Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill scripture, he said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and released his Spirit.
‘People think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is a cross’ – Flannery O’Connor
Phil Wickham has nailed it.
Mind you, I don’t know Mr. Wickham. For all I know he wrote his song in a moment of exuberance and doesn’t really mean what he’s singing (although I suspect he most certainly does). But the words to his song, The Jesus Way, are precisely what the Christian world needs to hear. You can listen to the song here. I particularly appreciate the first and third verses:
If you curse me, then I will bless you
If you hurt me, I will forgive
And if you hate me, then I will love you
I choose the Jesus way –
If you strike me, I will embrace you
And if you chain me, I’ll sing his praise
And I you kill me, my home is heaven
Oh, I choose the Jesus way
Wow. What a call to radical, nonviolent love! You just don’t find many popular church songs willing to lay it out so plainly (go ahead, try to find some). The song has been out for over a year, but I heard it for the first time a week or so ago. I looked it up and discovered it was only a minor hit on the Christian charts last year. Perhaps its recent spike in airplay indicates a comeback of sorts. That would be nice, but I suspect, sadly, that its lyrics won’t find much purchase in the minds and hearts of many contemporary Christians, particularly those who make the most noise these days.
That’s because many professing Christians don’t understand what it means to follow Jesus. Too many believe in what Dietrich Bonhoeffer termed, ‘cheap grace.’ Somehow, we have reduced the beautiful, fathomless mystery of the Atonement to shorthand: ‘Jesus died so we don’t have to.’ There is truth in this, but the repetition of this truncated explanation has its flaws. For one thing, it’s obviously wrong in that we do still die (last I checked, the death rate was still hovering around 100%). But beyond this, this shorthand has bled into Christian thinking to the extent that it is commonly believed we need never lay down our lives for Jesus. Indeed, we never have to suffer for Jesus. His way does not require it. There is no cost to following Jesus, because, after all, ‘Jesus paid it all.’
But while Jesus can be said to have paid it all in terms of the wages of sin, he most certainly did not call us to lives of ease. He calls us to lives of surrender and sacrifice. He calls us to ‘take up our crosses and follow him’ (Matthew 16:24). He calls us to imitate him (Luke 6:40). He tells us that ‘in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33). He calls us to, as Wickham sings, bless those who curse us, forgive those who hurt us, love those who hate us, embrace those who strike us, and, yes, to even die rather than become violent ourselves, knowing that the worst thing the world can ever do to us will only bring about our own resurrection (‘if you kill me, my home is heaven’). In short, no matter what the world does to us, our call is to love as Jesus loved, even to love our enemies to the point of death.
This is a hard teaching, and it is no wonder few can accept it. But it is the 100% Gospel truth. When we ignore it, we get pretty much the Christian landscape we see before us in our present moment of American history. Once people decide, ‘Jesus died so I don’t have to,’ a shift takes place in their minds. If the goal of the Christian life is to stay alive, rather than give your life away, than it becomes easy to hate your enemy instead of loving them. It becomes easy to join the chorus of demagoguery, scapegoating, war, and violence. The goal, after all, is self-preservation and life the way you want it. And so, if someone threatens you or your way of life, even a little, you have every right to curse them, demean them, dehumanize them, propose violence against them, even perpetrate that violence yourself. You no longer have to turn the other cheek when struck. Instead, you strike back as hard as you can even before you have been struck. ‘Do it to them before they do it to us,’ as Robert Prosky’s character on Hill Street Blues used to say. As a member of Congress put it not too long ago, ‘Jesus could have avoided crucifixion if he’d had an AR-15.’ Remember: Jesus died so you don’t have to. So, while Jesus didn’t have one, maybe you should.
It’s utter blasphemy. Jesus didn’t die so that we don’t have to. He died to show us how to live.
