1. Read a portion of Andre Dubus III Townie about how violence permeates our society.
2. Care to make a guess about the name of the town? Haverhill? Yes.. This month is Domestic Violence Awareness month.
a. It is easy to ignore such social sins as domestic violence until it hits home. The problem is that it is hitting home with greater regularity
i. During the past week I have had 6 – 6 conversations with folks who have been involved in domestic violence disputes..
1. 3 children, 2 women, and 1 man
ii. Violence in our city is increasing. The number of guns being confiscated has increased.
1. There were these two girls fighting down the street form us. One ended up in the hospital and the other to let her rage from the fight spill over in her rooming house where she continued destroying property. Eventually she broke some glass and ended up in the hospital herself with cuts and abrasions. When word got out about the fighting, groups of teenage boys began setting off fire alarms on several streets? What is that all about? What primal emotion causes individuals to act in such destructive way?
a. Alcohol, drugs, infidelity, unemployment, money problems, anger, depression, power, untreated mental illness, gang influence.. when violence happens - somewhere in the mix you can almost always find such as these are igniters.
2. One of the children I spoke with this week is one of two in her family who has not been arrested at some point for some violent act either against self (such as drug use) or against another person. Both are under 12. She and hundreds more in our city just like her are sad, angry, and frightened about what life might hold in store for them. What is that all about? Who has failed them? Is it my responsibility to care for them? Is it your responsibility to teach them right from wrong? Is it the responsibility of their parents only - to see that they do not get involved in gangs or drugs or that they have plenty to eat or does it truly take a village to raise a child? Is the onus for change on government, or is government the problem? Is it on Bank of America or Wells Fargo or are they the problem?
3. What would Jesus do?
3. In Matthews Gospel today we come to the final showdown between Jesus and those who would try to entrap him in his teachings and thereby discredit him in front of the people who had come to hear Jesus and in front of the leaders of the people so that they might find cause to arrest him. It is two days after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
a. This time it is the Pharisees who come. They go to the heart of the matter. “Jesus, you think you are so smart. You know more than anyone else. So tell us what is the most important commandment we have?”
i. Jesus' answer is classic. Loving God is the first thing, the most important thing. But, with it comes a corollary: to love God means that you must also love God's people.
ii. What more was there to say? Silenced, the Pharisees withdrew from the fight. On the next day, they hatched the plan that would remove the trouble-making prophet and permanently silence him.
b. The key problem in interpreting this commandment for our time is that we lose sight of the scriptural meaning of love. Our culture has equated love with intense emotion, But, biblical love is not just about doing feel good charity and going back to privilege – it is also about advocacy, about solidarity, about justice.
i. In both Hebrew scripture and in Christian writings, love is far from passive. It is the active response of the faithful person to the equally active love of God.
ii. It is not something that occurs to us without our control or will. The love that Jesus is talking about is something we do. It is loving-kindness, merciful action that is both generous and expansive. That’s the good news for Christian people. To love neighbor as oneself is to act toward the other as one would act toward those close to you. We treat the stranger, the enemy, the free-loader, the smelly lump lying in the gutter as well as we treat mother-father- sister brother-lover.
But there is another piece to this Love of neighbor. Giving of ourselves is one way we show love - but respect and honor for those who are different are also part of the scriptural basis for love.
4. Charity without justice is self-serving. Justice without charity loses the power of connectedness – of community – of one on one compassion.
a. And it is self serving for us to believe that we are acting in charity when we don't actively seek justice - justice does not exist without the simple acts of charity that those who love God commit to each day.
b. If the church is to be the vehicle for the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom, then we have got to work for both charity and justice. That means that yes we run the soup kitchens and collect clothing for those in need but it also means that when we cast our votes - we vote for those leaders and those laws that will ease the burdens on the poor and create equal opportunity for all.
i. To work in a soup kitchen and not support the laws that promote jobs is myopic at best.
ii. To give money to a shelter and not to support the establishment of affordable housing is short-sighted and limiting.
iii. To talk about reducing violence on the street while modeling anger and abusive actions to our children is hypocritical and
iv. But here is another truth – not one of us is able to live the life that Jesus asks us to live without the forgiveness, mercy, and love of God to support us.
c. One thing that I am absolutely sure about… the violence that we see in our homes and on our streets is directly related to the hopelessness of those on the margins of our society. And the numbers of those on the margins is growing every day.
i. There are lots of differing opinions about how to solve the problems of our society and I am not going to try to tell anyone how they should vote. To be honest I am not clear on what the best path really is.
ii. But this I do know. Being a Christian is a journey that goes one day at a time and if that one day is spent trying to love God and love neighbor in the way that Jesus teaches us then we will be on the right road.
d. "`You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Amen
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