Treat with Respect

Treat with Respect

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

November 11, 2012

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Romans 12:18

Matthew 5:21-26

Deuteronomy 20:10-20

 

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show us the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen. 

People say that preaching to the lectionary keeps your feet to the fire because it forces you to preach the difficult passages, not just the easy ones, not only the ones in your wheel house but those passages that make you pause, make you think, and challenge your initial assumptions. It probably does, and I expect to give it a try at some point in my ministry, but I cannot think that it can be as challenging week to week as this journey we have been on since June, looking at the Marks of a True Christian. Just when I think it can't get any more challenging you get this morning's passage, Romans 12:18 "If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all," which seems easy enough, I mean peace is one of those easier topics, you would think, and for the first time in these "Marks of a Christian," there also are caveats and mitigating circumstances, like if it is possible, and so far as it depends. We haven't had those neutralizers before, look at where we've been, you won't hear any circumstances, just straightforward descriptions of saint like difficulty: Romans 12:9-18  

⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.  

But now we have "If it is possible, and so far as it depends," so you'd think easy, walk in the park, peace it is, I can talk about peace, speak out against war, talk about how simple it would be if everyone in the world could just get along, and stop fighting, but not so fast my friend. It's November 11th, Happy Veteran's Day! A day were we don't necessarily celebrate war, but we do celebrate those who have fought, and rightly so, but it gave me pause, it made me question just how simple it all is, which I think is good. God continually reminds us that he has a sense of humor doesn't he. Just when I thought I could give this great anti war sermon, he throws this little curveball as if to say, remember now even peace isn't so simple, and I'm reminded of Jesus Christ, prince of Peace, saying things like do not think I've come to bring peace on earth but a sword.

So I decided I'd jump on in. So I picked the troubling Old Testament Lesson that Erick read so well for us, and decided I'd pair it with this gospel lesson, Matthew 5:21-26:

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult  a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³ So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵ Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶ Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. ^[1]  

It's hard for someone like myself to stand up here and talk about the horrors of war because I have never been in one. I've been lucky enough to have lived in a time and in a country where others have sacrificed of their comfort, their time, their family and their lives in many cases fighting on my behalf in the world and I haven't had to experience that type of reality first hand. I know that some of the men in this sanctuary today have been those men, who have made that choice, or have lived in a time when the choice was made for them. I stand in awe of them because I know for a fact, as a student of history, that war has been throughout time one of the single largest destroyers of human life that this planet knows. In wars we kill each other, we destroy what each other has made, and life on this earth is forever altered by the wars we fight. So much is lost each time wars are fought we ask ourselves is it ever worth it, can war be ever justified, or is peace always an option?

Throughout history the church and Christianity has been on both sides of the war argument. Passages like the one Erick read from the Old Testament have been used by proponents of war to convince people that the violence of war was not only ok with God, but sanctioned and justified. Many of us today hear words like Jihad, and are quick to condemn Muslim extremists for the violence that they have done in the world, and the Koran as a book that advocates the evils of war, but many could certainly apply the same claims against Deuteronomy 20. In my Study Bible it subtitles the chapter as the "Rules for War" but within it sanctions the slaughter of all the enemy men, the taking of booty, women, children, and livestock, plundering, spoils." It seems to sound more like some kind of Pirate Code than what you'd expect to find in a Christian Bible, but then again how many wars were fought in the name of Christianity in the last 2000 years?

The claim made most often, as is made in Deuteronomy 20 is that it is ok to fight a war as long as God is on your side. This has been used forever as a distinction. If God is with us who can stand against us, and there may be something to this, but how would you know if God was on your side or not. Especially because both sides in wars usually feel that God is on their side. In ancient times wars usually were thought to be fought by the gods, in that different countries or city states had different patron gods, and it wasn't a question of who had god on their side, but instead which god was more powerful, but then in the 20th century World War I challenged that idea about war because on a global scale you have two sides of a conflict, and it's not between different God's, it's not even Protestant against Catholic, it is now protestant against protestant, the same God being on both sides. Is it possible? If so it again ain't that simple. I remember when I was in Confirmation class our Pastor introduced us to Bob Dylan's song, "With God on Our Side." Dylan goes through all of the wars that the United States has been in, claiming in each one that God is on our side, but with each verse the wars seem to become more and more futile, and the "God on our Side" claim seems to get weaker and weaker, culminating in these last three verses:

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war. 

Much of Dylan's point is looking at the ways that technology has increased the capability of mankind to destroy all of human existence that war and the avoidance of war takes on new meaning entirely, and he says you never ask questions when God's on your side, but I think we do need to ask questions especially if questions, questions like is what we are doing a part of God's will, not just with whether or not to fight the war, but how? With the threat of nuclear holocaust, can war ever be worth it, worth complete destruction?