The Jesus Way was never supposed to be easy, and it is a sin that we have made it so. Bonhoeffer wrote, ‘the path of discipleship is unutterably hard,’ and that it is. ‘To confess and testify to the truth of Jesus,’ he wrote, ‘and at the same time to love the enemies of the truth, his enemies and ours, and to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ, is indeed a narrow way. To believe the promise of Jesus that his followers will possess the earth, and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenseless, preferring to incur injustice rather than do wrong ourselves, is indeed a narrow way.’ But it is the way to which we have been called. In the early church, it was common for new disciples to be asked, as they joined the community, whether they were willing to die for Jesus. I don’t suppose that would be considered good marketing these days. But the hard truth is that until a person becomes willing to give up their life for Jesus and his way, they aren’t really following him. He said it himself: you cannot be his disciple unless you are willing to take up your cross.
I don’t mean to make myself sound like a brave saint. In all honesty, I get nervous writing like this. I do not seek martyrdom. But the path of discipleship does, for some, require it. And I, like anyone who desires to follow Jesus, must accept this. We cannot meet curses with more curses, hurt with more hurt, hate with more hate, violence with more violence. We face the world armed only with the weapons of prayer and unlimited love. As Athanasius of Alexandria said in the 4th Century AD, ‘Christians, instead of arming themselves with swords, extend their hands in prayer.’
Mr. Wickham, you have thrown down the gauntlet, and for that I thank you. You have challenged the Church, you have challenged me, to commit once again to the call of Jesus. And so, begging your pardon for using your words once more, I end with this:
Art courtesy of Kelly Latimore. Inspired by Christians in Bethlehem who placed the Christ statue under the rubble this Christmas in honor of the lives lost in Gaza. When asked where God is as Gaza is being bombed, Pastor Munther Isaac replied, ‘God is under the rubble.’ Prints available at kellylatimoreicons.com
‘So, Peter, you’ve become a pirate?’ – Wendy Darling
What happens when the boy who never grew up grows up?
That is the question at the heart of the movie Hook, Steven Spielberg’s 1991 sequel to Disney’s 1953 animated version of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. At the start of the film, the adult Pan, played by Robin Williams, is a far cry from the scourge of pirates he once was. Years before, he had made the decision to grow up, and grow up he did. He has a family of his own, which is nice, but has lost his childlike spirit, his faith, his ability to fly. He has no memory of who he was. Living far from Neverland, the adult Pan has adapted to the ‘real world,’ adopted its practices, become adept in its ways, and forsaken his true self. On a visit to the now elderly Wendy Darling, with whom he once had grand adventures (Pan is now married to her granddaughter) he explains that the business that keeps him from visiting more often involves ‘mergers and acquisitions,’ i.e., he has become a corporate raider. This provokes a shocked and disappointed Wendy to speak the words in the epigraph to this post: ‘So, Peter, you’ve become a pirate.’ The once great Pan who conquered pirates has become very thing he once fought.
This sad tale of Peter Pan growing up came to mind recently after a conversation with a friend, wherein I found myself remarking that if the early disciples of Jesus were to visit Christians in America today, they would likely mistake many of us for Romans. The early disciples knew all about Romans. They lived under their rule. The Romans believed that the way to change the world was from the top down; seize power and impose your will on everyone below you. Theirs was the way of violence; they used force whenever they deemed it expeditious to ensure the ascendency of their cause and the defeat of their enemies. In a Roman world, if you wanted something, you made it happen, by any means necessary. The Roman way was, if I may stick with the Peter Pan analogy, the way of the pirate, the way of the sword. And they pulled it off quite well.
Jesus however, had taught his disciples another way. Once, when his disciples attempted to shoo some kids away, he said, ‘let the little children come to me, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.’ On another occasion, he remarked that unless a person became like a little child, they could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus, in other words, told his followers to stay young, to refrain from ‘growing up.’ They were not to make things happen by any means necessary; they were to live as children, trusting in their Heavenly Father to lead them through the ups and downs of life. They were not to become violent to advance causes or defeat enemies; they were to love enemies and leave the future to God. They were not to seize power and impose their will on others from above; they were to become servants and make the world a better place from the bottom up. Theirs would not be the way of the pirate, the way of the sword. It would be the way of the cross, the way of the Lamb.
