r e f l e c t i n g o n 9 / 1 1 t e n y e a r s l a t e r : the way of life Rev. Brent Wright Broad Ripple UMC

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1 r e f l e c t i n g o n 9 / 1 1 t e n y e a r s l a t e r : the way of life Rev. Brent Wright Broad Ripple UMC Romans 14:1-12 (Message) Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don t see things the way you do. And don t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don t agree with even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume all Christians should be vegetarians and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ s table, wouldn t it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn t eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God s welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help. Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience. What s important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God s sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you re a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It s God we are answerable to all the way from life to death and everything in between not each other. That s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other. So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I d say it leaves you looking pretty silly or worse. Eventually, we re all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren t going to improve your position there one bit. Read it for yourself in Scripture: Rev. Brent Wright 1 Broad Ripple UMC

2 As I live and breathe, God says, every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God. So tend to your knitting. You ve got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. Matthew 18:21-35 (Message) At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven? Jesus replied, Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven. The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market. The poor wretch threw himself at the king s feet and begged, Give me a chance and I ll pay it all back. Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt. The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, Pay up. Now! The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, Give me a chance and I ll pay it all back. But he wouldn t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king. The king summoned the man and said, You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy? The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy. The scripture texts we read today are those assigned by the lectionary, the three-year cycle of scripture readings set up according to the church year, established over 25 years ago. These readings were assigned for last week, the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, and the 10th anniversary of September 11, As often happens, scriptures chosen long ago seem to have much to say to us today, in the midst of our own historic time and what seem like unique circumstances. In Romans, Paul is reminding the early Christian congregations of Rome that living in community requires being tolerant of divergent religious practices. In that day, Rev. Brent Wright 2 Broad Ripple UMC

3 there were vehement arguments about matters like the appropriateness of eating meat (especially meat that comes from pagan altar sacrifices), the proper day for the Sabbath should it be Saturday, as it had always been for Jews, or Sunday, as a recognition of the resurrection as an 8th day of Creation? In our day of growing religious pluralism in America (and our newly global community), Paul's words of tolerance and acceptance seem newly applicable, especially as we mark the anniversary of a particularly heinous terrorist attack in the name of an extremist religious perspective. And then we listen in as Jesus responds to Peter's question: "how many times must we forgive our enemies?" I don't know about you, but Jesus' response makes me wince in the context of reflecting on the ten years since Al Qaeda became Enemy Number One. It's all fine and good for Jesus to say something like "forgive someone who hurts you not 7 times, but 70 times 7 times!" in the abstract or in a children's message. But when you put his command up against reminders of Al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks, the real radicality of such a way of being is obvious. Master, how many times do [we] forgive an [enemy who hurts us]? Seven? Jesus replied, Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven. The kingdom of God is like " And Jesus goes on to tell the story of a generous king who forgives a servant's astronomical debt, only to have the servant turn around and refuse to do the same. His warning: if you don't forgive, don't expect to be forgiven. [sigh] And, yes, we could quibble about the process; the text says that we must forgive those who ask for mercy, and I wouldn't make the case that Al Queda has asked for mercy, but that kind of conversation would miss the point. The point is that God's irrational grace toward us shows us the way of life. If we want to know acceptance and forgiveness, we must practice it. Revenge and retribution, an-eye-for-an-eye, they-hurt-us-so-we-have-to-hurt-them is the way of death. Forgiveness and refusing revenge is the way of life. The last 10 years have been an exercise in the utter futility of trying to bring peace through the way of death. In the aftermath of the horror of 3000 lives snuffed out, there was very little room for real conversation about how we as a nation should respond. It's taken as a basic truth about the world that violence must be answered with even greater violence. Very quickly, the terrorists' actions were declared an act of war, and it was taken as a given that the proper response was overwhelming force, punishing the perpetrators in an act of national chest-thumping. Amidst aggressive chants of U-S-A, we responded to the dehumanizing attacks of those who chose murder as their mode of communication by dehumanizing the perpetrators and beginning our own open-ended campaign of violence. In addition to the usual weapons of destruction, we have chosen to torture our prisoners, crossing a line we always swore (and continue to pretend) we would never cross. Ten years later, we're still fighting 2 wars, and over 6000 more Americans have been killed as a result. And the more 9000 American deaths are just one portion of the destruction of human life that has taken place through these wars. At least ten times as Rev. Brent Wright 3 Broad Ripple UMC