If we look at our Mark of a Christian, we see "If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." Paul seems to know that it is not at all simple. He seems to know that non peace comes even to the most peaceable of people. So could you translate this to "don't start wars"? Do what you can, but don't start wars, that maybe God's on the side of the retaliation but not the instigator. It reminds me of part of Polonius' advice to Laertes in Hamlet when he says,  

                                                      Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,

Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.    

The old, hey try not to get into fights, but if you ever find yourself in one, you better win. I think we take this stance often. I know my students do, and kids in general. I know that any time there is a fight the first words out of the mouth of the participants is "he started it." Our football team played St. Anne's in Charlottesville last week, and their team was 0-8 going into our game and we were headed to the playoffs. We kept telling our kids not to get into any extra-curricular activities, to not fall for the bate, to walk away, etc., but on one play one of their guys held on extra long to our running back, and threw him down after the whistle, a little scuffle ensued and one of our players threw a punch at someone's face mask and was ejected. He was the only one ejected because he was the only one who threw a punch that the referee could see, automatic ejection. So we the coaches flip out on him because talk about not worth it, and the worst part was being ejected meant that he could not play in the playoff game yesterday, due to the state rule that all ejections equal one game suspensions as well. So he comes over to the sideline and we are about to yell at him pretty bad, and without fail he comes over to say, "It's not my fault, he started it, I was just protecting my teammate!" Do you ever wonder if God is waiting around up in heaven ready to throw a flag on the retaliators in the conflict, that not just the starters of the war are to blame. Again it doesn't even seem to be that simple either.

Is there more that we can do to be peaceable than just not starting conflicts? I think so, we can work to end them. This is where our gospel passage comes in this morning, and why I chose it. This section of the Sermon on the Mount states that the ancients said not to kill, but Jesus takes it one step further, not to be angry, that the feelings behind the action are as important as the act itself. If we think of this on a micro level it means that our feelings of bitterness, our desire for revenge, the grudges we hold, are all just as bad as acting out against the other person in a violent way. Oh how truly indicting this is. And if we think about it on a macro level, how does it change the way we see wars in general, and our parts in them? How does it change the way we look at "If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." It seems to really challenge us on the "possible and the depends on us" part of it because there is much we can do, especially when even our feelings are on the line, but still even then there is potential that peace will not be.

And so I know that I really haven't gotten anywhere with this sermon. I haven't come up with a really profound understanding about peace and war. I haven't really brought to light any new insight, but I think that is my insight. War and Peace are difficult, and anyone who tells you different is lying to you. So I come to the conclusion that war is something to be treated with respect, because of the tremendous cost, even the choices made within. History is filled with Officer's in war who have los t track about the cost as they are consumed with the perfect strategy for victory. My mind goes to Lee at Gettysburg, and the tragedy of Pickett's charge, thhe Prayer of Preparation comes from the Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson, where respect for the cost of war was overcome by thoughts of the glories of war.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred. 

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,

Noble six hundred! 

The price for not respecting war can be great, but it's so easy to get caught up. I on a smaller scale made this mistake yesterday. I've shared with you some of the tragic injuries that have occurred in our games, that in football the boys put their health and wholeness on the line every play, and I need to respect that as their coach, and keep them safe without unnecessary risk.  We had the ball up 7 with 22 seconds on the clock 3 and goal on the four. If we kneel the ball down the game is over, but we all got caught up in the moment, but the call was mine, I wanted to score the touchdown, so we called a play and scored, great right, we sure showed them, but the problem was we left 14 seconds on the clock, so we scored, but the game isn't over. There was a kickoff and three more plays where someone could get hurt, with the other team desperate, discouraged, with nothing to lose. The game got chippy, bad things could have happened, and it all could have been avoided if I ended the game without scoring. We would have won, and winning is the goal right? But in the moment our goals changed and the risk was great. Luckily it turned out well, but it doesn't always.

            And maybe in today's world respect for war is an important thing to remember, especially as to many of us war has become painless. It happens in another part of the world, all of us know soldiers, but the majority can go through their lives day to day and not be impacted by the wars we fight. We also have unmanned drones that can do our fighting for us, so there is none of our own blood being on the line. It is too easy to say that technology like that is positive because though it saves American lives, it can further blind us to the tremendous cost of war, which is something it is quite dangerous to forget. We have to treat war with respect, making sure that we weigh the cost not just at the beginning but at each step, making sure that we are not getting caught up in it all,  and with that same respect we have to remember our veterans who make the sacrifice, because what they do is sacrifice their own peace to give peace to others, giving so many the gift of peace, giving us the gift of peace. And on this veterans day we especially take time to recognize the service that on too many days we take for granted.

