Sermon 2 in Loving Our
Enemies: Jesus’ Third Way Series
January 19, 2014
Proclamation
Imagine … being pushed through the
wooden doors of an ancient Jewish courtroom on your way to face the judge. Bodies bustle by moving forcefully full of
angst and hurry. Beards and robes fill
your view with the sweet smell wealthy baths mixing with the pungent odor of
sweaty bodies just in from the desert heat.
Judges, witnesses, prosecutors, observers and the poorest of the poor
fill the space as case upon case are called forward to be heard.
Fear and anger rest just below the
surface of your face like soldiers fighting for the upper hand. The courtroom represents the end of a long,
winding journey. For centuries your
family farmed the small plot of land in Galilee – nurturing olive trees and
keeping a low profile from the ever changing political environment. Soon, though, the wealthy landowners began to
feel the weight of the heavy Roman taxation used by the Emperors to fund their
wars. They needed non-liquid assets that
could not be taxed.
Your
family’s ancestral land provided exactly what they needed, but no one would
voluntarily relinquish it. So, the wealthy used exorbitant interest on your
farm supplies to drive your family ever deeper into debt. This debt, coupled
with the high taxation required by Herod Antipas to pay Rome tribute, created
the economic leverage the landowners needed to pry your family and other Galilean
peasants loose from their land.
By
the time you arrived today, this process had already been advanced: the large
estates were owned by absentee landlords, managed by stewards, and you and your
children now only worked as farm workers and lived as tenants. And local tax collector never stopped coming
– year after year telling you exactly what the Roman Empire required of
you. You have been forced by
circumstances beyond your control to go deeper and deeper into debt. Everything has been taken from you: Your land, your house, your livelihood, and
even your clothes. All that is left are
the clothes on your back.
And
that is still not enough. Your supposed
creditors have brought you into this courtroom today to squeeze even more from
you. What more can they take?
Soon,
you hear your name called. You step
forward to see a prosecutor in a fine robe smelling like flowers. Beside him stands the landowner’s steward
looking toward you with a sneer of hate.
“How can such a short man look down his nose at you,” you wonder?
You
stand alone, no one to represent you. No
one to stand up for you. No one to tell
your story.
The
prosecutor reads off the list of items you have been unable to pay for … the
items which kept your family alive: seed
for your small garden, oil for the lamps, food for the family – as the list is
read, pictures of young Jacob and Mary float through your head. You had dreams at one time not so long ago –
now, who knows?
The
judge jolts you back into the present with a question.
“Tell
me, can you pay this sum today or ever?”
You
struggle for words and then finally gulp, and say, “No, I cannot. I have paid all I can pay. I have nothing left - Nothing but the coat on
my back.”
From
across the room you hear the steward say, “Then, I will take that.” The prosecutor looks confused and tries to
dissuade him. He knows like you do the
scriptures and law forbid this.
Exodus
22:25-26 says, “If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you
shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them.
26 If you take your neighbor’s cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the
sun goes down;”
The
steward is too angry. He has been
charged by his master to exact as much pain and money from you. He wants your overcoat. He knows it is your last barrier to the cold,
your blanket, your shelter. He requires
the judge to force you to give you to hand over your outer garment.
Anger, fear and hatred fill your
body. Who is this man to take everything
away from you? You want to turn and kill
this man. Then, you would be
killed. You also consider escaping out
the door with your coat in your hand.
What
will you do? Then, like a gift from God,
you remember the words from the rabbi on the mountain. They sounded so strange at the time. They were so radical, so crazy; all anyone
could do was laugh when they heard them.
“If anyone
wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well;” the Rabbi had
instructed.
A small grin comes across your face
at the thought. You begin removing your
large, outer coat with its rough woolen texture. As you hand it over to the prosecutor, the
steward smiles, but remains a bit confused at your contented look.
You stand there clothed only in your
inner garment, a smooth linen tunic that reaches just below your knees. According to scripture, you are now
officially naked. The steward has taken
everything. Yet – not just
everything.
Suddenly, in a flash, your remove
the tunic, walk over and place it in the arms of the shocked prosecutor. The room which had been full of movement and
noise and hurried activity suddenly stands completely still. Now, you truly are naked.
Before
you made this bold step of defiance you were simply another poor peasant
brought before the court. Now, everyone knows
the absurdity of the case – the injustice occurring in broad daylight. Now, everyone knows this steward had broken
the Lord’s command to demand your outer coat.
Now, for the first time … You matter.
You have risen above the oppressive laws and taxes written against
you. You have cast shame not on
yourself, but on the system that has attempted to shame you. In a world which barely considered you a man
- You now count for something.
When
Jesus speaks this radical command as an example of how to love your enemies –
everyone who stood on the mountain top knew exactly the debt courtroom context
he was addressing. Walter Wink says that
in the days of Jesus, heavy debt was not a natural calamity that had overtaken
the incompetent. It was the direct consequence of Roman imperial policy.
Loving your enemies is more than
just turning the other check in an altercation with another person. Loving our enemies also has larger social
implications. When Jesus invites us to
give the last shred of our clothing to those who demand everything else – he is
challenging us to stand up to the systems in our world which oppress and
degrade and destroy.
Gospel: Loving our enemies invites us to engage the
systems of oppression in our world.
Implications:
NT. Wright, A writer and bishop in
the Church of England writes this:
“The Way of Christian witness is
neither the way of quietest withdrawal, nor the way of Herodian compromise, nor
the way of angry militant zeal. It is
the way of being in Christ, so that the healing love of God may be brought to
bear at that point.”
