1. Love Walks
In the early 1990s, gang violence erupted in Boyle Heights, a section of East Los Angeles. 8 gangs were in conflict in the parish around the Dolores Mission Catholic Church. Killings and injuries happened daily. A group of women who met for prayer read together the story of Jesus walking on water...Then one of the mothers, electrified by the text, began to identify the parallels between the Jesus story and her own...
That night, seventy women began...a procession from one barrio to another. They brought food, guitars, and love. As they ate chips and salsa and drank Cokes with gang members, [they began to sing traditional songs together]. The gangs were disoriented, baffled; the war zones were silent.
Each night the mothers walked. By nonviolently intruding and intervening, they "broke the rules of war." The old script of retaliation and escalating violence was challenged and changed. It is no accident that the women christened their nighttime journeys "love walks."
As the relationships between the women and the gang members grew, the kids told their stories. Anguish over lack of jobs; anger at police brutality; rage over the hopelessness of poverty. Together they developed a tortilla factory, a bakery, a child-care center, a job-training program, a class on conflict-resolution techniques, a school for further learning, a neighborhood group to monitor and report police misbehavior, and more.
2. Sounds similar to Matthew 5.38-48
3. Difficult passage -- tension between passive resistance and aggressive self-defense -- both are acceptable to God
I. God Is Not a Pacifist
A. Yeshua (Jesus is seen as a Pacifist
[There are pacifist groups that base their pacifism on Yeshua's (Jesus' words) -- Amish; Quakers
1. His teachings to his disciples include:
a. No Killing
b. Resist evil with good (Paul: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by doing this, you will heap fiery coals [of shame] on his head." Romans 12.20)
c. "Love enemies" -- best way to destroy an enemy is to make him your friend -- Japan WWII
d. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10.28
e. Save life by losing it
2. In his death -- Luke 23.34
3. Not a Pacifist with the money changers
4. Not a Pacifist with the Corrupted religious leaders -- Matthew 15.1-39; 23.1ff
B. God is the Great Activist
1. The Exodus -- 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." Exodus 19.4-6
a. Death of firstborn
b. Death of Pharaoh's Army in the sea
2. The coming of Yeshua (Jesus) into the world -- God's Initiative
PURSUING A PRINCESS
The great Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard illustrates the pursuit of God with a story about a prince in search for a future queen. One day while the prince was running an errand in the local village for his father he passed through a poor section of the city. As he was passing through, he happened to see a beautiful young maiden. She was poor and lower class, but she was absolutely beautiful. After passing through the village several times, he found he was falling in love with her.
But he had a problem. How would he go about winning her hand in marriage? He could simply order her to marry him, but he wasn't just seeking a queen. He was seeking a soul mate. If he coerced her to love him, he would never know if she really loved him for who he was or just because of the splendor of his position and wealth.
So the prince came up with another solution. He took off his kingly robe and put on the garb of a peasant. He moved into the village and began to live among the people. He shared their interests and their concerns, and he talked their language. This was no mere disguise; it was a new identity. Over time, he was able to see the young girl. It wasn't instant, but in time the young woman grew to love the prince. She loved him because he first loved her.
And so, Jesus, who being in very nature God, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant and being found in appearance as a man, humbled himself. Why? So that you -- YOU -- might know him. So that you might love him because he has loved you.
3. Righting wrongs -- "Vengeance is mine" -- Deuteronomy 32.35 cf. Romans 12.19 and Hebrews 10.30
C. God Authorizes a Just Violence to Preserve Life
1. Self-Defense -- Exodus 22.2 (etc.)
"If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him;
2. Defense of the Helpless
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Psalm 82.4
Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. Proverbs 24:11
17 Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon. 18 As for the builders, each wore his sword girded at his side as he built, while the trumpeter stood near me. ... 21 So we carried on the work with half of them holding spears from dawn until the stars appeared. .... 23 So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes, each took his weapon even to the water. Nehemiah 4.17ff
3. Capital Punishment
a. Murder -- Exodus 21.12-15
b. Rape -- Deuteronomy 22.25-26
c. Kidnapping -- Exodus 21.16
d. Sabbath Violations
e. Sorcery -- Exodus 22.18
f. Conquest of Canaan (punishment for sin)
4. Warfare -- Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
Psalm 144.1
II. God Teaches Us to Love Our Enemies
[You have heard -- hate enemies -- not in the scriptures; oral teachings based on Leviticus 19.17-18
17 "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
A. More Than One Kind of Enemy
1. Warring Enemy -- Esther 8:11-12 11 By these letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to gather together and protect their lives -- to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little children and women, and to plunder their possessions...
