THE KINGDOM PRAYER

Matthew 6:9-13
23 June , 2013
Reverend Grant Lowe

Peace         

We call it “The Lord’s Prayer” because we received it from Jesus.  But we could also call it “The disciple’s prayer” because Jesus gave it to his disciples. Or, we could even call it “The Kingdom Prayer”.  “Thy Kingdom come” we pray.

Jesus really focused on The Kingdom of God.  He taught it, he practiced it.  The phrase Kingdom of God/Kingdom of Heaven appears 72 times in the NT.  The version in Matthew emphasizes Jesus is not talking about a kingdom to come in some apocalyptic fury at the end of time, nor when we die in the realm of afterlife, but here and now “Thy will be done on earth as in Heaven”.   Jesus is talking about God as King of the world, and prays that the knowledge of God’s grace and mercy may grow and be effected throughout the world.  The Gospel of Mark describes Jesus beginning his public ministry with the words “The Kingdom of God is at hand”.

Is the Kingdom of God at hand then?  As Fred Buchner put it “Insofar as here and there, now and then, God’s kingly will is being done in various ways among us, even at this moment, the kingdom has already come.  Insofar as all the odd ways we do God’s will are at best half baked and half hearted, the kingdom is a long way off.”

God’s Kingdom is God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.  Jesus embodies God’s will.  What Jesus is saying is “What would the world look like if God sat on Caesar’s throne, if God was in Herod’s palace”.

“What would a just earth look like?” “What would peace on earth look like rather than a world of force and violence?”  What would our world be like if on the airwaves and bumper stickers hate messages were replaced by respectful dialogue when we have differences?  Jesus was a living demonstration of how to live in God’s Kingdom, a reign of justice and peace that contradicted the structures of his time.  The Kingdom of God contradicted the structures of the temple and it contradicted the structures of Rome.

On September 2, 31 BC Octavian went forth to battle and defeat the fleet of Mark Antony on the Ionia Sea. He thereby became the sole ruler of the Roman Republic and began the Roman Empire. A monument is there with Caesar’s inscription

IMPERATOR CAESAR, SON OF THE DIVINE JULIUS, FOLLOWING THE VICTORY IN THE WAR WHICH HE WAGED ON BEHALF OF THE REPUBLIC IN THIS REGION, WHEN HE WAS CONSUL FOR THE FIFTH TIME AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF FOR THE SEVENTH TIME, AFTER PEACE HAD BEEN SECURED ON LAND AND SEA (pace parta terra marique), CONSECRATED TO NEPTUNE AND MARS THE CAMP FROM WHICH HE SET FORTH TO ATTACK THE ENEMY NOW ORNAMENTED WITH NAVAL SPOILS

Note the supreme confidence, reminiscent of a man who claimed “I found Rome a city of bricks; but left her a city of marble”, permeated the monument dedicated to the gods.  It also emphasized that the victor for whom the monument was built was son of the divine Julius.  janusquirinus.org/

The battle was 31 BC and by 29 BC the monument was up and he was Caesar Augustus.  Octavian Augustus was called son of God, divine, and “savior of the world”.  On 1 January 42 BC, the Senate recognized Octavian’s father Julius Caesar as a divinity of the Roman state.  Octavian was then the "Son of God".

Millions of people revered Caesar as God.  But a few followers of a wandering Jewish rabbi in an insignificant province looked at Jesus and said “That’s what God really looks like.”  Both statements are acts of faith.  One statement is an act of faith in Roman imperial ideology based on weapons and force, and the other is an act of faith in Kingdom of God theology as demonstrated in the life of Jesus.  

As Dom Crossan, former professor of theology at DePaul University put it, we often miss the point how it undermines Caesar when the early church said “Jesus is Lord”.  When Caesar Augustus was called the savior of the world it wasn’t just a political ploy – it was something that made sense to millions of people.  He won his victory, and brought peace and security.  The ideology of the imperial Roman Empire was not just the ideology that Augustus was divine, but that Augustus was savior of the world.  To call Jesus God, savior of the world, God from God, divine, to give Jesus all the titles that had been ascribed to Augustus Caesar was undermining the ideology of the empire.  That is basically high treason.

