Epiphany 7 C

February 24, 2019

“The Third Way”

St. Luke 6:27-38 – NRSV

The reading for this morning’s Message is from Luke’s Gospel - it is Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount which parallel’s Matthew with some exceptions like blessed are the poor, rather than blessed are the poor in spirit.  Luke places Jesus on the plain while Matthew put him on a Mount.

Love for Enemies

27 “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.[a] Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Judging Others

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Footnotes:

[a] Luke 6:35 Other ancient authorities read despairing of no one

Love your enemies!  Turn the other cheek.  Do not withhold even your shirt.

These admonitions seem impossible.  It is not in our nature to respond to violence with non-violence. Fight or flight seems to be the only two options. But let us take a closer look at this text in the context of the situation in which Jesus preaches. 

It is the first century in Palestine.  God’s people Israel are occupied.  Soldiers are on every corner.  Rome is an oppressive regime.  Fight had been the cry of Galileans from villages nearby Nazareth, which just two decades before Jesus’ teachings (probably when he was a child), many would have seen some of the two thousand of their countrymen crucified along the roadside out of Sepphoris.  Those not murdered were sold into slavery to end a rebellion against Rome.  In 4 BCE Rome then destroyed the village of Sepphoris where Judas the Galilean had led the rebellion.

Such abhorrent violence against the Hebrew people was vivid in the memories of the disciples and those who heard Jesus’ teachings.

Fight or Flight – Just 4 years before the birth of Christ, Judas the Galilean, had chosen to fight.  What does Jesus of Nazareth propose in the midst of ongoing occupation? 

Christ is not calling for new violence, nor is he calling the oppressed to flee.

Jesus is teaching the Third Way – the Third Way of non-violence.

‘Turn the other cheek’ which we interpret today as passive behavior did not mean that at the time Christ said this.  Left handedness was unacceptable, people with left-handedness were marginalized.  Using the left or dirty hand would bring shame on a person.  So ‘turning the other cheek for a second slap would force the person to use his left hand.  ‘Turning the other check’ is an act of non-violence - shaming the person who is hitting you because for the second hit, he’d have to us his left hand.  Use of the left hand in first century Palestine would bring shame – it was the bad hand.

‘Give your coat as well.’  We interpret this as simply more giving and a way to pacify the oppressor.  However, in the first century outer garments had value -- one could demand the outer garment for collateral until a debt was paid. There, however, was a legal limit. Demanding the inner garment was forbidden.  It would leave a person naked.  And the shame for that nakedness would be on the person receiving the inner shirt.

Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount adds this non-violent resistance to the list:

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other also.  If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic (inner garment).  If the occupying armed soldiers force you to carry their pack one mile, carry it two.”

‘Walk an extra mile’ -- a soldier of the occupation could make you walk one mile carrying his pack. But to make you walk a second mile carried severe penalties under military law.  Volunteering to walk the extra mile would put the soldier’s position in jeopardy! He would plead with you not to do so.  Now you have made the soldier your equal.  You have humanized the situation.  [Source: Walter Wink – Jesus and Non-violence: A Third Way, page 23 ff.]

We have misappropriate these teachings of Jesus to mean “lay down and let people walk over you like a carpet” when Jesus is advocating neither fight nor flight in the face of oppression – but the Third Way -  the way of non-violence.  The Third Way is intended to humanize the situation and level the playing field.  It is a way to meet the oppressor as a fellow human being, rather than an enemy.

Non-violence in response to injustice and oppression is not at all about submission, rather Jesus is advocating playful clowning – a lampooning of the powers that be.  Oppressors do not like comedians for they humor or humanize the foibles of a situation. 

Christ, by using lampooning is reflection on his Hebrew tradition where in the Talmud (record of Rabbinic teachings) it states:  “If your neighbor calls you an ass, put a saddle on your back.” 

The prophets, too, were noted for outrageous behavior.  Jeremiah was told by God to bury his stinking undershirt and weeks later told to dig it up and put it on a stick and show it to God’s people and say:  “This is what God thinks of you.”  The prophets often lived out the Third Way.

But we are made for fight or flight.  It is our natural disposition.  The way of non-violent resistance has to be learned.  Non-violence is a choice.  Fight or flight is instinctual.  Non-violence has the potential of humanizing an unjust situation.  Fight or flight keeps the enemy as an object to flee or overcome.

