Very frequently, when we hear stories from the Jesus, he gets almost to the punch line or point of the story, but not quite. He leaves us just short, forcing us to think harder, making us come to conclusions, wondering the whole time, whether we’ve landed in the right direction. Just exactly what is Jesus asking of us with this saying or that story? Today, there isn’t much room for individual interpretation, in either the Gospel or the Old Testament readings. Today, we are provided the conclusion. You would think that might make it easier. The problem is that without all that time to ponder what it means or how it applies, to hear the set up of the story, the conclusion sounds abrupt and out of context at best, or senseless and irrelevant at worst.
Here are a few examples.
If you work hard and plant your field, don’t harvest the whole field. Leave the edge of the field so the poor and alien can gather the fruits of your harvest.
If someone does something wrong, or wrong to you, don’t take vengeance or bear a grudge.
If someone sues you and takes your coat, give them your cloak as well.
While it’s unlikely any of us are field workers, or being sued for our coat, it’s not hard to translate each of these into something that’s far more relevant today. And once we do that, these words seem to make even less sense.
If you’ve worked hard in business and made money, don’t take it all. Leave some for those in poverty and undocumented workers, who are the aliens of today.
If you are taken to court, either for your business or personal life, and you lose a contentious settlement and need to pay up, pay even more.
If you or your home is robbed, don’t bear a grudge.
If you see someone begging on the street in downtown, give to them. Always.
The rules are clear. But given our world, they make no sense. We are in a time and place where giving to every beggar would be time consuming. Where we work hard for the settlements and lawsuits in our favor, where we take issue with welfare and taxes continually taking our hard-earned money.
There are a few things that we heard today that are more in line with the way we think, moreover, the way our culture seemingly promotes and expects us to behave. An eye for an eye. Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But unfortunately, these more familiar concepts are precisely what Christ is saying we should not do.
Christ says that not only are we to love our neighbor, we’re also supposed to love our enemy. And pray for those who persecute us.
I’ve heard these words – love your enemy and leave your field for the foreigner - and I know it to be the right thing to do, but it doesn’t make sense. Why should I give up my hard earned money? Why should I not reap what I sow? Why should I give to beggars and pray for the people who really hurt me or those I love? It doesn’t make sense in the world as I perceive and experience it.
As I understand it, we live in a world at a time where we’re supposed to aim for more. Make more. Be more. Spend more. More differentiates us from others. We compare ourselves to others and set our place in the social structure by those things we strive for more of – money, prestige, power. That’s something we all do, throughout time and throughout the world. In America, we have the added layer of the American Dream, self made man, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. All of this is counter to what we hear today.
But how our culture lives is strikingly similar to the game of Life, that board game created by Milton Bradley in 1860. The stated objective of the game of Life is to “have the highest dollar amount at the end of the game.” Now, I know that Milton Bradley hasn’t really defined our lives, set the rules, or that we’re not really playing one giant parlor game. I think no one here would believe that their life’s objective is to simply have the highest dollar amount at the end of your game.
We know that we have to live this life, in order to enjoy what we make of it. We get married. We have children. We spend money on trips and memories. All of these things result in a net loss of the dollar amount we have at the end of our game. We know life is more than just having the most.
So I think we can all agree that we aren’t little pink and blue pegs in the game of Life. We don’t move through the world simply by spinning the spinner and moving to the “go to college” square. And we don’t win simply by having the most.
And yet, it’s such a pervasive message in our world view that it’s the premise of our country’s first board game. It may not be our goal in life, but it sometimes seems like it’s supposed to be.
So if that’s not the game we are playing, if that’s not the objective of the game, what is the end game a Christ-centered life, and how do we get there? I think Christ is clear about the objective. Love God and love each other. But how do we get there? What are the rules?
What Christ is talking about is a fundamentally different game. We know the goal of this game is to love, but we forget, or we momentarily play to a different end. And even if we could keep the objective always in mind, the rules for how to play are very foreign, and since cave man days, Christ’s ways are not the ways we are hard wired to respond, not only an approaching saber tooth tiger, or a schoolyard bully, but to all of the challenges life throws our way.
We are hard wired for one of two responses. Fight. Or Flight.
