October 19, 2003
The
Value of Life
Linda A. Knieriemen
I spent some time daydreaming over Edward Hicks painting Peaceable Kingdom this week. This early 19th Century Quaker depicts in vivid colors Isaiah’s vision of a time the wolf lives at peace with the lamb, the leopard lies down with the kid, and the child plays near the snake’s nest. I found myself wondering how long it took for the lamb to let the wolf into her personal space? When did the wolf’s growling soften? The lamb’s fear melt? Did they have a period of testing the waters of trust? How did it happen that the wolves and sheep, cows and lions, children and snakes get all cozy and smile? I wonder… did it take just a snap of the Divine Fingers at the appointed time and presto! It’s the magical, peaceable kingdom? As we examine the sixth commandment this morning, I invite you to hold the image of the Peaceable Kingdom in your mind’s eye.
“You Shall Not Commit Murder”. Or as many of us learned it, “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” When I was a little girl learning the Ten Commandments in Sunday school, this was one of the two “easy ones”. I hadn’t a clue what adultery was, except that children were exempt. And my parents might have thought me a little vixen at times, but I wasn’t nearly evil enough to kill another person, or even know how if I’d wanted to. So, unlike Riley who last week began his sermon on “Thou Shalt Not Steal” with a confession, I don’t think I have any childhood confessions with which to begin this sermon.
You shall not commit murder. Murder evokes our fear. Murderers are jailed, sometimes for a lifetime. Society demands it. I suspect that adults as well as children in examining their life for sin don’t pause long on “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. But when we explore implications of this commandment for policy making in society (not just in personal ethical behavior), we find hot button issues and the stuff of lengthy debates. Think about the headlines over the past week or so. Should the death penalty be sought for the Washington D.C. sniper? Or anyone? Should a feeding tube be removed from a woman who for 13 years has lived in a vegetative state? Should U.S. funds be withheld from international aid agencies who provide abortion counseling?
How you chose to answer those questions will depend upon your understanding of law, your personal experience, and your interpretation of the Bible as an ethical guide. Whatever your conclusions and means of justifying the exceptions (even scripture does this), the Ten Commandments forbid killing. Why? Because humans are created in the image of God and are imbued with value; they are God-given and priceless.
Earlier this week I did a little sermon research at the movies, and saw “Luther, The Movie” -- a fine, historically accurate film about Martin Luther (it is rather amazing to find such a film in commercial theaters, even in religious West Michigan. It’s not exactly a light and entertaining film with wide audience appeal. This is the land of John Calvin’s people not Lutherland like Minnesota). Throughout the film, indeed throughout the years of the Reformation, death by burning at the stake threatened those who were deemed heretics by the church -- a fate Martin Luther narrowly escaped.
Please recall that vision of The Peaceable Kingdom in the 16th and 17th Century in Europe, the period of the Reformation. The wolves are hunting down and killing the lambs.
Martin Luther’s claim to salvation by grace through faith constituted a threat to church leadership because, among other things, it resulted in a decreased sale of indulgences guaranteed to release dead relatives from purgatory. Such challenges to official church doctrine were rewarded by an appearance before the Inquisition and subsequent execution if one did not recant. Looking back through the eyes of the filmmaker, we (Protestants and Roman Catholics alike) are horrified by the intolerance this represents; we squirm and protest saying, “You Shall Not Kill” and congratulate ourselves for tolerating theological diversity in the 21st Century.
And that’s when we find ourselves standing next to the self-righteous Jewish leaders Jesus criticizes. “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees”, Jesus says to his followers, “You will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus’ way demands more than the letter of the law. Moses’ law emphasizes the value of life. Jesus asks us to value persons, to value relationships. Jesus asks the wolf to stop hunting the lamb so they can befriend one another!
In Grand Rapids over the past few weeks, we have a lot of wolves and bears and lions making unfriendly noises at the lambs and kids and cows. The days of the Grand Inquisitor and burnings at the stake for heresy are over, but we are far from the Peaceable Kingdom when it comes to relationship building in either the local Christian family or in the global religious family. I’m talking about the verbal bullets that are being shot around town; this time over the Grand Rapids Center for Ecumenism’s decision to not participate in the Thanksgiving Interfaith Service. Here’s a summary:
The Grand Rapids Area Center for Ecumenism, GRACE, is a religious organization drawn from nearly 300 participating congregations, including WPC. Its vision includes both promoting unity with the Body of Christ and expressing a role in the interfaith community. GRACE invites individuals, congregations, and the wider community into greater reconciliation through cooperative ministries such as the Hunger Walk, AIDS Care Network, and the Racial Justice Institute. An extension of that vision and mission in the past two years has included co-sponsorship of an interfaith Thanksgiving service. But following last year’s gathering, leaders of several of GRACE’s participating churches (certain Roman Catholic and CRC churches, including our neighbor LaGrave CRC) expressed a concern that based upon their church’s doctrinal beliefs, they could not, without sacrificing their spiritual integrity, worship and pray side-by-side with all of the religious groups represented in the Thanksgiving Service. Because consensus could not be reached on the board, GRACE chose not to co-sponsor the Thanksgiving event but will continue to support interfaith programming and dialogue (the Interfaith Service will be held on the Monday preceding Thanksgiving at Trinity United Methodist Church on Lake Drive and it will have support and leadership from WPC). Nevertheless, front page Grand Rapids Press stories highlighted GRACE’s decision, introduced conflict, and the inflammatory attacks began.
Two weeks ago on World Communion Sunday we celebrated Christian Unity across the world as we recognized that we are partners in Christ regardless of our skin color, our geography, our language of prayer, and our clothing. But when it comes to differences of belief with our neighbors across the street, we can’t agree to disagree without criticizing their faithfulness and their devotion. God weeps. Of course we should hold fast to our personal and corporate beliefs. Yes, we should learn to be clear about what distinguishes us as Presbyterian, or Reformed, or Christian in general. Someone holding a belief system which is different from yours doesn’t prohibit you from hanging on to yours! How easily we are threatened!
