For those of us who take seriously the words as ascribed to Jesus in our scriptures, there is a definite belief that love conquers all. There are the words "do not resist an evildoer but turn the other cheek" and "you have heard it said, love your friends, but I say, love your enemies". There is definitely something "unrealistic" or "impractical" about all of it, and yet, we are called to believe in it, to fight for it, to created the world of love, to "bring the kingdom to earth as it is in heaven" (whatever it is you believe heaven to be). We are not called to fight hate with hate, but to fight it with love. We are not called to seek revenge or even to punish an evildoer. Instead we are told to not judge and to love the unlovable. This isn't what our current politics espouse in any form, but these are the words of Jesus. For those who say they are Christian and yet espouse hatred, fear and self-protection at the cost of harming ANYONE else, I can only say you either haven't actually read the gospels, or you just plain don't take it with any seriousness. There isn't room to be "practical" or to fight hatred with killing, to self protect with violence, fear, or anger. There isn't room for revenge or even punishment. Those things we are supposed to leave up to God. Is this easy? Of course not. Are we expected to fail sometimes? Of course. But to claim that violence, killing, hatred are ever Christian responses is to utterly fail to understand the gospels.
I will, again, admit that those who say that these practices aren't "practical" are right at some level. Even our scriptures tell us to be "fools" for our faith, believing, hoping, trusting, and choosing love even in the face of hate where there is no sign that these will get us what we want. The very fact that scripture calls us to be fools for believing in these values shows them to be different than what many who look for practical will find. Our idealists who espoused these values (whether Christian or not) worked to change the world, and I believe they have - MLK, Carter, Kennedy, Ghandi, etc. They were idealists. And while their policies may not have been practical they changed the world, and they did it without violence, without hate, without killing. Ultimately, we do create the world we want. But unfortunately, it is equally true that those who work to keep the world practical, and who therefore fight against the belief that love conquers all also have a hand in creating the world and they fight hard, refusing to believe in the possibility of a world where love genuinely and completely wipes out fear, hatred and darkness.
I find I have no comprehension for those who claim to be Christian and yet who espouse violent reactions to things they don't like. I simply don't understand if they have failed to read the scriptures they claim to believe or if they simply don't take them seriously. They sometimes quote scripture, but it is always Old Testament or occasionally Paul's writings. It is never Jesus. EVER. So if you don't believe in the words of Jesus, stop saying you are Christian. Just own that you aren't. Stop dragging the name "Christian" through the mud of hatred, fear, violence and killing when that is so very antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Just STOP.
Unfortunately, there are too many of those folk out there right now. There are just too many who live by fear and hate and call it practical (many even dare to call it Christian. Again, have they actually READ the gospels?). There just don't seem to be enough who are brave enough and faithful enough to choose to live by love at whatever cost.
And I have to admit, it breaks my heart, on a daily basis.
Showing posts with label vengeance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vengeance. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Today's Sermon - What to do now?
Matthew 5:38-48
Today is supposed to be the day that I preach on Stewardship, or giving to the church. I had the sermon written and prepared. It was an acceptable stewardship sermon, full of examples and stories – perhaps you will hear it next week. You know the point of it anyway, the church can’t survive without you. You are the church, and therefore we need all of who you are. Blah Blah Blah. Important stuff? Of course.
But it isn’t what is important today. So last night after being glued to Facebook on and off throughout the day, to friends’ posts about the news and to news sources themselves I realized the sermon I’d written had to be tossed, or at least postponed. Because that’s not what we need today. That’s not where we are today as a people. We are instead on Friday the 13th, 2015. As I understand it, within a 24 hour period we had terrorist attacks in Paris, an earthquake in Japan, a funeral bombed in Baghdad, Suicide bombings in Beirut and another earthquake in Mexico. Through these events and these events alone in a 24 hour period it is guesstimated that we lost 115,200 human lives. In 24 hours. And that does not count the murders and suicides and deaths to hunger, starvation, dehydration, kidnapping, spousal abuse, or natural disasters around the world other than the two mentioned that went on yesterday. It does not count the violence, the pain, the suffering that went on in the world that just permanently damaged individuals and communities around the world. It does not count those lost to disease and car accidents and SIDS and old age. There was suffering in that 24 hour period. And beyond that I understand there was an attack on a university in Kenya that ended with 147 dead, also from a fundamentalist group similar to Isis called Al Shabab. It goes on. And on. And the result is real suffering. Great suffering.