One of the very earliest names the followers
of Jesus used for themselves was simply “the Way.” These early followers saw themselves as an
alternative culture IN the world – they were neither Jew nor Gentile – instead
they were something new – the followed the way of Jesus. God was transforming
them into a new of being in the world – a healing love, Wright calls it.
In this command to love your enemies
by engaging the systems of oppression in our world, Jesus calls us beyond our personal
piety into the world as Kingdom people.
Frankly, I find this aspect of the way of Jesus very difficult.
Following
Jesus is more manageable when it only relates to my personal salvation and my
personal formation and where I will go when
I die. I can control my piety. I only have to worry about my stuff and my
life.
Yet, in the same chapter that Jesus
tells us to love our enemies he also calls us to be salt and light in the
world. The name of this social
engagement in the world is Justice. The Bible – from the Old Testament to the
teaching of Jesus – teaches us to engage the world for the sake of God’s
kingdom. Justice forces me to stick my
neck out for the sake of others. Justice
forces me to think about not individual lives, but also the circumstances and
systems that form them. Justice forces
me to risk myself for other people.
Think about the issue addressed in
this command by Jesus. The issue of debt
and taxes is not just a first century issue, is it? These two issues have maximized media
attention over the last 6 years. Debt –
specifically mortgage backed securities – almost brought our entire economy and
way of life to our knees. Taxes of any
kind continue to be dicey subject all across the nation – we even experienced
it last year with the defeat of SPLOST here in Habersham County?
Some of us here know what it feels
like to be victims of a system you have no control over. Circumstances beyond your control have taken
all you have away from you. You know the
feeling of being stripped bare before a judge hoping for a little relief and
not sure if you will get it.
To those who have been in the
position, the words of Jesus remind us that we are still children of God. We are more than our possessions. We still have power when it seems all else is
gone.
Jesus teaches to respond with prophetic,
nonviolent, and active ways to economic injustice.
The Way of Jesus is not just for
those who have been victims of the system.
The way of Jesus also challenges those of us in positions of
responsibility and authority to work for justice for the sake of God’s
kingdom.
This challenge is not easy. It you think striping off your underwear in a
crowded courtroom is difficult, imagine how engaging the systems of injustice
and oppression in our world.
Dr. Susan Pace Hamill knows this
difficulty first hand. Dr. Hamill was a
law professor at the University of Alabama.
She was a tax expert, business consultant, and dedicated United
Methodist church goer. Over 10 years
ago, Dr. Hamill found what she thought was a misprint in Alabama Tax code. She discovered in Alabama personal incomes as
low as $4,600 for a family of four were being taxed by the state, while timber
owners holding 71% of the land of Alabama were paying less than $1 per acre in
property taxes.
She
told a local newspaper: "As
somebody who knows a lot about taxes, I could not have imagined a design of a
tax structure this bad. The state's tax
code is really horribly unjust and has no moral, ethical leg to stand on.
Period."
In
an eerie connection to state of taxes in Galilee that I mentioned earlier, the
state's 1901 constitution was written primarily by large landholders to secure
their economic interest. Consequently,
property taxes were extremely light on large land holdings while Alabamians
with incomes under $13,000 paid 10.9 percent of their incomes in state and local
taxes while those who made over $229,000 paid just 4.1 percent.
Dr.
Hamill began to engage this repressive tax system. When a new Republican Governor was elected in
2002, her thesis for a more just tax system caught fire. The new governor spent the next year
campaigning for tax reform for the state of Alabama with many of Dr. Hamill’s
ideas shaping the legislation. In a
state filled with Christians – the hope was that this issue of justice for all
would take hold.
Yet,
in 2003, voters went to poles – and soundly defeated the measure. One of the most amazing parts of the
post-election survey was the voters who would receive the most relief from this
new law – those making less than $20,000 – voted down the measure 2 to 1.
Engaging
unjust systems is not for the faint of heart!
Many
thought the governor went too far in his vast overhaul of tax reforms. Like most things in politics there was more
than meets the eye and most folks just couldn’t trust the government enough
that they would do what they say. Several
years later, the governor was able to pass a smaller piece of legislation that
did raise the income threshold before individuals or families actually paid
taxes.
Invitation
Living as People of the Way of Jesus
is not an easy life. Being counter
cultural requires risk that people will not understand us – even other
Christians when our culture is decidedly Christian. Yet, loving our enemies by engaging the
oppressive systems around us continues to challenge us to take a stand.
Today, Jesus invites each of us to
move beyond our individual notions of following Jesus and see that our lives as
Christians also demand action in the world.
Where is God calling you to stand up
to Give God’s underwear in the world? In
your place of work? In your school? In our community? In our state government?
This command from Jesus reminds us that
taxes and debt and finances and government are not separate from our life of
faith –rather, these are places where our lives are lived out for Jesus. Notice that Jesus does not say all government
is bad – in fact, he does tell us to give to Caesar what is Caesars. Where there is injustice, though, Jesus
invites us to engage these areas.
Maybe, just maybe, God has something
that only you can do for the kingdom of God.
Maybe, it is addressing the issue of poverty in our community. Maybe, it is addressing the drug issue in our
community. Maybe, it is addressing the
need for jobs or education in our community.
Jesus calls us to engage the world
with the Gospel. Let’s see what happens
when we do. Amen.
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