27 "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Luke 6:27-36
This is a photograph taken of a Mass offered in a makeshift sanctuary in Nagasaki, Japan shortly after the dropping of an atomic bomb on that Catholic city three days after a similar bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in August of 1945. The partial shell of the Cathedral of St. Mary is seen in the background. The church was crowded with people going to confession in anticipation of the Feast of the Assumption a few days later. A Christian country dropped the most devastating bomb on the civilians of a Christian city. So, the forgiveness-teaching of Jesus goes much further and deeper than, "I forgive you for telling a lie about me." "I forgive you for bumping my car."
These verses begin the next section of St. Luke's version of St. Matthew's Sermon on the Mount. Luke's version is titled, The Sermon on the Plain. Jesus begins by going down to a level place, emphasizing the non-discriminating, equalizing nature of his teaching. If the Christians lived this teaching it would turn the world upside down. Allow me to say a few things — ask some hard questions of us.
Who is this teaching for? The first verse tells us, "To you that listen." Do I? One author says it's easier to move a mountain than to change a heart. A lot of people are listening only to themselves and their like-minded friends. They live in what's being called an echo-chamber.
What's clear to us at once is that Jesus doesn't allow revenge or getting even. It's interesting to me — when we think of what Jesus doesn't allow, we think of a long list of sexual things. Jesus doesn't have much to say about any of that. But here, right out of the gate, he is emphatic — plain and clear — revenge and hate are simply not allowed. We might let that sink in for a moment.
Verse 29 is famous turn-the-other-cheek mandate. Being hit in the face is a very violent act. The Christian is supposed to break the cycles of violence. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," isn't Christian. It's in the Hebrew Scriptures as a means to put a cap on violence. But Jesus goes beyond that and says, "no violence." We're to break the cycles of violence. I can't think of a Christian country that has embraced that teaching. In fact, the most well-known Christian countries, the empire (or wanna be empire) countries have been the worst offenders. Many of us have been taught our history poorly or wrongly.
But then, notice as soon as Jesus tells us we must break the cycles of violence, in the very same breath he starts talking about holding onto possessions. Our holding onto possessions spawns violence. This is the real stumbling block for Christians. We're the Christians with the greatest wealth. An hour of television with commercials and we understand we're being told this constantly. Even the slogan, "Make America Great Again" — what's that really about? Everyday on the news we're told about the stock market breaking new records, even though most Americans aren't invested in the stock market. A president is popular because he "makes the economy strong." It simply doesn't resonate with the teaching of Jesus. We may try to twist things around — some Christians even propose a "prosperity gospel." In every religion there are people who look for the back door.
And big fights (even wars) take place because the prestige and power that comes with wealth, needs to be secured.Why are we so interested in outer space? Might we be hoping to find minerals which translate into money. Or searching under what's left of the arctic and antarctic ice. We grade the ocean floor for endless miles to scoop up gold and other precious minerals. This grading sends up huge plumes of silt which travel further along ocean currents before dropping down — suffocating coral reefs and degrading vast places where fish and sea animals live and spawn. There is no end to our greed, our materialism, our destructive grasping and clutching.
I might re-read these nine gospel verses not simply for myself, but for my nation. A country isn't a Christian country because there's a "Church Street" running down the middle of every town. Even the placement of churches in many American towns is about money, power and prestige — one church trying to be taller and more imposing than the others. Notice where the Catholic churches are in some towns — the protestant churches built on prominent corners, the Catholics having been given land to build a church off on a side street. Or conversely, the Catholic Church sitting sideways on the top of a hillside street, fortress-like, as if to say to the Jews, "Come no further."
In these few verses Jesus lets us know that violence is intimately linked to our love of possessions. In England it is said, "To be alive is to go shopping." Well of course, that's true here too and iconic of this is these storage bins that have popped up all over the place. So many people in the world (even in America) are homeless, and we have enough storage bins that if lined up end to end they would traverse the continent. Homeless people in a nation that houses stuff!
So I'm calling these verses the deal breakers. They are thoroughly inconvenient lines. A Russian friend told me that after the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, the newly freed churches and monasteries started to experience a building frenzy (the government of course, paying for all of it as reparations for seventy years of death and destruction). Now nearly everyone seems to be Russian Orthodox. But my friend told me that people have simply switched parties — they had been good Soviets and now they were Orthodox. But here it seems we've gone the other way round — we've never tried the real teachings of Jesus in humility and honest rigor (we've settled for being nice) and made our political party into our real religion. I'm most disappointed in those Christians who propose themselves as the back-to basics-Christians, but who have essentially just switched parties. The political slogans we display on trucks, lawns and caps are our real gospel verses. The podiums with power-seals in front of rows and rows of flags; the new pulpits. The rallies; the new sabbath-worship. The favorite politicians or TV/radio talk show hosts (and their supportive cast of talking heads); our real high priests. The party platform (whatever that is); the new dogma. Wearing the flag as lapel pin, neck tie or T-shirt; the new vestment.
A country isn't Christian because we win the fight to put up the Christmas manger in a public space. A country isn't Christian because we have the Ten Commandments placed prominently in stone outside the courthouse or print In God We Trust on the money, or say one nation under God in the pledge to the flag. Rather, a country is Christian when it possesses Jesus' strikingly new idea of relationships, when it stops trying to solve problems with violence and force, when it stops oppressing some people, when it gets a new idea of itself apart from owning and accumulating things. In addressing the nation the sad night of September 11, 2001, the president gave voice to the question, "What are we to do now?" He answered his own question: "Go shopping," he said.