They didn’t admire and praise this Jewish peasant teacher because he reflected their idea of God.  To the contrary, what happened in their encounter with Jesus is so radical that they were actually forced to construct a completely new understanding of God because of what they had seen in Jesus.  In our theology of incarnation we don’t just take our notion of God and ask “How does Jesus fit into that?”  If we shape our understanding of Jesus by our notions about God we have it backwards.  We look at Jesus and we get a better vision of God than we even had before.  This is important:  Taking the incarnation seriously means looking at Jesus and seeing this is the revelation of God.  People knew about kings and kingdoms.  They knew about it from Herod and Caesar and Rome. The Kingdom of God as we learn it from Jesus is a whole new understanding of Kingdom.  

Jesus is not launching a rebellion against Rome.  But he is saying that it is NOT the Kingdom of God.  Jesus embodies an alternative way of living that is the Kingdom of God, where human inequality is overcome, where the poor have good news preached to them, especially those who are the outcasts and abandoned of society.  This is the alternative Kingdom which has our loyalty.  It’s no wonder the empire regarded Christians with suspicion.

The church in the 3rd century and beyond focused on “Who was Jesus” and “Was Jesus divine?”  and “How was Jesus divine?”  But the real question was, is “Caesar divine or is Jesus divine?”   

The Gospel of Luke begins the story of Jesus “A decree went out from Caesar Augustus…” At the end of the Gospel of John the people are saying “We have no king but Caesar.” The story of Jesus is bracketed by the power of Caesar.  In the middle of all that, Jesus calls the disciples to an alternative obedience.

Jesus calls us to be part of this alternative Kingdom. For Jesus that alternative starts with a personal relationship with God as “Abba”, and that personal relationship is transformative. The question is “How does our personal relationship with God play out in the world?”

Jesus prays for the Kingdom of God and he embodies that kingdom, a kingdom that doesn’t oppress, it liberates, it doesn’t inflict pain and torture but submits to a redemptive kind of suffering.  The Kingdom of God turns our world upside down.  It’s not a Kingdom of insiders and outsiders; it’s a “come on in” kingdom in which Jesus beckons both Jew and gentile, Greek and Roman, Syrophonecian woman, tax collector, honest fisherman, temple leaders, roman centurions.  For the temple leaders it was all about who was in and who was out, who is acceptable to God and who is unacceptable, and they kept themselves apart from outsiders, those they deemed unacceptable to God.  For Jesus, the Kingdom of God is not a question of who is in and who is out, who is saved and who is lost; it’s the establishment of the rule of God over all.  

The church of Jesus Christ has a message for a fearful world that can’t see any alternatives to its own morass of force and violence.  

What would the world look like if God sat on Caesar’s throne, if Jesus was in power in Herod’s palace?

For one thing, following Jesus example and Paul’s words to divided followers of Jesus, we would recognize that in God’s Kingdom there would be no racial or ethnic barriers between people, and we as the church are called to labor for the abolition of all forms of discrimination, and to minister to those injured by it. – Courage and commitment by ordinary people can make a difference.  On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on the bus in Montgomery AL.  Rosa was arrested and later went to church and four days later the church leaders gathered to make plans for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, because we recognize that we as the church are called to labor for the abolition of all forms of discrimination.  Many of you became part of that movement. That’s our calling.

In God’s Kingdom we are called to be peace makers and to seek reconciliation among nations.  Although nations may serve God’s purpose in history, the church which identifies the sovereignty of any one nation or any one way of life with God’s Kingdom denies the lordship of Jesus Christ.  As citizens of God’s Kingdom we can seek to be peacemakers, that’s our calling.  It’s not easy, because there’s a lot of hostility in the world, pent up anger, and most of us share in it.  It takes a lot of discipline to be a peacemaker.  