And for a time, Jesus disciples pulled it off quite well. Even as the Roman pirates threatened and attacked, as happened for centuries, they insisted on being, to borrow Rich Mullins’ phrase, ‘children who loved while the nations raged.’ Their response to a world arrayed against their beliefs and values was not to attack, but to love and serve. As threats mounted, they simply drew closer to Jesus. They continued, like children, to trust that he and their Heavenly Father would take care of them, and that such an approach to life would work. They believed that God was in control, and that one day they would be rewarded for their faithfulness, for their refusal to become pirates themselves, as they witnessed the return of Christ and the restoration of all things. And so, like faithful children, they continued on their way, refusing to become pirates.
But somewhere along the line, the Church decided to grow up. Like Peter Pan, it adapted to the ‘real world,’ adopting its practices, becoming adept in its ways, forsaking its true self. The Church grew powerful. It no longer sat at the bottom but stood on top, and from its privileged position began to impose its will from the top down. It even employed violence, pursuing any means necessary to advance its goals and defeat its enemies. It became a church of pirates.
Not all Christians went along, of course. Some remained faithful, and these inspired renewal movements to draw the Church back to her original vision, to the time when the Church was young. These met with some success, but sadly, as the train of history shows, far too often, the dominant branches of the Church continued to behave like pirates.
Like Romans.
And so, the comment to my friend. Look around you, American Christian. What do you see? A Pirate Church. Tens of millions of professing Jesus followers embracing the Roman way. Christians attempting to seize power that they might rule from above, forging unholy alliances with unscrupulous characters in an attempt to have their way. A willingness to employ (or at least excuse) any means necessary, even violence, to achieve desired ends. A willingness to sell their souls to stand on top and ‘own’ those below them. A willingness to distort the very teachings of Jesus to the point that they would be unrecognizable to him or the early disciples if they were to show up today.
Yes, if the early disciples could see us now, I have no doubt they would mistake many in what passes for the Church in America for Romans. They would wonder what went wrong. They would say, with tears in their eyes, ‘So, Church, you’ve become the empire.’
That such a reaction is plausible is cause for lamentation. Sackcloth and ashes. And yet, the situation is not without hope.
Repentance, homecoming, is still an option. It is possible, if not for the whole Church, at least for a significant portion of it, to grow young again. To recapture what it means to be young in Christ. To become children who trust and obey as we follow the way of the Lamb.
Could such a rebirth be possible? Oh yes. Just watch Hook. There, the adult Peter Pan rediscovers what it means to possess childlike faith. He learns how to believe again. He learns how to fly.
Christians, if we would be worthy of that name, it’s time to become children. It’s time to believe again. It’s time to fly.
It’s time to grow young.
Under Christ’s Mercy,
Brent
[1] Rich Mullins, from his song, Growing Young, which along with Hook inspired this post.
‘I never saw no military solution that didn’t always end up as something worse’
– Sting, from the song, If I Ever Lose My Faith in You
A week or so ago, two plus weeks into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts. The hosts are Christians for whom I have the deepest respect. But I became troubled as they began recounting with pride the violent resistance being offered by Ukrainians. Please don’t get me wrong. What Putin and his armies are doing is evil. They are the aggressors, the Ukrainians the victims, and her resisters have shown remarkable courage over the past several weeks. Outmanned and outgunned, they have stood against overwhelming odds. I take nothing away from them in the bravery department. Moreover, I get why they are fighting back. No one wants to see their land, their homes, their national and cultural identity stolen from them. I understand the Ukrainian willingness to fight, the courage being displayed as they do so, and the natural response, even among Christians, to cheer them on.
But here’s the thing, Jesus told us not to.
