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A Culture of Life for Everyone – 1.20.08 - Dennis Mullen
JN 19:23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
Today I want to talk about life, using the seamless garment that Jesus wore as a symbol. That seamless garment would have been costly to make, and may have been the most valuable thing Jesus owned. As a symbol, it stands for unity, and when people talk about a seamless garment of life, they mean that our ideas about abortion, for example, shouldn’t be divorced from our ideas about capital punishment, or that we must not say, “I’m against war, but I don’t mind it if we stop taking care of the elderly and we just let them die”. When we look at the teaching of Jesus in a few minutes, we will see an inclination for life that is just as seamless as his precious garment.
This Tuesday marks the 35th Anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision which made abortion legal in the United States. This anniversary marks a good time to talk about life, about Jesus, and about what it means to be created in the image of God.
When I started working on this sermon, I thought I would spend most of my time today working through the many Scriptures on Jesus and LIFE. “In him was life and that life was the light of men...” from John 1. “I am the bread of life” or “I am the resurrection and the life” or “I am the way, the truth, and the life..” or “I have come that they might have life, and life more abundantly...” I thought I'd go through these slowly and show that Jesus and life go together, that they are in fact one, and that our culture of death is so opposite of who he is. But instead, I want to start by talking about violence, and how our ideas about it shape our beliefs about life.
Myth of Redemptive Violence. Many of the stories we watch tell us that violence solves problems. That, in its simplest from, is the myth of redemptive violence. The myth plays a big part in many of my favorite movies. Dorothy drops her house on the wicked witch of the east and ushers in a Golden Age to Oz (after she deals with the wicked witch of the west, of course). Clint Eastwood as the outlaw Josey Wales goes after the men who killed his wife and massacred his troops, and as he guns down each one, he becomes a bit more whole. Last Sunday night, I had to hurry home after church to watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a new take on the Terminator movies. Any fan of the movies knows what to expect – bad cyborgs from the future have to be killed by humans and good cyborgs from the future, and when that happens, every thing is fine till next week. I’m not much of a gamer, but many video games, including some of my favorites from my younger days, are all about a good guy with a gun – me – killing off as many monsters or Nazis as I can, and moving up to the next level. That’s the myth of redemptive violence at work, teaching me that violence solves problems.
Most of us don’t live our daily lives that way. If you try to deal with people by using even a small amount of violence – grabbing someone’s arm, for example, or poking them in the chest – you can be fired, or even put up on charges. Besides, real life is more complicated than the myth suggests. In a good novel, if the hero kills someone who deserves it, well, life goes back to normal, as if they had swatted a fly. But in real life, when you kill someone even in self defense, there can be many consequences. The world doesn’t look the same anymore. There may be guilt that you can’t explain. There are grieving relatives to think about, some of whom might not be too understanding. Friends and loved ones may look at you differently. Maybe they don’t quite believe your self-defense story. Maybe you wake up at night with the memory of watching someone die, and knowing that you killed him. Those problems don’t fit into the myth of redemptive violence. After Clint Eastwood made all of those Westerns and Dirty Harry movies, in 1992 he made a movie called Unforgiven which I see as his way of apologizing for all those violent movies. Unforgiven was (I think) his least entertaining movie, but it showed killing in a more realistic light.
The myth of redemptive violence is about much more than movies and video games. Even though we don’t live violent lives, we are deeply shaped by this myth (which is almost as old as humankind), and it affects the way we try to solve problems in this world, especially problems in which we are not directly involved.
War, for example. When the terrorists hit us on 9/11, they were acting out their understanding of redemptive violence, thinking (and I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt here) that they would accomplish something worthwhile by killing themselves and thousands of others. My initial feeling? “Let’s find who set this up and bomb them back to the stone age.” We kill the bad people, and the world becomes a safe place again. It’s like Sean Connery said in The Untouchables: “You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way! And that's how you get Capone.” That’s the myth of redemptive violence, and it affects the way we try to solve problems in this world, especially problems in which we are not directly involved.
