Jerusalem.

Jews revere it as the city of the great king. Christians honor it as the site of the cross and the empty tomb. Muslims embrace it as a sacred city of Islam. It’s a holy city.

Also an unholy city.

A big blockbuster movie is now in the theaters -- full of action, romance, drama, and warfare -- one that is set in 12th century Jerusalem. Called “Kingdom of Heaven,” this Ridley Scott epic is about a young peasant blacksmith who becomes an honored knight, saves a kingdom, and falls in love with a princess.

It’s also about the Crusades.

Given that Jerusalem is sacred to three major religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- it’s not hard to grasp that there has been fierce competition, and even bloody conflict, over this holy hunk of land. Warfare has broken out multiple times, and “Kingdom of Heaven” takes a look at what might have happened between the Second and Third Crusades, showing us a colorful clash of personalities, cultures, regions and religions.

Orlando Bloom plays the heroic peasant who becomes a knight and saves a kingdom, and at the heart of the film is the pure, severe code of the knight. “The knight was the cowboy of that era," says director Ridley Scott. "He carried with him degrees of fairness, faith and chivalry -- right action. I think right action is what it is really all about."

Yes, but this statement raises a question -- whose action was right action in the age of the Crusades? Was it the Knights Templar, the warrior monks who wanted Jerusalem for the Christians? Or was it Saladin, the leader who conquered Jerusalem for the Muslims? Were right actions performed by a brotherhood of Muslims, Jews, and Christians – or is the existence of such a group complete movie fantasy?

I’m not enough of a historian to answer these questions with any accuracy. But here’s a question that I think it’s important for us to answer: Where should we be standing today? With the Crusaders … or with the apostles? Our Christian history includes not only the Crusades of the 12th century, but also the mission work of the 1st century. When people look at us, they should see an authentic Christian code at work, one marked by right action, fairness, and faith.

So what do people see when they look at us: A raised sword … or a raised cross?

Today’s Scripture lesson invites us to go back to Jerusalem and take a look at what the first followers of Jesus were called to do. The time frame is just forty days after the resurrection, and the apostles are sounding a bit like Crusaders in search of a victory when they ask Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

They want God’s kingdom to be victorious. They hunger for Jesus to triumph over his enemies. They are anxious to lift up the cross as a sign of victory over sin and evil. They have a desire to be the very first Christian crusaders, people who take seriously the fact that the word “crusade” comes from the Latin word “crux,” meaning “cross.” Did you know that? The word crusade is based on the world for cross.

The first followers of Jesus want to move quickly from the cross to a crusade.

But Jesus has another idea. He says to them, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (v. 8). Then he ascends into heaven, leaving them looking up in shock and disbelief.

Jesus challenges them to be witnesses, not warriors. He promises that they will receive the power they need to continue his work in the world – to speak his words, to continue his healings, to provide leadership to his church. Jesus doesn’t ask them to conquer Jerusalem and protect the city from harm, but instead he calls them to take his message from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and even to “the ends of the earth.”

Carry my cross into the world, says Jesus. But don’t be a violent crusader.

There is certainly a crusader mentality still alive and well in the church today. Just a couple of weeks ago, there was a national telecast of a church event called “Justice Sunday.” In this rally, conservative Christian leaders took stands against members of the judiciary that they labeled “activist judges” – judges accused of having a left-leaning political agenda.

Problem is, our courts are populated by as many Republicans as Democrats, and Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy – charged with “outrageous” judicial overreach – was appointed to the court by Ronald Reagan.

So there’s a crusade under way. And I can’t honestly see how it is connected to the cross of Jesus Christ.

Then this past week we heard about accusations of religious intolerance at the U.S. Air Force Academy. A report revealed that cadets who declined to go to chapel were organized into a "Heathen Flight" and marched back to their dorms. The Air Force's "Chaplain of the Year" urged cadets to proselytize among their classmates or "burn in the fires of hell." And numerous faculty members introduced themselves to their classes as born-again Christians, and encouraged students to become born again during the term.

Once again, here’s evidence of crusade mentality. It’s an approach to the faith that has more to do with conquering an enemy than spreading a message. And let me be perfectly clear -- this is not an approach that divides conservatives from liberals. Liberals have their crusades as well. And it is certainly not a Republican-Democratic distinction. Michael Weinstein is a graduate of the Air Force Academy who went on to serve as a White House attorney in the Reagan administration. He sent two sons to the academy, and is disturbed by the religious intolerance he sees being practiced there. He attributes the problem to “a colossal failure of leadership.”

So how do we turn this trend around, and shift our attention away from the Crusades … and back to the Cross? How do we turn from being warriors to being witnesses, and put our energy into spreading Christ’s message of sacrificial love?

Sacrificial love. That’s the heart of the message of Jesus. And it’s a good message for Mother’s Day, when we give thanks for the love shown by all who are mothers to us. Sacrificial love is what accepts us, embraces us, forgives us, and offers us new life.

From today’s passage of Scripture, we discover that the best way to share this love is by being small-group-centered and mission-minded. The first followers of Jesus knew that it was crucial to gather as a close-knit group, one that included men, women, the mother of Jesus, and the brothers of Jesus. Acts tells us that they gathered in a room upstairs, in the city of Jerusalem, and all of them “were constantly devoting themselves to prayer” (v. 14). They needed to make a connection with one another, and a connection with God, if they were going to succeed as messengers of Jesus Christ.

They were also mission-minded, from the moment Jesus disappeared into the clouds on the day of his ascension. “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” ask two mysterious men in white robes (v. 11). Get your heads out of the clouds, because Jesus will certainly come back. Stop looking up, insist the two mystery men, and start looking around. You don’t want to be so heavenly-minded that you are no earthly good.

I’ve spoken often about the experience I had with the “Midlife Men on a Mission” last fall, so you know about the ways in which that group was both mission-minded and small-group-centered as it traveled to Honduras to help build a church camp. But one story I haven’t told concerns a question that was asked as we began to look ahead to our second trip. One member of the group asked, “Can I bring a Muslim friend next time?”

That’s good question, isn’t it? It’s not a question that a Crusader would ask. Instead, it’s a question that would be raised by someone interested in sharing the love of Jesus.

The answer was “yes,” as long as the Muslim friend would be open to times of Christian Bible study and prayer. These Midlife Men, you see, are not content to stand around, looking up to the heavens – they want to be witnesses to their friends, to their neighbors, to the people of Honduras, to the very ends of the earth. They want others to look at them and see a Christian code at work, one marked by right action, fairness, and faith.

It’s all about the code, you see. Not the code of a medieval knight, but the code of a Christian. This code is based on being a witness, not a warrior. It requires looking around at the needs of the world, not just looking up to heaven. It is marked by sacrificial love, fellowship and prayer, fairness and faith. It involves finding ways to live out the words of our closing hymn this morning, “Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim, Till all the world adore His sacred Name.”

So let’s lift the cross of Christ, not the sword of a Crusader. That’s the crux of the matter, for all who want to live by a Christian code. Amen.