Deep.
Suffering.
And not just in isolated pockets. There is a poem out by Warsan Shire, “later that night I held an atlas in my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered, “where does it hurt?” It answered, “everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.”
In the midst of all of that, what are we to do? How are we to feel and act and live? How are we supposed to respond? How are we supposed to get up each morning like the world is normal and fine and God’s beautiful creation? And then, and then, the passage our pastor decides to read to us is about loving our enemies! Is she nuts? Is she crazy? That is not where we are right now! That is not how we feel right now!
And the truth is, I’m with you on that. The truth is that feelings like sorrow, like forgiveness, like loving those who hurt us – those things feel weak in the face of what the world is experiencing. How is love a realistic response to what went on in Paris, Baghdad, Beirut, Kenya?! We know what happens to those who practice love in the face of stuff like this!! Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, JFK, Jesus! Look what happened to them? They ended up dead! Killed. All of them. Dead. And if it was just our lives on the line, maybe that would feel okay. But what about when it is our children? My children? My family? My community? Aren’t we supposed to defend the week and oppressed and downtrodden? Aren’t we supposed to do something? And mustn’t that something be violent so the point is made? Mustn’t that something be so huge and dramatically vengeful that we get the attention of those lousy Isis people and make them stop??!! They need to suffer as we have suffered. We want them punished. Anger feels strong! Vengeance feels strong! Retaliation feels strong! Those aren’t the weak emotions of grief, of sorrow, or of love! Right?
Right?!
Right….?
I found myself reading article after article written by people I respect, admire, value. I read argument after argument about the “correct” responses to all of this. All sorts of ideas are being expressed, as they always are. David is a Marine. And he admitted that that part of him fires up in the face of all of this. But he’s also now very close to a person who takes very seriously Jesus' call to turn the other cheek – I take it so seriously that I pretty much consider myself a pacifist. I agree with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr when he said “darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” But what do we do with either of those philosophies when what is really under them all is simply raw pain. Grief. Loss. Incomprehension about what is happening to our world, in our world, around our world. In our communities, with our friends. With those we love….
Anne Lamott wrote this, “So where do we find grace and light? If you mean right now, the answer is Nowhere. It's like after a child dies. Grace always does bat last, and the light always overcomes the darkness--always, historically. But not necessarily later the same day, or tomorrow, after lunch. Wendell Berry told me 25 years ago, in Advent, the darkest shortest days of winter, "It gets darker and darker and darker, and then Jesus is born." But it is only November 13! It gets even darker. What is the answer? Gandhi is almost always the answer. Jesus's love for the poor and refugees is the answer. Adding a bit of light and warmth to these cold dark days doesn't hurt. Candles are beautiful and bring a soupçon of solace to our souls. People living on the streets could really use your old blankets and jackets. Grace will always show up in the helpers, as Mr. Rogers' mother used to tell him in times of tragedy. But today, right now, if you have a nice bumper sticker that explains or makes sense of what happened in Paris, it's probably best if you keep that to yourself”
Frankly, I was tempted to read to you her whole article instead of my sermon because her writing is so profound and beautiful and right on. But I realized that that would also not be helpful. Because in the midst of all this, in the midst of tragedy, and pain, and loss, and confusion, what we need most is each other. What we need most is to be together, to stand with one another, to support and love one another. And while distant writers and not so distant writers can help us, can be part of the guides that help us through this time, what we need is immediate, is here, is now. At a time when there is pain, and loss, and tragedy, “distant” is the opposite of what we need.
If there is any truth to the words of Jesus and Martin Luther King, then we have to start with love. And that love has to start with those we know. If you are a visitor, that love has to start with those right in front of you, too, from us to you, and hopefully you will feel surrounded by that in this place. We learn through loving and being loved by those in our midst how to love those who are not in our midst. We learn by loving and being loved by those we like how to take a chance and maybe, just maybe, love those we don’t like. We learn from loving and being loved by those we don’t like, the first steps in loving our enemies. But that, too, is jumping way ahead.
