Perspective: He Wanted a War

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

He Wanted a War

We aren't fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens.

Ephesians 6:12 (CEB)

Father, father

We don't need to escalate

You see, war is not the answer

For only love can conquer hate

You know we've got to find a way

To bring some lovin' here today

From "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye

Jesus said, during His most famous sermon, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..."¹  This quote has become so familiar to us that I don't think we always grasp the gravity of what Jesus was saying.  When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, He is not merely referring to the jerks who cut us off in traffic and the lowlifes at work who make offhanded comments to us.  No, He is telling us to love real enemies, those people who would maliciously do us serious harm, those who might even threaten our lives.

Consider for a moment Jesus' original audience.  In first century Palestine, the Jewish people lived with the boot of an evil empire on their necks.  The Romans employed very brutal tactics to keep the "peace" in the areas they occupied.  Anyone who stepped out of line would find himself nailed to a cross and hanged up to die as a warning to anybody who might be tempted to follow in his footsteps.  When Jesus speaks of "enemies," He is referring to the people who committed such horrific acts of violence.  It is these types of people whom Jesus tells us to love.

On the evening of June 17, 21-year-old Dylann Roof sat in on a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina.  Unbeknownst to the other people who had gathered there that night, Roof had made himself their mortal enemy, for he had come with evil intentions.  He believed the lie that, because he was white, he was somehow superior to the people at the church.  One hour after he arrived, he killed nine of the twelve other people in the Bible study and wounded a tenth person.²

In the same sermon in which Jesus tells us to love our enemies, He also says, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'  But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.  But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also..."³  The concept of an eye for an eye is not necessarily a prescription for retribution for wrongdoing but rather a limit on retaliation: a wrongdoing could only be repaid in kind.  For example, if my neighbor kicked my dog, I would not be justified in burning his house down and murdering his family in response.

There is a fatal flaw with the in-kind limitation on retribution, namely, human nature.  As humans, we have a tendency to justify our own actions in our hearts and minds, so any act of retaliation against us could be perceived as an act of aggression which itself would warrant retaliation.  Furthermore, we have a tendency to escalate matters so that we can come out on top.  Thus we are drawn into a never-ending escalating cycle of violence.  Jesus understood what Martin Luther King Jr. would say centuries later, that "the old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind,"⁴ that "force begets force," and that "hate begets hate."⁵

Roof understood this ugly aspect of human nature; in fact, he was counting on it.  When Roof confessed to his crimes, he reportedly said that he did what he did to ignite a race war, a war between between white people and people of color.⁶

After three years of ministry, when Jesus found himself face-to-face with the cruelty of the Roman Empire and the other powers that be, He demonstrated the radical love and forgiveness he proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount.  When He was arrested by the authorities, He ordered His followers to put away their swords, saying that "all who take the sword will perish by the sword."⁷  When He was hanged on a cross for charges of sedition, He prayed to God on behalf of those who inflicted violence upon Him, saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."⁸

Two days after the shooting, Roof, at his bond hearing, was confronted via video feed by relatives of some of his victims.

One woman, who lost her mother Ethel Lance in the shooting, said to Roof, "I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you.  And have mercy on your soul.  You hurt me.  You hurt a lot of people, but God forgives you, and I forgive you."

Felicia Sanders, a survivor of the shooting who lost her mother Tywanza Sanders, said to Roof, "Every fiber in my body hurts, and I will never be the same."  She went on to say, "But may God have mercy on you."⁹

Benjamin L. Corey, in his book Undiluted, writes that Jesus "teaches that those who actually 'follow' Him, will opt out of the never-ending cycle of retributive violence, and instead opt to respond to violence with radical, undiluted love."¹⁰  To forgive an offender is to say "No" to retribution.  By forgiving Roof, the relatives of his victims modeled the love for enemy and radical forgiveness Jesus proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount, effectively saying "No" to the downward spiral of violence Roof wanted to start.

In some sense, I hope that this tragedy does indeed result in a war - not the war fueled by hatred that Roof wanted to start, but rather a war against hatred.

In my denomination, the United Methodist Church, people who join the Church through baptism and confirmation vow to willingly receive the power from God "to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves."¹¹  To combat evil, injustice, and oppression is not just the duty of United Methodists but of all who choose to follow Jesus Christ.

St. Paul writes that, as followers of Christ, we are soldiers in a war that "is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."¹²  Typically, when I speak of demons, I am not referring to beings that may or may not have horns, hooves, and a tail, but rather the insidious, invisible forces that hold people captive - systems of oppression and spirits of fear, hatred, and bigotry.  These demonic forces cannot be fought with violence: to resort to bloodshed is to surrender to them.  This war can only be fought with the weapons of faith, justice, truth, and a message of peace.¹³

Dylann Roof wanted a war.  Let's hope that he gets one - not a war between flesh and blood human beings, but rather a war against the evils that are wreaking havoc in our world - a war that can only be fought with weapons of love and light.  As Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."¹⁴  May we all fight valiantly against the darkness in the world around us and against the hatred within our own hearts.


Notes:

1. Matthew 5:43-44 (NRSV)
2. Wikipedia: Charleston church shooting
3. Matthew 5:38-39 (NRSV)
4. From King's essay "Three Ways of Meeting Oppression"
5. From King's sermon "Loving Your Enemies," delivered in November of 1957
6. http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-church-shooting-main/
7. Matthew 26:50-52 (NRSV)
8. Luke 23:34 (NRSV)
9. http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-church-shooting-main/
10. Benjamin L. Corey.  Undiluted: Rediscovering the Radical Message of Jesus.  2014, Destiny Image.  p. 113
11. From The United Methodist Book of Worship p. 88
12. Ephesians 6:12 (NRSV)
13. Ephesians 6:13-17
14. From King's sermon "Loving Your Enemies," delivered on Christmas of 1957

The photograph of the crowd gathered outside Morris Brown African Methodist Epispocal Church was taken by Wikimedia user Nomader and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: Bearers of Good News

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Bearers of Good News

My peace is the legacy I leave to you.  I don't give gifts like those of this world.  Do not let your heart be troubled or fearful.

John 14:27 (The Voice)

Save us from weak resignation

To the evils we deplore

Let the search for Thy salvation

Be our glory evermore

From "God of Grace and God of Glory"
by Harry Emerson Fosdick

Toward the end of St. Paul's third missionary journey, Paul and his traveling companions spent a week in the city of Troas on their way back to Jerusalem.  During their last evening there, Paul wanted to make the most of his remaining time in the city, so he spent the night in a room on the third floor of a house, talking with the people who were gathered there.  Everyone was engrossed in what Paul was saying that night - everyone with the exception of one young man named Eutychus who happened to be sitting on a window sill.  As Paul went on an on, the young man drifted off to sleep, fell out of the window to the ground below, and was killed on impact.

Paul ran down to the ground and miraculously brought the young man back to life.¹

I feel that, in this morbidly humorous story about a boy who was literally bored to death and then brought back to life, there is a message or at least a question for us Christians.  The Bible tells us absolutely nothing about what Paul was discussing with his companions that evening.  Maybe he was discussing theology, or doctrine, or the types of things we would find in the various letters of his that are collected in the New Testament.  All we know is that Paul made a singular announcement that night: "Don't be alarmed.  He's alive!"²

This story makes me wonder what kind of message we Christians are offering the world around us.  Are we who are called to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ with us throughout the world - we who are called to be bearers of Good News - announcing new life?  Or are we just putting people to sleep?

One thing that totally irks me about Christians is the fact that so many of us are fixated on what might happen to us when we die, while it seems that the whole world is going to hell all around us.  Is the promise of "pie in the sky when we die" really all we have to offer the hurting people in our midst?  Is our "good news" so stale and irrelevant that we have to make up a whole bunch of bad news just to make it seem good?  Bad news is not in short supply in the world: if we want bad news, we'll find plenty of it by turning on the nightly news or by checking our social media feeds.  We don't need any more bad news: what we need is some news that is actually good.

Just a few days ago, in my own state, nine people who were gathered together with others for a Bible study were murdered in cold blood because of the color of their skin.³  One day later, people in my own city who were gathered for vigil for those who were killed had to evacuate because of a bomb threat.⁴  If the last couple of years has taught us anything it has taught us that systemic demons of oppression like racism are still wreaking havoc in the world.  What the world needs is the good news that the way things are is not the way things have to be.

Jesus said that, while others have come "only to steal and kill and destroy," He has come into the world "that [we] may have life and have it abundantly."⁵  This, the promise of new and abundant life here and now, is, in my opinion, good news.  The Hebrew word Shalom is typically understood to mean "peace," but the term also connotes a sense of wholeness and wellness.  It is no wonder that the Jewish people use it as a greeting, for the hope of wholeness and wellness in a sick, broken world is indeed good news.⁶

What are we doing?  Are we carrying this message of new and abundant life with us wherever we go?  Are we living as though it is actually real?  Or is it all just a bunch of empty words?  Are we actually living out the reality of the Kingdom of God here on Earth as it is in Heaven?  May we all seek to be people who announce the good news of new life and Shalom.  Even more so, may we seek to be people who actually live it out.


Notes:

1. Acts 20:7-12
2. Acts 20:10 (CEB)
3. Wikipedia: Charleston church shooting
4. http://www.wyff4.com/news/upstate-church-evacuated-during-prayer-vigil-due-to-bomb-threat/33652016
5. John 10:10 (NRSV)
6. Wikipedia: Shalom

The photograph of the olive branch was taken by Hans Bernhard and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: Investing in Iniquity

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Investing in Iniquity

The Lord proclaims:

For three crimes of Israel,

and for four, I won’t hold back the punishment,

because they have sold the innocent for silver,

and those in need for a pair of sandals.

They crush the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,

and push the afflicted out of the way.

Father and son have intercourse with the same young woman,

degrading My holy name.

They stretch out beside every altar

on garments taken in loan;

in the house of their god they drink

wine bought with fines they imposed.

Amos 2:6-8 (CEB)

Failed to see

How destructive we can be

Taking without giving back

'Til the damage can be seen

Can you see?

Can you see?

From "Price to Play" by Staind

Amos was a tree farmer and sheep herder who lived in the small town of Tekoa, a few miles south of the capital city of Judah.  He lived during the dark ages of Israelite history, when the nation had split into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah and when both kingdoms were headed down a destructive path.  Though Amos was too modest to claim the title for himself, he had been called by God to be a prophet.  He had received a series of visions from God, and he had been instructed to travel north to Israel to tell the people the things they needed to hear – things they didn't especially want to hear.¹

Amos was there to speak on behalf of God,

and God wasn't happy.

When Amos arrived in the city of Bethel, he began to speak.  First he issued oracles of judgment against six of the surrounding nations for their brutality.  Then he announced judgment against his own homeland, saying that the people of Judah had rejected the Law of God and had chosen to believe lies.²  These pronouncements of judgment were merely a prelude to the main event, a series of indictments against the Israelites themselves.  These indictments were against those who "crush the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way" - the wealthy Israelites who treated the poor among them not as fellow human beings, but as the means or the obstacles to their own ends.

Amos spoke out against those who "sold the innocent for silver."  In those days, "justice" was a commodity to be bought and sold, for the rich bribed judges to rule against the innocent.  As a result, the losers in these cases were forced to either sell their property or go into slavery.

Amos spoke out against the men who sexually exploited women, be they female servants or poor women who were forced into prostitution.

Amos spoke out against those who lay down "on garments taken in loan."  Some predatory creditors would loan poor people money, taking their garments as collateral.  These were the garments that the debtors wore at night, meaning that, if they could not repay their creditors, they would go to bed cold.

Amos spoke out against those who "drink wine bought with fines they imposed."  These fines could refer to either unjust fines levied against the poor or unreasonably high interest rates for loans.³

Amos's message was not well received.⁴

Hundreds of years before Amos brought these indictments against the wealthy of Israel, their ancestors suffered as slaves in another prosperous nation, namely Egypt.  They were subjected to backbreaking labor, and their taskmasters treated them cruelly, sometimes making their work more difficult without decreasing the daily quota.  God heard their cries of despair, and "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm," God liberated them from slavery and brought judgment against their oppressors.⁵

After leaving Egypt, the Israelites began their long journey through the desert, and, three months later, they arrived at Mt. Sinai, where God made a covenant with them.  The Israelites had been chosen by God to become "a priestly kingdom and a holy nation."⁶  Being chosen by God does not mean special treatment but rather special responsibility.  As a "priestly kingdom," it was the responsibility of the Israelites to show the world what their God is like.⁷  God gave them the Law, a series of instructions and rules that would guide them in their priestly duties,

rules that forbade people to prey on the vulnerable people in their society like widows, orphans, and immigrants,⁸

rules that forbade lenders to charge interest,⁹

rules that obligated lenders to return pawned garments before nightfall so that their debtors don't go to sleep cold,¹⁰

rules that forbade bribery, dishonesty, and partiality in court cases.¹¹

There were also rules that protected women.  Though many of these rules would be considered backward and barbaric by our standards, they were progressive for their time.¹²

Throughout the Law, God repeatedly reminded the Israelites that they were once slaves in a foreign land, that God hears the cries of the downtrodden, and that God does not excuse wrongdoing.  Basically, God said to them, "I did not deliver you from oppression just so that you could could become oppressors yourselves."  According to Rob Bell and Don Golden, the truth that "God always hears the cry of the oppressed" is "central to who God is."  God heard the cry of Abel, the victim of the first murder recorded in the Bible.  God heard the cry of the Israelites in Egypt when they suffered in slavery.  And God heard the cry of the poor in Israel who were trampled under the feet of the rich and powerful in Amos's day.¹³

Amos's warnings are as valid in our day as they were in the eighth century BC.  I am not opposed to the idea that God wants us to enjoy our lives - after all, what kind of parent wouldn't want his or her children to enjoy their lives?  God loves all of God's children, so God doesn't want any of us to enjoy our lives at anybody else's expense.  At a recent church conference, I heard our society compared to a zero-sum game, meaning that, for some to win in our society, others must lose.  It is important that we carefully examine our way of life, on guard against ways that the proverbial deck is stacked against certain people.

Hundreds of years after Amos spoke out against injustice in Israel, there was another prophetic figure who, at times, sounded a lot like the prophets of old.  John was an eccentric man who lived in the woods, wore weird clothes, and ate strange foods, yet many people looked to him for guidance.  Like Amos, he warned the people who came to see him about the judgment to come.  He reminded them that they were not off the hook simply because they were among God's chosen people.  He called them "to bear fruits worthy of repentance," in other words, to live lives that demonstrate a change of mind and heart - lives of generosity, contentment, and integrity.¹⁴

Six years ago, I worked as a software engineer for a company that manufactured video slot machines and video poker machines.  At that time, the company for which I worked did a lot of business in the state of Alabama.  Though slot machines are illegal in Alabama, bingo machines are perfectly legal.  To get around the legal prohibition against slot machines, many gaming companies, including my employer, manufactured bonanza bingo machines that were indistinguishable from slot machines.  One of my major projects involved updating such machines to ensure that they were within legal parameters.

My time in the gaming industry came to an end when my employer bought another gaming company, consolidated offices, and moved all operations out of state.  I was unwilling to relocate, so I was terminated.  Not long after I lost my job, my former employer had a string of bad luck.  First, the company faced some lawsuits involving its acquisition of the other company.  Next, my supervisor, the man who knew everything about the machinery and its programming, left the company for a position at a large corporation.  After that, the company was finally forced to remove its machines from Alabama, thereby losing one of its most lucrative markets.  I imagine there was a lot of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" within the company at that time.  Every now and then, morbid curiosity takes hold of me, and I Google the company's name to see if it has finally gone under.

My time working for the gambling industry was not a proud season in my life, and I counted my termination as an answer to prayer.  I don't think that it is always a sin to gamble, though there are always better uses for one's money.  What I find problematic is the fact that gaming companies benefit from the addiction of compulsive gamblers.  Though all of us, including gamblers, are ultimately responsible for our own choices, it is simply wrong to exploit a person's weaknesses for profit.  I would not say that my former employer's bad luck was necessarily judgment from God for preying on compulsive gamblers, but I do think it offers us an important object lesson.  To build a morally questionable business on legal loopholes is tantamount to building a house on sand.

I once heard a wise friend say that we all need something in which we can invest our lives.  This is a lesson I have taken to heart, and I have come to understand how important it is to choose carefully how we invest our lives.  I urge you, the reader, not to invest your life in iniquity.  As a Christian, I hold on to the hope that God will someday set all things to rights.  On that day, all things that exploit, oppress, and hurt people will come to an end.  All that we've invested in such things will be lost, and there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth."  May we invest our lives in the things that last.


Notes:

1. Amos 1:1,7:14-15
2. Amos 1:2-2:5
3. The sources I consulted regarding Amos 2:6-8 are as follows:
   
   1. Rashi's commentary on Amos 2
   2. The Wesley Study Bible (NRSV).  2009, Abingdon Press.  p. 1093
   3. Eric Elnes et al.  "Prophetically Incorrect Pt. 1: Selling the Righteous."  Darkwood Brew, 05/26/2013.
4. Amos 7:10-13
5. Exodus 1-14
6. Exodus 19:1-6
7. Rob Bell and Don Golden.  Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for a Church in Exile.  2008, Zondervan.  pp 30-31
8. Exodus 22:21-24
9. Exodus 22:25
10. Exodus 22:26-27
11. Exodus 23:1-3,6-8
12. Rob Bell discusses this at length in chapter 6 of his book What We Talk About When We Talk About God.  2013, HarperOne.
13. Bell and Golden pp. 23,35
14. Luke 3:7-14

The icon of the prophet Amos is on display in the Kizhi Monastery in Russia.