Ourselves

Texts: Matthew 5:9, Romans 12:9-21

Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah

February 4, 2024

We live in a time of intense divisions.  Political, racial and religious divisions.  Divisions based on identity.  And they have created great conflict in our world, society, government, and families.  The divisiveness has bred toxic levels of polarization.  Certain groups have been treated with great violence.  Sides are taken.  Battle lines are formed. And hostility grows.

Jesus said “blessed are the peacemakers” and that they are sons and daughters of God. He also said “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.”  Our Lord also said, “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” He said we are to be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful. Every Sunday we pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” One cannot cause conflict and nurture hostility and pray that with an honest heart. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself” quoting what was already said in the Old Testament.[1]

We are called to be peacemakers – not just peacekeepers – amidst the darkness and violence of this world. Peacemaking is not passive but active.  Cain, after he killed his own brother Abel, said to the Lord, “am I my brother’s keeper?”[2] Yes, Cain. We are to be our brother’s and sister’s keepers.

We can’t make peace in every place or circumstance.  We see things in our world and it is way over our head.  The ocean is so big and our boats are so small. Nor are we always responsible for those things.  But we are responsible for our worlds, our relationships, the circles in which we live, the places where we go, the conversations we have, and the things that we see. We are to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.[3] Let’s leave Israel and Gaza, and our nation’s capital, and other places of war and hostility and look in our own backyard. Though let’s be thankful and pray for peacemakers who negotiate, try to reconcile and are on the front lines of some of the most explosive conflicts in our world.

Towards the end of his letter to the Romans, Paul hits on the practicalities of how we are to live as Christians.  He has spent a great deal of time in his letter writing how we are all sinful, that God has forgiven us with the grace of Jesus Christ, that God loves us and has given us his Spirit.  Therefore, we are to live a certain way.

 And Paul says that way is to bless those who curse us.  Live in harmony with everyone. Don’t be proud or conceited. He writes that we are not to repay evil for evil but “if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

He says if it is possible and as far as it depends on us.  Sometimes peace isn’t possible.  Sometimes it doesn’t depend on us as things are out of our hands.  We may try very hard to talk to someone, listen to someone, reconcile with someone, be kind to someone, ask forgiveness, but we are greeted only with hostility.  There are situations where we have to get out perhaps for our own safety. One time Jesus told his disciples to shake the dust off their feet when they are not welcomed. Sometimes we have to move on.

But that does not excuse us from making every attempt to make peace. And so Paul writes that we are not to take revenge.

Who doesn’t like revenge? Hitting back when we’ve been hit. Verbally beating down someone who has offended us. Thinking up ways to make misery for the person who made it miserable for us. It is so satisfying. Oh, the hundreds of times I have imagined what I would like to do to that person who hurt, insulted, or made it bad for me or someone I love. And yet the Lord says “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And let me just say that what the Lord does in his time and in his way will be much more than we could ever do.

But it doesn’t end there, and this is why peacemaking isn’t passive but active. Paul writes,

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Paul is not making this up but is quoting from Proverbs.[4] The intent is not to make your enemy suffer but to bring shame upon them in hopes that they might change their ways. Gracious deeds burn away the hate within.  The goal of treating opponents this way is reconciliation and peace, not making them suffer.[5] In this way, evil will be overcome with good.

There was a button that you could purchase in the shop at the Peace Museum in Chicago that said, “Beat Your Enemies Into Plowshares.”

We are told in New Testament teaching that we have to find different ways of dealing with our anger, hurt and the desire for vengeance. The Bible teacher N.T. Wright said, “Revenge keeps evil in circulation.”[6] In a family, city, or larger areas like the Middle East or Northern Ireland the culture of revenge just goes on.  Everyone justifies their acts of violence because of the acts of violence done to them.

When we strive to get revenge we give someone else power over us.  We let them have power over our emotions and response.  An old figure from many centuries ago named Pelagius said, “The enemy has overcome us when he makes us like himself.”  To repay evil for evil is to become like Satan.  But to repay good for evil is to become like God.  Love is God’s nature.  It is how he acts towards his enemies and even toward us. And if we are being transformed to who God wants us to be then we will display the mercy of God.[7]

Remember that peacemaking doesn’t mean agreement or approval.  It doesn’t deny that real wrong or evil has been done.  The hurt is real.  Peacemaking doesn’t mean we don’t get angry.  But peacemaking does determine how we will channel that anger.  Vengeance, striking back or wanting to hurt someone isn’t the way of Jesus. I wish it was but he won’t let me.

Liat Atzili is a high school teacher in Israel, and an educator at Yad Vashem which is the Holocaust Museum located in Jerusalem. She was also taken as one of the hostages on October 7.  She was released after two months.  Her husband was killed by Hamas in those vicious attacks. Fortunately, her three children survived because two were away at the time, and one held off attackers by keeping a door shut in a safe room. Atzili’s home was burned to the ground. She is currently living in her trauma and grief.

When speaking about her current trauma and grief Atzili mentions a Jewish term called “tekumah” which means rebirth.  It came from the Holocaust generation who chose to rebuild their nation instead of lose themselves complete in grief and vengeance. It is to move on with purpose and dignity after experiencing a tragedy. Atzili wants tekumah/rebirth, not vengeance.