For today I don’t want to argue about the best way to both love our enemies and defend the powerless. Today I don’t want to explore what to do about what is happening to our world. For today, for today, I believe our call is simply to begin by being together, supporting each other, loving each other and those around the world. And I want to start by telling you that whatever you are feeling about what is happening in the world is okay. Feelings are just feelings. Those, too, are gifts from God, that help us know something is wrong, and help us move forward and into solutions at some point. We don’t grieve by pushing those feelings away. And we don’t move forward by denying them or deciding they are wrong. If you feel angry, that’s understandable. If you feel rage-ful, that’s okay. If you feel sad, that is absolutely normal. If you feel lost, or scared, or alone or confused – all of those feelings in the face of these tragedies make sense. And we are here for you, for each other.
And God? Where is God in the midst of all of this? I’m reminded of another passage. Matthew 2: 16- 18: When Herod knew the magi had fooled him, he grew very angry. He sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding territory who were two years old and younger, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. 17 This fulfilled the word spoken through Jeremiah the prophet: A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and much grieving.
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she did not want to be comforted,
because they were no more.
Where is God in this? It is God who is weeping, not just Rachel. It is God’s children who have been killed. It is God’s children who are suffering. Where is God when we are suffering? Right with us. Suffering as well.
Yes, we are called to move forward, to do something, to work this through. But today, for today, we are called to just be with our feelings, with one another, and with the God who is grieving too.
Today is supposed to be the day that I preach on Stewardship, or giving to the church. I had the sermon written and prepared. It was an acceptable stewardship sermon, full of examples and stories – perhaps you will hear it next week. You know the point of it anyway, the church can’t survive without you. You are the church, and therefore we need all of who you are. Blah Blah Blah. Important stuff? Of course.
But it isn’t what is important today. So last night after being glued to Facebook on and off throughout the day, to friends’ posts about the news and to news sources themselves I realized the sermon I’d written had to be tossed, or at least postponed. Because that’s not what we need today. That’s not where we are today as a people. We are instead on Friday the 13th, 2015. As I understand it, within a 24 hour period we had terrorist attacks in Paris, an earthquake in Japan, a funeral bombed in Baghdad, Suicide bombings in Beirut and another earthquake in Mexico. Through these events and these events alone in a 24 hour period it is guesstimated that we lost 115,200 human lives. In 24 hours. And that does not count the murders and suicides and deaths to hunger, starvation, dehydration, kidnapping, spousal abuse, or natural disasters around the world other than the two mentioned that went on yesterday. It does not count the violence, the pain, the suffering that went on in the world that just permanently damaged individuals and communities around the world. It does not count those lost to disease and car accidents and SIDS and old age. There was suffering in that 24 hour period. And beyond that I understand there was an attack on a university in Kenya that ended with 147 dead, also from a fundamentalist group similar to Isis called Al Shabab. It goes on. And on. And the result is real suffering. Great suffering.
Deep.
Suffering.
And not just in isolated pockets. There is a poem out by Warsan Shire, “later that night I held an atlas in my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered, “where does it hurt?” It answered, “everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.”
In the midst of all of that, what are we to do? How are we to feel and act and live? How are we supposed to respond? How are we supposed to get up each morning like the world is normal and fine and God’s beautiful creation? And then, and then, the passage our pastor decides to read to us is about loving our enemies! Is she nuts? Is she crazy? That is not where we are right now! That is not how we feel right now!
And the truth is, I’m with you on that. The truth is that feelings like sorrow, like forgiveness, like loving those who hurt us – those things feel weak in the face of what the world is experiencing. How is love a realistic response to what went on in Paris, Baghdad, Beirut, Kenya?! We know what happens to those who practice love in the face of stuff like this!! Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, JFK, Jesus! Look what happened to them? They ended up dead! Killed. All of them. Dead. And if it was just our lives on the line, maybe that would feel okay. But what about when it is our children? My children? My family? My community? Aren’t we supposed to defend the week and oppressed and downtrodden? Aren’t we supposed to do something? And mustn’t that something be violent so the point is made? Mustn’t that something be so huge and dramatically vengeful that we get the attention of those lousy Isis people and make them stop??!! They need to suffer as we have suffered. We want them punished. Anger feels strong! Vengeance feels strong! Retaliation feels strong! Those aren’t the weak emotions of grief, of sorrow, or of love! Right?
