Turn the other cheek

As a kid I loved going to my grandparents house for dinner - inevitably it would be a roast chicken with all the trimmings. My grandmother made the most amazing roast potatoes - but unfortunately she didn’t make the best brussels sprouts - boiled until they were slightly grey. I now love brussels sprouts (particularly when roasted with bacon).

Coming to this Gospel passage is a bit like facing a steaming bowl of over-boiled sprouts.

What are we to make of turning the other cheek when we look at what is happening at parliament grounds, with dangerous vitriol aimed at our politicians, lands camped on against the wishes of tangata whenua, children being harassed by protestors on their way to school, and businesses and local residents being severely impacted. Is Jesus calling people to offer support to the person who has ripped the mask off their face? Local cafes that have been forced to close because of the protest throwing open their doors and giving away free food? I’m not so sure.

At least two interpretations

This passage, and the matching one in Matthew’s gospel, have given rise to two popular expressions - turn the other cheek, and go the extra mile. Both of these in common speech have an air of passivity to them. I was struck by an article on The Spinoff recently, which described Jacinda Ardern as turning “the other cheek again and again in an admirable display of restraint and tolerance” when faced with the “most egregious, vituperative and frankly insane accusations in placards, chants and across Facebook, Twitter and comment sections.”

I don’t believe for a second that Jesus’ teaching should lead us to the conclusion that Christians are called to make themselves victims to their enemies. There is a risk that we might love our enemies, but not ourselves - nothing about these teachings tell us to allow people to abuse us.

Gregory Boyd, in his book ‘The myth of a Christian nation’ writes:

Jesus is giving us a way by which we can keep from being defined by those who act unjustly toward us. When we respond to violence with violence, whether it be physical, verbal, or attitudinal, we legitimize the violence of our enemy and sink to his level. When we instead respond unexpectedly—offering our other cheek and going a second mile—we reveal, even as we expose the injustice of his actions, that our nemesis doesn’t have the power to define us by those actions.

Joseph

Today is one of the Sundays where the lectionary really helps to unify the theme - so let me seamlessly transition to the Genesis reading now.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtpzoGj-1V8

I’m assuming that you know the story of Joseph and his dreams. If you don’t, then make sure you have a read from Genesis 37 onwards - it’s a page turning story!

Here we find Joseph having recognised his brothers, but they haven’t worked out who he is yet. He’s laid a trap for them by hiding a cup in his brother Benjamin’s sack. This little trick seems to have been as a way to see how they would react when put in the position of abandoning another brother. Joseph has now witnessed that his brothers have begun to take responsibility for the way they had treated Joseph, and the way they cared for Benjamin.

So finally Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers, and the process of reconciliation begins. Though it was in Joseph’s power to retaliate and make his brothers suffer for the way they had treat him, he instead chose to forgive them. Reconciliation is possible only through forgiveness

Key to this is Joseph seeking God in the situation - he acknowledges that while his brothers had sold him, in reality God had sent him.

Reconciliation is authentic when there is genuine concern for each other - Joseph was willing to do everything he could to care for his family; that included those who had mistreated him.

Reconciliation is complete where there is genuine restoration - our Genesis passage this morning closed with Joseph kissing his brothers and weeping over them - and the conversation beginning.

Back to the protestors

Earlier I was reflecting on how we can respond to the protestors at Parliament. The Cathedral team have responded in a beautiful way - they have continued to open the building during the week (though for the safety of the congregation they’re worshipping online this morning), and the clergy team have been having conversations with the protestors gathering on the Cathedral forecourt, letting them come in to use the bathrooms and enjoy the sacred space of the Cathedral. The protestors in turn have set up a team to clean the bathrooms, stock them up with toilet paper and soaps - and both sides have been seeking to see the image of God in each other despite their differences.

While this isn’t reconciliation as such, it is a beautiful example of loving those who hold a radically different view point to you.

Reconciliation can be a long process

We all have people that we need to seek reconciliation with - it’s unfortunately part of being human. You may even have someone on your heart that you wish you could have reconciled with, but has now died.

Either way, every step of the journey requires reliance on God.

Normally when I’m preaching I would encourage you to talk with the people around you, but today instead we are going to do something slightly different. In a moment I will pray, then I encourage you to spend a few minutes in silence asking the Spirit to bring someone to mind that you need to take those first steps on the reconciliation journey with, or for wisdom about what your next steps might be. [could it be a group of people, or maybe a situation that you can’t put to rest e.g. a bad work experience or a school bully from the past?]

After a few minutes I will put some music on quietly in the background - while this plays please collect a stone from the front of the church, wash and dry it, then make a pile with them in front of the altar. As you place it before the altar, ask God to release this burden from you, and place the person/situation represented by the stone into God’s care. This is symbolic of Christ making all things new, and a tactile prayer as we seek to replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh.

Let me pray.

Let’s prayer together again the Prayer of the Day - another beautiful coincidence from the lectionary that speaks so powerfully in to situation at Parliament.

God of welcome, we encounter you in those different from us; enlarge the tent of our lives to embrace both friend and foe, so that we grow to be more like you; through Jesus Christ our Liberator, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/10-02-2022/this-too-will-pass-says-ardern-of-the-anti-mandate-fury-but-will-it-really

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