2. Victorious Enemy (as the Romans and earlier Babylonians) -- Lamentations 3.22-33 (Mark)
a. Preserve own life over:
* Insult
* Court
* Service -- 1 Mile to 2
b. Change Expectations of Enemies
Expectation of hatred and resistance To Submission and Service
The "surprise of the Gospel"
3. Alienated Family -- Reconciliation Over Retaliation
a. Importance of Community -- "OUR Father . . ."
The year was 1630. The place was the Massachusetts Bay along the Atlantic coast near the place known as Plymouth Rock. On board the ship the Arabella John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company challenged the Puritan settlers to establish a new kind of Christian community.
Winthrop said: We must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection. . ., we must delight in each other, make others' condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together. . ., our community as members of the same body, so shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us."
Winthrop knew that they were in this thing together; no one could go it alone.
b. Restore Relationships Over:
* Insult
* Court
* Service
B. Our Action -- Matthew 5.39 (Do not strive to outdo evildoers. NEB)
1. Compare to Psalm 37.1, 8 (also in Proverbs 24.19)
Fret not yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of wrongdoers!;
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
a. Fret = consuming passion; vengeful anger
b. Saul provoked David but he withheld his anger
2. This is not about Ego or Revenge
Do not say, "I will do to him as he has done to me;
I will pay the man back for what he has done." Proverbs 24.29
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." Romans 12.14, 17-19
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Matthew 5.44
III. God Has Higher Goals for Us
A. We Are About the Kingdom of Heaven
1. Context of SOM -- people of the kingdom
2. Non-Political
3. Serve instead of served
4. Advance the Kingdom by:
a. Love for God
b. Love for Neighbor
c. Love for enemy
d. Obedience to commands of God
B. Imitation of the God of Heaven -- Perfect/mature
1. Abram -- Genesis 17.1
2. Us -- Matthew 5.48
3. God is big enough to handle our slights and insults -- Long-suffering
4. Gives good to the evil (rain/sun)
IV. God Requires Discernment -- Ecclesiastes 3.1-11
A. Principles of Priority
1. Life and Health matter more than ritual -- Good Samaritan -- Luke 10.30ff
2. Self-Defense and Defense of weak -- preserve life
3. Turning the cheek can preserve life, too -- know the difference
B. Principle of Purpose -- Yeshua (Jesus) Had a purpose in his death -- Matthew 26.52-54
52 Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"
1. He knew and obeyed Torah
2. He resisted death when Nazareth tried to throw him off the cliff -- wasn't time
Albert Tomei is a justice of the New York State Supreme Court. A young defendant was convicted in his court for gunning down another person, execution style. The murderer had a bad record, was no stranger to the system, and only stared in anger as the jury returned its guilty verdict.
The victim's family had attended every day of the 2-week trial. On the day of sentencing, the victim's mother and grandmother addressed the court. When they spoke, neither addressed the jury. Both spoke directly to the murderer. They both forgave him.
"You broke the Golden Rule--loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind. You broke the law----loving your neighbor as yourself. I am your neighbor," the older of the two women told him, "so you have my address. If you want to write, I'll write you back. I sat in this trial for two weeks, and for the last sixteen months I tried to hate you. But you know what? I could not hate you. I feel sorry for you because you made a wrong choice."
Judge Tomei writes: "For the first time since the trial began, the defendant's eyes lost their laser force and appeared to surrender to a life force that only a mother can generate: nurturing, unconditional love. After the grandmother finished, I looked at the defendant. His head was hanging low. There was no more swagger, no more stare. The destructive and evil forces within him collapsed helplessly before this remarkable display of humaneness." [source: www.preachingtoday.com]
