When Evil Speaks

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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.  Isaiah 5:20^(NLT)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor during World War II, knew well the face of evil.  Living through a period when the unchecked power of Adolph Hitler saw the extermination of 6 million Jews, as well as the mercilessly callous treatment of all human life, including “medical” experiments on unsuspecting victims, war crimes, and the abuse of power beyond description, Bonhoeffer understood – it was not an option to be silent!  He spoke up when others did not, knowing that silence in the face of evil is, itself, evil.  Bonhoeffer spoke – but he also acted, joining (on at least one occasion) with others in an assassination plot to kill Hitler.  Eventually Hitler returned the favor, imprisoning and eventually executing Dietrich Bonhoeffer by hanging.

This past Sunday we awoke to yet another mass casualty event.  Wow, it is almost clinical and clean, neatly-organized, to use that phrase.  It’s somehow a little easier on the gut to categorize these terrorist killings as “events” – it makes it a tad more bearable to not say slaughter out loud.

But it’s still slaughter!

Ideology-aside, the act of spraying bullets into a crowd, executing indiscriminately and with intent is not just war; it’s not jihad; it’s not defending your beliefs and/or family – it is slaughter; it’s evil of the highest magnitude.

Beyond basic civics and history in high school I never took a political science course, so I know I’m not the right person to speak authoritatively on how governing bodies in our world ought to respond to this international wave of guerilla murder and terror.  I only know that hatred, spawned by evil intentions, has been going on since Cain lifted a rock behind Abel’s back.

And the blood still cries out to God from the ground.

And it makes me sick to think of the pain 50 families and the human community is struggling with today.

I still cannot wrap my head around the permission inside Omar Mateen’s head to repeatedly pull the trigger, snuffing out the God-given lives of those souls early Sunday morning. 

I don’t expect to understand it anytime soon.

I can only lift my eyes to heaven and repeat:

Lord, in your mercy;

Christ, in your mercy;

Hear our prayer, O God; humble our hearts…and help us to speak against this madness, lest we become silently evil.

For You Today

I have no neat one-line nugget of counsel for living the Christian life today.  I only offer my prayer for you that Christ will give you mercy to live courageously, speak courageously and, with courage, resist the presence and intention of evil in every form.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image: By Foto de Cristian Bortes ; edição de Eugenio Hansen, OFS [CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

After the Anger is Done

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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Go to VIDEO

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,  

Ephesians 4:26^(NLT)

It’s hard….really hard to make sense of the immensity of anger we have seen played out on the world stage in recent years.  There seems to be no end in sight to the news cycles of suicide bombings, terrorist outbursts and hostage situations.  Of late, I pause before turning on the TV to catch the morning news, wondering if I really want to know.  And I turn it on anyway – anxiously wanting to know if another poor deluded soul has pulled the trigger on his detonator.

Growing up in the 1950’s the tempest of World War II and Korea were fading, but the practice drills of hiding under your school desk in the event of a Communist nuclear attack, and the looming specter of Vietnam, ensured you could never quite feel safe.

In the last three decades anger, and its accompanying violence, has moved into schoolyards, market places and seemingly never-ending rounds of blood-splatter on the nightly news.  And, as if watching the results of anger isn’t bad enough when displayed on our 60” TV screens, the current political debate features mirror images of anger and hatred with a kind of “civil terrorism” as Republicans and Democrats pick each other apart.

It’s Cain and Abel without end.

And this leaves me wondering – what happens after the anger?  Really – what happens after the anger is completely spent, and the violence has wreaked its vengeance, and jihad has toppled the Great Satan? 

What then?  To what end will we have come?  And is it really an end?

The theological answer of course, is “no” – it’s not an end, because every act of violence must have its accounting before God.  Nothing is really over until God has spoken.

No amount of killing one another is ever enough to completely satisfy human anger, lust, or greed, whether it is done on the battlefield, or in the board room.  And anger’s backwash of Occupy Wall Street, or Main Street, or blowing-up the train station is just anger on a higher scale of madness.  We are simply playing-out once again the days of Noah, where every person does what he or she wants.