I am sad that GRACE felt it needed to pull out of the service this year -- maybe you are too. My understanding mirrors that of the PC(USA) which offers this guidance: “We can share in interfaith celebration with integrity because we are aware that God is present and active in all creation. We can be authentically open to the intimations of the Spirit’s presence in the midst of an interfaith gathering and at the same time be deeply committed to our faith in God through Jesus Christ. Agreement with that statement doesn’t require battering and belittling others who don’t.
Grand Rapids Area Center for Ecumenism, its staff, its board, and its supporters are accused of practicing a “watered down Christianity” by some conservatives because of their efforts to build bridges with Moslems, Jews, Buddhists, and others. On the other hand, Reverend Stan Mast and the leadership at LaGrave are under hostile fire from members (as well as total strangers) who write in the Public Pulse accusing them of unloving exclusivist attitudes toward other faiths. Last week at the City Wide Food Drive a radical defender of inclusivity demanded to know why we employ a member of LaGrave as our Food Pantry Director -- “they aren’t Christians”. Conservative Christians accuse liberal Christians of being “so-called-Christians” because they have a broad view of acceptable worship and liberal Christians accuse conservative Christians of being “so-called-Christians” because they hold a narrow view.
Our Biblical text and our community context offer us a teachable moment.
Jesus teaches that angry outbursts are like murder. Biblical scholar William Barclay writes that there are two words for anger in Greek, one is the anger that flames up quickly and then dies down (like a straw fire), and the other is an anger which is long-lived and over which you brood. It is the second kind of anger that Jesus rejects, an anger which will not forget and which seeks revenge.
Jesus teaches that verbal abuse is like murder. The word he uses is “raca”, an almost untranslatable word. Think “airhead”. Think racial slurs. Think profanity. Think dismissive gestures. I was taught “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. That might have bolstered my ego to get through a half hour of teasing at recess as a ten-year-old, but words pierce the psyche like a bullet and can remain lodged there for a lifetime. Harsh words and resentment can wound a spirit more quickly than alcohol and drugs.
Jesus teaches that passing judgment is like murder. Calling someone a “fool” or literally “moron” is likened to murder because it questions one’s moral character, not based upon any sort of measured evaluation or against any standard, but out of anger with intent to malign.
So why are these behaviors -- judging, name calling, and desire for revenge -- like murder? Because they wound relationships. Harsh words and attitudes sever the cords which bind us together as human beings. It isn’t the variety of beliefs we hold which separate us; it’s our fear and insecurity which lead to our feeling threatened and causing us to lash out and attempt to remove the “enemy”. My challenge is being able to vehemently disagree with our colleague Reverend Stan Mast AND to still respect him. In the Middle Ages the enemy was burned at the stake. Today the enemy’s heart is scorched with hostile words. Relationships break when respect is exchanged for rebuke. Relationships end when a person is devalued by judgment. I was wrong at the beginning of this sermon, because when I examine my conscious based upon Jesus interpretation of this commandment, I do find myself broken and in need of confession.
Jesus is too gracious to point out our brokenness and not give us a solution. He says you have heard it said, you shall not murder, but I say, reconcile. Mend your broken relationships before you try to mend your broken relationship with God. Jesus invites; no insists that the wolf and the lamb come to a truce and more that they become friends.
Whatever the issue is (whether differences in religious beliefs, or racial difference, or politics), I want to leave you with two suggestions for getting beyond rock throwing and abuse hurling and onto the road to reconciliation.
First, mind your ego. A Christian once visited a Zen Buddhist Master and said, “Allow me to read you some sentences from the Sermon on the Mount.” “I shall listen to them with pleasure, said the master. The Christian read a few sentences and looked up. The master smiled and said, ”Whoever said those words was truly enlightened.” This pleased the Christian. He read on. The master interrupted and said, “Those words come from a savior of humankind.” The Christian was thrilled. He continued to read to the end. The master then said, “That sermon was pronounced by someone who was radiant with divinity.” The Christian’s joy knew no bounds. He left, determined to return and persuade the master to become a Christian. On the way back home he found Jesus standing by the roadside. “Lord,” he said enthusiastically, “I got that man to confess that you are divine!” Jesus smiled and said, “And what good did it do you except to inflate your Christian ego?” Humility precedes reconciliation.
Secondly, make it personal. When two people can look one another in the eye and dialogue up close rather than objectifying their adversary from afar, reconciliation becomes an option. Laura Blumenfeld, a journalist for The Washington Post, tells in her book, Revenge, a Story of Hope, of her desire to revenge the shooting of her rabbi father in Jerusalem by a Moslem gang member. In forging a friendship with the shooter’s family and establishing correspondence with the shooter himself (and eventually meeting him face-to-face), Laura’s desire for revenge was transformed into hope and the shooter became an advocate for peace. In one of his letters, Omar wrote to Laura, “People are different when you know them up close.” Laura and her father (who survived the shooting) will be in Grand Rapids this Thursday evening as part of a two-day interfaith event exploring forgiveness (yes, with sponsorship of the Grand Rapids Area Center for Ecumenism).
Jesus has a final word and that is this -- do it quickly. Reconcile now, before matters get piled up. Come to terms quickly with your adversaries. There is urgency to this work of reconciliation.
I believe that the vision of the Peaceable Kingdom will be fulfilled in God’s time, not because of our work. But when it comes, I want to have been part of a grand dress rehearsal where the lamb in me risked sitting face-to-face with the wolves of my world. May it be so for you as well.
AMEN
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