4 many people have died in the countries we attacked, 1 the vast majority of them innocent bystanders. And rather than decimating our enemies, as the war planners intend, we have multiplied them by inflicting the same pain and anguish on the Afghani and Iraqi people that Al Qaeda brought to our shores. The way of death only multiplies death. Violence cannot bring peace. We have responded to Al Qaeda's violence in the past 10 years with many sorts of violence, not just military violence. We have also committed the violence of prejudice and stereotyping. Muslim Americans and anyone who looks like they might be Middle Eastern have suffered discrimination and verbal & physical attacks that continue today. One of my greatest failures of leadership at my previous church was failing to challenge the anti-muslim prejudice/hatred that was overt in some members of my congregation. As part of a study, I had a Jewish rabbi friend come talk and answer questions; it went so well, I mentioned the idea of inviting an Muslim imam do the same. A woman in the congregation said, "I wouldn't do that. That would not go over well here." I knew from conversation that she and others had a very narrow, condemnatory understanding of Islam based on stereotypes. I rationalized that challenging this prejudice would be too costly for my leadership in the church and the town. In hindsight, I was afraid to do what I knew was right: to take a public stand for learning and connection and understanding of our sisters and brothers, for confronting overt ignorance, misunderstanding, and prejudice. And the discrimination against those perceived to be Arab or Muslim continues at full strength in some arenas. Just this past weekend, our hyper-security apparatus resulted in racial profiling that led to heavily armed police storming a passenger flight and hauling an American mother of two from Ohio and two men from India off a plane in handcuffs to jail for hours of interrogation, only to conclude that the original source of suspicion was simply their brown skin. 2 This happened dozens of times last Sunday. How much discrimination are we willing to allow in the name of our safety? And how much safety can the way of death really provide? We have also chosen the violence of fracturing into more and more polarized factions in our life together. The extremists have drawn us into extremes: extremes in politics (the rise of the Tea Party, vicious deadlock over things like extending the debt ceiling), extremes in foreign policy (unilateral declaration of pre-emptive war), extremes in military strategy (torture defended and accepted as a tool for interrogation) 1 iraqbodycount.org estimates over 100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq as a result of military or paramilitary action to this point since the invasion in You would be well served to read the entire first-hand account here; it's a stunning look at what fear has done to us, the nation that prides itself on openness and liberty: /09/12/some-real-shock-and-awe-racially-profiled-and-cuffed-in-detroit/ Rev. Brent Wright 4 Broad Ripple UMC

5 a certain kind of extreme in theology: blurring the line between God and nation, taking refuge in the civil religion that baptizes the choices and power of the nation with God's blessing. In our polarity, we inflict the violence of refusing to listen to each other across differences, of dismissing the Other as foolish, or naive, or selfish, or coldhearted, rather than giving the benefit of the doubt and searching for the humanity of our ideological opponents. We commit the violence of dehumanizing those who see differently. (And, truth be told, this one's a particular struggle for me ) The goal of terrorism is to provoke a response to goad the giant into responding in kind to the violence of the terrorists. And the terrorists have succeeded in their campaign so far. The way of the terrorist is the way of death, we have followed this path as a people for 10 years, and the result has been tremendous loss: a multitude of human lives snuffed by other human beings: 3000 murders has become 30-fold that, the flourishing of prejudice and stereotyping, racism and religious discrimination, the descent of America into the realm of torturing prisoners, the dissolution of much of the national unity we had before 2001, the growth of interpersonal violence in the forms of prejudice and polarization. Following the way of death has been costly for us in this last decade. The good news is that in the face of death, the way of life is calling. Jesus taught us the way of life: the kingdom of God is extravagant, irrational mercy and forgiveness, and in order to experience it, we must practice it. As the Body of Christ, God is seeking to lead us and our neighbors and our nation and the world in the way of life. We're not alone as tools of God for showing humanity the way of life, so we can take heart that the way is being described in many languages at once. Ours is the language of Christ and the community that has followed him for 2000 years. In Colossians, Paul describes the way of life this way:...clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other The Council of Bishops of our United Methodist Church issued a pastoral letter in recent weeks that called us to ministry to the world: In a world of violence and revenge, of suspicion and fear, of mistrust and hatred, we dare to proclaim an alternative vision known throughout Scriptures as God s Shalom. Ours is a ministry of reconciliation, our bishops remind us, echoing the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians. Our ministry of reconciliation is a profound proclamation of the way of life we know through Jesus Christ. Rev. Brent Wright 5 Broad Ripple UMC

6 As the Body of Christ, we live a particular response to the call to Never Forget. We can help our nation to never forget in a way that brings life to the world, rather than reinforcing the cycle of death. Let's proclaim the truth we know about how God made the world to work: the way of life is humility rather than chest-thumping, compassion and forgiveness rather than revenge, seeking to understand rather than stereotyping and shutting out, finding ways to come together rather than polarizing, placing the common good of the human family above tribe and nation. We can proclaim without words that never forgetting in the Kingdom of God isn't about rehashing tragedy over and over, it's about living an alternative to the way of death that terrorists choose. It's about proclaiming the Good News of God's redemptive love for all people through our life together, how we treat each other, how we talk about those we perceive to be enemies, how we imagine solutions to intractable problems. Never forgetting in the Kingdom of God is about turning away from the violence in our world, from the violence in our hearts, when we find ourselves committing the violence of stereotyping or shutting the Other out or choosing extremes that polarize or passively (or actively) supporting state violence like torture in our name. For those of us seeking to live the gospel, never forget means allowing ourselves to be changed for the better by the events of 10 years ago. Let's work for change in our own country check that; let's start in our own homes, in our own congregation, in our neighborhoods, in our city. Let's let the existence of terrorism and state-sponsored mass destruction, of religious extremism and bigotry, drive us to look in the mirror for those same threads in ourselves and repent by pursuing the Gospel of openness and embrace of all, even evil-doers. Rev. Brent Wright 6 Broad Ripple UMC