Dr. Roger Ray, pastor
Epiphany 6a February 16, 2014
Matthew 5:21-26
21"You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' 22But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, 'You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you,24leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
A recent letter to the editor of our Springfield newspaper publicly informed me that a group of Christians had gotten together and, they reported, voted me out of Christianity. Though they applauded my advocacy and service to the poor, they unanimously affirmed that my beliefs were woefully inadequate to qualify me for the title of "Christian."
I was rather more disturbed to see, a few days later, that the director of the local Southern Baptist association of churches, also published an essay saying that though he appreciates what I do, that I really should stop claiming to be a Christian because I have rejected the kind of beliefs that I believe were imposed on the Christian Church in the third century by Emperor Constantine in order to make Christians compliant with his military agenda and to make the church morally irrelevant.
Though I believe that it was both unprofessional and rather embarrassingly simple of him to publish these dismissive insults to me, and by inference, to you, I am not, honestly, too surprised. Frankly, if their religion of beliefs in incarnation and intercession, of souls bound either for heaven or hell or of magic books and invisible angels and demons is Christianity, then I am not one of them....though I think Christianity is something altogether different.
Most of us were reared to control our appetites and moderate our behavior under the simultaneous threat of punishment in hell and promise of reward in heaven. In fact, we were so well trained to at least hedge our bets in case these invisible claims were true that we could hardly imagine religion existing without these things. When we first began to be exposed to the idea that religion is more about a way of living than it is a set of supernatural beliefs we could nod in basic agreement but for years we still kept returning to the comfortable familiarity of rituals and antiquated beliefs.
The dawning awareness in the progressive movement is that religious practices are much more important than beliefs. For some reason, we've almost always been able to see that as being true for other people's religions. American Christians could adore Gandhi for what he did and they very nearly idolize the Dalai Lama for his teachings on spiritual practices though most could not reasonable tell you anything about either Gandhi's Hindu or the Dalai Lama's Buddhist beliefs.
If I may be allowed to make a somewhat racial observation, white Christians have always accepted civil rights speeches and marches for social reform led by Black Christians when they would not accept such things out of their white Episcopal or Presbyterian pastors for a moment. Somehow, we inherently recognize the value of the spiritual life led by outstanding Buddhists, Hindus and Black Christians while insisting that white Christianity remain morally irrelevant and focused on magical rituals and privately held beliefs.
Mainline Christians who insist that religion should not be involved in politics would not have applied that to Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech, or to Gandhi's Salt March nor would they tell the Dalai Lama to quit protesting China's occupation of Thailand. We understand their religion to be about ethics but we've insisted that Christianity is about an afterlife and a kind of magical approach to this life.
A few years ago I was in the uncomfortable position of pushing for an investigation of some very shady business practices at a local hospital.
It seemed inevitable that a couple of my church members going to prison for a very long time. One of these pillars of the church who had been using his board position at the hospital to scam his way into several million dollars, cornered me in my office one evening to threaten me with being fired if I didn't stop pushing for this investigation. The conversation became heated and he started shouting at me. He said, "Do you know what your problem is? You think that you are Jesus Christ!"
Without thinking, and in fact, I was rather surprised to hear the words coming out of my mouth, I jumped up and shouted, "No I don't! I think that I am Martin Luther King!" And I relate that story only by way of saying, I don't think that any of our newspaper critics would be quite so exercised if we were Buddhist, Hindu or, if I was a Black Christian pastor leading a largely black congregation in agitating for civil rights. So, in some ways, I think that it would be more accurate if, rather than voting me out of Christianity, if they would just vote me out of the race of white people. Let's be honest, I've never really fit in!
Not to leave you hanging on this story, my former church member did not go to prison. After the Federal investigation was ended the hospital was fined several million dollars but no one was criminally charged. So, board members got away with stealing millions of dollars which came out of the pockets of sick people who paid exorbitant medical bills and the fines for these crimes was paid by the hospital whose money comes from the exorbitant medical bills paid by sick citizens.
Admittedly, the public might have been hurt less by just looking the other way because, in the end, they were both the victims of the crime and then they had to pay the fine for the crimes..... and that, men and women, is what we call white privilege in the American judicial and economic system.
Progressive people of faith have given up the confidence that evangelicals and fundamentalists have in their beliefs. Many of them would look at us and ask, "Why do you bother if you are not afraid of hell or trying to get into heaven?" In fact, most people among the church alumni association feel pretty much the same way. Why bother?