I’ve written frequently about Jesus’ position on violence (e.g., check out my previous post on Ukraine). Suffice it to say he was against it. He commanded his followers to love their enemies. To turn the other cheek. To offer up creative nonviolent protest, as opposed to violent resistance, in the face of evil. When the powers came for him in Gethsemane, he refrained from calling on the angels of heaven (something he specifically said he could do) and commanded Simon Peter to put away his sword, adding, ‘anyone who lives by the sword will die by the sword’ (Matthew 26:52). At the cross, he really put his money where his mouth was by praying for, as opposed to fighting, his enemies, choosing to love them to the end (and, I might add, winning a couple of them over). Later, after his Resurrection and Ascension (ahem, proof of the wisdom of his approach), he revealed to his disciple John the importance of following the peaceable way of the Lamb rather than the violent way of the dragon (See, generally Revelation). And his disciples, Simon Peter included, threw away their swords forever, forsaking them to pursue the Gospel of peace.
So why would Christians advocate for violent resistance against the Russians? And why are so many seemingly chomping at the bit, increasingly with each passing day, to adopt policies that will only escalate the violence?
Well, again, I kind of get why. The atrocities we are witnessing are horrifying. It is callous, even cruel, to sit by and do nothing. That does not, however, mean that doing something requires violence. There are other options that do not require the sword.
In fact (again, see my previous post), many Ukrainians have been living out those other options. They have prayed and sang hymns. They have resisted nonviolently. They have stood in the way of tanks and made them turn around. They have blocked streets with cranes and cement blocks. They have removed street signs to confuse Russian troops. They have shown comfort and mercy to Russian soldiers. They have demonstrated their dignity and humanity to the oppressor. They have provided witness to the very sort of creative, nonviolent resistance that Jesus encouraged his disciples to engage in. The kind that, believe it or not, has worked repeatedly in history. In Gandhi’s movement for independence in India. In the candlelight vigils and non-violent protests that removed the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. In the actions of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his allies during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. In the 2004 Orange Revolution in…wait for it, Ukraine!
So why aren’t we talking about that? Why are we not telling those inspiring tales? Why are we not talking about mobilizing a sustained non-violent effort against the Russian invaders?
The hard fact is that Putin and his forces are hell bent on taking Ukraine, and a martial response will gain nothing but death (as Edwin Starr sang, ‘war ain’t nothin’ but a heartbreaker/friend only to the undertaker’). People cheered in the days prior to the invasion as Ukraine armed grandmothers and children. Now grandmothers and children are dying. There is no viable military solution here. Strike back at Putin and the Russians, and they fire more bullets and drop more bombs. Get NATO involved, and there will be a broader war with even more bombs. Some of which may be nukes. I repeat: there is no viable military solution here, no way to take up the sword, that doesn’t both result in increased casualties (both military and civilian) and threaten a regional, perhaps even global, war the likes of which we have never seen. We may be able to understand why people would take up arms against an invader, but in the final analysis Jesus was right: those who take up the sword die by the sword even as they kill their enemies. Violence begets violence.
And here’s the bottom line for followers of Jesus (I presume most reading this post are): even if there were a viable military solution, that solution would be off limits for us. We can neither pursue nor champion such a solution, for we belong to the Kingdom of the Lamb. We must, instead, pursue and champion the long hard path of creative, nonviolent resistance.
That is our only option. Not to fight, but to love. Not to strike, but to pray. To wage war not as the world does, but as Christ has (See, 2 Corinthians 10:4).
Again, I understand why Christians are enthralled by the Ukrainian stand and why they want to do something to help. But all Christians, both those in Ukraine and elsewhere, must remember who they are. They, that is, we, must remain true to the Gospel call to creative nonviolent resistance and lift up such means as an alternative to war.
For that, as hard as it may be, is the way of Jesus.
‘He is risen, and he reigns in the hearts of the children who will love while the nations rage‘ – Rich Mullins
This morning I awoke to the news that, as expected, Russia had invaded Ukraine. As I searched for some sort of response to this tragedy, a couple of things happened.
