Alternate Vision
Epiphany 7a, Feb. 23, 2014 (Matthew 5:38-48)
Have you heard it said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?" Where does such thinking lead us? When nations spend billions of dollars developing nuclear weaponry, spending so much money that education, health care and even the supply of healthy food and safe drinking water are neglected, one has to wonder. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leads us to individually keep track of wrongs against us, leading us to dig even at the people we love deeply. What happens to inter personal relationships then?
Gandhi reportedly said, that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth when extrapolated leaves the entire world blind.
Even now, especially now, we have to question: we have more than enough food produced but billions of people are starving, the majority of those being women and children. Our gross national product in the western world grows but the divorce rate is escalating. Those who worship God or study God's Word are becoming fewer and fewer in the western world while reportedly people are more lonely than ever.
"But I say to you" – the "I" here is Jesus. Jesus offers an alternative vision – a vision that lived out is anything but easy and yet, oh so good. Can we hear him?
At first glance, Jesus' alternative vision seems out of touch with reality, at least reality as we so often experience it. Do no violently resist an evildoer? So much for any "stand your ground" rules! But don't we need to stand our ground? Didn't Luther himself say, "HERE I STAND, I CAN DO NO OTHER", as he encountered the corruption of the Church he knew and loved in so many ways? Yes, but not with violence, at least on his part. Regrettably, violence ensued – God forgive us, such violence seems to be our human default position. But Jesus offers a different way, a better way.
All of his examples in these eleven verses push us beyond any kind of conventional wisdom, beyond asserting our "rights" at the expense of another – a win/lose mentality. Jesus sums up his alternative vision this way: "If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors, (the most despised people of that time) do the same? Do you not know (the implication) that you are children of God. Can we not live that way?
But how? How can we live "that way" when it isn't 'safe'? How can we, when we will lose time, perhaps even the respect of many? Does God wish for us to become doormats, victims of domestic violence? Does God wish us to aid and abet those who are trapped in addictive behaviour with all of the attending problems?
These are our living questions. Nevertheless it stands that our conventional "wisdom" hasn't worked. In fact our conventional "wisdom" is leading us into greater separation and destruction. Will the unrest in the Ukraine lead to lasting peace? Can any violence transform minds and hearts to a unbending desire for a great good for all or at least the many?
We are by God's grace, God's children. This is so difficult to believe. We are far from perfect, often enmeshed with ourselves, obsessively concerned with "what's in it for me/us?" We are often afraid, paralyzed, attempting to define and categorize the 'other'.
But Christ, the One who comes to be with us, for us and for all, is the One who challenges all of this, not with violence or hatred, or even exclusion but with his own love and self-emptying. As Christ reaches out to us, to love and forgive us, His light shines into our hearts and minds. We begin to see beyond ourselves – to the beauty, the wonder, the needs of others. We begin to see how richly we are being blessed with time, talents, material goods and most importantly the unconditional love and forgiveness of Jesus Himself.
How can we not share any and all of that? How can we not seek to care for and with others, for and with the world? Amazingly, we begin to grow, sometimes small steps at a time, at other points in seemingly large leaps, like a wee child moving from a sitting or crawling position to their first faltering step or their first attempt at running.
We can refuse to be enemies! People are working at this endeavor all over the world. The first step in such an endeavor is to keep praying, to keep hearing the Scriptures, to have our eyes, ears and minds opened to experiencing God in our midst. The second step is to dare to begin to get to know the 'other', not with some kind of preplanned agenda but by actually listening and speaking with each other. Who knows what we may learn, what challenges there may be in such an adventure. But also know this – God is in the midst of such an adventure. It can be very good. Then walls can come down – the walls erected in our hearts and minds, the walls all around us, across our streets, between neighborhoods, encasing our fear and prejudice. How amazing this will be!
Paul had a vision to go over to the 'other side'. There is where the Gentiles, those who weren't Jews, lived. Who knows what vision God will give us in terms of loving this world, the very world God creates? Might we be honest about that which is preventing us from so loving and so turn to God to receive faith, hope and courage to so live.
Who knows what others might then see or even say about us? Maybe they will say something like what others said about some of the early Christians, "See how they love!". Perhaps that's what maturity in Christ really is – what Jesus may be referring to when he says, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect!"
May God help us, for Christ's sake and the sake of the world. Amen.