In God’s Kingdom enslaving poverty is an intolerable violation of God’s good creation.  Jesus identified himself with the poor and needy. And if we condone poverty or evade responsibility we make a mockery of God’s love for all God’s children.  

The following was part of a report at a white house conference on human trafficking April of this year:

Slavery and other human rights abuses are an ongoing threat in U.S. tomato fields. Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Molloy once called Florida’s tomato fields “ground zero” for modern-day slavery in the United States. Over the past 15 years, seven cases of forced labor slavery have been successfully prosecuted, resulting in more than 1,000 people freed from slavery in U.S. tomato fields.

One of the most successful and innovative programs we researched is the Fair Food Program, developed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and promoted in partnerships with T’ruah (a group of Jewish Rabbis) and the International Justice Mission, among others including the Presbyterian Church USA. As citizens of God’s Kingdom we can get involved in efforts to end poverty, that’s our calling.

Jesus confronted resistance and today we face very deep cynicism about seeking God’s just Kingdom.

As Jim Wallis puts it, skepticism is a good and healthy thing. Be skeptical and ask the hard, tough questions. But cynicism is a spiritually dangerous thing because it is a buffer against personal commitment. Becoming so cynical that we don’t believe in God’s just Kingdom allows us to step back, protect ourselves, grab for more security, and avoid taking any risks. But we have accepted God’s call, and I believe God is calling us to model what it means to be part of the Kingdom of God and thereby to attract a new generation of young people by helping them seek the Kingdom of God, and to seek justice around issues like human trafficking, the stewardship of the planet, or the morally unacceptable worldwide rates of deadly poverty and disease. We need to support each other in this, with deeper study, fervent prayer, and new conversations together, all leading to the personal commitments to God.

Finally, and where we began, we can raise the most fundamental question of all, “Who is this Jesus and why does he matter?”

Brothers and sisters let us recommit ourselves to the one who has called us to be citizens of the Kingdom of God, to do what we say when we pray Thy Kingdom come on earth as in heaven.  

"A Doctrine That Doesn’t Like Walls”

Galatians 2:15-21

Luke 7:36-50

9, June 2013
Rev. William J. Kemp

 

Doctrines play an important role in Christian life.  They define who we are and what we are about as Christians.  However, they often viewed as the bane of Christian life.   One reason is that they become more like fences designed to keep some people in and keep others out.   

 

A man once stood on the railing of a bridge ready to jump.  A passerby called out to him:
Friend, don't jump.  I must. I am all alone.  No one cares.

Do you believe in God?  Yes, I do.  So do I!

Are you a Christian?  Yes! So am I!

Catholic or Protestant?  Protestant.  So am I!

What denomination?  Lutheran. So am I!

Which Synod?  Dakota.  Oh, friend, so am I!

North or South Dakota Synod?  North.  So am I!

Rite of 1876 or 1885?  Rite of 1885.  So am I!

German speaking or Scandinavian?  German.  So am I!

Hussite or Muellerite?  Muellerite.  So am I!

Brother, God has sent me to save you.  You are not alone.  Take my hand.

(Reaches toward the jumper)

Are you a follower of Jacob Mueller or Franz Mueller?

Jacob Mueller.  What?  Jacob Mueller!

(The rescuer gives him a push.)

Jump, you heretic!

It gets almost that bad at times when we define the boundaries of the church so tightly and then have the audacity to believe that the boundaries of the church determine the boundaries of God’s love.  Some would say "fences make good neighbors."  Personally, I prefer Robert Frost's sentiment, "something there is that doesn't love a wall!"

Justification by grace is the doctrine we meet today.  It is anything but exclusionary!  It created a revolution in the life of Martin Luther and it began the reformation of the church in the 16th century.  "For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith.  It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it."

It was important for Luther and continues to be important as it addresses those who are burdened by guilt and perpetually frustrated in their efforts to make themselves acceptable to God.  For the apostle Paul, the particular concern was for the Gentiles.  His calling was to preach Christ in a pluralistic and divided world.