The first was that I remembered the story of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, received terrible news that an alliance of nations had arrayed against him and was marching on Jerusalem. The Chronicler reports that he was ‘terrified by the news and begged the Lord for guidance.’ Jehoshaphat ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting, stood before his community in front of the Temple courtyard, and offered up one of the most amazing prayers in all of scripture:
‘O Lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are the ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you! O our God, did you not drive out those who lived in this land when your people Israel arrived? And did you not give this land forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham? Your people settled here and built this Temple to honor your name. They said, ‘Whenever we are faced with any calamity, such as war, plague, or famine, we can come to stand in your presence before this Temple where your name is honored. We can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear and rescue us. And now see what the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir are doing. You would not let our ancestors invade those nations when Israel left Egypt, so they went around them and did not destroy them. Now see how they reward us! For they have come to throw us out of your land, which you gave us as an inheritance. O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help’ (2 Chronicles 20:6-12, NLT).
In the wake of this prayer, God spoke to the people of Judah through a prophet who told the people not to be afraid, but to go out to meet the enemy, not to fight, but to watch the Lord deliver them. The people received this news by bowing before the Lord and worshipping.
The next morning, they marched out to meet the enemy. At the front were neither warriors nor chariots, but a choir, singing, ‘Give thanks to the Lord; his faithful love endures forever!’ The moment their song began, the armies arrayed against Judah began fighting among themselves. By the time the Judeans arrived at the battlefield, the enemy was gone. Victory had been won without the raising of a single Judean sword, and the Lord established peace for Judah throughout the remainder of Jehoshaphat’s reign.
Now, I know, things don’t always work out like that. It may not in Ukraine. But the story is nonetheless a beautiful example of what can happen when God’s people pray. It is a beautiful example of what God’s people should do when threatened: instead of relying on their own power, or trusting in chariots, as the Psalmist puts it (see, Psalm 20:7), they should rely solely on the power of the Living God. As Jehoshaphat prayed, when we don’t know what to do (and in all honesty and humility, we never do), we must turn to God for help.
The second thing that happened was that I received an image from my son in Rwanda, Emmanuel, of a group of Ukrainian Christians kneeling in the snow, praying for the deliverance of their country.
I didn’t know what the picture was at first, but when Emmanuel told me, tears came to my eyes. Here was the remnant of Jehoshaphat’s people. Here was the Kingdom of the Lamb.
In recent weeks, I have read reports of grandmothers and small children training to fight the Russians when they come (which they now have). The images were startling. It seems that many believe the answer to war is more war; to strike against one’s enemies by using their tactics. As I’ve beheld those images, I’ve recalled Jesus’ warning in Gethsemane to Peter to put his sword away, to not meet violence with violence, because ‘those who live by the sword die by the sword’ (Matthew 26:52).
Jesus teaches us that there are other forms of resistance, other ways to stand against the dark powers that seek our destruction. Paul refers to these other ways in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, where he wrote:
‘For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.’
I love Paul’s use of the words, ‘on the contrary;’ he is telling us that while the weapons of the world do not ultimately work (they only beget more violence), the weapons in the arsenal of Christianity have power to achieve things. Weapons such as prayer and love are, he is telling us, the most powerful weapons in the world. And, more importantly, the only weapons followers of Jesus are permitted to use. In the Kingdom of the Lamb, the only way to overcome enemies is with love and prayer.
Jesus himself is our example in this. As is the early church, who, when beset by enemies, gathered and prayed:
‘Why do the nations rage, and the people’s plot in vain? The kings of the earth prepared for battle; they gathered together against the Lord and his anointed one…Oh Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus’ (See, Acts 4:25-30).
We need to take the example of Jehoshaphat, the early church, and those Ukrainian believers kneeling in the snow, to heart. We live in unraveling times. The leader of Russia has become (likely has always been) a madman intent on building an empire. China too is eyeing the expansion of their own. In America, we have a former President, who may become one again, praising Putin even as he makes his power grab, and the bitter prospect of rising autocracy within our own borders. What does one do in times such as these?
