A sermon preached at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, California

March 17, 2024

Introduction to Worship

Today in worship, as we wrap up our Lenten sermon series on Planting Peace, we’ll be talking about active nonviolent resistance. If you’re familiar with the work of Martin Luther King, Jr and his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement, you’ve heard of it. 

If you’ve heard of Mahatma Gandhi, whose peaceful resistance of English colonial rule led to India’s independence, you’ve heard of it.  

And both of those men were big fans of a guy named Jesus and his sermon on the mount, from which today’s scripture passage comes.

Gandhi had a lifelong pursuit of justice and independence for India. He first tried supporting the colonial power, hoping that it would get him the voice and respect he needed to effect change. He organized Indian men to volunteer as an ambulance corps for the British in the Boer War. That service did not change British sentiment. 

He stayed in South Africa after the war and sought justice there, and while he did not see change there in his lifetime, he planted seeds of peace that took root in the work of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. 

Gandhi returned to India. He moved too fast for some of his people and too slow for others. He was imprisoned by the British and left his own political party at one point.  He continued in his belief that it was irrational to try to use violence to achieve a peaceful society. 

After a lifetime of struggle, India won her independence after World War 2. Gandhi summed up his own life this way, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Somedays the best we can do is seek to be as nonviolent in our hearts as we can be. And that’s okay. But action in the world is one of the best ways to strengthen our nonviolent peacemaking muscles. 

Conveniently for you, today after worship the Deacons are hosting a Pack a sack, where you can pack meals and snack bags for our unhoused neighbors, and for some of our community partners to share with their guests. You can also join at 2 pm for a worship service led by SF Night Ministry. More information is in your bulletin. 

Gandhi said,  “Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.”

Let us worship today, that we might find joy and delight in the presence of God and of each other. 

Scripture

Matthew 5:38-48

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’  But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Sermon:

I mentioned earlier in this sermon series that there are six hundred passages of explicit violence in the Hebrew Bible. There are also “one thousand verses where God’s own violent actions of punishment are described, a hundred passages where Yahweh expressly commands others to kill people, and several stories where God irrationally kills or tries to kill for no apparent reason (for example, Exodus 4:24-26).” (Walter Wink, p 84, “The Powers that Be, Theology for a New Millenium”)

This is troubling. So much violence.

And yet, we read it and recognize, “yeah, that’s what the world looks like.”

We see violence on TV. An average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18. Our family watched Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and the Sopranos. Fine family values right there. I completely believe the statistics. 

Violence is so prevalent in our culture that we joke about it and we use violent rhetoric in our speech even though we say we don’t really mean it literally.

Violence in Scripture. Violence in our lives. Violence in our language. 

Yet we hear Jesus say, “Do not resist an evildoer,” and we freak out. Surely he doesn’t really mean that? He wants us to fight back, right?

I also preached a few weeks ago about how the world is less violent today than it was in Jesus’ day. Jesus was preaching his radical message of non-violence to his world that was even more steeped in violence than ours. They must have understood him even less than we do. Even 2,000 years later, we can’t quite believe he meant what he said. What did they think of his words then?!

We, as a culture, and often even as a church, have bought into the myth that violence can be “cured” with more violence. Think of the Holy Wars fought, and the people killed as the gospel was taken to the New World. If you haven’t seen the film The Mission in a while, go watch it again. Think of the escalating arms wars. We even name missiles “peacekeepers”. 

Jesus is pretty clear in his opposition to our violent ways. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’  But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.”

Before we look at what I think Jesus means when he says this, let me say what he isn’t saying. If you, or someone you love, is in an abusive relationship, he is NOT saying that you should just take the abuse.

What he is saying is that when you encounter violence, you are NOT to respond with violence. The word translated as “resist”, as in “do not resist an evil doer” should conjure up images of armed resistance, not submission. The Scholars Version translates it this way: “Don’t react violently against the one who is evil.” (Wink, p 101) So Jesus is NOT telling us to continue to put up with violence. He is not telling us to submit to it. He is telling us to resist violence, but not with more violence.

