Sunday Musings - August 21, 2022
The toughest commandments. If one searches the various writings in the New Testament or consults various Christian commentaries for the commandment of Jesus, one may be surprised that there was just one commandment. It can be summarized as love. This commandment is stated in various formats including:
o Love one another (John 15:17))
o Love your enemies (Luke 6:27-28)
o Forgive others (Luke 6:27:28)
o Turn the other cheek (Luke 6:29-30)
o Be reconciled or do not bring gifts to the altar until you have reconciled (Matthew 5:23-24)
o Treat others as you wish to be treated (Luke 6:31)
Many of us struggle with is the definition of “another” or “other’ or ”enemy”. We have a tendency to convince ourselves that Jesus really did not mean the persons who are convicted of murder- especially the seemingly unrepentant murderer, the child molester, the person who steals from and/or assaults an old person, the person who kills in the name of their god, the person who forces a child to serve them sexually, the politician who pretends to know the answers, anyone who challenges the God of our understanding or, perhaps worst of all the one who holds a mirror to our secret thoughts or actions.
We humans tend to conjure up explanations such as “That person is pure evil.” Or “They are inhuman.” Or “They have been taken over by the devil (They are the devil.)”. In other words, we do as Karl Marx and Frederick Engels did in the Communist Manifesto and redefine when one becomes human thus giving ourselves permission to not have to treat all humans with dignity and respect. Adolph Hitler and his inner circle did something similar when they decided that individual people were no different than the diseased limbs on an individual body. They licensed physicians who were committed to upholding the Hippocratic Oath could decide that the patient was the state and, thus, killing many individuals was no different than amputating diseased limbs.
We humans are very creative with language in excluding some from the commandment to love. We use terms such as enemy, gooks, Japs, Krauts, the anti-Christ, terrorists, guerrillas, the antagonists, rebels, traitors and a host of others terms all designed to dehumanize the ones we want to convince ourselves are nothing like us; the ones whom Jesus or other spiritual leaders did not command us to love.
We desperately want to convince ourselves that our actions are different than; our sins are forgivable; the log in our eye is but a spec compared to the redwood tree in the eye of “them” or “Him” or “Her” or “the evil one or …. We want to believe that punishment will lead to people behaving in a manner which considers our needs; to learn to behave like “US”. We need to believe that we could never, ever be like that other person; that we could never have what we consider a deviant sexual compulsion; we could never bomb civilian targets such as those occupying the twin towers; that no sane person could vote for X or Y.
Daily I read the local and national news. Daily, in my current home of Tulsa, Oklahoma I read of individuals shooting each other over some perceived injustice or emotional slight. Daily I read carefully crafted news stories describing another being as a killer or as a sexual offender. Daily I read stories such as one this morning of parents grieving over the murder of a young child. Soon in these United States, we will be reading or hearing of yet another school shooting. We will be reading of those teachers who violate the law and teach in a way which challenges the privileges of some of us.
The media often divides the world into us and them; into us and the enemy or the evil one. Seldom are we challenged to view those identified as the law breaker or the offender as they were as a newborn infant; as innocent as all of us. Seldom are we challenged to accept the reality that some are born without essential body parts which allows for the possibility of closeness and, thus, empathy. Seldom are we challenged to genuinely love our enemy, to love others as ourselves, to forgive without any conditions or caveats, to be reconciled. Some readers will in reading the above saying, “Wait a minute. Aren’t you forgetting something? Some choose to be evil; to molest that child, rob that crippled person, beat their children, leave a child to die in a hot car,”
When Jesus is talking to the prostitute the disciples say, “Hey Jesus, don’t who know that this is a sinner who has not repented, one who has not begged for forgiveness.” Jesus replies, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
What if that simple carpenter really did know who he was talking to? What if that simple, homeless, wandering teacher really did think we could claim our own sacredness by accepting our shared humanness which whose brains may suddenly be UNABLE to consider the sacredness of all others; what if that “other” person is no different than we who cannot envision the “enemy” as our brother or sisters - as fully our equal? What if that simple carpenter secretly had post graduate degrees in neurology, anthropology, and sociology? What if the answer to social and political unrest is contained in His seemingly over simplified commandments?