Father God we pray

"For those who gave for peace with courage
That our families may be free
So children could grow strong
And safe for ever be.

In giving for the sake of peace
They may have suffered loss
Their bodies may still show wounds
From taking up the cause.

May remembrance of their time away
Their sacrifice for peace
Spur us on to strive more strongly
For freedom, that there'll be release.

From causes that sent some away
To fight that we may freely live
With gratefulness we thank you, veterans
For all you gave and give!"[2]

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Mt 5:21-26). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[2] Prayer by Susan Helene Kramer

In the Pit

In the Pit

A homily delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

November 8, 2012

Gibson Memorial Chapel

Blue Ridge School, St. George, Virginia 

I have chosen one of the Psalms to speak from and about this morning. This Psalm, Psalm 88 is subtitled in my Bible as a Prayer for Despondency.  I think the title is apt. I'd like to read the Psalm for you now, then sing a song, which I believe gives a contemporary spin on the very same topic, showing how timeless "despondency," or being in "The Pit" is for we humans.  

Psalm 88  

¹     O Lord, God of my salvation,

when, at night, I cry out in your presence,

²     let my prayer come before you;

incline your ear to my cry.

³     For my soul is full of troubles,

and my life draws near to Sheol.

⁴     I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;

I am like those who have no help,

⁵     like those forsaken among the dead,

like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom you remember no more,

for they are cut off from your hand.

⁶     You have put me in the depths of the Pit,

in the regions dark and deep.

⁷     Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves.      Selah

⁸     You have caused my companions to shun me;

you have made me a thing of horror to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

⁹     my eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call on you, O Lord;

I spread out my hands to you.

¹⁰     Do you work wonders for the dead?

Do the shades rise up to praise you?      Selah

¹¹     Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

¹²     Are your wonders known in the darkness,

or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³     But I, O Lord, cry out to you;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

¹⁴     O Lord, why do you cast me off?

Why do you hide your face from me?

¹⁵     Wretched and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.

¹⁶     Your wrath has swept over me;

your dread assaults destroy me.

¹⁷     They surround me like a flood all day long;

from all sides they close in on me.

¹⁸     You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me;

my companions are in darkness. ^[1]  

This is "Down in a Hole" by Alice in Chains. Listen for the similarities between the Psalmists words, and the songwriter Layne Staley's lyrics.  (Link to hear song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsucxjYnlTA )

Bury me softly in this womb
I give this part of me for you
Sand rains down and here I sit
Holding rare flowers
In a tomb... in bloom

Down in a hole and I don't know if I can be saved
See my heart I decorate it like a grave
You don't understand who they
Thought I was supposed to be
Look at me now a man
Who wont let himself be

Down in a hole, feelin' so small
Down in a hole, losin' control
I'd like to fly,
But my wings have been so denied

Down in a hole and they've put all
The stones in their place
I've eaten the sun so my tongue
Has been burned of the taste
I have been guilty
Of kicking myself in the teeth
I will speak no more
Of my feelings beneath

Down in a hole, feelin' so small
Down in a hole, losin' control
I'd like to fly but my
Wings have been so denied

Bury me softly in this womb
Oh I want to be inside of you
I give this part of me for you
Oh I want to be inside of you
Sand rains down and here I sit
Holding rare flowers (oh I want to be inside of you)
In a tomb... in bloom
Oh I want to be inside...

Down in a hole, feelin' so small
Down in a hole, losin' my soul
Down in a hole, feelin' so small
Down in a hole, outta control
I'd like to fly but my
Wings have been so denied[2] 

A few things are clear in this connection. One is that pain is timeless. Despondency is part of the human condition. It was then, 2500+ years ago, and it is still the case now. We talk often about character in this school. Our code of conduct frames expectations for how we are supposed to act. I've heard it said that character is what you do when no one is looking, in the dark, by yourself, the man looking back at you from the mirror, staring deep within to the truth behind your eyes. I agree that this in many cases is true, but I think it falls short.

 I'd like to suggest that true character is who you are when you are in the Pit. Who you are when your life is turned upside down, who you are when despondency has you by the throat, who you are in the midst and aftermath of a hurricane, freezing with no power, who you are when your friends have abandoned you, who you are when  your girlfriend has just dumped you, or you have 5 tests in two days, who you are when the very walls that you have built around you for protection are closing in on you and threatening your very being. Who you are when it's hard. Because it is easy to be a good person when everything is going right, but will you still be that same person when all things go wrong? Will you be that same person when the adversity comes, and all of a sudden you have an excuse not to be, when people say, no it's ok, I understand, when goodness becomes relative and contextual. We all struggle with this. I've asked myself constantly, what are my limits? Have you ever asked yourself that? What are your limits?