He’s speaking to people who are on the receiving end of the violence. When someone strikes you. When someone sues you. When someone forces you. So, even though Hebrew culture was violent and was suffering under a violent Roman occupation, Jesus tells his followers that things need to be different, and it has to start with them.

When someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other cheek. 

If I’m going to strike someone on their right cheek, I would either have to use my left fist, or the back of my right hand. People hearing Jesus speak only used their left hand for unclean tasks. There were penalties for using your left hand against someone. This tradition is still true in some parts of the world. So, to strike with the back of the right hand is not a fist fight, between equals. It’s an insult that you use to put a socially inferior person in their place. 

So to then turn the other cheek as well would require the hitter to hit with their right fist, which is a fight between equals. The victim is revealing the insult and saying, “ Your slap didn’t succeed. I refuse to let you deny my humanity. I am a human being just like you.”

if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well…

Debt was a real problem in Jesus’ day. Roman occupation forced people into debts beyond the usual variety, as people had to pay Rome for the privilege of living in their own country. When you were in debt to someone, you’d use your land, or your livestock, or your grandma’s gold candlesticks as collateral. But when you had lost all of that, the last resort was to use your one coat, your one outer garment that you wore every day. 

So when someone comes to collect their debt, and demands your coat, Jesus tells them to give them your cloak as well. 

People in Jesus’ day did not play a lot of strip poker, for many reasons, actually, but when people only have two pieces of clothing on—their cloak and their coat—it’s a quick game. 

Imagine standing in a courtroom to pay your debt. You hand over your one and only coat, and then start taking off the rest of your clothes too. “You want the one thing I have left—here you go. Take it all”.

Nakedness was taboo in ancient Judaism, which is the other reason strip poker never caught on. But the taboo wasn’t on being naked. It was on seeing someone else’s naked body. 

Taking off both your coat and your cloak would reveal just how terrible the situation was for people who were so in debt that they had to deal with even reputable moneylenders. Perhaps it would even give the person now holding a poor man’s only clothing some awareness of how broken this system really is. 

Theologian Walter Wink says this about the scenario: “By refusing to be awed by the power of the oppressors, the powerless are emboldened to seize the initiative, even where structural change is not possible. It provides a hint of how to take on the entire system in a way that unmasks its essential cruelty and to burlesque its pretensions to justice, law, and order. Here is a poor man who will no longer be treated as a sponge to be squeezed dry by the rich. He accepts the laws as they stand, pushes them to the point of absurdity, and reveals them for what they really are. He strips nude, walks out before his compatriots, and leaves the creditor and the whole economic edifice he represents, stark naked.” 

Wink tells a story from South Africa, during the apartheid regime. Authorities had, for a long time, been trying to destroy a particular shantytown, but the inhabitants had thwarted their attempts. Then one day, when most of the inhabitants were at work, the army showed up with bulldozers and told the people they had 5 minutes to vacate. 

There were just a few women home that day. And they knew they couldn’t fight the army or disable the bulldozers. So they stripped off their clothes and stood in front of the bulldozers. The army fled. 

The wisdom of “an eye for an eye” soon leaves the entire world at least half blind. Jesus wants us to understand, still, 2,000 years later, that if we don’t want the whole world to be blind, we need to change how we treat each other.

One of the reasons I think this entire passage is so difficult for us is because we see people as either being “with” us or “against” us. We have friends and we have enemies. Even if you never use the word “enemy”, there are people we like and people we don’t like and we are certain that those distinctions justify all sorts of behavior.

But Jesus didn’t see the world with those distinctions.

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Whether we’re righteous or unrighteous, evil or good, we are all God’s children on whom the sun rises and the rain falls. All of us. No exceptions.

And while Jesus is most certainly concerned about justice for the weak, the poor, the marginalized, he is also most certainly concerned about justice for the powerful, the rich, and the mighty.

Because here is the truth woven throughout the Sermon on the Mount: there is no justice for one of us unless there is justice for all of us.

So, let’s take an eye for an eye scenario.
If you steal my cow, my family will take one of your cows.
If you kill my sister, my family will kill your sister.
If you bomb my village, my village will bomb your village.

