Pastor's Page: September 18, 2011
But I Say to You, Love Your Enemies" Matthew 5:44
I grew up on Long Island and began playing organized sports at age 8 in a midget football league, The East Norwich Boys Athletic Club (ENBAC). I was taught teamwork and sacrifice, competition and cooperation. I learned to be aggressive and not back down from an opponent. I could bear pain stoically, even as a little boy. I loved my teammates, and loathed the opposing players. Strength, quickness, speed, intelligence and agility were esteemed. The values I learned on the athletic field were to carry over into the world at large.
The message of Jesus remains counter cultural, a message that has not often been accepted by the followers of Christ. The teaching that Jesus proclaimed, and the actions that he took as God's messenger, ran counter to the ethos of the ancient world. ‘Might makes right’, and ‘only the strong survive’ are sayings that apply as much to the ancient world as to our present society. Yet the message of Jesus is strongly on the side of the poor and the powerless. Christians are to have a special and preferential love for the week and the marginal. "The last shall be first and the first shall be last"; the one who humbles himself will be exalted” Jesus said. The disciples never seem to get this message. They are products of their culture; and as a result they are constantly striving to outdo one another and to aggressively pursue the first place in the Jesus community. They fail to understand that it is suffering love and service of others that is to be of paramount importance in the life of a disciple. Like Jesus, they are to go after the lost and forsaken, not the proud and the sleek. "I have come to call sinners, not the self-righteous."
Biblical scholars have discovered that the world of Jesus was a brutal world. Childhood was a terrifying time. The infant mortality rate was extreme, and if a child managed to be born healthy, he or she was under a constant attack from disease and malnutrition. 60% of children were dead before the age of 16. In addition, children were not prized generally, although male children were given high preference. They were to be seen and not heard from. They had no status and no rights. Male children remained near their mothers and the female children until they approached puberty. Then they emerged into the violent world of male society in the family. There they were schooled in the world of hard knocks, and taught to be clever, strong, and eloquent. They were trained to show no weakness or vulnerability either physically or in the game of matching wits. In the ancient Mediterranean world power and control, and shaming others verbally and physically was the way to prominence in the community. Honor was gained by outwitting and outmaneuvering; by putting down the adversary.
Christ makes clear that when we look at the issues that confront us in the modern world, we are to look at them from the bottom up. In other words, wherever we see people who are beaten-down by poverty, lacking the basic necessities of food clothing and shelter, unemployed, deprived of a good education, or lacking healthcare, we are to respond with compassionate concern and direct action to alleviate their sufferings. We are to vote for legislation that supports these basic human rights; even if we have to make some sacrifices from our lifestyle and perhaps pay higher taxes to meet the needs of those who have less. The gospel demands this.
We are to build our American society from the bottom up; thinking first of the people who are hurting and in pain, rather than of ourselves. "The last shall be first and the first shall be last." We are to vote people into office who have this bottom-up approach in building a democratic nation. For this to happen in our hearts, a conversion process needs to occur and constantly reoccur.
Most of us have learned to be competitive and aggressive, but the gospel calls us to be cooperative and generous and sacrificial as well. We can be aggressive for the gospel, for "the love of Christ impels us".
Peace and love,
Father Bruce
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