disarming love

2/21/11 from my sermon on Matthew 5:38-48

Turn the other cheek...I gave the shirt off my back....Go the second mile...We have heard these phrases before. Now we know that they come from Jesus from his Sermon on the Mount. Far too many times we have taken them to mean "submit, be passive, give in, endure, take it."

Those words, Do not resist an evil doer, only serve to cement this understanding for us. But this is not the best translation. A better way to interpret this verse would be, Don't retaliate against violence with violence or don't react violently against an evil doer.

We have been taught about our two options to violence...fight or flight. What if there is a third way? I am using the work of Walter Wink and his book Jesus and Nonviolence for this sermon. I am calling this third way: disarming love.

I need a volunteer for this next part. Turn the other cheek...what does that mean? Did you notice that the verse says if someone strikes you on the right cheek? What would happen is this: the powerful person would use the back of his right hand to strike someone on the right cheek. That type of blow serves to put one in his or her subservient place. What happens when you turn the other cheek...so that the left cheek now faces the striker? It gets the striker in an awkward position. If he uses his right backhand, he could catch the nose; not a very forceful blow. Or he could miss the left cheek altogether as it would appear flat to him. To use his right fist on the left cheek would cause the striker to admit that the person he was hitting was his equal. He would not use his left hand at all. The left hand was considered unclean. It was used only for wiping one's bottom. It would have brought shame on him to use his left hand. So to turn the other cheek is far from being submissive; it is a creative way for the one struck to cause the striker to deal with him or her as an equal. It is a way to assert self-worth. It is a way of saying, "Deal with me as a person, not an object." It is disarming love.

There was a young boy who was a runt. He further had the problem of a constant runny nose, sinusitis. Therefore, he was an easy target to be picked on by the bully on the school bus. One day, the runt had had enough. He came up with a creative way of dealing with the bully. As the bully approached, the runt blew his snot into his right hand. He then held it out to the bully, and said, "I've always wanted to shake the hand of a real bully." The bully fell back in total fear. He crept to his seat and never bothered the runt again.

For this next part, I won't use a volunteer as you will soon see. If someone sues for your outer garment, give your inner garment as well. People back then only had an outer garment and an inner one. If you were really poor and owed money, it was permissible for the creditor to keep your outer garment during the day as a pledge that you would pay back your debt. But Jewish law said that at night, the creditor had to return the outer garment, because it was what the debtor slelpt in to keep warm.

So when the creditor sues to take the outer garment permanently, what can the debtor do? He gives the creditor his underwear. Can you see this in court? The creditor is there holding the outer garment in one hand and underwear in another. The debtor is nekkid (as we say in Texas) and says "what else are you going to take?" In the Jewish culture, the one who is naked in not in shame, but the one who caused his nakedness. It is a creative way to change the power dynamic. It is disarming love.

There was a shanty town in South Africa during apartheid that was causing the white government trouble. They sent in troops to raze it to the ground. The soldiers said, "You have 5 minutes to gather your stuff, and then we are going to bull doze the town." What did the women do? They stood in front of the bulldozers and stripped off all of their clothes. The young troops ran away. They had been exposed for what they were doing. They had to see the women as human beings they were hurting.

I need a volunteer for this next part. Go the second mile it says. The occupying army of Rome could force a local citizen to carry his pack for one mile. The Romans built great roads with mile markers. It was a way to remind the locals who was in charge. However, the soldier could only force the local to carry just one mile. To do more was against the law and might incite the locals to rebel. The packs were heavy, maybe 80 lbs. Mine is full of Bible dictionaries! So can you see at the end of the mile, a Jewish man saying, I'll go another mile. All of a sudden the soldier is in a quandry. Do you think I am not man enough to carry my own pack? Do you want to get me in trouble with my superior officer? Imagine this humorous dynamic: the big powerful Roman soldier begging the Jewish local, "Please give me my pack back." It is a way of turning the tables, of shifting the power, of using humor, of being creative. It is an act of disarming love.

You are asking, "Does this really work?" It worked in Poland, in S. Africa, in E. Germany, some places where Walter Wink did some training. It worked in India. It worked in the American South during the civil rights struggles. It may be at work right now in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Yemen, in Bahrain. It is love that disarms.

You are saying this is really hard to love enemies. Yes it is. We are called to see the enemy as a person too, more than that, as a child of God. It is too easy for the oppressed to react violently and to become the oppressor. Then an endless cycle repeats. Ghandi said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

It is hard to love our enemies. Our inability to do so throws us back into the arms of grace. We cannot do it by ourselves. Only Christ in us can do it. Only with the community's help can we do it.

And then Jesus says, Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. Thanks a lot. We want to give up. But I looked it up this past week. The verb tense is not in the imperative; it is future tense. Jesus says, "You will be made perfect. As you grow in me, you will become like me. My love will be perfected in you." Jesus is opening the possiblity for us to love...even to love our enemies.

We have a symbol of this disarming love that is upfront and center in our churches. It is the cross. Jesus takes what looks like death and defeat and turns it into life and victory. Christ crucified, dead, and risen is what disarming love looks like. That is the good news I have to share.