One of the pressing questions of our day, or any day, is how do we make lasting social change which reflects the values of God’s Kingdom. The short answer for many is the ballot box. Yet there are plenty of issues which demand more nuance than legislation. From the Temperance movement of the 1820’s to the Moral Majority of the 1980’s, to the Occupy Wall Street Movement in 2015 someone is always fighting for Micah 6:8 to be more than a prophetic word from an 8th Century Jewish prophet. But as you can see from these examples the change is always temporary.
The Temperance movement, for instance, won the legislative battle, but in the end, they lost the war. The Moral Majority made a lot of noise but in the end was disappointed with political influence.
Allen Jacobs a police officer here in Greenville was shot and killed. Michael Xavier Johnson a military veteran ambushes five policemen in Dallas earlier this year. An African-American Terence Crutcher died at the hands of the police in September, in the video, he looks to be compiling with officers, before he is shot. Terence, as we all know, is only the latest of African-American men to be shot by the police. Robert Jones, a researcher recently reported that 53% of all US citizens view these killings as isolated incidents. 65% of white people see them as isolated incidents. While 15% of African-American see the shootings as isolated events.
Yesterday 2 officers are killed in Palm Springs, responding to a domestic dispute and it is reported they were killed my machine gun fire? Now a veteran of 35 years who was retiring in December and a mother of a four-month-old are dead.
So is the problem racism, is the problem violence, is it social un-rest, or is yet another issue. The response to the killing of African-American Men or police officers or children has been protesting. Protest aimed at raising awareness of the problem. Yet, even with the protest, change is slow and difficult to measure. 16 black men were shot by police officers in September, many were unarmed. Yesterday two more officers were killed. There is a lot of violence going on and it is not showing any signs of slowing down. Which brings me back to the question, how do we make social change that reflects the Kingdom of God?
As Dr. King said, you can’t legislate a person of color to love a person of a different color. So if you can’t legislate a solution, how do we make necessary changes? Some will say change starts in the heart. Well, there is nothing wrong with that unless we are saying it as an excuse to NOT do anything. Jesus offers a new way to break old patterns, so let’s listen to him for a moment.
Jesus identified a problem. The problem wasn’t killing. Killing was the end result, but the problem started way before the killing began. Anger and frustration in human relationships is where Jesus started. People could not get along or work together. People spent their days in arguments and their nights angry. Divisions were growing. So the first thing Jesus does is remind people of traditional righteousness.
‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.”
This is straight from the 10 Commandments. While it is true, it is also limited. Let’s say you don’t kill someone, but you have to live with them. Let’s say you refrain from murder, but have such resentment or fear in your heart that you can’t get along with them. You have followed the letter of the law, but life is still not good. You still have tension.
Not murdering another person deals with the most extreme possibility but not the most common. It’s like having an answer for heart disease, but nothing for the flu.
What is created and experienced is a vicious cycle;
But I say to you that if you are being angry with a brother or sister [you are involved in a continual process of anger] you are liable to judgment.
You don’t have to kill someone. You place yourself in jeopardy with anger, not killing. Well, this could happen daily or hourly depending on your co-workers or family. But this is the vicious cycle. You find yourself angry-----but you refrain from killing----so where does the anger go? Nowhere! It builds up in us. It becomes toxic, maybe it becomes fear, maybe it becomes rage, maybe it becomes low self-esteem, but for sure it does not bring us closer to God. In fact, the judgment implies a separation from God. A self-imposed one.
Dylann Roof, Adam Lanza, and the 14-year old who shot Jacob Hall all violated the commandment “do not kill.” But does anyone doubt that long before they killed they were angry? The anger is like a storm it will always blow, sometimes it stays at sea but when it makes landfall that’s when the ambulances come and the tears fall.
What we are learning sadly, is that unmanaged anger does not dissipate, like water flowing downstream it finds a way. This vicious cycle—we get angry, we hold it in, and the anger becomes self-loathing so we drink or abuse alcohol, or it becomes violence and we abuse a child or a spouse or eventually it could make landfall and kill someone.
