BLOG 4/22/13. BOSTON–ANGER, OF COURSE, BUT HATE? NOT AT ALL

BLOG 4/22/13. BOSTON—ANGER, OF COURSE, BUT HATE? NOT AT ALL

Let me add my “two cents worth” by way of personal reflection on the tragic events in Boston a week ago today. I, like most, was understandably incensed at the bombings, and grieved with so many over the suffering, the tragic destruction, and the heartbreak of what was to be a wonderful celebration of human achievement. Who would not be angry at those responsible?

At the same time I am reminded that as a follower of Jesus, I am also part of his New Creation which is counter-cultural, which counter-culture allows me to be angry (until sundown Ephesians 4:26), but does not allow me to hate. Quite the opposite: we are, by our calling to Jesus, to love our enemies, to do good to those who despitefully use and persecute us. We are reminded again from our own scriptures that Christ died, the just for the unjust (that’s us) … that while we were still enemies (that’s us), Christ in love died for us, and that by that death we are reconciled to God. We know that our counter-cultural calling is to be peacemakers and reconcilers.

The young men who perpetrated that violence in Boston were the products of a whole different religious ideology, which turned into their hate and destruction against that which they saw as the enemy of that ideology. I have read in missionary reports of some Mennonite peacemakers who deliberately and actually seek out those committed to the Islamic fundamentalist distortion, which calls for jihad against Islam’s enemies, and approached them for conversation on this very foundation, that the prophet Isa (Jesus), mentioned favorably in the Quaran, calls upon us to love our enemies, and that their prophet Muhammed expresses similar non-violent teachings. What is amazing is that those Mennonite peacemakers found a positive response in their Islamic conversation partners in these congenial engagements over tea.

Those young men in Boston were, and are, captives to a darkness, which our apostle Paul teaches us that we were all captive to, i.e. the spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience until we were rescued by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10) and transformed into his agents of good works, of new creation, of love.

Maybe today is a good day to revisit Saint Francis: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred … let me sow love. Where there is injury … pardon. Where there is doubt … faith. Where there is despair … hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness … joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled … as to console, To be understood … as to understand, To be loved … as to love, for It in giving … that we receive, It is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned, It is in dying … that we are born to eternal life.

Yes, we are a counter-culture, and we have been taught to be realists, and to know that this world is replete with the brokenness, which has resulted from the cosmic rebellion against the creator. This being so we are also taught that in this world we can expect tribulation. But it is in the midst of such destruction and brokenness that we are called to be children of light and bearers of the love of God .

Is that too much theology for a Blog? OK, then let me encourage my readers to, with me, offer up the outrageous prayer that the surviving brother captive to his darkness, lying isolated in that Jewish Hospital in Boston, may have a miraculous encounter with the Prince of Peace, who can deliver him from his captivity, not from his obvious guilt and possible penalties, but from his captivity to the prince of darkness. Thanks.

But we can never hate him! “Where there is hatred, let me sow love.” YES!

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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