The nations rage. The peoples plot in vain. Those with worldly minds, who follow the way of the dragon, strike back, meet force with force, violence with violence, hurt with hurt.
But the children of the Lamb pray, in the snow and elsewhere. They sing ‘Give thanks to the Lord; his faithful love endures forever!’ They conquer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony (see, Revelation 12:11). They pray for the redemption of their enemies, or, failing that, some other intervention by God to establish peace. They do not live by the sword. They live by love. They pray. They model peace. They may not know what to do themselves, but they look to the Living God for help.
Today I ask all who read this to pray. Pray for the people of Ukraine. Pray for the miraculous transformation of Vladimir Putin’s heart. Pray for the transformation of all who would use violence or do evil in this world. Pray for the dramatic intervention of God. Pray for the establishment of peace. Pray believing that the God of Jehoshaphat is still on His throne and still mighty to save. For He most certainly is.
‘It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind’ – C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity
I blame the dang cell phone.
I wake up in the morning, shuffle downstairs to make breakfast, and there it is. I don’t know why it should be so enticing. But before I know it, as I wait for my eggbeaters to cook, I’m on it, fussing and fretting over the morning news feeds. On the one hand, it’s important to stay informed, especially in the dire times we live in. On the other, it’s probably not the best way to start the day. Especially since the daily news doesn’t seem to be anything particularly new. Basically, and as per the Book of Ecclesiastes, there isn’t much new under the sun these days. I can summarize the daily news as it has appeared for months, even years, as follows:
The Pandemic
Covid is still here. Many function as if it isn’t. People won’t get the vaccine or wear masks. The government response is very often incoherent. You are basically on your own.
Politics
Republican politicians and power brokers are working to end democracy because it behooves them to do so. They are willing to lie, cheat, shrug, etc., to hold onto power. They have no shame. (Yeah, there exceptions, but even these aren’t exactly profiles in courage, and so few they are scarcely worth mentioning). Oh yeah, and Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump…
Democratic politicians and power brokers can’t seem to understand that they have one job: to save democracy. Instead, they are fighting amongst themselves, fiddling while the torches that will burn society are lit. From the naive progressives who dream of the unattainable to the self-serving ‘moderates’ who seem to enjoy standing in the way of even a little progress, we see a party incapable of tying its own shoes. If you thought this ship of fools would save us, you had best think again.
Basically, the news of the day in the arena of politics comes down to this: ‘Autocracy! Coming to a country near you!’
The Environment
The earth is toast. Literally.
The Rich and Powerful
They are going to space, not paying taxes and unaccountable to anyone. They don’t care and there is nothing you can do about it.
Violence
The nations still rage. People still think violence is the answer to the world’s problems. An ‘eye for eye and tooth for tooth’ is making steady progress toward the creation of a blind and toothless world. Sorry Jesus. Sorry Gandhi. The world likes war.
Racial Injustice
White supremacy continues unabated in America. For all the talk of making things better, it’s getting worse. If democracy falters, look for the return of Jim Crow.
Truth
Just kidding. There is no such thing anymore. You are now free to believe anything you want, no matter how divorced from reality it is.
Entertainment
Some actor/singer/musician/influencer/sports personality just did something stupid. Another had a baby with someone else. Another got divorced. Someone else was arrested. Or gave money to charity. Or won an award and thanked Jesus. Oh, and whatever it is, it’s the most important thing in the world, far more important than ending the pandemic, saving democracy, stopping global warming, making a more peaceful world, ending racism, etc. BTW, who advanced on Dancing with the Stars last night?
White American Evangelicalism
A famous church leader who you should have known all along was no good has: (a) been caught in a scandal; (b) promoted Christian Nationalism; (c) said something racist; or (d) all of the above. Oh, and Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump…
Sports
The Philadelphia [insert Eagles, Phillies, Union, Flyers…] let down their fans again last night.
