June 30, 2019
Luke 9:51-62
This past week all three of our kids have had the privilege of being in Atlanta, Georgia on a mission trip with First Baptist Church of Greensboro. As Rev. Chris Cherry’s letter explaining this trip indicated, this was not a typical mission trip with work sites and such. Instead, the purpose for this week was meeting people, hearing stories, breaking down stereotypes and engaging the world around them. Amy told me I would be jealous once I read all they were going to do on this trip and she was right. Just reading about the experiences they were going to have made me very excited for them, and a bit jealous.
This past Friday they were able to experience the typical Atlanta tourist stuff like, lunch at The Varsity and a tour of the World of Coke. While both of those seem pretty cool, it was their morning stop at The King Center, that I was most jealous of. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change was established in 1968 as a place of education and inspiration to the countless number of people who have chosen to visit. One monument outside of the Center, stands to educate visitors on Dr. King’s teaching of Nonviolence. This monument consists of seven stones with six of them containing Dr. King’s Six principles of Nonviolence.
I want to read those six principles to you now:
The six principles of Nonviolence365:
Principle One – Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people. It is active nonviolent resistance to evil. It is aggressive spiritually, mentally and emotionally.;
Principle Two – Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding. The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation. The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community;
Principle Three – Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice not people. Nonviolence recognizes that evildoers are also victims and are not evil people. The nonviolent resister seeks to defeat evil not people;
Principle Four – Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform people and societies. Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation. Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities;
Principle Five – Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate. Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as the body. Nonviolent love is spontaneous, unmotivated, unselfish and creative;
Principle Six – Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice. The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win. Nonviolence believes that God is a God of Justice.
The seventh stone serves to inform about the origin of these six principles. On that stone you read that the six principles of nonviolence were “Fundamental tenets of Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence as written in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom.” Then, for those who keep reading, you discover two very important sources for Dr. King and his quest to live a nonviolent life. First, he learned nonviolent techniques from Mohandas K. Gandhi, but his source of inspiration was none other than Jesus Christ. That seventh stone ends with this sentence:
“These principles should be embraced as a lifestyle.”
*************************
This idea of Jesus Christ serving as inspiration for a nonviolent life is, I believe, one of those things we give our mental assent to, but I’m not so sure how often we embrace the lifestyle. And while most of us don’t actually take the step of being actively violent, the things we say about those who we either don’t agree with, or those we believe have offended us, oftentimes have violent undertones and sometimes have violent overtones. Here’s the thing, though, apparently this has been going on since that first group decided to follow the way of Jesus Christ. Consider again what James and John’s response was to the Samaritans who didn’t welcome Jesus. They turned to Jesus and said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
Now, first things first, who knows if James and John could even do such a thing, call down such destructive fire from heaven. But more to the point of a mindset and lifestyle, is that violence was their first thought. Those who actually followed Jesus on his journey. Those who spent precious face to face time with him, for whatever reason thought violence was an appropriate response. Luckily, Jesus, the one who serves as inspiration for a life of nonviolence, was having none of it. Violence is not what Jesus had been teaching and even though those first disciples had a hard time embracing this nonviolent lifestyle, Jesus didn’t and because he didn’t, embracing nonviolence was central to his teaching.
As one pastor says, “When James and John invoked divine wrath on the Samaritans, they betrayed an attitude diametrically opposed to everything Jesus said and did.”[1] It seems that these disciples had a hard time embracing the fullness of the Good News Jesus was teaching them about. You see, Jesus was teaching about the good news of God’s unconditional and limitless love for all people, not just some people. So, when they sought violence, they were asking for permission to do something opposed to their Rabbi’s teachings. By seeking violence on anyone those disciples were singlehandedly trying to change the good news of unconditional and limitless love, into bad news that God had it in for people. Or more accurately, God had it in for those other people who don’t think like us, or talk like us, or welcome us the way we believe we should be welcomed.