The letter to the Galatians speaks to the issue of those who wanted to use religion to build walls to jump over in order to be Christian.  Gentiles would first be required to become Jews.  Not so, says Paul.  The essence of the Gospel is that God loves us not because of who we are but because of who God is.  We are not justified (that is, righteous or acceptable to God) because we have done or believed the right things.  We are justified by Christ's death and resurrection.  

For Paul, there's no middle ground.  Either we are deserving of God's love or we are not.  If we think we are, then we've missed the point of the Gospel.  Indeed, "if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing."

Just how that doctrine plays out becomes obvious in the story from Luke’s gospel.  One day Jesus was invited for dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee.  While there, a woman from the city, who was a sinner, came in and with a jar of ointment and extended to Jesus the normal hospitality Simon either ignored or forgot:  foot washing, anointing, and a kiss.

It’s often assumed that the woman was a prostitute, though at least one commentator says that is useless speculation.  Maybe so, but read between the lines and come to your own conclusions.  In any event, she was of a "different kind" than Simon and the other guests.  She was clearly out of place.  

Why would she risk humiliation by placing herself in such a situation?  She didn't stumble into the dinner party by accident.  She came fully prepared for her act of devotion. She must have encountered Jesus before.  She must have been touched in a very personal way by his grace.  I wonder what Jesus said to her.  

Perhaps she had an experience similar to what Mary Ann Bird writes about in The Whisper Test.

I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it.  I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others:  a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech.

When schoolmates asked, "What happened to your lip?"  I'd tell them I'd fallen and cut it on a piece of glass.  Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me.

There was, however, a teacher in the second grade whom we all adored--Mrs. Leonard by name.  She was short, round, happy--a sparkling lady.

Annually we had a hearing test ... Mrs. Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and finally it was my turn.  I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something, and we would have to repeat it back--things like "The sky is blue" or "Do you have new shoes?"  I waited there for those words that God must have put into her mouth, those seven words that changed my life.  Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper, "I wish you were my little girl."

 

Could the woman, from the city, who was a sinner, of whatever ilk, have heard Jesus whisper into her ear during some earlier encounter, "Remember, you are God's daughter?"  Of course, that, too, is only speculation, but I hope it's not useless.  It must have been something like that.  What else could have transformed her life?  To hear and believe that you are accepted and loved, not because you are perfect, but because you are you, that is to know the grace of God.  

Jesus reacts to Simon's contempt towards the woman by telling a parable with an obvious conclusion. The one who has the greater debt forgiven will be the one who loves much more.  The outpouring of the woman's devotion is proof that she knew just how great her forgiveness was. "Your faith has saved you; go in peace," Jesus told her.

Fred Craddock raises a haunting issue in his commentary on Luke.  

The word of Jesus "Go in peace" adds considerable pathos to the event.  Where does one go when told by Christ "Go in peace"?  The price of the woman's way of life in the city has been removal from the very institutions that carried the resources to restore her.  The one place where she is welcome is the street, among people like herself.  What she needs is a community of forgiven and forgiving sinners.  The story screams the need for a church, not just any church but one that says, "You are welcome here."

Tony Compolo is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University near Philadelphia and an unabashed evangelical Baptist.  My favorite Compolo story tells of a time when he travelled to Honolulu for a speaking engagement.   He settled into his hotel hoping for a good night's sleep so he would be refreshed for the next day's meeting, but his flight was very long and he had a bad case of jet lag.  Three o-clock in the morning felt like nine o-clock the previous evening to him. Awake and hungry, he found himself in a "greasy spoon" café in the wee hours of the morning, Hawaii time.  As he bit into his sandwich, eight or nine ladies of the evening walked in.  They had just finished for the night. Their talk was loud and crude, and it was difficult to avoid listening in. He heard one tell the others it was her birthday the following day. "What do you want from me? A birthday cake?" was the sarcastic reply. "Why be so mean?" she replied, "I was just telling you. I don’t expect anything. I’ve never had a birthday party. I’m not expecting to have one now." When Tony heard this he made a decision.