Such is the daily news. Has been for months. Has been for years. And probably will be for months and years to come. Again, it is important to keep abreast of things. Many of the things I have summarized are as serious as a heart attack, and it does no good to stick one’s head in the sand and ignore the problems of the world. But at the same time, given that it isn’t really new, should we allow it to consume us? Should the daily news be the first thing we run to in the morning, or would we do better to run to something else?
I think C.S. Lewis was right. The first job of each morning, for everyone, but perhaps especially for Christians like myself, is not to immerse oneself in the news of the day, but to push back the noise of the world and listen to that other voice, that still small voice that counsels us to see things from another perspective, and to allow that larger, stronger, and quieter life of the Kingdom to flow into us. To stand back from all the world wants us fuss and fret about; to come out of the wind once more.
I think if I started my days like that, rather than riling myself up and only thereafter trying to listen to that other voice, I would be in a better position to face each day. I would be in a better position to take on the challenges of an increasingly daunting world.
So I think that’s what I’ll do. No more daily news first thing in the morning. And even throughout the day, I will do my best to keep abreast of things without letting them overwhelm me. Instead, I will begin by listening to that other voice, and let the Kingdom flow into me. And then, instead of driving myself nuts with what’s happening in the big picture world, I will simply practice my faith by doing small things in the circles of my little picture world that witness to another way. I bet that I will be better for it.
‘We prepare for war, and we get it’ – Stanley Hauerwas
Over a month has passed since the Kabul bombing that took place as American forces withdrew from Afghanistan. 169 Afghani’s died in the attack, as well as 13 American service members. It was an emblematic, if horrific, exclamation point to a mostly neglected twenty-year war. President Biden responded as national leaders often do in such circumstances, promising swift and decisive retaliation.[1] While many cheered, my immediate thought was: ‘have we learned anything?’
Retaliation is what got us into the mess in Afghanistan in the first place. If you were alive at the time, you certainly remember 9/11. It was a day that is impossible to forget. I remember it well, as I do the rush to retaliation that took place in its wake. In Congress, only one member of the House of Representatives counseled forbearance, and was viciously attacked for doing so. Even in the Church, the desire to strike back, to get even, ran high. ‘An eye for an eye’ was the typical response of Americans, including American Christians, in those days. It seemed so right to so many.
Twenty years later, some at least are reconsidering. America has pulled out of Afghanistan. The war is lost, the Taliban back in control, and the Afghani people once again face a bleak and oppressive future. The futility of the ‘war on terror’ is more apparent than ever. The world isn’t any safer now than it was on September 11, 2001. Indeed, one could make a convincing argument that America, and the global community, is less safe. One could even argue that the desire for retaliation and revenge has fueled movements of hate right here at home; movements that threaten the very existence of the American experiment. Our lust for retaliation didn’t, after all, help us in the wake of 9/11; and folks, it isn’t going to help us now.
It certainly didn’t help in the aftermath of the airport bombing. America delivered on Biden’s promise with a drone strike aimed at what was believed to be a car bomb. It was not. It was the car of an aide worker, Zemarey Ahmadi, who was trying to get his family out of Afghanistan before the Taliban took control. The strike killed 10 civilians, including Zemarey and seven children (four boys and three girls) aged 2-10 years old. Their names, if anyone cares to know, were Faisel, Farzad, Binyamin, Armin, Haya, Sumaya, and Malika. Retaliation, in both the case of 9/11 and in the case of the Kabul airport bombing, didn’t exactly deliver what it promised, did it?
There simply has to be a better way.