Fight or flight de-humanizes the ‘Other’ and maintains violence begetting violence.  Enemies are sometimes created in order to scapegoat problems in ourselves we refuse to face.  When we project our inadequacies and our own dark side on others rather than face those things in ourselves we create enemies.  When we paint whole groups of people with a negative brush we create enemies.

Beware of the man who can do no wrong, who never says, “I have sinned!”

Beware when language is used to deprive people of their humanity.  Beware when propaganda is used to perpetrate hate. Beware lest we feed our bad wolf and answer injustice and violence in kind. 

The Pogo Cartoon says it plainly: We have met the enemy and he is us.

Until we confess our own complicity and willfulness we will inadvertently become the evil we despise.  When we meet violence with violence we propagate the worst of human nature.  When we flee violence or are indifferent or passive the violence will multiply. 

There is the Third Way the way that finds creative alternatives to violence by asserting one’s own humanity and dignity.  That is what Jesus is teaching with turn the other cheek.  The Third Way meets force with ridicule and humor.  That is what Jesus is teaching when he tells the people of his day to give up the inner garment or walk the extra mile – it is a way to lampoon the oppressor and expose the injustices of an authoritarian system.

Jesus stands his ground.  He causes his oppressors to see him in a new light.  Jesus is willing to pay the penalty for breaking unjust laws such as when he heals on the Sabbath or crosses boundaries of race (the Story of the Good Samaritan) and gender (spending time with a sinful woman at Jacob’s well).

Nice talk, Pastor, but what does this Third Way have to do with my everyday life? 

A relative or friend maligns people who use food stamps as being lazy and taking advantage of the Government.

‘Those people’ – when we begin or hear a sentence that begins with ‘Those People’ we can kindly and gently ask the person who are ‘those people?’

We can uphold the dignity of those who find themselves in poverty. 

When tweets that bully or name call are published or personal attacks are launched we can lampoon them and call them out as irrelevant.  Rather than remain silent and indifferent we can gently but firmly expose the fallacies that are prevalent today.

When a racist remark is made we can stand our ground and speak up for those being maligned. 

The community of faith can make it abundantly clear that the church is a sanctuary for all and until just laws are passed immigrants are safe in God’s Church.

Put a flower in the locker of a bully. Go with a group of people and publically pray at the last place there was gun violence in our neighborhoods.

The Third Way is the way of the Cross.  Jesus took the cross which at his time was the ultimate symbol of oppression and injustice.  He took the cross which executed thousands of people, 2,000 on the road of village near Nazareth – he took on the symbol or ultimate violence and transformed it into a symbol of Divine Love. 

From the cross he spoke the words of the Third Way:  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Professor Walter Wink in his book Jesus and Non-Violence: A Third Way writes:  “But I think the very essence of Christianity is the cross.  It is through the cross that we will change...God can bring out of [voluntary] assumed suffering the precious seeds of a new reality.”

Near the end of World War II in January 1945, Ravensbruck (56 miles north of Berlin) and its sub camps held over 45,000 female prisoners and over 5,000 male prisoners.

In early March, the Hitler’s SS began "evacuating" Ravensbruck when they transported 2,100 male prisoners to Sachsenhausen.

In late March 1945, the SS transported about 5,600 female prisoners to the Mauthausen and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.

In late April, SS guards forced about 20,000 female prisoners, as well as most of the remaining male prisoners, on a brutal and forced evacuation on foot toward northern Mecklenberg.

Advancing Soviet forces intersected the route of the march and liberated the prisoners. On April 29 remaining SS guards at the camp fled, and on April 30 the vanguard of the Soviet Army arrived at Ravensbrück; on May 1 its regular units appeared and liberated the last prisoners.

Shortly before the evacuation, the Germans had handed over several hundred female prisoners, mostly of French nationality, to officials of the Swedish and Danish Red Cross. When Soviet forces liberated Ravensbrück on April 29–30, 1945, they found over 2,000 sick men women, and children in the camp.

From 1939 to 1945, over 130,000 female prisoners passed through the Ravensbrück camp system; between 20,000 to 30,000 of these prisoners died in Ravensbrück.

This prayer was found near the dead body of a child:

“O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted on us, remember the fruits we have bought, because of this suffering - our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out of all of this, and when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have borne be their forgiveness.”

Out of such suffering The Third Way – the precious seeds of a new reality.

Amen