Layne Staley, the writer of the song I sang, Down in a Hole, knew the depths of pain and despair. He knew what it was like to be in the pit, he poured that pain into the music that he wrote, but the person that he was in the pit was not the rock star with all the glitz and glamour riches and fame, but instead the heroin addict, trying at all costs to escape the reality of the difficulties and the pain of his life. Eventually that escape became permanent, here taken from an article about the singer's tragic death:

The lights were out. The doors locked. A used needle was on the floor, and $501 in cash was lying next to the toilet. Brown stains led from the bathroom floor toward the living room. When police kicked in the door to Layne Staley's University District apartment on April 19, there, on a couch, lit by a flickering TV, next to several spray-paint cans on the floor, not far from a small stash of cocaine, near two crack pipes on the coffee table, reposed the remains of the rock musician. . . A glamour-drug moment it wasn't. Staley, 34, sitting upright, had been dead for two weeks. . . In addition to the singer's tracked-up and paraphernalia-littered bathroom and front room, detectives found a kitchen counter covered with more used needles, more narcotics pipes, and more spray-paint cans. Needles also were found beneath Staley when his 86-pound body was removed. He lived alone in the two-story, three-bedroom apartment (one bedroom contained toys and video games, another musical instruments; the master bedroom had a bed and TV). When police played back Staley's answering-machine tape, it was filled with two weeks' worth of calls asking where he was.[3]

That is the pit, the very bottom of existence, lying dead, abandoned for 2 weeks as your body decomposes down to 86 pounds. Pain is real, but as  you can see trying to escape it does not seem to be the answer.

So what is the answer to pain? What is the answer to being in the pit? Is it avoidable? Is it controllable? So much of our society is geared around doing just that, avoiding the pit. It's why we have insurance, and safety nets, and risk management schemes, but all of those are swept away so fast when reality strikes, the reality of the pit. I ask again who are you when that goes down? Will you be the same benevolent, caring, brother's keeper type person you all want to be on your best day? The tolerance first, advocate of the struggling, generous, open minded, good person, or will you be something entirely different? You know all that morality and ethics and code of conduct stuff is nice and all but it's not practical when I've got to look out for myself. If it doesn't stand up on those hardest days, what good is it? Morality then is just another piece of our fleeting hypocrisy, just another dream that was just an illusion when seen in the light of day, just another worthless insurance policy from a company that has gone bankrupt.

How do we as human beings remain virtuous, moral, ethical, etc. when in the pit? It is difficult, I'm not here to tell you that it's easy, I'm also not here talking as someone who knows for sure without a shadow of a doubt how I will act when deep in the pit, but I think it has to do with how you view the pit itself. Does the pit have purpose? Does the pit have meaning? Why are you there? Because there are many different ways of looking at it. You can look at  yourself as a victim. Looking for someone to blame as to why you are in the pit, but with that view you can see the code of conduct falling apart. You can even look to blame yourself, but then again, how much good are you going to be? You can look at others who aren't in the pit and get jealous and angry, envious even, screaming out, "This Pit isn't fair", and the result there is you trying to pull people down with you, again the Code of Conduct is merely a distant memory. You can be wondering why all of your brothers haven't saved you from the pit  yet, why your religious beliefs haven't insured you'd never fall in the pit, how God must be absent, or non existent, or some kind of sadist, or why because you are an American citizen you are entitled to never fall into pits, that the Government should be there, that FEMA should be called in, and that view derails into the bitter cynicism of that is born in feelings of entitlement, dependence, and a crushed human spirit.

Those are just a few of the options, and they all seem to be reinforcing the idea that it's just all more than we can handle, but there is another thought. What if the pit has meaning and purpose, What if you learn from the pit, what if you embrace your pit, what if you live thinking that your pit is shaping you, strengthening you, that it isn't something to avoid, or escape, or to blame others or yourself for causing, not something to drag other people into, but something to embrace because it is an unavoidable part of life, that it is part of living, and that though it sucks, it's what life really is, and  it doesn't end us, it doesn't beat us, it doesn't destroy us, rather it makes us. How often on the other side of the pit, those of you who have been there, those of you who have felt the depths of that despondency, how many of you upon getting out can look back and realize how in that moment of struggle you felt the most alive, and that all of those other days since, those going through the motions, too safe to matter days, don't seem to hold that same import in your life as the pit days, and though you'd never choose to seek out those depths, there is something more there in them, something valuable, something necessary to life.

It's easy to miss that alive feeling, if you are focused on the blame game, or the it's not fair victim game, or the how come he's got it easier than me game, or the here I am save me game, but if your eyes are open you can find a real glimpse of what life truly is, and who you really are in those moments. God give us the strength. May it be so.

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ps 88:1-18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[2] Words and Music by Alice in Chains, 1992.