When the women left, he went over to the café owner, a guy called Harry. "Do they always come in here?" "Yes," said Harry. "Including the one who sat next to me?" "Yes, that’s Agnes. Why do you want to know?" "Because I heard her say it’s her birthday tomorrow and I thought we might throw her a party." Pause. Then Harry smiled. "That’d be a great idea."

By half past two the next morning, Tony had brought decorations and Harry had baked a cake. Word had got out and it seemed as if every prostitute in Honolulu was in the café – plus Tony Campolo, a preacher. When Agnes entered with her friends, she was flabbergasted. Her mouth fell open and her knees wobbled. As she sat on a stool, everyone sang "Happy Birthday". "Blow out the candles," people shouted, but in the end Harry had to do it for her. Then he handed her a knife. "Cut the cake, Agnes, so we can all have some." She looked at the cake. Then slowly said, "Is it alright … would you mind … if I wait a little longer … if we didn’t eat it straight away?" "Sure. It’s okay," said Harry. "Take it home if you want"’ "Can I?" she said, "Can I take it home now? I’ll be back in a few minutes." And with that she left, carrying her precious cake out the café.

There was a stunned silence. So Tony said, "What do you say we pray?" And they did.  He led a group of prostitutes in prayer at 3:30 in the morning. When they were done, Harry said, "Hey! You never told me you were some kind of preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?" Tony, obviously prompted by the Holy Spirit, found the wits to say, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning." Harry waited for a moment. Then he kind of sneered, "No you don’t. There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that."

Would you join a church like that?  Would I?  I don't know. We church people can seem pretty uppity at times.  Sometimes we come across more like Michael Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch.  He believes only certain people should wear his company's clothes.  "We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends," Jeffries said. "Are we exclusionary? Absolutely!  In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. We go after the cool kids."

Susan Sullivan, professor of Sociology at the College of the Holy Cross, recently reported on a survey showing that mothers in poverty tend to assume that they would not be welcomed at church. "The women felt unwanted ... and ... largely felt that they didn't have a 'church lifestyle.'  They would say, 'I swear' or 'I smoke' or 'I sin.'   About a third of the women ... felt stigmatized by churches.  Some mentioned not having nice clothes.  Some were ashamed of being on welfare, even though no one would know."

Anthony DeMello, writes:

I was a neurotic for years.  I was anxious and depressed and selfish.  Everyone kept telling me to change.

I resented them, and I agreed with them, and I wanted to change, but simply couldn't, no matter how hard I tried.

What hurt the most was that, like the others, my best friend kept insisting that I change.  So I felt powerless and trapped.

Then, one day, he said to me, "Don't change.  I love you just as you are."

The words were music to my ears:  "Don't change.  Don't change.  Don't change ... I love you as you are."

I relaxed.  I came alive.  And suddenly I changed!

Now I know that I couldn't really change until I found someone who would love me whether I changed or not.

 

We don't have to search for someone who loves like that.  We have been found by the One who does. Christ is our peace.  He not only does not like walls, he breaks them down: walls between the cool and the not-so-cool, the ugly and the beautiful, the righteous and unrighteous, the rich and poor, male and female, and on and on it goes, ad infinitum.    

Not only does he break down walls, he redefines beauty and what it means to be cool.  "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are."

 

The Harmony of Peace

3rd Sunday after Pentecost

Romans 12:9-21

9 June 2013     

Elizabeth M. Deibert    

Back in 2005, shortly after I arrived to serve as organizing pastor for this new church, the founding members gathered at Living Lord Lutheran Church to discuss a long list of potential names.   When we settled on the name “Peace,” I am not sure we realized the power nor the challenge of that name.   None of us knew that the ancient Christian blessing, “Peace be with you” would take on layers of meaning. Many of us who had found the sharing of the peace in worship meaningless or off-putting in churches that gave a perfunctory nod to that practice, began to find it extremely meaningful because we began to appreciate how foundational that claim is to our identity.  

