Focus: Non Resistance
Function: To get people aware of the upside down way we react to violence.
Form:
Intro:
Movie Clip: The Witness, Right of Way, 1985
In the 80's, when the prisoners were taken hostage, I wanted those Delta wing bombers to cross the ocean and bomb the life out of Iran.
How dare they do that to the most powerful nation the world has ever known? I thought.
My pastor said to me: “Those mothers have children also.”
I couldn't wrap my mind around this. I thought to myself, “if someone gets in my way, isn't the manly thing to do is to knock them down?”
Now, I wasn't raised with violence. My father never let me or my three brothers have any toy guns.
And, we were instructed to turn the other cheek when someone hit us.
And I got into a few fights when I was a kid. I remember Bobby Orr. We were in shop class, and the teacher, who at one time received a national honor for being one of the best shop teachers in the United States of America, was getting old and slow enough that he couldn't keep his eye on everything that was going on in class.
Bobby kept pestering me, teasing me and making fun of me. I finally had enough and I snapped without thinking, I sucker punched him in the nose and knocked him out. Of course, the teacher didn't see it. And I spent the rest of the day in dread because they made it clear that at the end of the day, I was going to get beat up.
I felt bad because I disobeyed my father and threw the first punch. And after school, he bloodied me up pretty good. Because I was a Christian, I refused to fight back. I went home crying. But after that, we became friends. He saw the strength in my willingness to not fight back.
Bobby had a gang of boys with him. But he wasn't a bully. Sometimes boys test the metal of each other just to make us all stronger.
Did you ever wonder why the Brits drive on what we would call the wrong side of the road?
Most people are right-handed. They walked that way because their right hand, their sword hand, was prepared in case they came across their enemy on the road.
Think about living in a culture like that. One is always prepared to meet violence at the drop of a hat.
Think about how that kind of mentality would affect your moral judgments when it comes to everything and anything. If we are doing business, and every one we do business with is an enemy, then the morality of doing well, doing a good job, being fair, providing value, providing a win-win business environment goes away.
Westminster Abbey has tombstones, memorials, actual graves of all the great men and women in English history. Inside that structure about 50 feet from the actual grave of William Wilberforce, the man of God who wrested with his divine calling. He wrestled with whether or not he should be a priest or a politician and chose the later. As a politician, he singlehandedly stopped the entire business of slave trading in England. 50 feet from him is the tombstone of Charles Darwin.
Many people ask why Darwin, a man who was hated by the Church because his scientific theory on the origin of the species seemed to undermine the Bible and therefore the church. Why was Darwin buried there? He was buried there because the evolutionary concept: “the survival of the fittest” justified the way the English people dominated the world through violence. These people valued the concept that might makes right. These people didn't ask the question: “if we can do it, then it must be right.”
That was the same mentality that justified slavery. They believed that because they had the greater military power, whatever they did must be right.
So, it is strange that Wilberforce is buried there, and Darwin's tombstone is nearby.
It reflects the way we feel when we saw that video.
When we, as Christians refuse to use violence, even though our enemies use it, then shouldn't we respond with the same force?
Is turning the other cheek as sign of weakness?
Does being meek also mean we are weak?
I wish I would have never slugged Bobby Orr. And I took the beating without defending myself.
And, my meekness proved my strength more than fighting back.
It took a lot of strength to not fight back. I got my butt whipped good. And the courage to do that was even more proof of inner strength.
Bobby and I became friends. It wasn't the attitude that he felt obligated now to protect this Christian who believed in turning the other cheek, like Harrison Ford does in this video. Nope, it was genuine respect for someone whose faith lead him to a power greater than what Bobby had for himself.
My daddy taught me to turn the other cheek. He was a big man. Rocky Reynolds, is what they called him.
He was raised in the denomination I was raised in. The denomination was an outgrowth of the Mennonite Church.
My grandma was actually raised Amish. But when she married my grandpa Reynolds, they excommunicated her for marrying “the English.” Grandpa Reynolds died when Dad was 2 years old. He had a little brother, and two sisters, the oldest of which was 6.
So, right in the middle of the depression, my Grandmother raised 4 kids without a husband. When Grandpa Reynolds died, the Amish bishop declared that it was God's judgment for marrying the English.
I have never even met my Amish relatives.
