Epiphany
7
February
23, 2014
Matthew
5:38-48
This
past week I received an e-mail from one of my best friends, Kirsten, who is a
fellow pastor and missionary at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church and Refugee
Service in Cairo, Egypt. In her e-mail,
she reflected on the violence that has been going on in Egypt, violence that
almost forced the ELCA to hold her back from going over there this August, even
though her husband was due in Cairo to begin teaching at the American
University in Cairo. The last time this
Gospel text came around, three years ago, there were peaceful protests taking
place in Cairo. Folks demanding that
President Mubarak step down during a wave of peaceful revolutions that happened
in the Arab Spring. But now things are
not so peaceful. Here is a portion of
what Kirsten wrote to me this week.
“There
are days when I want to shout and scream, "Why? What do you want to
accomplish? Do you really think this is working?" It is so
frustrating and sad to see the violence that has become regular news. My
Twitter feed on Saturday morning almost always includes the "body
count" from Friday protests around the country. In that
case, it's primarily State Security Forces firing live ammunition at Muslim
Brotherhood supporters, who continue to insist that Mohammed Morsi is the
legitimate president and should be returned to power. In the last 6 weeks
or so, there have been more attacks from Islamist groups targeting State
Security (police and army) posts, vehicles, members, etc. There was a
horrible bombing in Mansoura on December 24, where the city's security
building was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing 16 and injuring well over
100 people. On January 24, a bomb exploded outside a security building in
central Cairo, killing 4 people and injuring several others. In that
case, the bomb exploded early in the morning (6:30 AM on a Friday,
which is like 6:30 on a Sunday in the States) so there were not
many people out and it could have been so much worse. Sunday, a tour bus
was attacked in the South Sinai (coming from St. Catherine's monastery),
killing 3 tourists and the driver. All of these attacks have been
perpetrated by Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an al-Queda linked Islamist group based in
the Sinai. It is horribly disturbing and so very, very sad.
Granted,
I am not Muslim and, while improving, my Arabic is pitiful, so my Egyptian
contacts tend to be well educated, English speakers, and are mostly Christian.
But among the Egyptians I do know, everyone reiterates, this is not the
country we know and love. The violence & hatred are limited to such a
small, but loud, powerful, and well-armed group, who are making life tense for
everyone, Christian, Muslim, Egyptian, and foreigner. The Egyptians I
have met are kind, generous, and want peace in their country. While there
are sometimes tensions between Christians and Muslims…for the most part, people
seem to generally want to mind their own business, go about their lives, and do
what they need to do to care for their families”
“You
have heard it said ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you,
Do not resist an evil doer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn
the other also;” In a continuation of exhortations that began last week,
Jesus has changed focus from relationships with families, friends and spouses,
to relationships with our adversaries. And he begins with a very familiar
passage that originated in the Code of Hammurabi but also found its way into
the Hebrew Scriptures. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand
for a hand, a foot for a foot,” (Exodus 21:24). It sounds harsh, but this
rule was actually put in place to limit one’s ability to retaliate for a wrong
done to them and made sure that the punishment for a crime committed was not
outlandish in comparison to the crime committed. In other words, it was a law
written to prevent incidents like what has happened in Florida under the poorly
written Stand Your Ground Law which has gotten so much press with the deaths of
Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis and Chad Oulson. But Jesus takes eye for an eye and tooth for a
tooth one step further…’do not resist an evil doer. But if anyone strikes
you on the right cheek, turn the other also. If someone sues you for your coat,
give them your cloak as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also
the second mile.”
Now,
taken the wrong way, this text has been used in some inappropriate ways.
Some have used it against people who are being abused, that if they continue to
turn the other cheek, they will eventually be delivered from their abuser and
their reward will be great. Others have used this passage to convince
people to accept where the injustices of life have left them, because God put
them there for a reason. I’m convinced that this is not what Jesus is
saying. If this was what Jesus intended by turn the other cheek, the
concept of non-violent protests to stand up against injustice for the
oppressed, like those of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Arab Spring would not
have been inspired by these words of Jesus.
Jesus’
words to the people on the mount are revolutionary and they are
inspiring. I believe that what Jesus is trying to teach the people is
that when faced with situations where injustice and oppression are bearing
down, don’t let anyone take your dignity, humanity, or your child of God-ness
away from you. Instead, show them by your peaceful actions that you will
not sit idly by while you or your neighbors are being trampled upon.
Jesus
doesn’t stop there, however. He goes yet another step further. “You have
heard it said ‘love your neighbors and hate your enemies.’ But I say to you,
love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” So not only are we to
not retaliate against those who oppress us, we are supposed to love them, too,
and include them in our prayers. Now, gathering for peaceful protests
Tahrir Square is one thing, it’s an entirely different thing to summon up
enough love and prayers for our enemies…and yet, this is what Jesus is asking
us to do.
If
you took a poll of Egyptians today, I am guessing that very few would admit to
having prayed for Al-Queda…I doubt that many members of the Muslim brotherhood
would admit to having prayed for the State Security forces, and so on. And if you were talk to the average American
mother of a teenage boy, many of them may be surprised that Jordan Davis’
mother has said publically that she has forgiven Michael Dunn for killing her
son over loud music.
But
this is what Jesus is telling us that we should do, love our enemies and pray
for those who we would rather not love. It’s a hard task to contemplate and an
even harder one to carry out. In fact, it would probably be much easier
to be a good Lutheran and respond to Jesus by saying “well, that’s interesting,
Jesus…but to be honest, we’ve never done it THAT way before.”
But
if we take a look at the bigger picture, here, like in the rest of the sermon
on the mount, Jesus is calling us into kingdom living. A way of life in
which we do radical things in response to the love of God. And if we look
at it this way, it is possible to suggest that Jesus is not telling us that we
should pray that we may return to a relationship with those who persecute us in
hopes of reconciliation, but rather that we forgive, and by doing so, release
our persecutors and enemies from their ability to hurt us. When we
forgive, our enemies might not be changed, but we will be changed for the
better.
Being
a follower of Jesus isn’t an easy thing to do.
And to be fair, Jesus never said it would be. However, amidst the difficulties and the
struggle to be good disciples and to live lives following in Christ’s example,
there is also amazing blessing. When it
seems that the world is crumbling around us, we have a call and a challenge to
be agents of love and forgiveness. Love
and forgiveness that bring freedom, for ourselves and for those around us. And, though we are not perfect and sometimes
we need help engaging in this kind of living, we can always look to the cross
and there we will see an innocent man beaten and bruised praying these words
for his persecutors: “father, forgive them, they know not what they are
doing.” May Christ’s example empower us to peacefully stand against injustice,
to love those that we find the hardest to love, and to look beyond the letter
of the law to find the radical nature of God’s love for the world.
Amen.
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