Reverence vs. Revenge

A sermon preached by the Rev. Terence L. Elsberry, Rector, at St. Matthew's Church, Bedford , New York , on the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 16, 2004.

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I

The Bible says we should come boldly before the throne of God and tell Him our needs.

I come before the throne of God in a position of great need today. But I don't come boldly. I'm limping this morning. I'm dragging myself to the source of God's grace and God's mercy. Because I am so weighted down, I am so grief-stricken, by the humiliation of events that have occurred in Iraq in the past week.

In photographs that will live in infamy I have been again reminded of our incredible human ability to commit unspeakable acts of cruelty to each other. In doing so, to bring shame and humiliation on the human race, on the nations we represent and on the God in whose image the Bible tells us we are created.

But a difference between God and us is that God is without sin. And human beings are stained by sin, seeped in sin, awash in sin. And over and over evil takes possession of God's noblest creation and turns us into something ignoble. Evil makes us a mockery of God's glorious intention.

We go into the prison made infamous by Saddam Hussein's brutality and commit our lesser, smaller-scale, yet egregious acts of brutality. In reprisal, one of our own is murdered in a manner that reminds us we live in a new Dark Age. Seeking reprisal, Americans write to their newspaper editors across the country crying out for more revenge. Cruelty, abuse and revenge are not respecters of nationality, race or creed. These characteristics are human characteristics. They are human sin, for sin is the human condition.

II

Faced again with the wretchedness of our condition, another cry rises from the hearts of right-thinking men and women: Where is our hope?

So we come this morning to the throne of grace, and we cry, “Father God, help! Help us deal with this world. Where is our hope for a better world?”

In response, what would God say to us this morning? I believe He would say something like this: “Your hope is in a man, in a model and in a method.”

I'll add another picture to those coming out of Iraq . It's another picture of shameful abuse, torture and murder. It's the picture of the man, Jesus of Nazareth, hanging on a cross.

If we are to find hope for the world, we must begin with ourselves. Are you and I capable of inflicting brutal hurt on another? Of course not, we say. Yet still we do hurt each other in a whole realm of lesser ways. We hurt each other because we are human. Because sin lives, in whatever form, to whatever degree, in each one of us.

Where do we find our personal hope for victory over sin? In the man who died for us.

If we believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins, then we begin to realize what our sin means to God.

If every time we sin we look into the eyes of Jesus dying for us, in our place, for the sins we have committed, then we begin to get some idea of what our sin costs Him.

When we hurt another person, we hurt God.

No one can go on forever wounding one who bears the blow like the blow Jesus bore for us. We cannot be forever insensitive to the hurt of another if we realize to what degree Jesus loves us.

In our knowledge of this man and what He did for us, and for the whole world, we find hope.

But Jesus did more than die sacrificially for us. He did more than rise victorious from the dead. He also gave us a model for how to live. He shows us how to live with reverence for each other. The atrocities being committed in Iraq and elsewhere throughout the world, the cruelty of one person to another, the vicious cycle of hurt and revenge endlessly repeated, find their opposite in the concept of reverence.

In His life, in His death, and in His teachings, in His acts of compassion, His works of liberation and cry for justice, Jesus expressed more than any other virtue that of reverence.

Reverence based on a primal respect for every human being – complete with all our flaws and frailties and weaknesses and beset as we are by sin. That's what's missing in murder, torture and abuse. That's what's missing in ridicule, contempt and name-calling. Reverence.

There's a marvelous new book Bishop Sisk gave all us New York clergy in Lent. It's called Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue , by Paul Woodruff.

Reverence was embodied by Jesus Christ. It was also a virtue that held together ancient cultures like the Greek and the Chinese. Proof that reverence no longer exists as a prized virtue is evident all around us.

Woodruff writes: “Simply put, reverence is the virtue that keeps human beings from trying to act like gods. To forget that you are only human, to think you can act like a god – this is opposite of reverence.”

We see the results of that opposite mindset in our media every day.

But let us see reverence. Let us rediscover the lost virtue of reverence. Let us look for reverence. Let us learn of it, practice it in every part of our lives, make it a priority in our every relationship. Let us revive the ancient and admirable art of reverence. Let us begin to walk the ancient path of reverence.

Look to the man: Jesus.

Practice the model: reverence.

III

God gave us the man. The man is our model. But what is the method that will enable you and me to walk the way of hope in this bitter age?

In the Friday, May 14 th edition of the New York Times , I found a reminder of how Christians ought to live out an alternative to evil. The author, Anahad O'Connor, is writing about the psychology of prisoner abuse, “a side of human behavior that psychologists have sought to understand for decades. But the murky reports of a handful of soldiers who refused to take part bring to light a behavior psychologists find even more puzzling: disobedience.”

The article cites a military report that “praised the actions of three men who tried to stop the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees. They are nowhere to be seen in the portraits of brutality that have touched off outrage around the world.

“Although details of their actions are sketchy, it is known that one soldier, Lt. David O. Sutton, put an end to one incident and alerted his commanders. William J. Kimbro, a Navy dog handler, ‘refused to participate in improper interrogations despite significant pressure from military intelligence,' according to the report. And Specialist Joseph M. Darby gave military police the evidence that sounded the alarm.

“In numerous studies over the past few decades, psychologists have found that a certain percentage of people simply refuse to give in to pressure – by authorities or by peers – if they feel certain actions are wrong …

“In the noted experiment 40 years ago, when Dr. Stanley Milgrau showed that most people will deliver a lethal dose of electricity to another subject if instructed to do so by a scientist in a white lab coat, a minority still said no.

“'These people are rare,' said Dr. Elliott Aaronson, a professor of psychology at the University of California , Santa Cruz , who studies social influence. ‘It's really hard for us to predict in advance who is going to resist by looking at things like demographic data or religious background.'”

What traits do these resisters of evil share?

They have a strong moral compass. Jesus said, “Love as I have loved you.”

These people are psychologically somewhat distanced from the situation. Jesus said, “Be in the world but not of the world.”

With even one ally, a person is more apt to break from the actions of an abusive group. The apostle Paul says we Christians are the body of Christ, and each one of us is a part of it … and part of each other. He says, “Forsake not the gathering of yourselves together.” Stay together. Live in Christian community. Inspire each other to good will. Help overcome evil.

Finally, the power to resist coercion to commit acts of cruelty, reflects what psychologists call internal locus of control. Paul says: “ Christ is in you, the hope of glory … The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you …”

You and I have living within us the Spirit of God, powerful enough to help us resist evil wherever we find it. We have each other, in Christian fellowship, to support our resistance. We have the moral compass, the model of Christ for how to live out reverence, not revenge. And we have the cross to cling to in times of need. In these things we find – and in our lives become – the hope of the world.