Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Psalm 119:33-40
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
Matthew 5:38-48
On Saturday, February 15, a man
named Michael Dunn was convicted of multiple counts of attempted murder for
shooting into a carful of teenagers outside a Jacksonville [, Florida]
convenience store in 2012. Jordan Davis was killed in the shooting, but the
jury couldn't reach a verdict on the first-degree murder charge against Dunn. A
mistrial was declared on that count. Jordan was a black 17 year old young man. Michael
Dunn is a 47 year old white man. He had told the four young men in the car to
turn their music down—and then Michael Dunn decided to shoot into the car with
a 9 mm handgun. He said he saw a shotgun, no gun was found in the car. Michael
Dunn calls himself a victim AND a victor. Jordan Davis was 17; he was not an
adult, and he was unarmed.
Last summer when Carl and I were at
the Disciples General Assembly in Orlando, Florida, George Zimmerman was found
not guilty of the murder of Trayvon Martin, another a black 17 year old young man. George
Zimmerman killed Trayvon, who was also unarmed, because he said he felt
threatened and had been attacked.
In our encounters with one another
as human beings, in times of conflict or disagreement it seems to me than each
one of us want self to come out on top. We especially want winners and losers
in the ways that we interact with one another as members of particular
groups—race, gender, social class, sexual orientation—and combinations of those
groups. Those of us who are more powerful: white and/or male and/or somewhat
wealthy are often taught to be fearful of those who are in the expected
minority, those whose identity and place is less powerful, less a part of the
norm. In other words, many of us white people are fearful of people of color
because many of us white people expect people of color to conform to our
expectations, our wants and needs and take their refusal to do so as a threat. This
non-existent threat is perceived as cultural and personal. Sometimes this
threat is taken so seriously that we attack pre-emptively—as Michael Dunn did,
as George Zimmerman did.
Our problems with violence don’t
always have to do with race, but when race differences, racist systems, and
power differentials are in the mix, violence accelerates at an incredible rate.
I could describe many historical
situations where this is true. One example comes from the early 20th
century. There was a city on the north side of Tulsa, Oklahoma called Greenwood.
It was an African American community and one of the wealthiest place in Oklahoma—it
was known as Black Wall Street. According to the history, a rumor spread about
a young black man who was in an elevator with a young white woman in downtown
Tulsa. Those two just being in the same place at the same time was enough to
cast suspicion on him. On May 31, 1921 a group of armed white men congregated
outside the jail where the young black man was being held and, subsequently, a
group of African American men joined the assembled crowd in order to protect
him. After arguing over a gun, which was fired into the air, more shots were
fired and the riots began. Within 24 hours Greenwood had been destroyed. At the
time of the riot, the American Red Cross estimated that over 300 persons were
killed. The Red Cross also listed 8,624 persons in need of assistance, in
excess of 1,000 homes and businesses destroyed, and the delivery of several
stillborn infants.[1]
I never heard this story in Oklahoma history. And I never heard it in any
American History course I ever took either. Winners often write history.
We want winners and losers instead
of sharing in the abundance of God’s provision. We want “us” to win and “them”
to lose. We want what we’ve always had—or been told that we are entitled
to—instead of realizing that God’s provision isn’t about merit or designation.
God’s provision, God’s love, is for all of creation.
In the scripture texts in Leviticus
and Matthew, God has given us a word about how God desires groups of people to
relate to one another regarding the power differences between those groups and
how those groups view one another. We make choices about our behavior as
individuals—and bible reminds us time and time again that as individuals we
relate to one another within community and within those communities are other
related groups. In both texts, and even in Paul’s letter, God’s people are
discouraged from maintaining groups with power and groups without—or winners
and losers. In all of these texts, love is the rule even when the action differs
somewhat due to historical time and place.
In Jesus’ time, described by
Matthew’s gospel in today’s text, the groups look a little bit different than
they did in the time of Leviticus. And Jesus’ strategies look different, too.
The Jews were an occupied and oppressed people in the Roman Empire. The groups
were still in relationships that differed in power level. The Romans related to
the Jews; the Sadducees related to the Pharisees; the Jews related to the
Samaritans; the men related to the women; the women related to the men; the
adults related to the children; the Jews related to those they called Gentile;
the disciples of Jesus were called to related to each one as well with a
particular set of values, ethics, morals, and behaviors. And some of those
behaviors, etc. were, to say the least, unexpected and even sounded a little
bit risky, even dangerous.
And Jesus’ words are risky, too,
because they are words to the oppressed—and as white people in a white
dominated culture we aren’t the oppressed ones. As individuals we may
experience the abuse of another individual—but as a group, we are in power. We
need to understand the context of these words as advice to the oppressed
underclass—not the ruling class or group.
