Embracing Evil

Rom. 12:9-21[1]

It seems like everybody’s always angry with somebody these days. It’s so easy to get angry these days—all you have to do is turn on the TV, or listen to the news in your car, or scan the headlines on the internet, or even just overhear a conversation at Starbucks! We as a people are facing problems that pose serious threats to us all—even to the extent of losing our jobs and our homes! It’s no wonder so many people are so angry about so many things. While anger may make us feel more powerful in the face of overwhelming obstacles, it does not enable us to find solutions. When we’re angry, we inevitably look at our “opponents” with contempt—even if we’re good at keeping it hidden.

So how do we respond to the issues in this world that get under our skin? Oppression, injustice, deception, manipulation, violence. We really cannot just sit back and ignore what is going on if we truly believe in justice and peace and freedom, can we? If we turn to the Apostle Paul for help here, he says we’re to “hate evil” (Rom. 12:9). Surely that means we should do everything within our power to fight against it! But I think we have to be careful here. He also says we’re not to repay anyone evil for evil, and that we’re to overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). While it sounds pretty straightforward in theory, in practice I think it’s anything but that![2]

Last week we talked about a book called Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, by Paul F. Knitter. He uses insights from his study of Buddhism to re-frame Christian faith. We talked about how the Buddhist greeting, “Namasté,” is a way of acknowledging that everyone we meet has all the same goodness that is in us. And when we acknowledge that, it enables us to relate to others with genuine compassion. This way of looking at things also has implications for our attitude toward evil. If we can recognize that others have all the goodness we have, we also have to recognize that we have the same capacity for evil as those whose actions we abhor.

Professor Knitter illustrates this principle with a story from his life. In the 1980’s, he and his wife were very active in the efforts to end the violence in Central America and to promote justice and peace in several countries. He tells the story about how he took a retreat with a Zen teacher in preparation for a trip to El Salvador in 1987. He told the teacher he wanted to do his part to stop the death squads, but he also felt the need for meditation. And the Zen master responded, “they are both absolutely necessary. You have to sit (in meditation). You have to stop the death squads. But you won’t be able to stop the death squads until you realize your oneness with them.”[3]

He relates how at first he didn’t understand this. But it sank in over the following years as he carried out his convictions in working for peace and justice, and he saw the smugness of the activists, their anger over the wrongs, their hatred of the death squads, and their contempt toward governments and others who seemed to respond ineffectually. And he realized that all of those attitudes were in themselves forms of violence. They were seeking to end the violence in Central America, but they were going about it with violence in their own hearts!

When we oppose those who do evil in our world with anger, we are more likely to perpetuate the evil they do. So how then do we respond to evil? In the same way Jesus did. Jesus knew that only the willingness to respond to hostility with peace, to respond to hatred with forgiveness, can redeem evil.[4] I think that’s what Jesus meant when he said those who want to follow him would have to take up their cross (Matt. 16:24).[5] He was calling us all to follow his pattern of responding to evil by not retaliating, but by embracing those who do evil with mercy and kindness and forgiveness. It’s the way Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela and countless other black South Africans responded to the white South Africans who had committed unspeakable atrocities against them. That’s what it means to overcome evil with good! We can only truly overcome evil if we can embrace the “evildoers” with compassion.[6]

I’m not sure there’s a calling in human experience that’s more challenging than embracing those we consider evil with compassion. I’m not sure it’s possible to do that without “denying self”—setting aside all the selfish ego needs we have. [7] Only when we can get outside ourselves can we truly relate to those who do evil in our world in a way that has the chance of overcoming evil with good. Only when we can embrace those who do evil in our world with genuine love can we hope to respond to what they do in a way that will bring real change—responding to violence with forgiveness, responding to hatred with compassion, responding to hostility with peace.[8] When we do, we have the chance to change not only what they do but more importantly who they are. As we embrace those who do evil, we have the chance to make a change that can create peace and justice and freedom. [9]

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[1] © 2011 Alan Brehm. A sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/28/11 at First Presbyterian Church, Dickinson, TX and at A Community of the Servant-Savior Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX.

[2] N. T. Wright, “The Letter to the Romans,” in New Interpreters Bible 10: 715, where he says that God’s people are to meet the evil in the world “ in the way that even God met it: with love and generous goodness.” Cf. also James D. G. Dunn, Romans 9-16, 752.

[3] Paul F. Knitter, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, 173.

[4] Cf. PC (USA) Study Catechism, q. 45: “An abyss of suffering” has been “swallowed up by the suffering of divine love.” Cf. also Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 91, 95; Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God, 246, 277.

[5] M. Eugene Boring, “The Gospel According to Matthew,” New Interpreters Bible 8:350-52.

[6] Cf. Knitter, Without Buddha, 188, where he cautions that even the act of calling others “evildoers” can preclude our ability to respond to them in a way that creates justice and peace and freedom. Contrast Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 2.2.713-14, where he recognizes the general application of some of what Paul is advocating, but essentially reserves it for the Christian community. Cf. also ibid., 4.2.805: “the neighbour as the one who in Christian love is loved … is the fellow-man who stands to the one who loves in the historical context of … the existence of the community of Jesus Christ. He is not the fellow-man as such, but this particular fellow-man.” I could not disagree more.