Right?!
Right….?
I found myself reading article after article written by people I respect, admire, value. I read argument after argument about the “correct” responses to all of this. All sorts of ideas are being expressed, as they always are. David is a Marine. And he admitted that that part of him fires up in the face of all of this. But he’s also now very close to a person who takes very seriously Jesus' call to turn the other cheek – I take it so seriously that I pretty much consider myself a pacifist. I agree with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr when he said “darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” But what do we do with either of those philosophies when what is really under them all is simply raw pain. Grief. Loss. Incomprehension about what is happening to our world, in our world, around our world. In our communities, with our friends. With those we love….
Anne Lamott wrote this, “So where do we find grace and light? If you mean right now, the answer is Nowhere. It's like after a child dies. Grace always does bat last, and the light always overcomes the darkness--always, historically. But not necessarily later the same day, or tomorrow, after lunch. Wendell Berry told me 25 years ago, in Advent, the darkest shortest days of winter, "It gets darker and darker and darker, and then Jesus is born." But it is only November 13! It gets even darker. What is the answer? Gandhi is almost always the answer. Jesus's love for the poor and refugees is the answer. Adding a bit of light and warmth to these cold dark days doesn't hurt. Candles are beautiful and bring a soupçon of solace to our souls. People living on the streets could really use your old blankets and jackets. Grace will always show up in the helpers, as Mr. Rogers' mother used to tell him in times of tragedy. But today, right now, if you have a nice bumper sticker that explains or makes sense of what happened in Paris, it's probably best if you keep that to yourself”
Frankly, I was tempted to read to you her whole article instead of my sermon because her writing is so profound and beautiful and right on. But I realized that that would also not be helpful. Because in the midst of all this, in the midst of tragedy, and pain, and loss, and confusion, what we need most is each other. What we need most is to be together, to stand with one another, to support and love one another. And while distant writers and not so distant writers can help us, can be part of the guides that help us through this time, what we need is immediate, is here, is now. At a time when there is pain, and loss, and tragedy, “distant” is the opposite of what we need.
If there is any truth to the words of Jesus and Martin Luther King, then we have to start with love. And that love has to start with those we know. If you are a visitor, that love has to start with those right in front of you, too, from us to you, and hopefully you will feel surrounded by that in this place. We learn through loving and being loved by those in our midst how to love those who are not in our midst. We learn by loving and being loved by those we like how to take a chance and maybe, just maybe, love those we don’t like. We learn from loving and being loved by those we don’t like, the first steps in loving our enemies. But that, too, is jumping way ahead.
For today I don’t want to argue about the best way to both love our enemies and defend the powerless. Today I don’t want to explore what to do about what is happening to our world. For today, for today, I believe our call is simply to begin by being together, supporting each other, loving each other and those around the world. And I want to start by telling you that whatever you are feeling about what is happening in the world is okay. Feelings are just feelings. Those, too, are gifts from God, that help us know something is wrong, and help us move forward and into solutions at some point. We don’t grieve by pushing those feelings away. And we don’t move forward by denying them or deciding they are wrong. If you feel angry, that’s understandable. If you feel rage-ful, that’s okay. If you feel sad, that is absolutely normal. If you feel lost, or scared, or alone or confused – all of those feelings in the face of these tragedies make sense. And we are here for you, for each other.
And God? Where is God in the midst of all of this? I’m reminded of another passage. Matthew 2: 16- 18: When Herod knew the magi had fooled him, he grew very angry. He sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding territory who were two years old and younger, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. 17 This fulfilled the word spoken through Jeremiah the prophet: A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and much grieving.
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she did not want to be comforted,
because they were no more.
Where is God in this? It is God who is weeping, not just Rachel. It is God’s children who have been killed. It is God’s children who are suffering. Where is God when we are suffering? Right with us. Suffering as well.
Yes, we are called to move forward, to do something, to work this through. But today, for today, we are called to just be with our feelings, with one another, and with the God who is grieving too.
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