My Great Grandfather, an Amish man, was so offended by the lack of Christian love toward his daughter, my grandmother that he left the Amish faith and joined the Missionary Church where he first learned that a person could be born again.
He helped raise my dad, teaching him the value of turning the other cheek, with a lot of those Amish values.
I used to resent the fact that I have never met my Amish relatives until I found out that the big difference, the reason why they used the term “English” as an insult came from the fact that the Mennonite/Brethren/Amish and even German Lutheran heritage absolutely refused to engage in the Slave trade.
It is a little bit of an history lesson, but these values are based on the life, ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ.
John Stewart is a Jewish Comedian was speaking about the language of violence in our culture. And he said this: Jesus could have called 10,000 angels to right the wrongs done against Him, but He choose to turn the other cheek, even against the people who were murdering Him.
Having the ability to do something doesn't make it right.
Now here is the thing. The Anabaptists/Brethren were doing fine in Germany until war broke out and they refused to fight.
Did you ever see the beard on the Amish/Brethren man? It is a long beard with no mustache.
There were disagreements as to why the mustache was left out.
Most men, before they were married were clean shaved, but they added the beard after marriage to cover the strong chin line so that they would be less attractive to other women.
However, the German military wore a mustache and no beard. So, they did the exact opposite, they wore a beard with no mustache. They wanted to detach themselves from this image of violence and power and demonstrate by their physical looks their willingness to turn the other cheek.
That got them in trouble, especially the idea that they refused to take up arms to kill another man.
The idea was, in war, if the enemy was a Christian, they couldn't kill their brothers in the Lord. And if they weren't Christian, then they would be sending a person who was literally a pawn in human government to hell.
They would rather lose their own life, possessions, property than take the life of another.
They lived the faith they claimed to believe in, no matter what it cost.
So my dad, raised with this value system suffered some very unfortunate experiences. His own father was dead, he was estranged from most of the relatives on his Mother's side. The Reynolds side wasn't really Christian and they had a lot of influence on him also.
His Sunday School teacher was a carpenter and a sort of mentor. When my dad was 16, the man committed suicide for some unknown reason.
He was devastated and found no real reason to be a Christian anymore.
WWII broke out. At 17, he joined the navy. But He was big and Rock Reynolds' navy career was less than Christian.
When he raised me, he knew both how to be tough and he knew how to be meek. The Church he was raised in excommunicated him for joining the war effort. So, when he taught me how to live like that, it came out of a lot of personal experience.
The Church that excommunicated him, was the same church that I was raised in. After the war, everything changed.
I attended their Bible College. Mel Zumbrum, the current pastor of the Salamonie Church of the Brethren was a student with me.
When we studied theology, and church theology, Mel asked the same questions I asked.
What about war? What about turning the other cheek? What about all the stuff Jesus said about violence? What about all the stuff Paul said about letting all vengeance be in God's hands and not human hands?
And our theology professor had completely abandoned the historical view of the denomination in one generation.
He mumbled something about Augustine and “Just War” theory and discounted these teachings of Christ.
And the reason he did that was because everyone felt right about stopping Hitler and his Nazi thugs.
And it was hard. We look at that opening video and ask ourselves, what is the right thing to do? Do we let evil people continue when we may have the power to stop it? Or not?
I was listening to a “The Story” episode that was talking about MLK Jr. and how much criticism he was coming under by every side because of his non-violent approach to peace-making. It takes a lot of faith. It takes faith to stand in front of a gun. People get tired of waiting for God to act and so they take matters into their own hands.
But taking matters into our hand isn't faith. Faith trusts God to vindicate with His completely fair sense of Justice. God's justice is powerful, but it is also merciful.
This is real, and it isn't theory. Consequences of this action, or unwillingness to pursue it will indeed cost us something.
We are going through all the pain of the trial of our brother. We love the victim, we love our brother's family and we love him. Everyone wants vengeance for the victim. Some people want vengeance for him. Some people want vengeance for me and for this Church. I cannot pray “God, get him.” Because if there isn't grace to forgive him, then there isn't enough grace to forgive me.
I am not willing to trade my soul by giving into anger. I am not going to trade my soul because I want personal vindication on this earth. It isn't worth it. God knows how to deliver the righteous. We forget that death is not the tragedy in God's eyes as much as it is in ours. There are three times that I have left a note on my desk with the statement: It is such and such a time, on such and such a date and so and so was here. I left that note because I am afraid for my own safety.