[7] Cf. Knitter, Without Buddha, 184, 198, he defines these as the need for recognition, for success, for control, and for superiority.

[8] Cf. R. Jewett, Romans : A Commentary, 779, observes that in the context of a global mission in which love has the power to transform all humankind, “even a cup of water given to the thirsty becomes a means of expressing the love of Christ and thus extending the realm of divine righteousness.” Cf. also Cf. John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, 477, where he says that the one who “attempts to overcome evil with evil, may perhaps surpass his enemy in doing injury, but it is to his own ruin.”

[9] Knitter, Without Buddha, 183-84. He relates this to Thich Nhat Hanh’s reminder that if we want to make peace, we have to be peace. Cf. also ibid., 197.

Ordinary Compassion

Rom. 12:1-8[1]

I think many people in our society may be looking for God in all the wrong places. They look for God in the “perfect” church, which tends to be very large, with a smorgasbord of programs so broad that everyone in the family can find something they like. Others look for God in some spectacular, supernatural experience—whether a “miracle” or a special vision, or a unique calling. Others look for God by turning inward and shutting out “the world” as a dangerous place full of hostile people. But I don’t think any of those places are the place to look for God. I think we are meant to look for God in the ordinary compassion we share with the people around us.

I’ve mentioned to some of you that I recently read (and thoroughly enjoyed) a book called Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, by Paul F. Knitter. The author is a Catholic theologian who’s lived out a dialogue with Buddhism for 40 years—primarily through his relationship with his wife, who is a practicing Buddhist! One of his major themes is the idea that there are some significant connections between Christianity and Buddhism. He uses those connections as a way of re-framing Christian faith where it seems to have gone astray—as in where to look to find God. In essence, Knitter has found a way to be more “Christian” through the influence of Buddhism!

One of the primary teachings of Buddhism is reflected in the greeting, “Namasté.” It’s a greeting that means, “the light within me honors the light within you.”[2] It seems to me that someone who greets you by saying “Namasté” is in effect saying, “the goodness in me acknowledges and honors the goodness in you.” And that applies to everyone we meet. It’s not a matter of applying this to only “good people,” because Buddhism teaches that everyone we meet has all the same goodness that is in us, regardless of their faults and failures. It’s almost as if it is the reverse of our Christian idea of fallenness—when I see anyone doing something I detest, I must acknowledge that I am just as fallen and therefore have the capacity to do the same things. Buddhists turn that around and honor the goodness in everyone

When you have that kind of mindset about other people, it changes the way you relate to people. In a very real sense, when you can recognize and honor the goodness in others, you are recognizing and honoring the fact that we all belong to one another.[3] Much as the Apostle Paul talks about the church being the body of Christ, and therefore “individually we are members one of another” (Rom. 12:5), which simply means that each of us belongs to one another. St. Paul was talking about the church, and he was still stuck in the mindset of avoiding “the world” as a hostile place.[4] But I think there’s something to be said for applying this idea of a “body” to the whole human family. As beloved children of the one creator God and friends of the one loving redeemer, there is much to point us to the conclusion that we all belong to one another. When that is the case, how can we not acknowledge and honor the goodness in each other? How can we not relate to one another with compassion and kindness?

This mindset changes the way you live, and in a very real sense, it changes you. It reminds me again of St. Paul talking about being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” so that you may discern the will of God. What could be more appropriate to the will of God than relating to everyone you meet in a way that expresses God’s compassion for us all!

But what does all this have to do with the original question of where we look for God? I think one of the things that happens to you when you begin to relate to everyone you encounter with God’s compassion is that you begin to become aware that God’s compassion is constantly surrounding us all. We find the answer to the question where to look for God in the way we relate to one another. As it turns out, loving other people is what it means to know and love God. Sounds biblical, doesn’t it!

When we look at everyone we encounter as a beloved brother or sister, and recognize that all the goodness in us is also present in them, we find that God is there. When we relate to the people around us with compassion, we find God’s compassion surrounding us all. That’s where we look for God. Not in the busyness of a big church, or in some supernatural experience, but in ordinary, everyday compassion towards other people. We find God’s love waiting for us in a hug from a friend or in the embrace of a child or a parent. We find God’s love waiting for us in the satisfaction of a good day’s work with friends. We find God’s love waiting for us as we extend ordinary compassion to another human being who is hurting—for whatever reason. When we offer simple respect and kindness to those we meet, we find God who is constantly surrounding us with compassion.

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[1] © 2011 Alan Brehm. A sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/21/11 at First Presbyterian Church, Dickinson, TX and at A Community of the Servant-Savior Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX.

[2] Ram Dass, in Grist for the Mill, explains it this way: “In India when we meet and part we often say, ‘Namaste,’ which means I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.”Cited in a review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, accessed at http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/books.php? id=19335 .

[3] Paul F. Knitter, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian,181: Buddism teaches us to respond to the moment “with the wisdom of feeling your connectedness with everyone and everything, and then respond with the compassion that naturally results when you feel so connected.” Cf. also ibid., 202-203.