She says, “Without tekumah, we will only sink further into the cycle of mutual anger and victimhood that has plagued our relationship with the Palestinians for too long. That is not the approach that the survivor generation chose, and in their spirit I do not seek revenge for what I have been through. I am humbled by how my fellow Israelis put their lives at risk to fight my kidnappers, but I do not feel any catharsis in seeing the destruction of Gaza. Instead, I want to focus on building a better future for my three children — and for the children of Gaza.”[8]

If Liat can do this with what she is suffering then I think I can give up any desire for revenge in my much more mundane conflicts. Two chapters later in Romans Paul writes, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”[9] There is an urgency to do that and to obey the call of our Lord Jesus Christ.  That’s the only way we can move away from all the meanness and one-ups-manship and aggression and recognize all people as creations made in the image of God.

We want to strike. And we say, “well, that’s just how I am,” “I speak my mind,” “I’m a protester,” “I don’t back down to anyone,” and other rationales, none of which are in line with Christ and we add to the fire.

It doesn’t mean we have to like someone.  It doesn’t mean we won’t be angry. Jesus got angry. It doesn’t mean looking the other way or that there isn’t accountability or that justice isn’t to be called for. It doesn’t mean there won’t be exceptional times when self-defense or defending another isn’t called for.  Again, peacemaking doesn’t mean standing in a circle, holding hands and singing Kum-ba-yah.

And I am talking about the everyday things we face: the encounter in the grocery store, the tensions at work, the raging driver, the rude neighbor, the cranky pastor.  And the hardest: the family relationships.  Should I just do a sermon on that one?

Part of that “every effort” that Paul speaks of is taking responsibility for ourselves. It takes a great deal of maturity, self-control, and Spirit-filled living to be a peacemaker.  There are these landmines in us that try to blow up any thoughts of peacemaking.  Landmines like anger, ego, pride, and resentment. These things detonate and it is hard to make peace. 

The late Christian writer and Catholic monk, Thomas Merton, said, “if you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another.”

There is a show called “Fargo” which is a crime-drama with a little comedy thrown in.  I confess I have not seen the show so I am not an authority, but I have heard about it and I got this from somewhere else.  Fargo takes place in Minnesota in the late 80’s.  It is filled with deception and murders and crimes and revenge.  If you are a fan of the show leave now because I might spoil the final episode of this fifth season.

There is a character named Ole who kills for money and has done a lot of dirty work for the wealthy.  It has left him scarred and problematic. Another character named Dot, who has done her acts of violence, is unpaid debt for Ole.  She has wronged him. One day she comes home and finds Ole in her home talking with Dot’s husband.  It looks like Ole has come to get revenge on Dot.

The expectation is that there will be the usual fights, violence, and death that has been such a part of the plots.  But the scenario takes a surprising turn. They all sit down to eat together. Dot makes biscuits. And as they eat and talk Dot asks Ole some questions and listens to him.  She asks why he does what he does, why he has done what he has done, and she listens to him speak about his past. And there is a lot of pain there. And she suggests that maybe debts need to be forgiven. Instead of any violence or killing these people sit and eat and talk of how some take advantage of others, but how there is need for redemption and seeing others as equals.

The creator of Fargo is Noah Hawley was interviewed about this surprising ending to this episode which was about redemption instead of revenge. He said it reflects his struggle with “how we move past what feels like all this entrenched enmity between Americans for other Americans, where everyone feels aggrieved, everyone thinks the other one has injured them.” And he asks, “How can we ever move forward if constant retribution is the only solution? Or, is there something else?”

He said the final scene of these people who have seen and done their share of violence and vengeance is about how people have been hurt, suffered trauma, and how important forgiving ourselves and others is. Instead of killing one another they eat together. A total turn in the norm of the show.

Ole talks about how all he is left with is his own sin.  Dot responds, “Well, it doesn’t have to be.” The person interviewing Noah Hawley noted that Dot is basically saying, “We don’t have to eat what they feed us.” And Noah Hawley said, “The solution is to eat something made with love and be forgiven.”

The solution is to eat something made with love and be forgiven.  And someone, not me though I wish it was, said, that sounds an awful lot like Communion.[10]

When we were still sinners and enemies with God Christ died for us.  He came and made peace through the blood of his cross. He made peace between you and him. That’s what this table of love and forgiveness tells us.

There is a lot wrong with our world and with us.  Conflict, hostility, division, mean-spiritedness. It doesn’t have to be.  Blessed are the peacemakers.  Because when we do that we live as the sons and daughters of God.

[1] Luke 6:27,28; Leviticus 19:18 and Matthew 22:39

[2] Genesis 4:9

[3] These opening statements are inspired by The Peacemaker Covenant of The Matthew 5:9 Fellowship. https://matthew59.org/the-peacemaker-covenant/

[4] 25:21,22

[5] Achtemier, Interpretation Commentary on Romans, p.202

[6] Tom Wright, Paul For Everyone, Romans, p.80

[7] James Edwards, Commentary on Romans, p.299

[8] “Choosing Rebirth Over Revenge After My Release From Gaza,” The New York Times, February 1, 2024

[9] 14:19

[10] This illustration comes from mbird.com.  “Another Week Ends – January 13-19” by Cali Yee.  See also https://www.vulture.com/article/fargo-finale-recap-season-5-episode-10-bisquik.html