"And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it." [Colossians 2:13-15]
Every so often you'll see a quote attributed to the wise and venerable Abraham Lincoln that goes something like this: "Do I not destroy my enemy when I make him my friend?"
Now, I have no way of verifying or refuting that claim, and I will be the first to say that we do live in the era of false attributions of quotes (I have also seen the tongue-in-cheek social media meme that has a picture of Lincoln and a quote attributed to him that reads, "Don't trust Wikipedia. --Abraham Lincoln", so I am not going to lean too hard on who said it.
For that matter, even if Honest Abe himself did say that line about the power to destroy enemies by making them friends, he wouldn't have been the first one, not by a long shot. There is an ancient Christian writing, called the Didache (or, in English, "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles"), which was written around the time that the Gospels were put being down on parchment, which advises Christians, "If you do good to those who hate you, you will not have an enemy".
And of course, both the would-be Lincoln quote and the early Christian writing the Didache are all just like jazz musicians riffing on a theme from Jesus. And the tune they are all using to build their own improvisations out of is a beautiful little theme that goes like this: "God destroys enemies, not by killing them, but through the kind of love you see on the cross." Lincoln... the anonymous writer of the Didache... and plenty of others throughout the last two thousand years (Corrie ten Boom or Dr. King come to mind, for example)... they are variations on the theme of God's victorious love that embraces as it disarms.
The powers of the day don't know what to do with that kind of response. Whether it was Rome as here in these verses from Colossians, or the Confederacy in the 1860s in America... or police with fire hoses turned on crowds in the Jim Crow South... or anybody else, the powers that align themselves against God's rule don't know what to make of it when their hostility is met with suffering love. If you are convinced that you are in a war or a conflict against somebody else, you expect them to fight back with the same weapons you are using--they retaliate against your bombs with bombs of their own; they punch back if you are punching, and so on. But if you attack with your fists clenched, and you are met, not with a fist, but with open arms, it has a way of taking you aback.
I was watching a documentary called Accidental Courtesy a few weeks back about Daryl Davis, an African-American musician and son of diplomats who has made it his personal project to meet, talk with, and attempt to befriend KKK members and leaders, in the hope that if they actually get to know someone they claim to automatically hate, their own hearts may be changed. I was floored to watch his story--there are folks who are still set in their ways after knowing Daryl for years, and they are a part of his story, too. But in the last few decades, Daryl Davis has gotten dozens--like more than 30!--leaders of different branches of the KKK or white supremacist and white nationalist groups to leave their organizations, and they give him their old robes and hoods. They show him hanging up one of the robes he has been given, and putting it on a clothing rack in his garage or storage space, and putting it alongside the twenty others. It is a trophy of a victory, in a sense--but not a victory over another person who has "lost", but rather a victory over their old hates and hostilities. And for Davis, it all starts with the vulnerable position of going, listening, being civil, offering kindness even if none is shown first or shown back, and being persistent. He is a living picture of what it can look like to destroy your enemies by turning them into friends. He is a living picture of what it can look like to let vulnerable love overturn the expectations of those who are dead-set against you... and to create a triumph that vanquishes "the other side" by removing the notion of "sides" altogether.
When the writer of Colossians talks about the way God accomplished a victory over "the rulers and authorities" at the cross, it is this same kind of power, but writ large. At one point in the documentary, some people criticize Daryl Davis for making too little of a difference only affecting a tiny number of individual white supremacists rather than dealing with the bigger picture. They seem to think that Davis' approach of meeting people one on one and meeting hostility with pre-emptive love is just not realistic for really solving the big systemic problems. But in a sense, these verses from Colossians say that God has gone and used this very same strategy on a universal scale in Christ. What Daryl Davis does every time he gets a former Klan member's robe and hangs it up with the rest in his collection, symbolizing a life changed and a friendship forged with someone who hated him before, God has done for the whole world and all of its hostile powers. The old symbols of hate and power are turned into victory trophies, but not a gloating sort of victory that breeds further hostility and envy--a victory against the hostility itself, a victory against the hatred and animosity. What Daryl Davis does with a KKK robe on a clothing rack, God has done for all this world's powerful hates and hostilities, nailed to a cross.
Now, dear ones, this is the movement into which we have been brought. Not only have we been loved this way when we were (and sometimes still are) turned away from God and dead set against God's way of justice and mercy, but we are now called to love the same way. We are called to bear witness to that kind of victory into every pocket of creation, every nook and cranny where it is not yet apparent that God is triumphant in suffering love. And so every time you disarm someone else who was keyed up in hostility with your reflecting of Christ's own disarming love, you help the world to see what God accomplished for all at the cross. And every time you approach someone you might expect to want nothing to do with you, but approach them with civility that breaks their preconceptions about you, you become a part of that same movement, too.
This is the call for us today. An ordinary Friday. A good place to begin, perhaps, to dare to live in light of the victory at the cross. When you and I bring the presence of Christ-like vulnerable love into other people's lives, even crabby people with their arms crossed as they scowl at us, it is like bringing the Reign of heaven right into their world. Showing love like that might literally surprise the hell out of someone...
Lord Jesus, your victory at the cross transformed a world full of enemies in to your own beloved children, and the powers of the world are still scratching their heads over it. Let us be a part of that kind of transforming mercy that disarms as it embraces.
