Core Convictions
A pastor and theologian I’ve been reading and met this year at a Theology and Peace conference has a place on his website where he lists his “Core Convictions.” These “convictions” come from his study, reading, and life experience. He may revise or add to them from time to time I think, but they don’t change very much. Reading his convictions have made me think about my own convictions of faith based on theological reflection on scripture, prayer, and my own life experience.
I’m not ready to make a complete listing as my colleague has because mine is still a work in progress. This week the scripture readings the lectionary gives us made me think of some convictions that will be a part of my “core” list.
Moses, tending the flock of his Father in Law Jethro near Mount Horeb, is met by an angel of the Lord appearing in a burning bush. As he approaches the burning bush, God introduces himself to Moses. God explains to Moses that he has seen the mistreatment of his people at the hands of their Egyptian taskmasters. God tells Moses that he will go to Pharoah and demand freedom for his people. Moses feels inadequate to the task but God promises to be with him. Moses asks God for his name so he can tell the Israelites who sent him and God replies “I Am Who I Am.” God’s name reveals that God is the active verb to be, the source and ground of all being, and upholder of existence itself. That’s definitely a fundamental core conviction.
Another conviction is forming in me from Paul’s words in Romans this Sunday: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. In this last part of the Letter to the Romans, Paul is trying to give practical advice to the followers of Jesus in Rome. The love they have for one another is being tested, evil actions are everywhere, and they are being tempted to act like all those around them: just look out for yourself, number one. Who among them wants to give until it hurts, to suffer injustice, and watch while others take advantage of you? It is not easy to live in the Holy Spirit: loving one another, embracing the lowly and poor, forgiving the ones that hurt you, and trying to live at peace with everyone, believing justice will prevail one day.
Do not avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath (of God), for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
We’ve talked about this before. Are we to “love our enemies” for their own sake, because they too are creatures of God and brothers and sisters, or, are we to “pretend” to love them (for God’s sake) until God can deliver vengeance and wrath upon them? Sounds like the second approach is being counseled here, evil will be overcome by evil. God can dish out evil better than any evil doer. God’s on our side. Isn’t this a contradiction?
The “vengeance” quote above comes from Deuteronomy 32:35. People then thought that God (or the gods) would work revenge upon all evildoers. But Jesus demonstrated a different understanding: “Wrath” is something human beings bring about to other human beings, not God. (Remember a while back, we had a similar text from Romans 5 and I pointed out that “of God’ was not even in the original Greek.) When we talk about “wrath,” we’re talking about self-inflicted harm not God-inflicted punishment. If sinful human beings bring wrath to others, God will allow them the consequences of their self-destructive behaviors. Dante in the Inferno put it this way: There is no one in hell who hasn’t chosen to be there. Jesus taught that God is Love and there is no violence in God (and hopefully, in his followers) even in the struggle to bring about justice. Anything to the contrary plays into the hand of Satan who is always working to spread the contagion of evil.
In today’s Gospel, Peter gets the brunt of Jesus’ corrective to the popular view of a punishing God who would never be a victim. Last week Peter got it right: Jesus is Lord and God and not Caesar. But this week, when Jesus begins to reveal that he must suffer and be put to death, Peter, out of his “love” for Jesus, rebukes him. Peter, who doesn’t want Jesus to be a victim and give his life for the world, becomes an instrument of Satan. Peter wants Jesus to ride roughshod over the Romans and take control, but this amounts to making Jesus do Peter’s will imitate him and not vice versa. Peter is resisting the teaching of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount about loving enemies and turning the other cheek, acceding to even the outrageous demands of others. Why??? A three letter word in the Greek text says it all: dei delta epsilon iota, “It is necessary.”
It was “necessary” for Jesus to die on the Cross and for us to daily take up our cross (following Jesus) for God to lead us and our fellow human beings away from violence and wrath to reconciliation and true, lasting peace. We, like Peter, have a long way to go, but we will get there, like he did, with the Holy Spirit’s help. This is one of my core convictions.
Amen!
John+
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| St. Alban |
Saint Alban Episcopal Mission (English, Anglican Communion) meets for mass every Sunday at 10:00 A.M. (see welcome letter at sidebar) at Casa Convento Concepcion, 4a Calle Oriente No. 41, Antigua, Guatemala.
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| The Reverend John Smith, Vicar 5235-6674 cell telephone (502 country code) |
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