No Lenten history or personal experience today. I wrote too much on the Psalm Experience.
The Psalimst has a obsession with their enemies. Have you noticed? "Slap all my enemies in the face! Shatter the teeth of the wicked" –Psalm 3:7. At times, reading the Psalms gives me the experience that I am in a foreign country. After all, they are written by Jews and when you think of the conflict in the Middle East, you get the piont. Yet, I am a Christian and Jesus says that if someone slaps you, you are to turn your cheek (Matthew 5:39). In other words, you are to allow them to slap you again!
So how does a Christian handle this? The Psalmist want to see all enemies wiped out and Jesus appears to contradict this? Another question: Who are the enemies we face today?
Please do not be naive that we do indeed have enemies today. They want nothing more than to see you give up your faith. Personally, I have had people either write me an email, or sit me down for coffee or stop me on the sidewalk and say that they want Blue Sky Church to go away. (And I really think of myself as a nice guy). I mentioned last week that for three months, there was a mask which looked like the head of Satan, in a window across the street pointing itself toward our church building. A little odd decor, don't you think?
It is easy to think of people as enemies. You may have a few. But since Jesus died for all people (2 Corinthians 5:15; 1Timothy 2:6), people are not the enemies. This is where Jesus' words come in. He is not saying to be a walking doormat. He is saying that the cry for vengeance within you is valid, but trust that God will handle the justice. Don't take it in your own hands (Romans 12:19). I know it is very Hollywoodish that when someone steals from you, your vengeance needs to be vindicated. This may be entertaining, but it is not the life of the believer.
So who are our enemies if they are not people? Paul states in Ephesians 6:12 that we do not fight people, but rather against the spiritual, evil forces in this word. Namely, Satan and his spiritual cohorts. They influence people and societies, and when invited, they can control people's actions. Be careful not to blame all evil on him. Evil comes from three sources, the devil, society and ourselves. But be clear that he is our enemy. Those around you may do the Devil's will but pray that they can experience God's mercy. Pray that God will thwart the enemy.
Personally, I think Christians today are too passive and not angry enough. Being ticked off when God's interests are minded, is a holy experience. The Psalms remind us that we need this passion. Here is a quote from a very smart theologian, Walter Brueggemann. "God's vengeance is understood as the other side of God's compassion. God cannot act to liberate the chosen people without at the same time judging and punishing the oppressors who have perverted a just ordering of life." In other words, compassion helps the person who is bleeding on the side of the road. The cry for justice seeks the driver of the car who hit the wounded and then sped off.
If you want to be more of a compassionate person, you need to get ticked off. With your cry for vengeance, ask God to intervene. The Christian has the opportunity to invite the God's kingdom into our society. If not, the void will be filled with the Kingdom of Satan. Therefore, enter into the emotion of the Psalmist and cry to God.
Here are some thoughts to get you started. Did you know that slavery is at an all time high in the world today? Did you know that the salary between the CEO and the lowest full time worker is 400 to one. This may not be a big deal but 125 years ago, it was eleven to one. Did you know that one out of four Americans do not have insurance? Is it possible that corporate greed prices out the poor? Did you know that even the city of Windsor has a day shelter and Loveland does not?
Why do we accept the status quo? Rosa Parks did not. Neither did Martin Luther King. The Psalmist invites you to cry for the injustices in world. The Psalmist invites you to cry to God.
3 comments:
Joe what an appropriate blog....at least it hit home for me. In a post I want to get up, it talks about my anger...how angry I am at the world's injustice....insurance, abuse, etc. The problem is that I try to take things into my own hands and change them, but I'm a whirlwind that just dies out without the guidance of God. I love what the Psalmist teaches us...ask God to crush the bones of your enemies and to seek vengance.
i think that your blog was incrediably appropriate as well. i just received an email from a friend about social injustice. it hit home, but to respond to it meant research and time i just don't feel that i have. i feel like your blog has given me an awesome reminder and instruction; which is to cry out to God. but then as i was reading the blog, i thought, i am so overwhelmed with my own issues that i don't know how nor have the emotional enery to cry out concerning things that appear to have nothing to directly do with me. i know that this is not good, but what do i do? how do i fix this?
the answer of course is prayer. so i would like to lift up a prayer that God would put in us the energy, and clarity or mind that it takes inorder to get ticked off and cry out.
I guess this pisses me off every once and awhile
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