We welcome visitors, tell them we’re very glad they decided to show up, and tell them that it is okay to just be checking out Hiawatha Church, Jesus, and Christianity as a whole. We recap and review where we’ve been in our sermon series and describe in detail what the gospel is, how to respond after the sermon, and that there will be people available for questions and prayer after the service. 

We make a point to make Jesus the hero each week and not ourselves. We are transparent and vulnerable in our own depravity, weakness, sin and need for a savior rather than put up a façade of self-righteousness, superiority, and perfection. We preach as though nonbelievers and skeptics are among us because they always are. This also tells our regulars that Hiawatha is a place where they can bring their unbelieving friends, that it is a safe place for those with questions and doubts, and that their questions will begin to be answered by a community of people who care about them. 

Finally we work with all of our might to show how Jesus' work on the cross is the goal and finish line of all scripture - to take our text and make a bee-line to the cross (Charles Spurgeon). We not only want people to hear about grace and be saved, but to also get a glimpse of the right way to read their Bibles for themselves when they're doing that throughout the week.

SPENCER PETERSON / COMMUNITY LIFE PASTOR

 

 

 

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Song Book: Christ Be All Around Me

We’ve been singing “Christ Be All Around Me” by All Sons and Daughters and Leeland at Hiawatha Church for awhile now. It’s a great song with great words and a great story behind it. Many of the lyrics in the song are adapted from a prayer of St. Patrick. Being that St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) is right around the corner, let’s explore the history of these words and the amazing story of St. Patrick himself.

St. Patrick

St. Patrick

Patrick was born in Great Britain sometime in the late 4th or early 5th century. He was raised in the early Catholic church there, but around the age of 14, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken back to Ireland. There, he was enslaved and put to hard labor by his captors. During his time in slavery, he turned his heart fully to God. He wrote:

The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same.  I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain.

Six years into his captivity, he made his escape. He wrote that he had had a dream in which a voice told him it was time for him to go home and that a ship was waiting to take him there. He fled his captors and ventured into the countryside heading for the coast. After a long journey, he arrived to find a ship there and petitioned the sailors to take him with them to Britain. After a 3 day voyage, the ship made it to Britain. Patrick disembarked and began the next leg of his journey home: a 28 day walk through rough territory where he nearly starved and had to rely on hunting wild boar. Finally, now in his early 20’s, he arrived home to his family. It must have seemed like they had received their son back from the dead!

Patrick then devoted himself to the study of scripture to become a minister. As he was studying, he had another dream in which a voice called to him from Ireland saying, “We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.” It’s somewhat reminiscent of Jonah’s call from God to go to Ninevah and preach the Gospel to the dangerous people there. Patrick had been kidnapped and enslaved by these people in Ireland and now God was calling him to go back and bring the good news of Jesus to them. Patrick heeded the call and, after he was ordained as a Bishop of the church, made preparations to return to Ireland.

Once there, he immediately set about preaching to the people and many believed and were baptized into Christianity. At this time, Ireland was replete with pagans and violent tribal religions. Patrick confronted these forces head on and even some tribal chiefs who tried to kill Patrick went on to believe his message. There are many stories, or maybe legends, about miraculous events associated with Patrick’s ministry. One story is that a pagan witch doctor was about to kill Patrick but found he could not raise his arm in violence while Patrick preached. He heard the gospel message and believed. While some of these stories may be exaggerated, it is certainly historically true that Patrick had a hand in raising many Irish Christian leaders and planting many churches throughout the country.

St. Patrick was famous for using the image of a shamrock to preach about the Trinity, pointing out that three leaves are all part of one plant. Object lessons like this resonated well with the people of Ireland and this image has now been associated with St. Patrick for thousands of years.

Patrick traveled all over Ireland preaching and planting churches for 40 years, which amounted to the rest of his life. He lived much of that time in poverty, asking very little from the congregations he established and enduring persecution from those who were hard-hearted. He eventually died on March 17, 461, in the village of Saul where he had planted Ireland’s first church.

In the song “Christ Be All Around Me”, we hear echoes of St. Patrick’s “Breastplate”, a prayer often read/recited in the morning throughout church history. It is a prayer that is intended to set the tone for the day ahead, asking God to bind us to himself and to his power displayed in the person of Jesus Christ. How amazing that St. Patrick, who for much of his formative years was bound against his will by evil slave masters, willingly prayed that God would bind him again. Bind him not to slave labor, but to joyful life as a slave to the Gospel and the work of Jesus Christ displayed in him (the apostle Paul calls himself a slave of Christ Jesus in Romans 1). Just as he was once surrounded by the bonds of forced labor for evil men, he asks God to surround him inside and out with the person of Christ and his comfort and restoration.

How beautiful to read and sing these words with the knowledge of St. Patrick’s story of physical and spiritual redemption. Patrick endured much suffering at the hands of men who hated him and then turned around to preach the gospel to those same people with love in his heart. How much more amazing is the love of Christ, who endured rejection, suffering and death and yet offers all sinners forgiveness and redemption through his sacrifice and resurrection!

Read a version (there are a few) of the full text of St. Patrick’s Breastplate here and listen to the song “Christ Be All Around Me” below.

PETER CARLSON / WORSHIP LEADER

St. Patrick’s Breastplate

I bind unto myself today

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same

The Three in One and One in Three.

 

I bind this today to me forever

By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;

His baptism in Jordan river,

His death on Cross for my salvation;

His bursting from the spiced tomb,

His riding up the heavenly way,

His coming at the day of doom

I bind unto myself today.

 

I bind unto myself the power

Of the great love of cherubim;

The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,

The service of the seraphim,

Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,

The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,

All good deeds done unto the Lord

And purity of virgin souls.

 

I bind unto myself today

The virtues of the star lit heaven,

The glorious sun’s life giving ray,

The whiteness of the moon at even,

The flashing of the lightning free,

The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,

The stable earth, the deep salt sea

Around the old eternal rocks.

 

I bind unto myself today

The power of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, His might to stay,

His ear to hearken to my need.

The wisdom of my God to teach,

His hand to guide, His shield to ward;

The word of God to give me speech,

His heavenly host to be my guard.

 

Against the demon snares of sin,

The vice that gives temptation force,

The natural lusts that war within,

The hostile men that mar my course;

Or few or many, far or nigh,

In every place and in all hours,

Against their fierce hostility

I bind to me these holy powers.

 

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,

Against false words of heresy,

Against the knowledge that defiles,

Against the heart’s idolatry,

Against the wizard’s evil craft,

Against the death wound and the burning,

The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,

Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

 

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

 

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three.

By Whom all nature hath creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord.