Our Gospel passage today comes from ‘the sermon on the
plain’ found in Luke. It is a passage
that expresses noble and good sentiments, but I would imagine we also think these
sentiments are impractical and out of touch with the way the world really
is. But of course that is the
point. The path that Jesus sets out for
us is not an easy one, it goes against the grain of the very best of us. For me it automatically makes me imagine how
these words of Christ about peace can be misunderstood as excuses for allowing
yourself or others to continue to be misused, or abused at the hands of someone
more powerful. But these are merely
excuses because there is a big difference between not returning hurt for hurt, and
apathy in the face of abuse. There was
never anything apathetic about the way in which Jesus lived. When Jesus ‘turned the other cheek’ it was
done out of courage, not out of fear.
Nothing about Jesus’ ministry was particularly passive, what Jesus did
was illuminate another path beyond violence or apathy, a path of true selfless
action. The path of the cross.
The coming of Christ into the world makes a
difference. The incarnation of God into
human history makes all the difference in the way we respond to other people.
Today we are celebrating the life and ministry of
Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout his
career as a leader in the civil rights movement Martin Luther King came up
against opposition, not just from abject racists but from moderates who, while
they agreed with Dr. King in principle about segregation, did not like seeing
the disruption of the status quo by protests.
When Dr. King went to Birmingham and led non-violent direct action
protests against segregation, he was blamed for the violence precipitated by
his peaceful protests, and the violence of other protestors not associated with
King. White moderates could not
understand why King could not wait for justice to happen in a way that was less
disruptive; they could not understand why King couldn’t work through the courts
and not disrupt the everyday life of the town of Birmingham.
It is easy, I think, to tell someone else that they
have to wait for justice when you already have that justice for yourself. We do not want to give up our own privilege,
our own comforts.
But I think it is pretty clear in today’s Gospel that
Jesus does not want us to get too comfortable in the life we are living,
because it is not the life we are called to.
Our instincts tell us that we must protect our own comforts, our own
privilege at all costs. Our instincts
tell us ‘to do unto others as they do to you,’ that an eye for an eye is
justice. Perhaps it is part of our
genetic make-up, part of our instinct for survival, but thankfully we are not
ruled by our instincts, human-beings have the very real ability to self
regulate, to do something despite what our baser selves are telling us to
do.
We may not have particularly pleasant feelings towards
our enemies. We may not want to give our
cloak, much less our shirt. We may not
want to turn the other cheek, but that really doesn’t matter because to Jesus, love
is not merely a feeling or emotion. Love
is action. How we feel inside means so
much less than how we express those feelings in the world. There was never anything passive about what
Jesus did in his life or calls us to do in ours. We are not asked to just roll over and be
abused, but to react to injustice in our own lives and others in a new way.
Our desire not to sacrifice too much is certainly
strong, but Jesus calls us out past our discomfort, past our sense of justice,
past our sense of what is fair, what we believe can be expected within a
civilized society. But imagine what the
world would be like if those of us who called ourselves Christian actually
lived our lives in this way?
Before he was killed Dr. King had expanded his efforts
to include issues of poverty and class injustice, because he knew that Issues
of inequality and injustice would not be solved merely with the introduction of
anti-discrimination laws. It is just not
that simple, there is something within human society, perhaps even within our
very nature, that fears the changes that lead to greater inclusion and a more
even distribution of power. Issues of
race, gender, religion and sexuality are all issues that make us terribly
uncomfortable, they are topics that are generally avoided in small talk, and
depending on which side of an issue we stand, they are topics we would really
like to forget about. But as Christians
we cannot ignore the troubles of people around us. We must demand justice, not for ourselves,
but for our struggling neighbors, we must not look at our enemies as obstacles
but must learn to see the world as God sees it.
God is not blind to the pain we cause each other, God does not ignore
the atrocities committed throughout the world.
God knows our selfishness and our laziness, God knows our hate and our
jealousy. But God loves us all the same.
The Rule for Christians is not ‘Do as you would want
done,’ but ‘Do as God would do’ If we
are to call ourselves Christians then we are meant to rock the boat, to love
more by giving more, forgiving more, having more mercy, even to those that we
believe don’t deserve it.
Today’s Gospel expresses quite a radical way to
live. Radical love, Radical peace,
Radical sacrifice. It is a complete
turning inside out of the way in which we deal with each other. There is a parable of sorts that was first
told by a Rabbi. It goes like this:
There once was
a man who had a near death experience.
An escort meets him at the boundary of hereafter and
with a welcoming smile says, “You’re not ready yet friend; you still have
another chance. But you’ll return soon, so let me show you what goes on here on
the other side.”
Together they enter a great hall where a long
candle-lit banquet table is laden with bowls of steaming, fragrant soups,
succulent roasts, perfectly cooked vegetables, aromatic loaves of bread, the
finest of wines, fruits of every kind, and a dazzling array of cakes and pies.
Diners fill every chair, but shockingly, amid luxurious bounty, the scene is
one of pain and anguish. Skeletal forms are twisted and moaning in starvation,
with barely the strength to strike at each other with their spoons.
Looking closer, the man sees that all spoons have long
handles—longer than the diners’ arms; too long for the diners to feed themselves.
“So this is Hell,” gasps our Friend. “Anger and misery amid abundance. Where’s
the Devil?” “Evil resides in the hearts of men,” says Escort, “But, come, let
me show you something else.”
The two enter another great hall. And in that hall
there is another long, candle-lit banquet table, covered with a similar
incredible spread of delicious foods, drinks and sweets. Here the sounds of
laughter, chatter and song fill the hall while healthy and happy diners are
enjoying the company and the bounty before them.
They, too, have long spoons, but they are feeding each
other.
“And this,” the Escort tells our Friend, “is heaven.”
The difference between Heaven and Hell is paper thin, and
yet heaven requires a radical change in our lives.
When we hear the word extremist it only ever has bad
connotations. The extremists we hear
about are murderers who use God as an excuse for their crimes.
But Martin Luther King Jr. was also called an
extremist and while he was at first surprised, even offended, in his letter
from Birmingham Jail Dr. King had something interesting to say about extremism
and he had some questions for the religious leaders of Birmingham, questions
that 50 years later we too need to ask ourselves:
Martin Luther King wrote these words: “As I continued
to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being
considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love? -- "Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use
you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice? -- "Let justice roll
down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Was not Paul an
extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ? -- "I bear in my body the marks
of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist? -- "Here I
stand; I can do no other so help me God." Was not John Bunyan an
extremist? -- "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a
mockery of my conscience." Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? --
"This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." Was not Thomas
Jefferson an extremist? -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal." So the question is not whether we will be extremist,
but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will
we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of
injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?"
Long Spoon Parable Source: http://iciclefund.org/parable