It’s important to note that I’m not directly involved in this conflict, that I’m not going to be the one who goes and takes revenge, because at a safe, anonymous distance, I can talk about all sorts of things that I wouldn’t actually DO. We may talk to one another about wanting to slap some rude clerk at the store or to shoot some coach who made a bad call and knocked our team out of the playoffs, but in our REAL lives we refrain from violence and seek better solutions. But we cling to the myth of redemptive violence for solving many problems at a distance, and we fail to realize that the message of Jesus Christ is a polar opposite from the myth of redemptive violence.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: MT 5:38 "You have heard that it was said, `Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
MT 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…
Jesus’ apostle, Paul put it this way: RO 12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
RO 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The myth of redemptive violence says to overcome evil with necessary violence. The Gospel says that there is actually something better, and it really IS possible, and that is to overwhelm evil with good, to work to redeem people rather than to snuff them out and forget them. There are several ways people interpret the reference to heaping burning coals on your enemy’s head, but the one that makes sense to me is: “Do good to your enemy and you’ll awaken his conscience.”
The myth of redemptive violence is so ingrained that very few Christians understand that there is a different way and that in fact we committed ourselves to a better way when we signed on as followers of Jesus Christ. We committed ourselves to a better way in our personal lives, which means that we don’t solve our problems with violence, and it also means that we shouldn’t talk so freely about slapping a store clerk or shooting the coach, nor do we shout and curse at people at home or anywhere. Verbal violence isn’t redemptive either, and Christ has a better way.
But not only have we committed ourselves to his better way in our personal lives, we’ve committed ourselves to it as we participate in society. This is where life gets uncomfortable, because we have to speak out against our friends and neighbors who have the myth of redemptive violence deeply ingrained in them. And here’s where this sermon gets uncomfortable too.
Let’s talk about abortion. I realize that many folks (some of you too) see January 22, 1973, the day abortion was legalized, as a banner day for freedom in America. All of us need to come within understanding distance of that view, and realize that in many cases pregnancy has been a way for men to keep women in subjugation for generations, in practically every culture. That is in no way consistent with the gospel where, as Paul says in Galatians 3:28 – “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Those of us who oppose abortion need to see this point of view.
But why abortion? And why are so many Christians at peace with abortion, when in our own Scriptures, David sings out:
PS
139:15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
PS 139:16 your eyes saw my unformed
body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
…and when, as we just saw in the Christmas passages, John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb for joy at the approach of Jesus, still in HIS mother’s womb? (Luke 1:44)
I think that the deeply ingrained myth of redemptive violence explains it best. What’s the natural way to deal with any problem? Violence works – in this case, surgical violence – eliminate the cause of the problem. The myth of redemptive violence is so pervasive that it sometimes is stronger than the strongest of human bonds, that between mother and child. But Jesus Christ calls us to work for something much higher, saying in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” I believe that attitudes about abortion will change as the world sees us actually living like that.
Let’s talk about war. A few days after 9/11, the President stood on the rubble in NYC and told a cheering crowd: “I hear you. And the people who knocked these buildings down are going to hear from all of us real soon.” That fired the crowd up. It fired me up too. “Let’s go bust some heads!”
I’m not a pacifist. We need a military and a police force to deal with people who will do us harm. But what was welling up in me at that moment wasn’t a God-given thirst for justice, but my love for the myth of redemptive violence. I was thinking: “We can make this right by putting the smack-down on anyone who helped plan 9/11. By killing off evil-doers, we’ll create a better, safer world.” But that’s a myth. Reality is much more complicated. War kills the innocent along with the guilty. It destroys families as well as enemies. It usually invites retribution, now or six months from now or 30 years from now. That doesn’t mean we can always avoid it. But I have been very disappointed over the past six years at how unwilling many of us have been to consider what it means to love our enemies in this situation, or what relevance Scripture might have when it tells us to overcome evil with good. The fact that we might not even think to ask these questions shows me that the myth of redemptive violence is stronger in us than the vision of Christ for a culture of life for everyone.
