Power and Vulnerability

Matthew 16: 21-28

August 31, 2014

The world seems to be burning with conflict

these days. Russia has invaded Ukraine.

Israel and Gaza keep breaking cease fires,

attempting to obliterate each other off the planet.

Christians and minority Muslims in the middle east

are being starved and killed in horrible ways by Islamic militants.

A journalist was beheaded this week.

And each side of the war in Syria

seems more malicious than the other.

Each one of these conflicts is complex and has

years of history and emotional content

that most of us won’t ever understand.

But even the most complicated of international challenge

can be boiled down to one thing:

the innate human reaction to defend what is mine.

MINE.  It’s so visceral and human .

It’s the first word children use with regularity.

MINE.

Whether it’s taking back my toy truck,

or the land that I believe is rightfully mine.

Or defending my dignity, or my house, or my life,

or my family, or my people, or my country, or my way of life.

There is a feeling -- almost an obligation that we

need to meet any infringement on us

with force against anyone who tries to take it away.

Our country’s fascination with guns and especially assault weapons

comes under this banner of “self-defense” –

the logic goes, if “they” have it….

(This imaginary “they” who is going to come

and take what is MINE away.)

then I need to have it too.

We have people killing relatively innocent people

in the name of self defense,

The police have even sometimes ended up killing the people

they are supposed to be protecting.

There seems to be a rash of mistaken intruders killed.

On Facebook one of my very outspoken Christian friends,

put a meme, a little image with words that said,

“Hurt my kids and I’ll bury you where they won’t find the body”.

I’m sure this was kind of a joke, but kind of not.

The most disturbing though, were the comments that followed

in almost in some sort of “Christian honor and zeal” they were -

affirming her in that though, and trying to trump it with

the more violent reaction they would have

if someone “messed” with their kids.

It was almost as if violence was the honorable reaction.

Anything less proved you didn’t love your kids as much.

MINE. Don’t mess with MINE or I will get back at you.

But where has this gotten us?

We’re not safer, that’s for sure.

The problem is this cycle has no end.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.

We get stuck in a repetition of violence.

We’ve seen it play out internationally and personally.

Maybe not always ending in killing or violence,

but in grudges, spite, hatred, anger, bitterness.

Where does it end?

Jesus tells us.
He says, “this ends with you, my followers.”

Jesus tells his disciples that he will suffer at the hands of the authorities.

His disciples knew him most, they knew he was innocent of any crime.

Any suffering that Jesus experienced would be unjust,

would be unfair, would be wrong.

And yet Jesus didn’t say,

“disciples, I need you need to get back at them for this.”
“Revenge my unjust death.”

Jesus did said, deny yourself, deny your ego,

Deny your own rage, your need for revenge,

deny the little power you have to add more violence to the world

and take up God’s power. The cross.

The cross was not Jesus being a door mat.

Jesus was stepping out of the cycle of violence.

It was putting the world’s senseless violence on display.

The cross was real power. God’s power.

Most scholars agree that the apostle Paul

never heard any of Jesus’ parables or sayings.

The gospels were written down and shared after his death.

He never uses Jesus words in his letters,

even when it would serve his purpose well.

From Paul’s writings, it is apparent that Paul only knows Jesus from

his own encounters with Jesus Spirit,

about Jesus death and resurrection,

from the fellow believers who traveled with him.

But still, Paul picks up on this important tenent of Christianity

without the benefit of knowing Jesus sayings,

Paul, tells the Romans in his letter:

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil”

He quotes this often forgotten section

from Proverbs in the Hebrew scriptures saying,

“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.”

And he says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

With Paul, there is no MINE.

Everything about us - our whole lives - belong to God.

So then, even our revenge and anger aren’t ours.

Simon of Cyrenia Helps Jesus
Carry the Cross
Susan Cushman

The wrongs we suffer, we don’t own them, we don’t hold onto them.

They are not ours to keep. They belong to God too.

Paul says, turn them over, leave room for God to act.

If any want to be my followers deny themselves

and take up their own cross.

Do not be overcome by evil.

Overcome evil with good.

This is one of the main acts of our faith.

This is what should set us apart as Christians.

This is the example that Christians could offer the world.

It would have been interesting if Christians would have

practiced what Jesus preached for the last 2000 years.

But in this new millennium, we can still offer this to the world.

We can still be Jesus voice in this violent world.

Now maybe we won’t ever be in a situation of violence

or revenge, war or international conflict.

But I want to tell you a story that maybe you could see yourself in.

Someone at my previous church told me this story

about himself.

About forty years ago, this man told me he was

constantly fighting with his neighbor.

It started out with a tree dropping stuff in someone elses driveway. 

One neighbor demanded a solution

and the other didn’t like it

and didn’t like the tone of the others voice.

The argument escalated, then it was arguments about

garbage, then the dog, then the lawn, then the lights.

You’ve seen this kind of thing before.

shouts, nasty looks, small claims court,

police called on occasion.

It could have escalated or gone on forever until

one of them moved or died.

But one day mailman brought a package

meant for the parishoner to the neighbor’s house by mistake.

He would never have known about it,

but the neighbor came over and rang the bell.

The neighbor said,

“I’ve been sitting with this package for three hours.

I thought about burning it, stabbing it,

running over it with my car,

but I decided, just to bring it to you.”

And he gave him the package.

The parishoner said when he took that package,

and closed the door, all kinds of guilt came over him.

Everything that he had ever done or said to this man

washed over him and he felt sorry for it

and the anger he felt melted.

He had a change of heart. A heart transplant.

They worked on being neighbors after that and

They lived peacefully next to each other for the next thirty years.

Bringing that package over took courage.

And it was power.

Those who want to be my followers,

Deny yourself, your rights, your pride, your ego,

your complete legal justification to defend what is yours

and your moral justification to retaliate.

Deny yourself and your power

and take up God’s power.

Be the first to forgive, the first to say I’m sorry,

be the first to make the call,

send the e-mail, return the package unharmed.

It’s a very vulnerable place to be,

it may not go your way,

but it is also very powerful.

Absolute vulnerability and absolute power.

That is the cross.

That is the gift that Jesus has given us.

That is God’s power.