|
"Living in a Violent World without Becoming Violent"
The world is filled with violence. Our eyes are presented with a constant stream of violent images. Our ears are filled with violent rhetoric. Even much Christian rhetoric is shrill and violent. In an age of anxiety and concerns for security, we are tempted to respond to violence with violence. Everything once thought nailed down is coming loose. We are dragged, pulled and carried about by forces that are best unfeeling and inhuman. Why are some Christians so angry, pretentious and arrogant? "We see this and you don’t! We are here to make you agree with us or else we will use whatever power we can control against you." Why is it that people with strong convictions are not very civil? Core convictions are vital and ought to be expressed. The challenge is to cultivate an outlook that is shaped by those convictions without becoming violent. This is not simple at all. Civility does not come easy, but what is needed in our world is committed, convinced civility. The Bible insists that we work at such civility and avoid violent thoughts, actions, and words. The Epistle to the Hebrews says it clearly: We are to "pursue peace with everyone" so that we can display the "holiness without which no one will see the Lord." (12:14). 1 Peter urges us to "honor everyone," (2:17) and to be sure that, when we express our deepest convictions to others that we do so with "gentleness and reverence." (3:15) [1]
How can we do that? Make no mistake Jesus remains forever the one who challenges all systems and activities that degrade, demean, and depreciate human beings. In a violent world, how do we prevent that violence from provoking us to retaliate in kind? 1 Peter was written late in the 1st century to Christians struggling with living in a violent world. In 3:8 the author is speaking to the whole community of the church about its internal life and its reaction to the larger situation in the world: "Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, a humble mind" These five phrases reproduce five adjectives in the original Greek. Four occur only here in the New Testament, though the ideas are commonplace in the New Testament. They are extraordinary terms for extraordinary times. They are not simply noble qualities, they are the only antidote to the poison of violence. That is why the text has a passionate, intense tone. These attitudes can't simply be optional. In our situation we are called to be the church for the sake of ourselves, our children, our community, our world, all for the love of neighbor and of God. We must cultivate these qualities in our relationships to each other in this church and more inclusively in the other communities of which we are a part. 1. "Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit." The text doesn't mean that we all ought to have same opinion. You won't get that in this church, and you shouldn't. The text doesn't say "unity of thought," rather unity of spirit. It points to having a common goal which binds us all together. And what is such a goal? Faithful service to God; love of God and neighbor. Negatively the phrase is a warning against pride in private or in group judgment. You know the issue: Everyone is wrong except us. The text calls us to take the sin of pride as seriously as our own self-importance. The text is describing a fellowship of concern that transcends, that reaches beyond the differences. So often we allow differences of opinion to destroy unity of spirit. Polarization is the result. Carlyle Marney, a great Baptist preacher of the last century wrote a book called Faith In Conflict which contains a most remarkable dedication: "To Victor, who agreed with me in nothing and was my friend in everything!" The text points to a loyalty, stronger than antipathies of politics, race, temperament, taste, social position, economic interest. It takes only a little religion to divide friends, churches, and communities; it takes a lot of religion to heal hurts and develop unity. Then differences and tensions become not an excuse for letting go of each other but become creative incentives for more earnest seeking together. 2. "Finally, all of you, have sympathy" "Be sympathetic." Literally the word means "sharing in feelings," pointing to a readiness to enter into and share the feelings of another. That requires the exercise of the imagination. To stand in other person's shoes, to stand where they stand is to enter into relationship with others. Paul wrote to the Romans: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." He wrote to the Corinthians: "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together." We all have had experiences of great pain, and yet we survived. How? We survived through a relationship with a friend, a counselor, a family, a community that agonized with us. A shared experience is deepened, sweetened and intensified through the sharing of it. Sharing makes pain, sorrow, disappointment bearable, and transforms the bitterness, grief, disappointment, danger into something bearable. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the word is applied to Christ: "We do not have a Lord who is unable to sympathize with us." That is the key to the Biblical picture of God! Without the sympathy of the triune God, there would be no gospel, and without it no Christian community. "Look not everyone on your own things, but also on the things of others." 3. "Finally, all of you, have love of one another." The word is "philadelphia," brotherly, sisterly love. Love is an ambiguous word with all kinds of sentimental connotations. The Greek word is more precise. If we speak of love as an emotion, it cannot be commanded. If we think of love as an habitual attitude toward others, it can be cultivated as we cultivate courtesy or consideration. Peter speaks of the will to do good, a consistent purpose to bless others not wound them, a love that seeks the good of its object. The Bible insists on our solidarity from cover to cover. The New Testament speaks definitely and with frightening directness. "We know we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren." It is a simple fact: love of God and of neighbor go hand in hand, one can't exist without the other. A simple test of the reality of our faith is whether or not it makes us love our fellow human beings. There is no private salvation, or peace, or happiness. To the aristocratic Athenians, Paul declared that God had made of one blood every nation of human beings to dwell on all the face of the earth. Not everybody believes that. We are not primarily put on this earth to see through one another, but to see one another through! And we do not get to define who the other one is, God does that. An Arabic story may teach us: a man traveling across the desert saw an object on the horizon. He supposed it to be a wild beast, and prepared to run. As it came nearer, he saw it was not a wild beast, but a man on a camel. He supposed the man belonged to a hostile tribe. He prepared to kill him. As the man came closer, he was not a member of a hostile tribe rather he was a member of his own tribe. As the man came closer, he saw that it was his brother. Our world’s modern technological achievements have accentuated our interdependence. Never have we been so close together, never have we been so far apart. Things that bind us together are obscured. Things that set us at odds are magnified. If John Donne is right: no one is an island, where do we start? Here let us cultivate love of one another, steady and sincere, building bridges from our island selves to others. 4. "Finally, all of you, have a tender heart." "Be compassionate." How does this differ from no. 3? Paul wrote to the Ephesians: "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another." That final phrase is what makes the difference from no. 3. Compassion enables the giving and receiving of forgiveness. The verb is used of Christ in the gospels. It describes how he was deeply touched and moved to do something. The world needs less pain. Christianity is a religion that teaches people to care. What is happening to the faith when voices and rhetoric are so shrill and mean and arrogant? Each one of us has been broken in body and heart. Each one of us seeks a compassionate neighbor. Such compassion, steadfast love in the Old Testament is the very essence of God. God’s compassion is so great, Christ took up the cross. There is no Christian discipleship without it. We can be right about everything and still be lost without compassion. 5. "Finally, all of you, have a humble mind." The best commentary is another verse in Philippians: "in humility count others better than yourselves." (2:3) The issue is self-awareness, admitting the truth about ourselves. We are sinners. We need correction, we need to be taught. We need perspective. We need to be moved from the narrow view, to wide and far views. We remain creatures, sinners, and disciples, a word which means learners. If we already know it all, how can we be taught? These are the qualities that bind us together. No other kind of bond will do. No other bond is strong enough for the living of these days. Nothing else can temper the violence around us and within us. _________________ |
F.
Harry Daniel