Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Romans 12:9-21
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
There isn't a single day that Christ King isn't reminded of the October 2006 morning that Charles Carl Roberts IV entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania opening fire on a group of female students. King's daughter, Rosanna, six years old at the time, was one of the youngest students at the school that day. Roberts injured five students and took the lives of five others before taking his own life.
Rosanna survived the attack but was permanently wheelchair-bound. She died at age 18. The rest of her short life, she could not speak and required round-the-clock care. For her father, each day was a new day in which he had to find the strength to overcome his own demons. Each day was a new day in which he fought back his anger. Each day was a new day in which he worked to forgive.
It would have been easy for him and any other member of the Amish community there at Nickel Mines to allow anger to consume them. Instead, shortly after the identity of the shooter was known, the Amish community visited Charles Carl Roberts’ parents who lived nearby to offer their sympathy to them. They, too, had lost a child that day. The Amish created a human wall to surround his family on the day of his burial so that the family would be shielded and given privacy.
Rosanna’s family allowed Robert's mother, Terri, to help with Rosanna's care for a number of years until she herself was diagnosed with a terminal illness. In turn, they cared for her until her own death.
The Amish community refused to give in to the temptation of allowing anger, pain, grief or any kind of desire for vengeance to consume them. Instead they chose the road less traveled which for them became a path to healing. But it was the daily work for Christ King every time he looked at his daughter to once again be reminded of what that attack had cost her and his family.
The truth of the matter is that we too easily fall into anger and bitterness toward those who have wronged us in some way. We want to get even. We want the wrong- doers to pay for what they have done to hurt us. And the desire to seek our own vengeance can quickly allow evil to overcome us.
In his letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul knows his audience even though he's never met them face to face. He knows that the Christians in Rome know a whole lot about the unrelenting persecution of those who are believers. He understands the struggles between Gentile and Jewish converts to this new faith. And he also knows that Christians cannot allow themselves to harbor the same evil thoughts toward one another that they may see reflected in the world around them
And so in our lesson today we hear Paul telling these worshipers not to be overcome by evil, not to hate what is evil but to hold fast to what is good and to overcome evil with good. These verses would function perfectly as a modern day group covenant for almost any church ministry. They give structure and the core values on which both ministries of the church and individual Christians are built. There is a mix of “the usual suspects” along with suggestions that promise to stretch individuals and faith communities beyond what might seem logical, practical or even “good” to them.
Few church members would argue with Paul’s encouragement to hate evil, to persevere in prayer or to celebrate with the joyful and weep with the grieving.
Everyone is on board with that and can feel confident about that. The more complicated part of this text concerns our relationships with those whom we find hard to love. Paul’s call to “hold fast to what is good” flies in the face of popular culture. To say that our core values include not only extending hospitality to strangers but extending blessing, feeding and refusing to take vengeance on enemies will put a strain on our own spirituality and on relationships with those outside the faith community. This passage is not a greeting card slogan but a call to costly discipleship.
How do we hear his words about actively blessing those who persecute us? How can we satisfy ourselves that God's vengeance is more than enough? How can we bring ourselves to feed, to clothe, to show kindness to our enemies? It's the daily work Christ King and the entire Amish community at Nickel Mines. And ours as well. It's an affirmative decision by each of us as individuals to walk in faith with God. It's making the hard decision for a daily journey of choosing the Christ path knowing it is the only way to save our own souls.
Composer Rene Clausen was commissioned to create a musical work in memory of the victims of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. His work, called “Memorial,” includes these words:
“Gracious and loving God,
Pour forth your mercy upon us all.
We pray for our enemies,
All those who hate us,
We condemn them to your mercy.
If there be any grain of hatred in us,
Wash us clean and cleanse us,
Move us to the common ground of Your Being, O God.”
Notice what he says: we condemn them to God's mercy. Rather than our own vengeance, we are encouraged to pray that our hearts be cleansed and purified from hatred that would threaten to engulf us and snuff the very life from us.
I commend his text to you because I believe that this is a prayer worthy of our daily reflection and contemplation both in response to global and personal events. When we feel divisiveness in our world, we need more than ever to strengthen our relationship with God and seek God's mercy upon us, cleansing our lives of bitterness and hatred so that we may renew right relationship with one another.
It is only when we are able to renew right relationship with one another that we can, without estrangement and without barriers, go about doing the work that God has given us to do -- laboring in the vineyard together supporting the weak, caring for the afflicted, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, showing mercy to the prisoner, and loving all God’s people because God first loved us.
Amen