Jesus knew that the commandment protected people with the fear of judgment but it did not remedy the foundational issue----anger. So Jesus offers an alternative, a transforming initiative that deals with the important, not the urgent.
So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember your brother or sister has something against you
It begins with remembering. Jesus says if you remember they have something against you. We take the initiative, we don’t wait. This is not conventional wisdom, this is Gospel wisdom. Surely you and I are keen enough to know when we have hurt another. Your son, husband, neighbor, classmate, boss, or employee and you had a moment. Going to the altar was not a rare occurrence in Jesus day, for us the alter is not a weekly visit, although for some it may be. It is really a daily occurrence to pray. So daily we wash dishes, take a shower, and clean up our anger.
Leave your gift there
Here is the first of five Greek action words. We cannot take care of anger by sitting. In fact sitting is what caused Dylann Roof to marinate in his fear of African Americans. It angered him to have an African-American President, it angered him to see African-Americans have better lives, go to college, follow the American dream. Sitting and watching just put fuel on the fire. So Jesus first says---leave your gift. It’s not that the gift is unimportant, it is that right now there is something more important.
Go
Take the initiative. You’ll see this is the pattern. Instead of waiting for others to make things right, we make things right. The first to say “I’m sorry” is the bigger person. We might say the first to say “I was wrong” is acting the most like Jesus. When we go we face our anger. By going we are saying, you are important to me, this relationship is important.
Make peace
Earlier I mentioned that anger needed somewhere to go, here’s where the anger goes. This is how we dissipate the penned up anger. We don’t stuff it down inside ourselves, we express our feelings and make peace. It’s not like we only say “I was wrong.” We express our feelings, listen to theirs, it’s not a debate, it is a confessional. We make peace. Peace does not require surrender but it does ask for our heart, not our head.
Then give your gift
Return to the altar and offer God our best with a clean conscience. It’s more than a matter of having things right in horizontal relationships, it is having a right relationship in the vertical relationship. Omar Manteen shot 49 people this year in Orlando. With an assault weapon, he killed Forty-nine strangers. Gay and Lesbians were the targets for his anger. This anger boiled up because he did not have a satisfying relationship with God. He certainly struggled with others from what we can read, but the vertical relationship was absent. The broken vertical relation and the strained horizontal relationships made for a toxic cocktail. When we go to others we face the anger, but when we return to the altar of God we dispose of the anger.
Settle matters quickly with your adversary
This is the final action word. Settle matters. Settle them quickly. Barney Fife had a remedy for anger, “Nip it. Nip it in the bud.” Like weeds in the garden, they are relentless and if we are not watchful they can take over. So when we find ourselves feeling angry, upset, hurt, troubled, or in a tense relationship with our spouse, teenager, son-in-law, or co-worker, don’t let it take root----stop the vicious cycle, and use this transformative response from our Savior, face the anger.
The Kingdom of God will not come without our participation. We will not make the necessary changes by doing what we have always done. Further, the values of the kingdom of God will never be cheered so we will meet opposition. Critics will say we are naïve or that we are pushy. The transformational alternatives, however, work.
The traditional values only remind us of what we should not do (don’t kill). Jesus’ values tell us what we can do-----leave, go, make peace, return, and settle matters. The church should lead, not follow in making social change, the way forward is by performing the transforming initiatives of our Savior.
Jesus’ initiatives are not distracted by symptoms. Social unrest, income inequality, police brutality these are only the final consequences, built on the foundation of sins. The formula of Jesus allows us to pull the mask off and see the truth. We can see the real issues----fear, hate, anger, greed, and envy and once we see the real issue we can begin apply the Jesus’ formula.
We are distracted by looking at the end product and not the ingredients that caused the product. Jesus looked beyond “killing” and saw the real problem is “anger.” Can we look beyond the urgent to see the important? Can the church lead the way instead of being dragged along? Until we do-----we will stay in this vicious cycle.