Now, I have no way of verifying or refuting that claim, and I will be the first to say that we do live in the era of false attributions of quotes (I have also seen the tongue-in-cheek social media meme that has a picture of Lincoln and a quote attributed to him that reads, "Don't trust Wikipedia. --Abraham Lincoln", so I am not going to lean too hard on who said it.
For that matter, even if Honest Abe himself did say that line about the power to destroy enemies by making them friends, he wouldn't have been the first one, not by a long shot. There is an ancient Christian writing, called the Didache (or, in English, "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles"), which was written around the time that the Gospels were put being down on parchment, which advises Christians, "If you do good to those who hate you, you will not have an enemy".
And of course, both the would-be Lincoln quote and the early Christian writing the Didache are all just like jazz musicians riffing on a theme from Jesus. And the tune they are all using to build their own improvisations out of is a beautiful little theme that goes like this: "God destroys enemies, not by killing them, but through the kind of love you see on the cross." Lincoln... the anonymous writer of the Didache... and plenty of others throughout the last two thousand years (Corrie ten Boom or Dr. King come to mind, for example)... they are variations on the theme of God's victorious love that embraces as it disarms.
The powers of the day don't know what to do with that kind of response. Whether it was Rome as here in these verses from Colossians, or the Confederacy in the 1860s in America... or police with fire hoses turned on crowds in the Jim Crow South... or anybody else, the powers that align themselves against God's rule don't know what to make of it when their hostility is met with suffering love. If you are convinced that you are in a war or a conflict against somebody else, you expect them to fight back with the same weapons you are using--they retaliate against your bombs with bombs of their own; they punch back if you are punching, and so on. But if you attack with your fists clenched, and you are met, not with a fist, but with open arms, it has a way of taking you aback.
I was watching a documentary called Accidental Courtesy a few weeks back about Daryl Davis, an African-American musician and son of diplomats who has made it his personal project to meet, talk with, and attempt to befriend KKK members and leaders, in the hope that if they actually get to know someone they claim to automatically hate, their own hearts may be changed. I was floored to watch his story--there are folks who are still set in their ways after knowing Daryl for years, and they are a part of his story, too. But in the last few decades, Daryl Davis has gotten dozens--like more than 30!--leaders of different branches of the KKK or white supremacist and white nationalist groups to leave their organizations, and they give him their old robes and hoods. They show him hanging up one of the robes he has been given, and putting it on a clothing rack in his garage or storage space, and putting it alongside the twenty others. It is a trophy of a victory, in a sense--but not a victory over another person who has "lost", but rather a victory over their old hates and hostilities. And for Davis, it all starts with the vulnerable position of going, listening, being civil, offering kindness even if none is shown first or shown back, and being persistent. He is a living picture of what it can look like to destroy your enemies by turning them into friends. He is a living picture of what it can look like to let vulnerable love overturn the expectations of those who are dead-set against you... and to create a triumph that vanquishes "the other side" by removing the notion of "sides" altogether.
When the writer of Colossians talks about the way God accomplished a victory over "the rulers and authorities" at the cross, it is this same kind of power, but writ large. At one point in the documentary, some people criticize Daryl Davis for making too little of a difference only affecting a tiny number of individual white supremacists rather than dealing with the bigger picture. They seem to think that Davis' approach of meeting people one on one and meeting hostility with pre-emptive love is just not realistic for really solving the big systemic problems. But in a sense, these verses from Colossians say that God has gone and used this very same strategy on a universal scale in Christ. What Daryl Davis does every time he gets a former Klan member's robe and hangs it up with the rest in his collection, symbolizing a life changed and a friendship forged with someone who hated him before, God has done for the whole world and all of its hostile powers. The old symbols of hate and power are turned into victory trophies, but not a gloating sort of victory that breeds further hostility and envy--a victory against the hostility itself, a victory against the hatred and animosity. What Daryl Davis does with a KKK robe on a clothing rack, God has done for all this world's powerful hates and hostilities, nailed to a cross.
Now, dear ones, this is the movement into which we have been brought. Not only have we been loved this way when we were (and sometimes still are) turned away from God and dead set against God's way of justice and mercy, but we are now called to love the same way. We are called to bear witness to that kind of victory into every pocket of creation, every nook and cranny where it is not yet apparent that God is triumphant in suffering love. And so every time you disarm someone else who was keyed up in hostility with your reflecting of Christ's own disarming love, you help the world to see what God accomplished for all at the cross. And every time you approach someone you might expect to want nothing to do with you, but approach them with civility that breaks their preconceptions about you, you become a part of that same movement, too.
This is the call for us today. An ordinary Friday. A good place to begin, perhaps, to dare to live in light of the victory at the cross. When you and I bring the presence of Christ-like vulnerable love into other people's lives, even crabby people with their arms crossed as they scowl at us, it is like bringing the Reign of heaven right into their world. Showing love like that might literally surprise the hell out of someone...
Lord Jesus, your victory at the cross transformed a world full of enemies in to your own beloved children, and the powers of the world are still scratching their heads over it. Let us be a part of that kind of transforming mercy that disarms as it embraces.
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