But I keep reminding myself the promise from scripture: The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear HIM and delivers them out of all their troubles. Psalms 34:7
Some people have said to me, “aren't you afraid? Phil, you have people who really hate you right now and they are heavily armed. Shouldn't you arm yourself?”
No! We live by faith, not fear. People are really good at making mountains out of molehills, blowing things out of proportion, capitalizing on fear in order to motivate people in the wrong direction. Using that kind of hype to vindicate their cause. Christian maturity doesn't stoop to that level.
So, I respond with, “But if I arm myself, then God doesn't have to. I would rather trust God.”
Those Amish men who turned the other cheek did it in reverence and faith toward God. They choose to obey God over vindicating themselves. And in that position, that position of faith, that position of strength, that position of human weakness, God is the most powerful.
In the midst of our own weakness, God is the most powerful.
God is big and He is able.
If you are being mis-treated and have a way to peacefully get out of it, then by all means do it. But never forget that God is faithful.
Gandhi was not a Christian, although he started his career in Seminary to become an Anglican Priest. He rejected Christianity because he didn't see Christians actually following this passage of scripture. His conversation with a British Colonel about turning the other cheek is legendary. The Soldier essentially said, if we turn the other cheek, then we lose our power over you.
Gandhi practiced non-resistance. His fellow Indian men saw his example. They won independence for India by walking unarmed and defenseless across a British military line into a place that the people had every right to go to. One by one, these brave men walked across that line and one by one the English soldiers gunned them down. Eventually, the soldiers conscience's started bothering them, they stopped and the nation won her independence.
Far fewer lives were lost than if there had been war.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did the same thing. He trusted God. He obeyed Jesus' teaching and fought hard to help his people see that Jesus was actually right.
My friend, Bobby Orr saw the strength of my faith and convictions and regarded me as just as much man as he was.
But we want to take matters into our own hands instead of trusting in God's justice.
This superior strength is actually a mature faith.
Verse 48, “be perfect...” was a verse my best friend in youth group used to argue over. He said it meant that we can indeed obtain sinless perfection.
But last week we saw Jesus Himself saying “Only God is always good.”
And brother Paul says in Romans that if sinless perfection were possible, then God would not have redeemed us on the cross.
What does Jesus mean here? Be Perfect? The word perfect is Teleos which comes from the root word: Telos. It means mature, or finished.
So, when the Message translates the word, it is kept closer to the original Greek when the translator says: 48"In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You are kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."
Turning the other Cheek has to do with mature Christian living. Mark Flory-Steury, our past district executive spent most of his time dealing with Church conflict. I asked him one day how he could take it, jumping from one crisis to another and finding his Christian Brothers and Sisters doing such ugly things all the time.
He said this: “Instead of get upset when believers fall into sin, I rejoice when they do the right thing. Phil, we are still far from perfect. Only the Spiritually mature can actually turn the other cheek and forgive. God loves us all, anyway, in spite of what we actually are.”
So, we don't turn the other cheek to prove that we are more mature as Christians than others.
When we are mature, we turn the other cheek. These are the people who have grasped hold of Jesus teaching. My uncle was probably the richest man in his congregation. I remember the many people who spoke about his faith at his funeral. Bob Reynolds had strong opinions and was persuasive. But if a vote on the Leadership didn't go his way, he was the first one to show up with his checkbook, or a paint brush because he believed in the value of community. He didn't throw a fit and leave.
Maturity. We must remember that this is the ideal that Jesus brought us to.
Now I deliberately started with the video that demonstrates the tension between actually doing it and how hard it is.
I mentioned how my dad was excommunicated for joining the war effort.
I mentioned how the denomination I was raised in abandoned 450 years of its tradition and heritage for these modern times.
I mentioned how I tried to live up to that ideal and failed.
We still need a savior. This is not a point of pride, but a point of principle.
Rob Farrell and Dewayne Young, both men from this Congregation are deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively. Justin Speers is going to be deployed there.
Are we going to excommunicate them? No. Are we even going to criticize them or judge them? No. Are we going to pray for them, their safety, their families while they are there? Of course we are.
We are not going to stand up for pride in our heritage. We will continue to love them and treat them with equal standing.
If we polled the congregation about that video, I would guess that many, if not even a small majority would side with Harrison Ford's actions. It isn't easy.
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