Jesus spoke against retaliation in
kind for particular kinds of injuries. In the first testament of the bible, God
gave a rule about how injuries should be punished. An eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth was a mild rule for its day. God wanted people to stop
killing others for injuries—make the punishment fit the crime. Jesus looked
around as saw that God’s rule had been abused and it wouldn’t be long before
everyone was blind and toothless. Violent retaliation simply encourage
reciprocal violence—Jesus taught something else. And it’s not just being a door
mat.
If someone struck you on the right
cheek, in biblical times, only the right hand would have been used, so the
right cheek would have been a backhanded slap—the strike of an oppressor, a
master to a slave. To offer the left cheek would be to invite them to treat you
as an equal, a slap or a punch between matched opponents. Each example in the
first paragraph fits this pattern. In lawsuits, a lender was allowed to take
the outer coat of a debtor, but had to give it back at night for them to use as
a blanket. By taking off their shirt—and being naked—they shamed the lender. A
Roman soldier was allowed to force someone in an occupied land to carry their
pack a mile, but had to take it back to find someone else to carry it more. Trying
to it the second mile would force the soldier to wrestle it away from you,
making him look foolish. (Walter Wink)
This text describes nonviolent ways
of revealing the unjust power structure—advice to the oppressed from another
member of the same class. If we, in our place on the global stage, are the
oppressors, what is the message we are given? What is the message we receive as
people who have homes, adequate or abundant food, cars, money, etc.? What is
our relationship to those who tell us of their unjust lives and reveal our
participation in injuries they have sustained?
Does our anger at others make us
retaliate against accusations that we don’t understand? Do we respond in our
lack of understanding with a violence lashing out? When we are told that what
we have is a result of systems of oppression, do we just want to hold onto our
possessions even harder, defend them more violently? We need to see when
injustice is revealed—and spread the word. We need to see it and stop it when
we are taking advantage of injustice and work alongside our brothers and sister
toward change. The system is powerful—and yet we can change it.
And Jesus continued in his teaching
in what we call the Sermon on the Mount, ‘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.” I’m going to stop right there,
though, and say that we aren’t being persecuted, not as Christians, in this
country at this time. And we aren’t being persecuted as white people, as
middle-class people (at least not by those in poverty), or as property owners.
Yet as Christians we can raise our awareness,
if we choose, of the persecution in this country. The persecution is
built into the historical systems of our nation. There are systems, political
and economic that are disadvantageous to people of color. Some examples: one is
the stop and frisk policies of some major cities. Young men (usually) of color are
stopped frequently and illegally searched for weapons, drugs, etc. even when
they are doing nothing more than walking down a public street. When boarding
airline flights, men and women with particular kinds of names or ways of
dressing or color of skin are searched more often. Black children, are among
the poorest in this nation. In Kentucky, Michigan,
Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon and Wisconsin 50% of black children are poor and in ½ of states over 40% of
black children are poor. Nationally, 1 in 3 Black and 1 in 6 Latino boys born
in 2001 are at risk of imprisonment during their lifetime. While boys are five
times as likely to be incarcerated as girls, there also is a significant number
of girls in the juvenile justice system. This rate of incarceration is
endangering children at younger and younger ages. A cover story in a recent Time
said that last October, only one in 20 African-American male high school grads
looking for work found employment.
The perception of many in white
culture is that African Americans in this nation, males in particular, are
viewed with suspicion, fear and hatred. I have felt it in myself in spite of my
awareness and desire to feel otherwise. And it’s based on nothing more than conditioning,
racist prejudice in entertainment and supposed news-outlets, selective reporting on
violence involving people of color and a fascination with pursuing stories and
evidence that fit our expectations of people of color more than the truth.
Though I don’t believe it’s true by
any stretch of the imagination, the fear affects me as a member of my group, my
white, middle-class, privileged group. Jesus calls upon on us to act counter to
our fears, counter to the overwhelming perception of the world as we think we
know it. If the empire of the world tells us that black men--in particular--are enemies, Jesus
tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Perhaps, in
these words, Jesus is explaining that our perception of enemy and our
perception of those who persecute is all wrong—if we are in the power group.
God sends rain down upon everyone’s
fields—never considering who we deem to be enemy or friend. God send sunshine
down upon every single person on the planet, however we categorize them from
our self-identified place of power. Jesus is telling us that the world only
consists of our brothers and sisters, our neighbors—enemies exist in our minds.
Love reigns supreme. In a disagreement, real love, God’s love, makes us drop
our best argument and our weapons of death and destruction so that we aren’t
blinded by our power to kill. Love disarms us so that we can serve, we can
work, we can act as disciples of Jesus, following his life and all that he
taught us.
To the glory of our disarming,
loving God. Amen.
