I am afraid that I did not communicate as clearly as I had hoped to in my previous posting. My goal was to show that Jesus was revealing something about the character of God in Matthew 5:38-42. In this passage, when Jesus instructs his followers to "turn the other cheek" and "give also your cloak" and "go an extra mile," he was not instructing his followers to adhere to a more "morally acceptable" way of defeating such "human enemies," but instead was showing that "this is life in the kingdom of God." In this kingdom life, the question is not "Am I more morally justified if I achieve victory through non-violence or violence?' but "How will we live knowing that victory is already won?" and that it is not a victory over other persons, but over the powers of darkness, sin, and ultimately - death.
We are immersing ourselves in the book of James throughout the summer at Life on the Vine and in Westmont, and the text for the morning was James 3:1-12. The emphasis was primarily on James 3:6, where we are duly warned of the power of language and words to either be used under the "reign of God" or the "rule of evil"; language is rarely, if ever, neutral. Instead, language has the power to create, or to destroy; to encourage, or to condemn; to bring peace, or to bring war. Preaching at LOV is never an isolated event, but rather is part of a liturgy that collectively calls and shapes us into transformation for the mission of God in the world. Therefore, after concluding the message, the preacher always leads the congregation in corporate prayer as a time to confess sin and engage the spoken word as co-participants and members of the body. All that to say, that there was no shortage of prayers from people who realized the truth of James' warning about the tongue.
Words were spoken this morning that struck me personally, and left me feeling a need to amend that previous blog post with this one. Each week we gather corporately for participation at the Eucharistic table. The words that struck me came just before receiving the bread and the cup:
"Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." - 1 Corinthians 11:23b-26
"On the night when he was betrayed..."
- he took revenge
- he retaliated
- he slandered
- he violently humiliated his opponent
- he non-violently humiliated his opponent
No
"On the night when he was betrayed..."
- he took a loaf of bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it
These were not mere lessons in morality. Jesus was not urging his followers to "do" something that He was unwilling to do. In fact, it was never about "doing" anything, but about being: becoming "like Christ."
I had not intended to open up a violence vs. non-violence or pacifism debate, nor did I pretend to be speaking any practical words to international conflict scenarios. My intention of that post - and this - was to show that Jesus called followers to become like himself, not because it worked in rearranging WHO was in power, because this is life characterized in the kingdom of God: a kingdom where the following are the two greatest commandments:
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40, NRSV)
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