Is the Way of the Cross the Way of Weakness?

Is the Way of the Cross the Way of Weakness?  

Old Testament: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33 

By now those of you who listen to my preaching know a lot about how I regard the scriptures. This Bible is one of the greatest treasures we have. It is the record of faithful people, living their lives, in relationship with an eternal God. It reflects the best and worst of their experiences. It spans centuries of living. 

So each person or community who contributed to the collection of literature we know as the Bible, spoke from their faith, their experience, and their understanding. All of that was limited or bounded by what they were personally capable of. 

Despite those limitations, this is a great and wonderful collection. Some of the greatest minds and giants of faith, have wrestled with these texts, and we have received both the texts, and the history of their interpretation. And we ourselves are limited by what we know, what we have experienced, and what each of our families have taught us to honor. 

I say all of this as we approach the fifteen year anniversary of 9/11/2001, when the US experienced the dramatic violence attributed to political action, that is vastly more common in other parts of the world. While the image of commercial airliners turned into weapons of destruction feels personally threatening, in fact the people of many nations have absorbed this kind of trauma from suicide bombers, and attacks on trains and train stations, and rockets from the air. 

I regret that the USA responded to these attacks with more emotion laden violence, misdirected and erratic, compounding the loss of life and encouraging disrespect for the sanctity of life of all of God’s children. Matching violence with increased violence cannot lead to peace. It is made up of all the wrong stuff. 

The classic text from Deuteronomy tells us that God has laid before us the ways of life and death, admonishing us to “Choose Life.” 

In many interpretations through the ages, this text has been used to say that we only experience violence when we are doing evil. The subtext says that bad things only happen to bad people. If we personally are not evil, then we ought to be able to search among the nation and find someone to blame, for God thinking that we are evil. 

This becomes the basis for “churches” campaigning against gays, and abortion, or anything that they can latch on to - to create an us against them, where “They” are the evil that God is punishing “us” for. 

In the years since 9/11 this has only become more pronounced. The popular tide of this reaction has been compounded many times over. Renowned Christian theologians have been forced by the rhetoric of the day, to defend the Muslim religion, from unthinking fanatics who would segregate and isolate valuable and precious citizens among us, because the public does not understand that fanaticism is not the limited property of any one kind of religion. 

Much of the revulsion to religion of the young people today comes from their rejection of misdirected scapegoating, that appears to be a natural part of “religious types.” Even good and well-meaning folks like you and me, get lumped into the pile of “religious types” that appear to feed on their own private blend of hate and revulsion. We could change our sign out front to say, “We are not like that.” But it would not be believed by the scoffers.

In a variety of ways, the last several weeks have contained the message from Luke’s gospel, that we are not the center of the universe. If we would try to let God be our center, try to approach from with the perspective of the wide love, mercy, and forgiveness, that is God, we put ourselves in position to receive and distribute many blessings from God. 

10 years ago, the mismanagement of home mortgages, precipitated a violent shakedown of our entire economy. When it was all said and done, many were hurt more than others. Those who felt the most pain, were far away from those whose greed created this artificial house of cards. The truly wicked were never indicted or prosecuted. 

Today, we continue to wage war on terrorism, in the most lawless way possible. Unmanned drones carry out death sentences against suspects and their wives and children, without indictments, capture, or the opportunity to present a defense. There have been hundreds of these attacks with thousands killed in the last five years, according to a July 1 report issued by the White House.* We have not only continued the violence, we now perpetuate violence in the same sort of radical and unchecked way that we find so hateful in the terrorists. 

The writers who recorded, edited and preserved the writing of Deuteronomy, from at least 2500 years ago, and the community of Luke, who preserved their favorite stories of Jesus for us, never imagined the elaborate ways we do violence today. 

The scriptures do not break down and detail the complexity of our systems, and where our moral responsibility matches up within these systems. Am I responsible for a drone attack in Libya? Would I be morally responsible if I packed up the explosives in a plant in Ohio for shipment overseas? What is the morality of “just following orders?” 

In my mind, the tacit permission for such attacks rests on our over-emotional reaction to 9/11. We did not then, nor have we since, understood that this attack represents us standing shoulder to shoulder with all people who experience random violence. Our vulnerability to attack marks us as human. Our human pride and elitism have prevented us from developing compassion for others. Our wounded pride has compelled us to strike out in an immature manner.  

The scriptures call us to a higher level of wisdom and understanding. Jesus did not call out dive-bombing angels to destroy the home of the high-priest. I do not believe that the destruction of the Temple and priestly class by the Romans in 70CE, forty years after the crucifixion, was an act of retribution by God, but actually was the way that occupying armies deal with people who continually make trouble. 

We are called to let God and love of neighbor become the center of our perspective. What happens then, when we begin to grow the circle of our responsibility, marked by compassion and not further violence?  

You may want to ask, “But Pastor Chuck, do you not understand that there are radical Muslims?” And I would tell you, “Yes I know there are radical Muslims. I also know that they have killed more Muslims than Westerners, Christian and non-Christian alike. Their radicalism is expressed in religious terms, but does not come from their religion.” 

How do you love a radical? First, we have to know what is at the root of their reaction against civilized society. We may find that a good part of what feeds their fire, are injustices that we have responsibility to stop. It would change the nature of the conflict, if we would return to a rule of law. Capturing, charging, and bringing to trial those who are responsible for violence. 

We would react to ourselves in horror in that light, realizing that the US continues to maintain the torture chamber and lawless prison in Guantanamo. We would have to change our mind as a people, about what it means to live in community, and begin to bring an end to our own lawless violence.   

Jesus says we must take up our cross and follow him. This is not a slogan that would play well in the Presidential Campaign. No candidate would be able to withstand the barrage of insults that would likely be portrayed as weakness. Is the way of the cross the way of weakness? 

In response to the killing of a French Catholic priest Pope Francis said*, “What makes a true witness to Christ is that their suffering imitates Christ’s passion by absorbing violence rather than exciting it or provoking more of it. Christ’s suffering and death - - - was meant rather to show the emptiness of such killing and spell the end of such sacrifices.” 

And the so the question hangs over our heads. Are we willing to learn from Jesus the Christ? Are we followers of the one who speaks for the love and forgiveness of God? Are we even able to understand that carrying our cross, will expose us to ridicule from the right and from the left? Even our Christian brothers and sisters, will regard us as “extreme” and maybe “anti-American.” 

There will be conflicts, when we finally choose to follow Jesus. "Whoever comes to me and (is not ready for conflict between) father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” Listen to the admonition, “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions” or at least the point of view - that you are the very center of creation. Amen.  

* The White House reported US “targeted attacks” were responsible for 2,581 combatants and 161 civilian deaths. 

* Christian Century - August 31, 2016