Ironically, they would not say that to King, Gandhi or the Dalai Lama.... It makes sense that they bother, whether they believe in heaven and hell or not. I'm suggesting that our spirituality does make a difference, it is worth the bother..... even if we are a mostly white congregation with traditional Christian roots.
With or without a heaven and hell, we know for a fact that we live in a world full of light and darkness, good and evil, abundance and want, obesity and hunger, comfort and pain. Once you strip away the magic and superstition of religion and take a clear, sober and rational look at reality, you face some serious choices.
The world is full of things that can make you really mad. I'm starting to doubt the level of exposure to liberal media that I allow myself to watch because there seems to be an endless supply of genuinely evil, violent, greedy, stupid and unjust things going on in the world. Like this investigation I mentioned. The facts were clear. The evidence was there and none of the criminals were ever even made to give back what they had stolen.
I know that I need to be informed but sometimes I find myself becoming so angry, so full of rage, that I start to see the world in very negative terms. And I know that some of you get there too.... The problems seem so big that you can become paralyzed with cynicism.... Nothing makes sense.... There is nothing we can do about it. Nihilism starts to look attractive.
And this is just as true on the personal level. I have to tell you that for most of us in the relatively comfortable middle class.... The personal stuff is much more existentially powerful...... on the personal level we have all had family members or friends who have really hurt us.... And not by accident either. It wasn't an oversight or a slip of the tongue or a matter of circumstances.....
Most of us have had a lot more than one person whom we have loved, trusted, sacrificed for and really believed would be close to us for our entire lives, do something to hurt us that doesn't even make any sense.... They didn't get money, a promotion, or anything out of the bargain..... they just intentionally, maliciously, viciously hurt you. People can be like that.
There may be very complex psychological explanations for it.... Sociopathology, borderline personality disorders, adult children of alcoholics... or it might be some very simple human emotions.... Jealousy, envy, gossip... a desire to feel powerful or important, if only for a moment.
Remove spirituality from that equation, remove the sense that we are connected to every other person, every other part of the universe.... Indulge yourself in the cold hard belief that all that matters is your personal comfort, your feelings, your appetites and you can talk yourself into becoming a moral monster in search of revenge.
Or more likely, you can just pull all of that resentment, anger and hurt inside and lie awake a big part of every night, just dwelling on the hurt, reliving it, feeding the fire of your anger.... Investing energy, time and emotion in remembering the hurt. I'm not projecting.... I'm not speculating.... I'm speaking very existentially here.
I have spent my adult life fighting social injustice but on the personal level, I have had to survive some deep personal disappointments that have given me a storehouse of resentment that has kept me awake more nights than I care to admit.
I have felt personal loss, depression and anger that I have obviously tried to dull with food. I have felt adrenalin pumping through my body demanding some kind of vengeful justice, to set the scales right. I can identify with Clarence Darrow who once said, "I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction." I'm sure that he meant that with a certain degree of jest but I have opened the obituary page in the paper more than a few times and seen the faces of people who had done me harm and I can tell you that while there is some relief in outliving your enemies that it is not the satisfaction that you hope for.
The most satisfying resolution to hurt is reconciliation. The best answer to anger is to forgive. The only real resolution of resentment is lay that burden down. It would be so much easier if the people involved would apologize but the truth is that in most cases, they will carry the conviction that they did nothing wrong to their graves.... They don't want your forgiveness. But from a spiritual perspective.... You should forgive them anyway.
You know that is what Gandhi would have done. You know that is what the Dalai Lama would tell you. You have read this in Thich Nhat Hanh's work. What we seem to have overlooked is that Jesus said it too.
Jesus tells us to go and be reconciled to the person with whom you are in conflict before you ever even kneel down to pray. And as much as I believe in reconciliation, long for it, hope for it.... What I know.... What you know.... Is when it matters the most, it is the most unlikely to happen.
The only meaningful answer to that is to choose on your side of the equation to forgive first.... No matter what they do.... On your side of the offense, you forgive them, let go of the resentment and you decide that you are going to be the better person.
You have my permission to quote this sermon back to me whenever you think that I'm screwing up because, I guarantee you, no one in this room needs to hear this message more than I do.
We have chosen to be a prophetic church. We practice both direct aid to those in need and we try to challenge in the institutions that create poverty, injustice, war and pollution. What I'm saying is that a prophetic church cannot be successful if it is motivated by anger. If we are not motivated by love then we really are just a political organization with a social agenda.
What separates us from being just a bunch of opinionated atheists is that we have chosen a spiritual path and that path seeks to heal the world through both justice and love and I am certain that the first step of that path is to be very very generous in forgiveness.