We did not know the notion of peace, which had been associated with the anti-war and social justice movement that grew up in the 1960’s would become a significant word in modern pop culture with broad, though not necessarily deep, overtones.   None of us considered how often the longing for peace at Christmas time would carry new meaning of those in a church named Peace.   But the biggest learning curve for me these eight years serving as pastor for Peace is the challenge of living into that name with the way we relate to Christ, one another and the world.   

To be at Peace is to know that I have peace with God through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whose divine-human nature has brought me close to the Spirit of God.   To be at Peace is to know that I am called/expected to live in peace with others, especially those in the family of faith.   To be at Peace is to care about how  my choices in part shape the peace of the whole world.    

Before leaving you for my annual summer continuing education and rest, I want to share with you another one of my favorite passages from Romans.   There’s Romans 5, 8, 12, three great chapters, all worth your time.   Please read them with me this week.

Romans is Paul’s most theologically thorough letter, written in the late 50’s to the church in Rome, but shaping the theology and practice of all churches throughout history.   In most of Paul’s letters, there’s a pattern.   First he tells the church the theology, the truth of the Gospel and then he says, so because of that, here’s how to live.   When we read Romans 5 two weeks ago, we were reading the truth:  “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”   Now chapter 12 is the practice of faith.   Here’s how to live:  Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering.  Persevere in prayer.   By the way, I’m reading from the NRSV, so follow with me on the screen now.   You can read the version in the bulletin some other time for comparison.

Romans 12:9-21

NRS  Romans 12:9-21 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." 20 No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (NRSV)

Live in harmony.   (town of Harmony slide) How many people really live in harmony?   According to this sign, the population living is Harmony is 18 people.   To live in harmony, musically, would mean singing a different note than the other people around you, but one that blends well with the other notes to make a lovely combination of notes.   Good harmony musically means all the notes can be heard.   One does not dominate another.

Do you want to know what it means to love your neighbor as you love yourself?  (Billboard:  That Love Thy Neighbor Thing.   I meant it.   – God)

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, the supposedly untrustworthy neighbor was the one who actually stopped to care while the esteemed ones walked on.   Do you want to know what it means to love your neighbor as you love yourself?   Paul spells it out clearly here in Romans 12.   It is about honor and respect and humility and forgiveness.

There are plenty of different verses in this rich text that you might gravitate toward but for me this week, these three stood out:   Live in harmony with one another.  Do not be conceited but associate with the lowly.  Never be wise in your own sight.   Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.   If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people.  (Romans 12:16-18 on SLIDE)

When the New Testament challenges us to get along with other Christians, it usually says, “other believers or your brothers and sisters.”   But here the challenge is to try to live peaceably with all.   

The book, “Why Did Moses, the Buddha, Mohammed, and Jesus Cross the Road” by Brian McClaren has given me an opportunity to think hard about what it means to hold on to my Christian faith while being charitable toward people of other faiths.   Too often conservatives think that to hold tightly to Christianity, we have to pit ourselves against the other world religions.  Too often liberals think that to be charitable toward other religions, we have to let go some of our beliefs and subscribe to a relativity or anything goes attitude, or as McClaren says, “making a religious tossed salad” of mixed religious beliefs.   

But we don’t have to be argumentative or wishy-washy.   We can be authentically Christian and generous of spirit – peaceable – and it all starts with caring more about people than issues.   That’s what Jesus did.   The Pharisees cared about being right, doing right, following the rules.   Jesus cared about loving people, first and foremost.   

You know that the most entrenched conflicts are those in which people (whether they are a couple, political parties, religious groups, ethnic groups, or countries)  the most entrenched conflicts are those in which each side is absolutely convinced about being right.   But you see, as I think the men’s prayer group discussed on Tuesday morning, you cannot be right if your rightness requires you to do another wrong.   As Pope John Paul said, “You cannot have peace without justice.”   But you also cannot have justice without working toward it peaceably.   True justice comes through right relationships.   Ghandi, MLK, and Nelson Mandela understood that.  