Written August 21, 2022
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
The toughest commandments. If one searches the various writings in the New Testament or consults various Christian commentaries for the commandment of Jesus, one may be surprised that there was just one commandment. It can be summarized as love. This commandment is stated in various formats including:
o Love one another (John 15:17))
o Love your enemies (Luke 6:27-28)
o Forgive others (Luke 6:27:28)
o Turn the other cheek (Luke 6:29-30)
o Be reconciled or do not bring gifts to the altar until you have reconciled (Matthew 5:23-24)
o Treat others as you wish to be treated (Luke 6:31)
Many of us struggle with is the definition of “another” or “other’ or ”enemy”. We have a tendency to convince ourselves that Jesus really did not mean the persons who are convicted of murder- especially the seemingly unrepentant murderer, the child molester, the person who steals from and/or assaults an old person, the person who kills in the name of their god, the person who forces a child to serve them sexually, the politician who pretends to know the answers, anyone who challenges the God of our understanding or, perhaps worst of all the one who holds a mirror to our secret thoughts or actions.
We humans tend to conjure up explanations such as “That person is pure evil.” Or “They are inhuman.” Or “They have been taken over by the devil (They are the devil.)”. In other words, we do as Karl Marx and Frederick Engels did in the Communist Manifesto and redefine when one becomes human thus giving ourselves permission to not have to treat all humans with dignity and respect. Adolph Hitler and his inner circle did something similar when they decided that individual people were no different than the diseased limbs on an individual body. They licensed physicians who were committed to upholding the Hippocratic Oath could decide that the patient was the state and, thus, killing many individuals was no different than amputating diseased limbs.
We humans are very creative with language in excluding some from the commandment to love. We use terms such as enemy, gooks, Japs, Krauts, the anti-Christ, terrorists, guerrillas, the antagonists, rebels, traitors and a host of others terms all designed to dehumanize the ones we want to convince ourselves are nothing like us; the ones whom Jesus or other spiritual leaders did not command us to love.
We desperately want to convince ourselves that our actions are different than; our sins are forgivable; the log in our eye is but a spec compared to the redwood tree in the eye of “them” or “Him” or “Her” or “the evil one or …. We want to believe that punishment will lead to people behaving in a manner which considers our needs; to learn to behave like “US”. We need to believe that we could never, ever be like that other person; that we could never have what we consider a deviant sexual compulsion; we could never bomb civilian targets such as those occupying the twin towers; that no sane person could vote for X or Y.
Daily I read the local and national news. Daily, in my current home of Tulsa, Oklahoma I read of individuals shooting each other over some perceived injustice or emotional slight. Daily I read carefully crafted news stories describing another being as a killer or as a sexual offender. Daily I read stories such as one this morning of parents grieving over the murder of a young child. Soon in these United States, we will be reading or hearing of yet another school shooting. We will be reading of those teachers who violate the law and teach in a way which challenges the privileges of some of us.
The media often divides the world into us and them; into us and the enemy or the evil one. Seldom are we challenged to view those identified as the law breaker or the offender as they were as a newborn infant; as innocent as all of us. Seldom are we challenged to accept the reality that some are born without essential body parts which allows for the possibility of closeness and, thus, empathy. Seldom are we challenged to genuinely love our enemy, to love others as ourselves, to forgive without any conditions or caveats, to be reconciled. Some readers will in reading the above saying, “Wait a minute. Aren’t you forgetting something? Some choose to be evil; to molest that child, rob that crippled person, beat their children, leave a child to die in a hot car,”
When Jesus is talking to the prostitute the disciples say, “Hey Jesus, don’t who know that this is a sinner who has not repented, one who has not begged for forgiveness.” Jesus replies, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
What if that simple carpenter really did know who he was talking to? What if that simple, homeless, wandering teacher really did think we could claim our own sacredness by accepting our shared humanness which whose brains may suddenly be UNABLE to consider the sacredness of all others; what if that “other” person is no different than we who cannot envision the “enemy” as our brother or sisters - as fully our equal? What if that simple carpenter secretly had post graduate degrees in neurology, anthropology, and sociology? What if the answer to social and political unrest is contained in His seemingly over simplified commandments?
Written August 21, 2022
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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