“Be subject to rulers and authorities, obedient, and ready for every good work;… speak evil of no one, avoid quarrelling, be gentle, and show every courtesy to everyone.” (Titus 3:1-2)
“Live in harmony with one another;… do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so afar as it depends on you, live peaceably with all…. Never avenge yourself, but leave room for the wrath of God;… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:14, 16-19 & 21)
Political violence is not new. Whether it was the assassination of Julius Caesar by Brutus in 44 BCE, the violent overthrow of the French Monarchy in 1792, the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 or JFK in 1963, or the brutal intimidation tactics of Hitler’s S.A (or “Brown Shirts”) in the early days of his rise to power in pre-Nazi Germany, people have been using violence to try and advance their view of politics since the beginning of recorded history.
So, given the dangerous rhetoric that’s been encouraged and allowed to circulate unchecked over the last few years, what happened yesterday in the hallowed halls of our national Capitol is not entirely surprising – intensely disappointing and angering, but not surprising. The good news is that the mechanisms of proper government in our country were not so easily intimidated or halted by bands of thugs or mobs. The sad news, of course, is that these types of groups exist at all, highlighting the great work that still needs to be done to address the prejudice and fear entrenched in the minds and hearts of many around us.
In many ways, this kind of prejudice and fear is illustrated in the biblical story of Pilate asking the crowd to choose between the releasing either of Barabbas or Jesus (read this story in Matthew 27:15-23, Mark 15:6-15, Luke 23:18-25, or John 18:39-40). While Pilate may have literally been asking them to choose between two men, he was metaphorically and symbolically also asking them to choose between two ways of dealing with political views that were different than their own: the way of violence and hate (represented by Barabbas); and the way of love and compassion (represented by Jesus). In many ways, this same choice haunts us today when we are faced with views and politics that differ from our own, and challenges each of us to ask ourselves, “What part am I playing in enabling compassion, peace, and respect, and love to win out over prejudice, hate, and violence?” No, not all of us are physically violent when we don’t get our way. But if we allow mistrust, prejudice, hate, and fear to exist within ourselves in any degree, then the seeds of eventual violence are already there, just waiting for the right spark to unleash them, as happened yesterday with the insurrection in our national Capitol. The advice the Titus 3 passage reminds us to “Be subject to rulers and authorities, obedient, and ready for every good work;… [to] speak evil of no one, avoid quarrelling, be gentle, and show every courtesy to everyone” (Titus 3:1-2).
The plot of the 1986 movie The Mission highlights this choosing between the way of love or the way of violence, and how – just as with the crowd’s choice on Good Friday – too often we choose the latter (or at least allow its seeds to germinate within us). The very last scene of the movie shows a 18th-century religious leader in Paraguay who had ordered the removal of missionaries by force questioning those who carried it out why the brutality and slaughter that ensued was necessary. One of them replies, “You had no alternative, your Eminence. We work in the world, and the world is thus.” The religious leader replies, “No, Señor Hontes. Thus have we made the world…. Thus have I made it.”
So, before we go around complaining about what someone else is not doing to be people of peace,
respect and love, we first need to look deep inside ourselves and ask what we are doing to help foster and
encourage these, and to make sure our
actions (or inactions) are not the inadvertent cause of strife and hatred in
the world around us. The text above from Romans 12:18 puts it this way: “If it is possible, so afar as it depends on you,
live peaceably with all.” And the
words of a famous hymn reinforce this by saying:
Let there be peace on earth, the peace that
was meant to be.
With God our creator, children all are we.
Let us walk with each other in perfect
harmony.
Let peace begin with me; let this be the
moment now.
With every step I take, let this be my solemn
vow:
To take each moment and live each moment in
peace eternally;
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin
with me.”
[--Words by Sy Miller and Jill Jackson (1955), cited
from the United Methodist Hymnal #431]
My prayer for each of us and for our world is that we would all continue to seek to choose the ways of Jesus (the “prince of peace”), and encourage others to do the same. Always remember that God loves you and I do, too!