And this wasn’t the first time those first disciples tried to keep others out or treat other people different because they didn’t perceive them to be part of their chosen group. I know our story today started in verse 51, but if you go back 2 verses to 49 you will read about John telling Jesus about trying to stop someone from helping heal a sick person because the one helping “was not one of us.” Luckily, in each of these occasions Jesus kept teaching about God’s unconditional and limitless love for all people. “Do not stop him, Jesus said,…” When John told him about trying to stop the man from healing a sick person. And to James and John’s request to call down fire, Jesus’ response was a rebuke, and while that word may seem harsh, maybe it is exactly what it should have been. Maybe this voice that rebukes those who call for violence on others is a voice we need to hear more often. Even and especially when we don’t want to hear it. For me this voice isn’t so much a voice of punishment as much as it is a voice teaching another way. A voice forcefully teaching that violence doesn’t cut it, nonviolence does. A voice that forcefully instructs not to stop healing someone just because you don’t think the healer is part of your tribe. We need that voice of rebuke more than we ever want to admit, and we especially need it today.
***************************
Every time we fall victim to tribalism, we need that voice of rebuke forcefully teaching, forcefully reminding us about the unlimited and unchanging love God has for all people. Every time we think violence and exclusion is a proper response, we need that voice of rebuke, forcefully teaching and reminding us that to follow the way of Christ means to share God’s love with all we encounter, not just those who think like we do, or act like we do.
Every time we find ourselves calling down fire on others like James and John did, we need that voice of rebuke. You see, it is that voice of rebuke that calls us back to the path of God. It is that voice of rebuke that calls us back to the way. It is that voice of rebuke that calls us to nonviolence and my brothers and sisters, as much as we don’t like it, the fact remains we need to hear that voice of rebuke. We need it because it is a voice of love and hope. It is that voice that loves us enough to keep talking and teaching.
This story challenges us as it should. It challenges us to live out a life of nonviolence. It challenges us to hear and accept the voice of rebuke. But more than that, this story of Jesus’ teachings should inspire us, like it did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And maybe… hopefully, that source of inspiration will lead us to embrace the call to a nonviolent lifestyle.
[Prayer]
Amen!
[1] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20070625JJ.shtml
Luke 9:51-62
This past week all three of our kids have had the privilege of being in Atlanta, Georgia on a mission trip with First Baptist Church of Greensboro. As Rev. Chris Cherry’s letter explaining this trip indicated, this was not a typical mission trip with work sites and such. Instead, the purpose for this week was meeting people, hearing stories, breaking down stereotypes and engaging the world around them. Amy told me I would be jealous once I read all they were going to do on this trip and she was right. Just reading about the experiences they were going to have made me very excited for them, and a bit jealous.
This past Friday they were able to experience the typical Atlanta tourist stuff like, lunch at The Varsity and a tour of the World of Coke. While both of those seem pretty cool, it was their morning stop at The King Center, that I was most jealous of. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change was established in 1968 as a place of education and inspiration to the countless number of people who have chosen to visit. One monument outside of the Center, stands to educate visitors on Dr. King’s teaching of Nonviolence. This monument consists of seven stones with six of them containing Dr. King’s Six principles of Nonviolence.
I want to read those six principles to you now:
The six principles of Nonviolence365:
Principle One – Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people. It is active nonviolent resistance to evil. It is aggressive spiritually, mentally and emotionally.;
Principle Two – Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding. The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation. The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community;
Principle Three – Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice not people. Nonviolence recognizes that evildoers are also victims and are not evil people. The nonviolent resister seeks to defeat evil not people;
Principle Four – Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform people and societies. Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation. Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities;
Principle Five – Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate. Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as the body. Nonviolent love is spontaneous, unmotivated, unselfish and creative;
Principle Six – Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice. The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win. Nonviolence believes that God is a God of Justice.
The seventh stone serves to inform about the origin of these six principles. On that stone you read that the six principles of nonviolence were “Fundamental tenets of Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence as written in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom.” Then, for those who keep reading, you discover two very important sources for Dr. King and his quest to live a nonviolent life. First, he learned nonviolent techniques from Mohandas K. Gandhi, but his source of inspiration was none other than Jesus Christ. That seventh stone ends with this sentence:
“These principles should be embraced as a lifestyle.”