[3] Anderson, Rick. "Smack is Back," Seattle Weekly News, Jan. 8, 2003. http://www.seattleweekly.com/2003-01-08/news/smack-is-back/

Blind Spots

Blind Spots

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

October 28, 2012

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Romans 12:17

Luke 6: 37-42 

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show us the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen. 

When I was getting ready to write this sermon I took a look back to see exactly when we started this series. We have been looking at the "Marks of a True Christian" since June 10, and here it is the last week of October, and we are getting closer and closer to the end. It is pretty amazing because I didn't measure it out ahead of time, I just delved right in, and it looks as if it will take us exactly up until the beginning of Advent. There are only a few verses left, and most of them have to do with the same basic idea, and that is, how we are supposed to deal with the "evil" that surrounds us in this world. My second sermon on the series introduced that we are to "hate what is evil, and hold fast to what is good," and now Paul goes into some more detail about just what that means. This week we have, "Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all," and looking back we see,

⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.^[1]

 

That is this week, and looking forward this theme of dealing with evil is continued. . . 

¹⁸ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;^g for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  

Since in the weeks to come we will be looking at not avenging against evil, and how we are even to feed and clothe our enemies, and overcome evil with good, I wanted to look today at why many times we actually miss the mark and repay evil with evil because we have trouble recognizing the evil that we ourselves do and are capable of. Often we inadvertently miss this mark because we mistake our own role in the breaking of our relationships. For this reason I picked the following passage, about our own vision of ourselves, and others. Luke 6: 37-42:

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; ³⁸ give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

³⁹ He also told them a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. ⁴¹ Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? ⁴² Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.  

My class this week began reading Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus Rex, and I was continually struck by connections with the passages I was studying this week for this sermon. Oedipus, the famous man, fated to marry his mother and kill his father, does so and doesn't know about it, but that all happens before Sophocles play begins. The play instead centers around the character Oedipus, the king of Thebes, as the truth about himself is slowly revealed to him, and how through most of the play he is blind to the truth, even hostile to it, despite the fact he is in every way earnestly seeking truth. I thought so much of it that I pulled a passage out and put it in the bulletin for you all to consider this morning. In this passage, the famous blind prophet Tieresias is pushed to his limit and so tells Oedipus the truth about himself, and Oedipus responds with defensive denial, accusing the prophet back, he just cannot accept the truth in the moment, self preservation takes over as the overpowering instinct, emotion rules over reason, and his blind spots are revealed. He is too wrapped up in saving his city, and so resolved in his own self importance, to even imagine for a second that he is the problem, and he is and these figurative blind spots result in actual self inflicted blindness in the poetic justice of the plays conclusion.

And so let us look at our gospel passage. the famous speck and plank. Blind to our own plank we cannot help but see the speck within our neighbor's eye. This is one of Jesus' more straight forward metaphors. He uses it to explain the Judge not lest ye be judged mandate. It is paired with this idea in both Luke and Matthew, but I chose the Luke version because it goes into more detail, especially going beyond just not judging, but to not condemning and  to the forgiving. It is interesting to me that Jesus says do not judge, and then says not to condemn, and then says to forgive, but if you haven't judged, what do you have to forgive. It is almost as if he knows that Judging and condemning are within our nature. It is funny how we don't even notice the inconsistency of it all. To forgive seems to require some judgment was made. Think about what that means for us as we go around self righteously forgiving, sure of how right you are that you are big enough to forgive. If you think about it, you really cannot be a forgiving person without being a judging person and a condemning person first. Have you ever thought of it that way, or is that one of our blind spots, one of those little unthought of inconsistencies that we hold to?

A student of mine, whom I taught last year had me look over one of his college application essays, in which he was supposed to write and introductory letter to his future prospective roommate. It seemed the essay was trying to get at who they are on a personal level without the pretensions of a formal essay. The student did a pretty good job, but one piece of it struck me as inconsistent. He wrote how, growing up in Nigeria he loves diversity, loves being surrounded by different people of different races, but then in the next sentence he talked about how he sees every one as the same and is color blind.  I asked him, hey which is it? Do you enjoy diversity or are you color blind? He was amazed, he had never thought of it like that before. I understood what he meant, but the words made him think beyond the slogans, and for a minute he could see his own blind spots.

What are our blind spots within ourselves? What are those little inconsistencies that we do not see? We all have them. I think this is what Jesus means when he says the plank in our own eyes. These are the things about ourselves that we miss completely. For Oedipus it was the fact that he was trying to do the best good for his kingdom, that there was no way he could comprehend the notion that he himself was the evil he sought to eradicate. For my student it was that within his loving notions of equality, he was in some ways carrying his own subtle unconscious hypocrisy about the self righteous way he sees himself and other people. What are our blind spots? The biggest problem in identifying them ourselves obviously is that we are blind to them. And you may be asking yourself at this point, hey Pete, what does this have to do with repaying evil for evil?