We can recognize a sort of justice in that quid pro quo system. But Jesus wants us to understand that the underlying problems that lead someone to kill, steal, or destroy will not be fixed or redeemed with an eye for an eye. Wink says,  “Jesus is not advocating non-violence merely as a technique for outwitting the enemy, but as a just means of opposing the enemy in a way that holds open the possibility of the enemy becoming just also.” (Wink p 110) It isn’t about one side winning or one side losing. Both sides must realize there is only one side, that we are all children of God. An eye for an eye doesn’t allow for that.

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

This message of Jesus from the end of the sermon on the mount became the clarion call for the peacemaking movement known as non-violence. 

If we want peace, there are three responses. 

1. We can flee from conflict. Running away from arguments, or anger, or violence or war. There are moments when that is the appropriate response. 
2. We can fight for peace, waging war against countries, cultures, or communities, hoping to win peace through violence. 
3. Or we can pursue active nonviolence. “Contrary to images of passivity the word “nonviolence” may conjure, nonviolence is an active response that directly addresses the threat and has the power to transform opponents into allies. Active nonviolence can appear as noncooperation, intervention, self-suffering, protest and the creation of alternative systems.
   “Furthermore, active nonviolence requires creativity, discipline, courage and strength. Creativity and discipline are required to channel anger over injustice toward the creation of opportunities that disrupt cycles of violence and constructively engage adversaries. Courage and strength are required to control one’s fear and persevere while confronting injustice. It is because of these attributes that Gandhi called nonviolence the weapon of the strong and violence the weapon of the weak.”

But how can we respond to the violence and injustice that we do encounter in a way that will help the world live into God’s vision for a peaceful world? It certainly takes imagination, creativity, and love, because we can look around and see that the world hasn’t been transformed yet.

To start, we have to treat ourselves non-violently. This week, I invite you to listen to the language you use, either out loud, or just in your head, about yourself. How critical are you? I know many people who say things about themselves that they would never say about other people. Observe yourself and the story you tell. Not as a reason to add more criticism for yourself, but as a way to even notice it is happening, so that you can, over time, learn to treat yourself as the beloved child of God that you are. 

As we do our own work and learn to show grace to ourselves, we turn our attention to how we treat others.  We have to start seeing the people around us as our siblings. With no exception.  For God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. There is not a person you will meet who is not always and already loved by God. 

And then we need to let go of our need to control the outcomes. We do the active work of nonviolence because it is what Jesus called us to do, not because it is the best way to show those jerks what jerks they are. That isn’t nonviolence. Our work isn’t about winning, or being right, or any kind of understanding that separates us from each other. 

Our work is that we are called to do the work, to plant the peace, and trust in God to provide the harvest of shalom. 

A friend and mentor of mine told me a story about division in his congregation. A number of families and the associate pastor had suddenly left the church to start a new congregation. My friend was hurt and surprised and worked to keep the remainder of his church together through those feelings of loss and betrayal. It was difficult and exhausting work to guide his people through that pain when he was feeling hurt and betrayed himself. 

A number of months later, he heard that this breakaway group, which had divided his congregation, was losing their worship space. The school they were meeting in needed some construction and they were going to be without a place to worship. While my first response at that would have been some sort of schadenfreude as I celebrated at their misfortune, he went to his Session and said, “we should offer to let them meet in our facility.” 

He told me that even as he said it, he couldn’t believe he was saying it. But he knew it was the right thing to do. It was a difficult conversation the Session had about it. With some trepidation, they agreed to his plan. And he said that they recognized it was the right thing to do, regardless of how the other fellowship responded to it.

In other words, they weren’t offering the space so that the others would apologize or return to the church. They were offering it because it was what Jesus called them to do.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

What are the situations like that in our lives, where we could respond in ways that only make sense in the Kingdom of God?

Planting Peace is active work. To truly be peacemakers, we aren’t called to be pushovers.

For God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

And I invite you this week to  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

We can pray for enemies in hope they will be transformed, but really, I hope we mainly pray for them in hopes that we will be transformed.
May it be so. Amen.