*************************
This idea of Jesus Christ serving as inspiration for a nonviolent life is, I believe, one of those things we give our mental assent to, but I’m not so sure how often we embrace the lifestyle. And while most of us don’t actually take the step of being actively violent, the things we say about those who we either don’t agree with, or those we believe have offended us, oftentimes have violent undertones and sometimes have violent overtones. Here’s the thing, though, apparently this has been going on since that first group decided to follow the way of Jesus Christ. Consider again what James and John’s response was to the Samaritans who didn’t welcome Jesus. They turned to Jesus and said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
Now, first things first, who knows if James and John could even do such a thing, call down such destructive fire from heaven. But more to the point of a mindset and lifestyle, is that violence was their first thought. Those who actually followed Jesus on his journey. Those who spent precious face to face time with him, for whatever reason thought violence was an appropriate response. Luckily, Jesus, the one who serves as inspiration for a life of nonviolence, was having none of it. Violence is not what Jesus had been teaching and even though those first disciples had a hard time embracing this nonviolent lifestyle, Jesus didn’t and because he didn’t, embracing nonviolence was central to his teaching.
As one pastor says, “When James and John invoked divine wrath on the Samaritans, they betrayed an attitude diametrically opposed to everything Jesus said and did.”[1] It seems that these disciples had a hard time embracing the fullness of the Good News Jesus was teaching them about. You see, Jesus was teaching about the good news of God’s unconditional and limitless love for all people, not just some people. So, when they sought violence, they were asking for permission to do something opposed to their Rabbi’s teachings. By seeking violence on anyone those disciples were singlehandedly trying to change the good news of unconditional and limitless love, into bad news that God had it in for people. Or more accurately, God had it in for those other people who don’t think like us, or talk like us, or welcome us the way we believe we should be welcomed.
And this wasn’t the first time those first disciples tried to keep others out or treat other people different because they didn’t perceive them to be part of their chosen group. I know our story today started in verse 51, but if you go back 2 verses to 49 you will read about John telling Jesus about trying to stop someone from helping heal a sick person because the one helping “was not one of us.” Luckily, in each of these occasions Jesus kept teaching about God’s unconditional and limitless love for all people. “Do not stop him, Jesus said,…” When John told him about trying to stop the man from healing a sick person. And to James and John’s request to call down fire, Jesus’ response was a rebuke, and while that word may seem harsh, maybe it is exactly what it should have been. Maybe this voice that rebukes those who call for violence on others is a voice we need to hear more often. Even and especially when we don’t want to hear it. For me this voice isn’t so much a voice of punishment as much as it is a voice teaching another way. A voice forcefully teaching that violence doesn’t cut it, nonviolence does. A voice that forcefully instructs not to stop healing someone just because you don’t think the healer is part of your tribe. We need that voice of rebuke more than we ever want to admit, and we especially need it today.
***************************
Every time we fall victim to tribalism, we need that voice of rebuke forcefully teaching, forcefully reminding us about the unlimited and unchanging love God has for all people. Every time we think violence and exclusion is a proper response, we need that voice of rebuke, forcefully teaching and reminding us that to follow the way of Christ means to share God’s love with all we encounter, not just those who think like we do, or act like we do.
Every time we find ourselves calling down fire on others like James and John did, we need that voice of rebuke. You see, it is that voice of rebuke that calls us back to the path of God. It is that voice of rebuke that calls us back to the way. It is that voice of rebuke that calls us to nonviolence and my brothers and sisters, as much as we don’t like it, the fact remains we need to hear that voice of rebuke. We need it because it is a voice of love and hope. It is that voice that loves us enough to keep talking and teaching.
This story challenges us as it should. It challenges us to live out a life of nonviolence. It challenges us to hear and accept the voice of rebuke. But more than that, this story of Jesus’ teachings should inspire us, like it did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And maybe… hopefully, that source of inspiration will lead us to embrace the call to a nonviolent lifestyle.
[Prayer]
Amen!
[1] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20070625JJ.shtml