Let me get to that. I think that most of agree with this statement, that it is bad to repay evil for evil. It is bad because it never ends the cycle. Evil begets evil begets evil begets evil, one bad turn results in another and another and another, that human beings have a tendency to seek revenge rather than reconciliation, and that something at some point must be done to stop the downward spiral, and the only hope there is, is to insert good, to insert forgiveness, that doing more evil just never helps. It is why we hold up as heroes people like Ghandi, and Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr. because they were able to overcome the violence and evil, not with more evil, but were able to stop the cycle of hatred by inserting love, reflecting goodness, and prohibiting the violence of evil to tear their message and movement apart, and so India became independent, Apartheid was overcome, and segregation was challenged.

So maybe, to reflect the example of these great men, as people inspired by Jesus, and his not repaying evil for evil message, I should have chosen the more consistent, "turn the other cheek" statement of Jesus to pair with it. That seems to capture the notion of not "repaying evil with evil" much better. Yes in many ways that is true. Turning the other cheek allows for the evil not to be repaid with evil, but how often when we are the ones who apologize or forgive, do we expect something out of the other person? We expect them to do the same or more with us, to act differently. Are we forgiving or trying again to control? Why are our supposedly selfless acts of forgiveness or our apologies just one new way of gaining control of a situation and others, and again right there in our blind spot evil is lurking. Like I said back in June when we were looking at the "hate what is evil" passage, evil is difficult to nail down in our world.

I was watching "Sleeping Beauty" last night with Coralee before she went to bed, and in comes Malificent. Coralee at two years old could recognize her as evil. Coralee asked me, when she poofed into the scene in a flash of green glowing fire, dressed in black, with black horns, black lips, and pale green skin, and an evil laugh, "Daddy is that the bad witch?" "Yes, honey," I said. Of course, evil is easily identified in the cartoons, and the good little fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, in bright shades of pink, green, and blue, sweet grandmotherly types with little wands and wings. But in our world it's not that easy, not only in recognizing evil in others, but because of our blind spots, we often even miss our own propensity for evil.

It is easy to mask evil. It is easy to talk it away, to reason it away, to say that the ends justify the means. It is amazing how fast, when thinking about the ends rather than the means, the evil that we do finds its way hidden completely within our blind spots. How many times when one of our relationships gets broken do we see everything the other person did to cause the split, but none of our own? I can think of many times where I was so convinced that a person I had a disagreement with was so wrong, completely wrong, and needed to apologize, at least in the moment, but then after time passed I could see how I could have handled the situation better as well, that my own weaknesses were more to blame than the other person's, but I just could not see them. I took the time passing to be able to notice the wrongness of my own role in the problem. It seems that another thing, other than trying to control the ends of a situation, that creates these blind spots is being "in the moment." In the moment emotions cloud reason and our blind spots seem to grow.

Our nation as we do every four years finds ourselves in the middle of an intense election. As the election heats up, just over a week from the voting day, how deep have our blind spots grown, and look at how divided we have all become. Both sides are convinced that the other side is evil, or lying, or cheating, or misguided, or whatever euphemism you'd like to use instead of evil, but the truth is there. Demonization is ramped. It encapsulates a little of both our identified reasons for the growth of blind spots, concern for the ends, trying to make our guy win, and the emotional high tide of the closeness of the reckoning day. It will even get worse, but the truth is it's not just the two sides, the two parties, and the two candidates. Even those in the middle who complain about seem to disdain the others who are so wrapped up. It really does reflect us all. It reflects a truth about our fallen human nature, but again the Marks of what a True Christian is supposed to be holds up a mirror in front of our face, and challenges us to look truly at ourselves, to uncover the blind spots, and become better, but not so we can judge, and condemn others, but so that we can get beyond it all and truly love each other, to allow love to end the cycle of evil, as only love can do.

So how do we do it? How do we shed light on our blind spots so that we can love truly to end the cycle rather than buying our ticket and jumping on the spinning carousel of evil ourselves. Last week I talked about having a welcome mind, and I think that is part of it, the second piece of the passage, taking thought for what is noble in the sight of all requires that, listening to the other side, what they have to say, but we've shown today that something in us makes that almost impossible especially real time, so let's look also at the causes we have noted so far about the catalysts for the growing of our blind spots: anxiety about the ends, the results, the future, and the other the heat of the moment emotional response. We need to let go of our anxiety and somehow seek to gain perspective, in order to take a clear look at our blind spots, but how? I wish there were simple answers, that it were easy, but if it were easy, our world would be a very different place, but I think a starting place is prayer, prayer as communication with God, open communion, honest, soul bearing prayer, because through prayer we find that God is there, that God has the ends in the palm of his hands, and that he knows us and loves us blind spots and all, and not just us but the other as well.