We could talk about the weak and the sick and the elderly – people who can’t care for themselves any longer, or disabled people who never could. In a lot of ways, things are better for such folks than ever – group homes have replaced asylums for many – but the myth of redemptive violence puts these folks at risk…it puts us all at risk, actually, as we get older. As the Boomers get old and long-term care gets more expensive, redemptive violence of a clinical and hopefully painless sort starts to look attractive. Granny had a good life. It’s our turn now. Why not? Literally, why not? As in, what’s holding us back?
Didn’t Jesus say something about how we reveal our hearts by how we treat “the least of these”? (Matthew 25:31-46).
And we could talk about capital punishment too. Now I have to admit that I’m conflicted about capital punishment, and it isn’t because Paul allows for the state to carry it out in Romans 13, but rather because of the reason God gives for it in Genesis 9:6…
GE
9:6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.
Many solid Christians are absolutely opposed to the death penalty because of everything I have already said – AND they add that there is hope that a criminal will repent and find salvation as long as he has breath – AND that we can’t love our enemies and kill them at the same time. And yet it sticks in my mind that God said this, long before he gave Israel the OT law. We talk about the sanctity of human life. This verse seems to say that it is so sacred that the one crime you cannot commit, without forfeiting your own life, is murder.
The problem is that our legal system sends innocent people to death row. DNA tests have proven that we send quite a few of them. Exodus 23:7 states the obvious will of God: Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.
So I’m conflicted on the death penalty, but I do know that the will of our Lord is that we work for a culture of life for everybody, a culture that consistently protects human life, in a way that is consistent with Genesis 1:26-27 - Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
GE 1:27 So God created man in his own
image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Well I could go on about this all day. It's close to my heart, this way that Jesus creates, a way of life, and how opposed it is to everything we naturally assume – since we are so thoroughly trained by the myth of redemptive violence. I'm grateful that evangelical Christians, and especially younger ones, are pulling our hearts to see that a culture of life isn't just about abortion, but about torture, about poverty, and about caring for the earth.
But I want wrap up with two things:
Changing the wind – it's an old image, but a good one. Politicians are people who walk around with their finger in the air, checking the direction of the wind. In the past, Christians put a lot of effort into replacing one set of fingers with another. But the thing to do is to change the wind. It's to live and speak and persuade with words and actions, and change our nations’ views about life, which begins by letting Jesus change our own views.
The myth of redemptive violence is a lie. But when it comes to redeeming acts of violence, God is amazing. The fact is that our redemption came when the Son of God took the world's violence into his own body, at the Cross...and turned it around. What the evil one meant for his destruction became the means for the salvation of the whole world. THAT is how life overcomes the culture of death, and it's how evil is overcome with good. The cross is our salvation...AND our example.
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PS – Here are many of those verses that link Jesus and life...
JN 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
JN 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
JN 5:24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
JN 5:36 "I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
JN 6:32 Jesus said to them, "I tell you
the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my
Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he who comes
down from heaven and gives life
to the world."
JN 6:34 "Sir," they said,
"from now on give us this bread."
JN 6:35 Then Jesus
declared, "I am the bread of
life.
He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be
thirsty.
JN 6:66 From this time many of his
disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
JN 6:67 "You do not want to leave too,
do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
JN 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord,
to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
69 We believe and know
that you are the Holy One of God."
JN 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
10:10 The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have
life, and have it to
the full.
JN 10:11 "I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his
life
for the sheep.
JN 11:23 Jesus said to her, "Your
brother will rise again."
JN 11:24 Martha answered, "I know he
will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
JN 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the
resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;
26 and whoever lives and
believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
JN 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
JN 20:30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
MT 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
MT 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
RO 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
RO 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
2CO 3:4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2CO 5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
1TI 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
2TI 1:8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
1JN 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
Revelation – book of life, river of the water of life, tree of life.
JAS 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Morrison
Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E.
Race St.
Kingston, TN 37763 (865) 376-5205