There is much violence today and much of it is verbal violence.   People, through all forms of social media, are lashing out in a verbal warfare, fueled by arrogance, by the need to be right at all cost to relationships.   Being right is not worth that cost, my friends.   Let us not think so highly of ourselves that we will say anything.

In John Backman’s book “Why Can’t  We Talk?”  Christian Wisdom on Dialogue as a Habit of the Heart, we learn that dialogue is not debate or persuasion, in which parties try to convince another of the truth of their own position.   There’s more than enough debate, most of it disrespectful, on tv talk shows.  Dialogue is not negotiation, where two parties, where settlement is more valuable than the relationship.  Dialogue is not merely conversation, where neither party really cares where the verbal reflection goes.   Dialogue is a habit of the heart, in which we truly care about the other person more than we care about either position – ours or theirs.   Dialogue is more than a “live and let live” attitude.   Dialogue requires real curiosity and true compassion.   Dialogue means showing true honor to the other, not just civility.   It is about changing our hearts toward others, not just holding our tongue at the right moment.  

Though holding the tongue can be a crucial first step in growing toward a humility of heart that listens well to the other.  That is certainly a first and significant step.  But the second step is being genuinely interested in the other person, in understanding them, in order to love them, not to persuade or convince them of anything.

Think about it.   How did God build a right relationship with us, after that relationship was broken by our sin, our separating ourselves from God?   God identified completely with us.   God did not stand in opposition to us.   God had tried persuasion in the form of the prophets.   God had tried debate and judgment, and pleading, and in the end, what worked was oneness.   God made peace with us by being one of us in Christ.   By listening and living so thoroughly with us, so compassionately with us, Christ was united with us in life and in death.   And miracle of that is, through that identification with us, the mutuality, the communion happens.   We became also united with his person in death and in life.   The big word is atonement but what it really means is at-one-ment.   It is not Christ buying off God’s anger.   It is God’s total identification with us, short of sinning with us.   That’s love – caring enough to live in communion with the other thoroughly, to care for their well-being more than yours.

18 If possible, to the best of your ability, live in peace with all people.   That’s what Christ did.   He came to bring peace to all people.   The depth of his love was seen in his identifying with thoroughly us, being compassionate toward people who had rejected him, as well as being generous toward those whom others rejected.  Jesus Christ did in the fullest sense of the phrase:  overcome evil with good.   

Bishop Festo KiVENgere (1919–1988) was a Ugandan Anglican-Christian leader referred to by many as "the Billy Graham of Africa.  He played a huge role in a Christian revival in southwestern Uganda, but had to flee in 1973 to neighboring Kenya in fear for his life after speaking out against Idi Amin's tyrannical behavior.

In case you don’t remember, Idi Amin was like Africa’s Hitler.  He murdered hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens.  In 1977 Archbishop Luwum of Uganda was killed by Idi Amin.   Bishop Kivengere had to escape Uganda on foot while 45,000 Ugandans gathered for the memorial service.  

One year later he authored a book, “I Love Idi Amin”  This book would feel to Ugandans somewhat like erecting a sign at Ground Zero in the year 2002 with the message, “I love Osama bin Laden.”   

"The Holy Spirit showed me," Kivengere wrote, "that I was getting hard in my spirit, and that my hardness and bitterness toward those who were persecuting us could only bring spiritual loss … So I had to ask for forgiveness from the Lord, and for grace to love President Amin more."  Kivengere stated, "On the cross, Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, because they know not what they do.' As evil as Idi Amin is, how can I do less toward him?”   

Kivengere said:  "Peace is not automatic. It is a gift of the grace of God. It comes when hearts are exposed to the love of Christ. But this always costs something. For the love of Christ was demonstrated through suffering and those who experience that love can never put it into practice without some cost."

—Festo Kivengere (1919-1988)