I used three different bulletin covers this morning, and to be honest I did it because, Gerri was gone and I needed something, but I'm glad that I did because prayer often is in my blind spot, and I don't know if I would have concluded this sermon suggesting prayerful openness if I hadn't looked at the combination of the three. Some of you have the Lord's prayer, Deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Some of you have "Footprints" showing that how even in our darkest depths, our most difficult times God is there and carrying us through, and some of you have Thanksgiving, the glorious response that we give to God for all of the wonders he has done. That's it isn't it, against that glowing light, that shining love, that cycle beginning with God's love, comprehended through prayer, felt in hard times, ending with Thanksgiving just in time for the cycle to start again, and we realize that our blind spots really are irrelevant, the plank and the speck too become irrelevant, and all that is left is love, God's love for us, making possible our love for God and our love for each other.

Amazing grace how true the sound

Which taught my eyes to see

That evil just is not the way,

Your love it set me free.

 

And I no longer blind to truth,

My neighbor I can love,

For standing in your gracious hand,  

I see from high above.  

Yes high above, far above with just enough perspective for it all to fall away. May it be so! Amen.

 

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^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ro 12:17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

 

A Welcome Mind

A Welcome Mind

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

October 21, 2012

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Romans 12:16c

Luke 12: 54-59

 

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show us the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen. 

As we move further through the Marks of a True Christian, nearing the last few weeks of the series, this week we look at the third part of verse 16, which is "do not claim to be wiser than you are," so taking a look back at the journey we've been on. Romans 12, starting with verse 9: 

⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.^[1]

 

I wanted to pick a good passage to pair with this one, especially because the Old Testament lesson from Proverbs was so strong, and so I chose this, Luke 12: 54-59, a passage that has two sections, the first suggesting the limits to our wisdom, and the second showing that at other times it is important to think for ourselves. But I'll get to that in a second. . .  

⁵⁴ He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. ⁵⁵ And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. ⁵⁶ You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

⁵⁷ “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? ⁵⁸ Thus, when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. ⁵⁹ I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

It is interesting that Luke strings these two stories together, one after another. It really does get at the idea that you just can't figure Jesus out. One minute he is saying one thing, and then the next, seemingly just to keep us on our toes, he challenges our simple understanding, always one step ahead, making it more, pushing it further. Look at these two episodes. In the first he is basically saying to the crowds how lost they are. They can see certain signs in the sky, the weather patterns, but there is a limit to their knowledge. They can read the weather, but they cannot, as Jesus puts it, "interpret the present time." He even goes so far as to call them hypocrites for it, as if not only can they not interpret the present time, but that they think they can. They think they can and they horribly miss the mark. Just to give you a little context for this quotation, it comes right after, in Luke, where Jesus is talking about bringing division rather than "Peace on Earth." Here the child who was born in the manger, and the angels sang to the shepherds singing glory to God in the Highest and Peace on Earth to men of good will, is now saying, starting in Luke 12: 51:

Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! ⁵² From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; ⁵³ they will be divided:

father against son

and son against father,

mother against daughter

and daughter against mother,

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”  

If you would think Jesus is simple, with simple ideas, and simple lessons this passage really challenges that notion. There is always more. Again, back to our passage, "do not think you are wiser than you are." Just when you think you've got it locked down, challenge yourself and think again, it seems to say.

But then, just when you are sufficiently confused and ready to you check your own brain at the door, and do whatever you are told without questioning, you know, since now  you know that you are not wise, others should be making your decisions for you right? Follow those who are wise. . . know your role. Right, just when you may be beginning to think that, Jesus goes on to the second half of our gospel lesson for this morning, saying, "and why do you not judge for yourselves?" Judge for ourselves Jesus, you just told us that we don't know what we are doing, that we are lacking in judgment, that our thoughts are misguided and our knowledge is full of holes, and now we are supposed to judge for ourselves? Yes he says, "Why do you not judge for yourselves?" and I paraphrase, because if you don't you will be manipulated, taken advantage of, you will be a pawn, a victim, a stooge. The powers that be, will certainly make a decision for you, and then you will have to go with what they say, and their decision may not be just, it may not be fair, it may not be right, and you have given up. Why do you not judge for yourselves? The history of the Christian Church is fraught with this problem, from the Medieval Catholic Church's manipulation of Europe, through indulgences, crusades, witch trials, inquisitions, and misguided teachings, all the way to the Pat Robertson's going on TV and claiming to know for certain that the earthquake in Haiti was punishment for sin. Many people accept that kind of teaching without question, assuming that the leader has more knowledge, more wisdom than them, because we shouldn't think we are wiser than we are.