Two Sundays ago, I preached on Jesus words in Matthew 5:38-42. It’s a passage about nonretaliation. Instead of striking back at your enemies, Jesus teaches, his followers are to, ‘turn the other cheek,’ ‘hand over their cloaks,’ and ‘go the extra mile.’ I won’t spend time fully exegeting those examples here (you can listen to the sermon on the Facebook page of the First Baptist Church of Collingswood; it includes an exploration of how we might have responded nonviolently to 9/11), but essentially, Jesus was telling his disciples and would-be disciples that when wronged, even egregiously so, they should respond, not by retaliating in kind, but by employing nonviolent strategies that assert one’s dignity, surprise and disarm evil, witness to the way of the kingdom, and extend the possibility of friendship. Rejecting the notion of an eye for an eye, Jesus called his followers to seek more creative solutions to the problem of evil. Jesus understood what Gandhi would say many centuries later as he himself creatively employed Jesus’ strategy, that ‘an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.’
Alas, most of the world scoffs at such advice.
I recently read an article about the National Peace Museum in Washington D.C. Never heard of it? Well, that’s because it doesn’t exist. Originally chartered in 1984 as an extension of the U.S. Institute of Peace, it was to have borne witness to the possibility of creative peacemaking and peacebuilding. It would have championed the efforts of those who had, whether they realized it or not, heeded the advice of Jesus; those who sought, and often found, creative and nonviolent solutions to seemingly intractable problems. Sadly, to this day, the museum remains but a dream. It has never received the needed funding or support from the United States government.
Big surprise.
Wendell Berry, in his essay, The Failure of War, offers words that help explain why such a museum has never come to be. Berry writes:
‘Our century of war, militarism, and political terror has produced great – and successful – advocates of true peace, among whom Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., are the paramount examples. The considerable success that they achieved testifies to the presence, in the midst of violence, of an authentic and powerful desire for peace and, more important, of the proven will to make the necessary sacrifices. But so far as our government is concerned, these men and their great and authenticating accomplishments might as well never have existed. To achieve peace by peaceable means is not yet our goal. We cling to the hopeless paradox of making peace by making war.’
Tragically, Berry is right. Our government clings to such a hopeless paradox. I suppose we can’t expect them to change overnight, but certainly among the followers of Jesus, it should be different. Jesus’ disciples should respond to evil with creativity and generosity, and in so doing, provide witness to another way. We should advocate for creative, nonviolent responses that encourage even the government in the direction of peace. Perhaps we will never fully persuade those whose default response is to wield the sword, but we might get them to at take a few positive steps in the direction of peacemaking, and exchange at least some of their swords for plowshares.
I hope America eventually builds that peace museum. I hope that more people come to understand the power of creative nonviolence. I hope that more people discover the creative way of Jesus.
And I hope that the next time a terrible attack happens, at home or abroad, Christians might, whatever else the government may do, consider spreading love instead of bombs. That instead of rushing to support a policy of retaliation in kind, as many did in the wake of 9/11, we might, as the old song goes, give peace a chance.
Under Christ’s Mercy,
Brent
[1] In the aftermath of the attack, the President further invoked the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘Here am I, send me,’ and applied them to the soldiers of the United States military. While one can admire the bravery of those who put their lives on the line for others, the comparison is extremely dangerous, as it advances an insidious Christian Nationalist theology that equates military action with the work of the Kingdom of God. But that’s for another post.
Hey folks, just a quick reminder that the countdown deal for a free Kindle copy of Deleting Jesus starts today! Here’s a little blurb from the back cover:
Deleting Jesus is an examination of both who Jesus is and what he asked his followers to be. Through a study of the words and actions of Jesus, the witness of the New Testament, and the writings of early Christians, pastor and author Brent David Miller contrasts the Christianity of the early Church with the counterfeit version so prevalent today, and issues a call to follow the radical and loving way of Christ. In this book you will discover the teachings of Jesus and the early Church on such topics as power, politics, enemy love, war, the proper use of wealth, the treatment of refugees and immigrants, racism, and the life of discipleship. Whether you are a believer stuck in the trenches of American pop Christianity, or a non-believer who is turned off by the antics of the so-called Christians around you, prepare to have your perspective rocked. Prepare to discover the real Jesus.
You can download your free copy on Kindle through Monday October 12th.
