About 2 years ago, the History channel released a 10 part
mini-series that covered the Bible, cover to cover. So we have this book that covers the creation
of the world…so 4.54 billion years ago…
the birth of Jesus…which takes place roughly 400 years after the Old
Testament ends… and the History channel
was able to cover ALL of that in about 10 hours.
Ok, to be honest, they kind of left some stuff out and used
their creative licenses to make it ready for TV…for some reason I have a hard
time believing that the angels who lead Lot out of Sodom were actually armor
wearing, sword wielding, ninja angels that fought their way out of the city in
what looked like a Tarantino directed battle royal…but I was not there, so I
could be wrong.
While much of the story has been altered and changed, there
is one part of the series that stuck out to me when I watched it for the first
time 2 years ago and is something I pops into my head every now and the…today
was one of those days.
As I read the news reports and watched videos of the riots
in Baltimore, I can’t help but think about how terribly sad it that there is so
much violence in the world. What can we
do? What should we do? As a Christian, how should we respond to
these situations? What is the proper
course of action when everything is against you and the world is not fair?
What should we do?
My answer…I honestly don’t know. But it is times like this that I think back
to this one line from the History Channel’s take on the Bible.
In episode 5, Jesus is beginning his ministry and calls
Peter to give up his job as a fisherman and become a fisher of men… When you
are asked to do something, we typically have the same question, it is probably
the same question that Peter asks Jesus…”What are we going to do?”
How does Jesus respond?
“We are going to change the world.”
In a time where his people are opposed and poor, and
enslaved… in a time that he is surrounded by violence…Jesus begins his ministry
with the goal of changing the world.
Is that what we are stilled called to do today as a follower
of Christ? Change the world? But how do we go about doing that?
Over the past few weeks I have been a part of many
conversations regarding violence and fighting verse the concept of doing the
right thing.
So one of the conversations I had dealt with violence in
movies and how can we find God in film.
One movie that was really focused on was the new Batman series. Was Batman a good person?
I think at first thought, we would all agree that is
good. A person who is doing whatever
they can for the betterment of those around him. But, I don’t recall anywhere in the Bible
that it says, “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone…unless you
are super rich and are doing stuff that you think is best for the city, then
beat up anyone who gets in your way.”
So what is worse…doing bad for the greater good…or standing
idly by while bad things happen?
This made me think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his works on
Romans 13. Through his works, you can
see a transformation in Bonhoeffer. In
one work early on in his ministry, he wrote in full support of Romans 13,
saying that people should follow the law and authority because it is all of God
and it is what the Bible tells us.
However, growing up in Germany during the 1930’s, he began to question
this view. He published another paper on
Romans 13. He still supported his
previous argument but it had some stipulations and was not as confident as his
first writing. There was questions about
what laws should you follow. Finally,
Bonhoeffer wrote a third paper on Romans 13.
This time he claimed that you should only follow the law if it is in
accordance with God and if your authority is not bringing about the kingdom of
God then you should do anything within your power to stop it. Not only did Bonhoeffer just write these
papers, he lived out his beliefs. You
can see a transformation as he witnessed the terrors and horrors of Holocaust
and what the Nazi party was doing to his home country. Ultimately, Bonhoeffer was martyred after
plotting and attempting to assassinate Hitler.
We celebrate Bonhoeffer as a brilliant scholar, a great person, and
someone that just about every single person in the church references at one
point or another.
But, if we take a look at this…we remember him not only for
his works…but for attempted murder…
This was brought up during our conversation on this subject…when
is it ok to respond in violence, if ever?
Is that a fair time?
Would killing a person, even if it is Hitler, help grow the kingdom of
God?
But then I can’t help but think that the 6th commandment
says to not murder…not do not murder, unless it is a really bad person.
I really struggle with wrapping my head around these
concepts and wish I had an answer…I don’t.
While reflecting on this topic, I thought back to a sermon
by Marcus Borg. I wrote in this sermon
before and have linked it below. I
recommend reading that post before continuing.
So after thinking through all of this…I am still lost and
confused…
As these conversations continued and got deeper, the clergy
in the room was talking about responding in violence…they said they do not
think murder is right or is ever yet and we should try to respond not in violence
but in love…but if someone was harming their child they would not hesitate to
shoot them if it meant saving their child.
I think that is something most people would agree with.
While trying to make sense of this all, I tried to relate it
all to scripture.
The one story I thought of was when David became king and established
the monarchy for the Israelites.
The people build David, their new king, a huge house in
honor of him. His response was to offer
to build a temple to God. This man who
God had told you can do ANYTHING! Was
tasked with establishing the kingdom on earth…this great warrior for God…but
when he tries to build a temple to God…God says no…
God tells David….you cannot do that…
Wow.
What was God’s reasoning?
David was a warrior king…God did not want his temple built under the
terms of war and violence…
God waited until a time of peace and had his temple built by
David’s son, Solomon.
So my question that followed this was…is violence sometimes
necessary?
In thinking about Bonhoeffer, I don’t think he was wrong for
attempting to assassinate Hitler…
Without the battles fought and won by David, would the
Israelites have been able to establish their kingdom?
If Batman did not stand up and fight, then would the Joker
and Bane or whoever wanted to do evil just have free reign over the city?
Is violence needed to help establish the kingdom of God? Does violence help clear the way for the
foundation of the kingdom? Like David
cleared the way for the temple to be built by Solomon?
I think if we go back and really look at the examples Borg
brings up in my other post…we come to the answer of no…
Resist violence…resist evil….do what is right, but you can
go about it without violence. That was
the message we receive from Jesus.
I leave you with a story I recently heard about responding
to violence…
It was a Sunday morning at a church in downtown Memphis…as
everyone was gathering and entering the church…a fight breaks out on the
sidewalk just a little ways down the street.
How would you respond as a priest? You are about to enter the church and lead
your congregation in worship? Yet, just
outside your doors two people are in the middle of a violent fight that was
beginning to attract a lot of attention…
What would you do?
Stop the fight? Jump
in and break it up?
Well, in this case, they chose to sing a hymn…
Just very loudly began singing a hymn just next to everyone
who was at the fight…
You can imagine the response… lots of strange looks from
people who are thinking “What is wrong with this person?”
Some people recognized the tune and actually began singing
as well. The other people simply walked
away…
What if instead of responding to violence with violence…by
physically trying to stop the bad things from happening…
We sing a hymn. We
literally praise God in the face of violence.
Respond to hate with love…
How different would the world be if we did that?
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