Just because we do not know everything does not mean we know nothing. Wisdom exists and should be sought. Ron read from the opening of Proverbs, the prologue of Wisdom, I would like to read from later in that chapter, starting with verse 20, it is subtitled in my Bible as "The Call of Wisdom:"

²⁰     Wisdom cries out in the street;

in the squares she raises her voice.

²¹     At the busiest corner she cries out;

at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

²²     “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing

and fools hate knowledge?

²³     Give heed to my reproof;

I will pour out my thoughts to you;

I will make my words known to you.

²⁴     Because I have called and you refused,

have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,

²⁵     and because you have ignored all my counsel

and would have none of my reproof,

²⁶     I also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when panic strikes you,

²⁷     when panic strikes you like a storm,

and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,

when distress and anguish come upon you.

²⁸     Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;

they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.

²⁹     Because they hated knowledge

and did not choose the fear of the Lord,

³⁰     would have none of my counsel,

and despised all my reproof,

³¹     therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way

and be sated with their own devices.

³²     For waywardness kills the simple,

and the complacency of fools destroys them;

³³     but those who listen to me will be secure

and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”  

Yes wisdom exists. Just because we do not know it, that we do not control it, have a grasp of it, it does exits, and as this passage suggests, it is calling us to seek it, to constantly seek it, to be willing to learn.

Many, today, would call this being open minded, open to new ideas, etc.. but have you ever noticed that when people tell you to be open minded they really just want you to think like they do? They say, "come on open your mind, or hey, you need to be more open minded about this," in other words, forget what you know, forget what you think, forget what you believe and listen to me. If you look to the first half of the gospel lesson you may see Jesus telling us to be open minded when he says, "you Hypocrites, you cannot interpret the times," but then what about the second half, saying, "why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?" So the term open minded is lacking because it doesn't take into account the wisdom that you do have already. Open minded could be akin to being an air head, ideas going in and out without any lasting power. No we need another term to be more in line with the complexity of Jesus' teaching, and also the call from Paul, to "not think yourself wiser than you are." Again it doesn't suggest you lack all wisdom.

Take a look at the prayer for preparation, I penned this a few years ago.

May I ever come to know

That what I know

Falls far short

Of what I need to know. 

May I learn

That in my thirst

For what I don’t know

That I won’t forget

The truth that I do know, 

And that is that I know

Considerably less

The more I am blessed

To come to know. 

The poem seeks to communicate the idea that real knowledge is being aware of what you do know and being aware of what you don't know, but what really struck me about it, was that when I centered it, as you can see it takes a shape. I didn't shape it that way on purpose, but don't you see the pineapple? Of course, as many of you know, the pineapple is an international symbol for welcome, and since this poem was all about seeking more knowledge, while being aware of the knowledge that you have already gained, it made me think of this very idea we've been looking at today, and the term, "Welcome Minded," came to me as a better, more accurate, term to replace "Open Minded," which we have shown to be lacking. I started to write down some ideas, and this is what came to me as the defining statement of "Welcome Mindedness:"

I hear people speak about being open minded,
But usually they use "open" as a close minded tool
To further their own agenda. Openness is closed to
Tradition, openness is closed to the past,
Openness is closed to standards, claiming to be tolerant,
But actually are quite intolerant of any who do not share
Their open views. I'd rather be welcome minded,
Welcoming other ideas in for a visit,
All who come are surely welcome,
But any decision made on who will stay
In the house of my mind's gracious hospitality,
Is forever the right of the owner of that house.
I refuse to allow another to rule my mind, for I
Am the one who pays the eternal mortgage. 

Presbyterians have historically understood and advanced this concept. In our Book of Order in the first section outlines the historic principles of Presbyterian Church Order. The first of those principles is " 

 (1) (a) That “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and

hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men

which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters

of faith or worship.”

(b) Therefore we consider the rights of private judgment,

in all matters that respect religion, as universal and unalienable:

We do not even wish to see any religious constitution

aided by the civil power, further than may be necessary for protection

and security, and at the same time, be equal and common

to all others.

It is one of those aspects that has always appealed to me about the Presbyterian Church, that we are all seekers, seeking God, seeking truth, seeking wisdom, because we acknowledge that those things exist even though, and at the same time we acknowledge that we do not know all there is to know about it. So let us walk together, seeking together, sharing what we know, and welcoming in the ideas that we do not know, going to God's Word, finding in it not simple truisms, but more complex eternal truth. As such we will "not be claiming to be smarter than we are," we will be remembering that knowledge of God is the source of all wisdom, so let us go forth and continuously seek to gain that wisdom. Amen

 

 

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^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Ro 12:9-16). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.