I think as rugged Americans we’re quick to pick fight, or said more politely, to rise to the challenge. We know how to stand up for and get what we want. If needed, we can back down or run away, but we see it as weakness. In order to win at the perceived game we’re in, we are often in conflict, and we often chose to fight.
I think that when we get confused about the objective of the game of a Christ centered life, to end the game with the most money, or power or prestige, we see life as conflict, weigh our options and chances of winning, and frequently pick fight.
But if the objective of this game isn’t to win with the most, but rather to love, could it be possible we’re using the wrong rules? Maybe fight or flight is the wrong hard-wired choice.
Because we forget what game we’re playing, the rules make no sense. Conflict, evil and oppression arise because someone has lost sight of the vision of love. When someone is working on that Milton Bradly objective, fight or flight makes much more sense. I will get ahead, because I will tromp on you. I am more powerful or will exert my control over you because I can. I think today’s readings give us a glimpse into a different set of rules for this game.
Christ is trying to show us that we don’t need to pick fight or flight. Those are not the rules for his game, and although it may seem like those are the only options, he’s showing another way, a way of love, and of peaceful, yet persistent resistance. And when we respond this other way, we totally change the nature of the game we’re playing, and begin to change the game around us as well.
You see, when you encounter someone playing the game of Life with the worldly rules, change the game with a response that demonstrates you’re not playing that game. At all. That’s not your objective. And those aren’t your rules.
What does this peaceful resistance look like? This third way?
One of the modern day practitioners of peaceful resistance was Gandhi. In the movie classic Gandhi, there’s a scene where he’s walking down the street with an Anglican Priest. A band of thugs approach them. The Priest suggests they move to the other side of the street. (This is the “flee” option. ) Gandhi refuses, quoting today’s Gospel reading, “Doesn’t the New Testament say that if someone strikes you on the cheek you offer them the other cheek?”
The Priest tries to explain it away as a metaphor, but Gandhi disagrees. He says that he thought Christ was calling for courage. Courage to stand your ground and not flee. Courage to take the blow. Also show courage to not fight back. He explains to the priest that if you don’t flee, and you don’t fight, it calls upon something in the other person. It makes them realize, perhaps slowly, that you are not playing by the same rules or for the same end game, and something changes in them. The hatred decreases, respect increases. With that simple act of resistance, you have changed the game.
Each one of the examples offered in the Gospel today is a powerful demonstration of courage. If you respond in that third way, it’s also gives you control over the situation. You are defining the objective of the game. Love. Respond with a way that refuses to give in. And refuses to fight. And loves.
If someone sues you, graciously give them more. Show love. It’s disarming.
The story about being asked to go one mile? That was something soldiers did, as a demeaning request coming from their worldly power. I’m a soldier, I can ask you to carry my stuff for one mile. To fight would be to argue, and that wouldn’t go well. To flee or concede would be to simply do as you’re told. What Christ provides is a third option. Go two miles. I’ll carry your stuff, not because you have power over me, not because I’m powerless. I’ll carry your stuff for two miles, because I love. That response wholly disarms the soldier. He din’t need you to carry his stuff. He wanted you to play by his rules. You instead change the game, carry it for two, and leave the soldier wondering what happened to the power-feeding interaction he set up. It vaporized, with your simple response.
In modern day, I have little power battles in my day job, with people wanting to exert power over me because they can, or at home with kids, because I can. Sometimes, I argue or resist. And that rarely goes well. Sometimes I just do as I’m told. And that also doesn’t feel good, because it feels like I’m feeding a warped power appetite. If however, I can take a minute, and refocus on Christ’s goal for me I can change the dynamic entirely. I can respond in a way that truly helps the other person, helps them succeed. What started as a snarky power-laden request from someone else, or from me, ends with surprised, gracious and genuine appreciation. And it changes the relationship a little for ever.
We constantly get caught up in playing the other Game of Life. And we forget what the purpose of our life really is. We forget how to play. So does everyone around us. By modeling peaceful resistance, by refusing to fight violence with violence, or by refusing to succumb to worldly corrupt power, we live in a way that is Christ centered. And for those people around us who don’t know the Good News of Christ’s rules and goals, our actions give them a glimpse of another, more loving way to be.
Amen.