[4] So much is this the case that it influences even one so astute as Karl Barth to adopt a similar outlook. Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 2.2:713-14. Cf. also Robert Jewett, Romans, 744.

“Living” the Dream

Gen 37:1-28; Ps 105:16-22[1]

Dreamers can have difficulty with the harsh realities of life. Most of you know our two boys, Zach and Michael. After years of dreaming about being musicians, they are beginning to actually get paying gigs—for actual money! Of course, the reality is that they count themselves lucky if they clear $50 a night after expenses! Their word for it is “living the dream.” The irony in that is the way they (like most teenagers) used to dream about becoming celebrities and living the lifestyle of the rich and famous! These days, I think they will be happy if they can actually make a living as musicians—by teaching, or performing, or all of the above! Dreamers can have difficulty with the harsh realities of life.

Joseph was a dreamer. Although our lesson for today doesn’t mention it, one of the first things we learn about Joseph was that he had a couple of amazing dreams—both of which seemed to hint that he would one day be exalted to a position of great authority. In the beginning, it would seem that he was in fact rather cocky about his dream. But Joseph’s dream took him to places he never counted on as a young man. The Psalmist has an interesting phrase for it—“until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord kept testing him.” (Ps. 105:19). I think the idea is that Joseph’s vision put him through a refining process that he would never have imagined when he had the dream.[2] When he had the dream, he must have thought he had it made in this life. The reality is that it would be much more difficult.

Initially, Joseph’s refining process was a matter of humiliation. Because of his arrogance, his brothers hated him so much that they sold him into slavery. Suddenly he went from being the favored son of a wealthy man to being a slave with no rights, no family, no home. Talk about humiliating! In point of fact, however, apparently Joseph was so good at serving in the house of Potiphar that he quickly learned how to run the whole place and was elevated to head steward. The humiliating experience of being sold into slavery refined Joseph by preparing him with skills he would need later.

Unfortunately things didn’t work out so well, because his master’s wife accused him of trying to seduce her. So the ‘word of the Lord” kept refining Joseph—this time in prison. We have to remember that prison in that day was nothing like prison in our day. There were no rights in prison. You had no right to an attorney, no right to a speedy trial, and there was no such thing as habeas corpus to compel the powers that be to be fair in the way they treated you (at least theoretically). “Prison” in the ancient world meant being thrown into the dungeon, where you may not even be able to stay alive, let alone eat or sleep in a bed or any of the other things we take for granted. But while Joseph was in the dungeon, some of Pharoah’s personal attendants spent some time there. They too had dreams, and Joseph interpreted them. When Pharaoh had a dream, one of them told him about Joseph, and Joseph wound up as the Prime Minister of the most powerful nation in the ancient world!

It was a long and winding road for Joseph from being a young dreamer to becoming the chief administrator of Egypt. Why did Joseph have to go through such a long and painful process? Why did it take years of suffering to prepare him for “living” the dream he had in his youth?[3] Besides the obvious answers, it would seem built into the nature of what it means to commit yourself to a “dream.”[4] In a very real sense, this is part of how we truly “live” our dream for the world. It’s how the dream gets inside us. Until that happens, until it gets inside you so that you live, eat, and breathe it, you’re in no position to try to go out and see that vision realized in life.[5] We cannot hope to bring compassion to the world if we don’t have compassion in our hearts for other people—all of them. We cannot hope to bring peace to the world if we haven’t yet become peace—towards everyone.

Like Joseph, we may have to go through a refining process to get there. It may be frustrating for us to continue to try to hold on to our dream, only to keep being disappointed with the way life actually works. One of the lessons we learn when we’re undergoing this refining process is that the first step toward “living” the dream is to surrender our expectations of what that’s going to look like and to accept life, the world, and others as they are.[6] That’s the only way we can ever hope to learn how to respond to real human beings in a real world with compassion and peace.

It’s not easy being a dreamer in this world. Dreamers can have difficulty with the harsh realities of life. When you stake your life on a vision for the way things can be different, it will “keep testing you.” It may take years for the vision of the God’s compassion and peace and justice and freedom to really get inside us. But when it does, when we become the compassion and peace we long for in this world, then we will be truly “living” the dream.

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[1] © 2011 Alan Brehm. A sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/7/11 at First Presbyterian Church, Dickinson, TX and at A Community of the Servant-Savior Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX.

[2] Although it would seem that most scholars think this is a reference to his interpretation of the dreams of Pharoah’s attendants (cf. H.-J. Kraus, Psalms 60-150, 311), I think there is merit in the idea that it includes Joseph’s initial dreams (cf. Leslie C. Allen, Psalms 101-150, 58).

[3] Cf. Charles Spurgeon, “Trial by the Word,” a sermon delivered Feb. 6 1876 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle; accessed at http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1277.htm, where he says, “visions tarry, and we must wait for them.”

[4]John Caputo, On Religion, 15, describes it as “longing with a restless heart for a reality beyond reality.”

[5] Cf. Paul F. Knitter, Without Buddha I Could not Be a Christian, 183-85.

[6] Cf. Knitter, Without Buddha, 185-86.