Humankind has not learned much since the fiasco in the Garden of Eden; despite our Smartphones and space exploration, we are still rather inept at getting it, that God isn’t pleased with our anger and selfish ways.  To put it in the words of those highly-revered social commentators of the 1960’s, Sonny and Cher Bono, the beat goes on. 

And the person who has not learned to control his own anger runs the risk of adding to the beat never stopping:

Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool.  Ecclesiastes 7:9^(NLT)

The fact is we cannot do anything about other people’s anger, or their actions.  We can, however, trust in God and not be demoralized by what we see in a culture that is headed for destruction.

And we can love. 

Jesus said it in so many ways, but the one that speaks strongest to me this morning is this:

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  1 John 4:8^(NLT)

And this:

“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul.                 Matthew 10:28a^(NLT)

For You Today

Does the crisis news of the day make you angry?  Don’t let the sun go down on it; confront that anger – let God make your heart glad and peaceful.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:  By Andrew A. Shenouda from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (It's the Holy Week!), via Wikimedia Commons

Love Your Enemies?

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Devotion VIDEO here

“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies!  Do good to those who hate you.  Bless those who curse you.  Pray for those who hurt you.  If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also.  If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also.  Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back.  Do to others as you would like them to do to you.  “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that?  Even sinners love those who love them!  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit?  Even sinners do that much!  And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit?  Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.  “Love your enemies!  Do good to them.  Lend to them without expecting to be repaid.  Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.  You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.  Luke 6:27-36 ^(NLT)

Some of the “Preacher Groups” on FaceBook™ can get pretty argumentative.  (“Argumentative” is a really kind word to describe some nasty/angry exchanges.) 

Wednesday they were arguing about the Syrian refugee issue, and letting “those people” into the U.S.  One said:  “Gee, I wish we had a story of a middle-eastern couple fleeing for their lives that are turned away by the heartless.”  (Pictures of Joseph and a very pregnant Mary at the door of the inn leap to mind.) 

The second preacher wrote:  “But did you notice when the Good Samaritan helped the stranger that he put him up in a hotel, he didn’t take him home to stay in his own bed?”

These arguments clearly frame two positions you could take in the current debate…namely, how can you be compassionate (love your enemy), while securing the safety of your family and neighbors (as in closing the borders)?

Earlier this week[2] I suggested something of a limited asylum, something of a supervised hospitality which is the best we can offer the strangers who want to come here. 

But, re-reading Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount seems to call for much more than that, something much better.  When you offer your shirt to go with the coat your enemy just stole from you, or pray for the one who hurt you, or try to do good to those who hate you, or…, or…, or…well, where does it stop?

The same could be said of our sins and the cross; where does grace stop?

I have to admit that my leaning on this issue has surprised me.  Just one look at the extremist Islamic jihadist, gun-toting young men in the picture above brings back the flood of feelings on 9/11/2001, and the indignation of a nation ready to plunge into war. 

But, then, there is that Sermon on the Mount; Jesus was always touting forgiveness for us – even though our sins are as terrorist-laden towards God as those who strap on an exploding vest.

What do you do?  What should you do?  These are very disturbing questions, and cannot be satisfied with throw-away one-liners from the campaign stumps – from either side.  Security and safety are important; compassion is vital to stem the madness of war and hatred.

What to do?

One thing we can all do is look into the faces of those whom we portray as “evil” and remember that our own faces might just as well be there.  It is so important to look in a mirror before we judge another.

Incidentally, if you follow the link to the title picture, you’ll see that the picture of the four young men with weapons is of Taliban soldiers who are quitting the fighting.  They are laying their weapons down in favor of peace.  Might we do that too?

For You Today

Part of Jesus’ sermon includes what we call the Golden Rule.  So, how would you like to be treated if you were on the run?

Think about that out on the Rocky Road today…and have a great day!

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[1] Title image:  "Tuenger Facetie". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

[2] See the post on “Fear” here