The Gray Monk

7th Sunday after Trinity 2005
Evensong

“Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?”

May the Lord be in my mouth,
May He be in my mind,
And in my understanding;
For Jesus Christ’s sake.
Amen

I am sure that many of you were as distressed and dismayed as I was when the news began to filter through of the terrible events this week in London. I suspect that you, like me, felt enormous anger at the perpetrators of this senseless act of mass murder, for that is what it is, and despair for those killed and injured. For myself, I can say that there was an anxious few hours following the news before I received confirmation that both my son and elder daughter had not been directly involved in any of the incidents. It is at times like this that one is tempted to use David’s question in a different sense to that which it has in our lesson this evening.

Recently I read an article by a Rabbi, who postulated that we Christians have got Christ’s message wrong. Nowhere, says the Rabbi, does the Bible, or Christ in the New Testament, tell us we have to tolerate or “love” evil. Nowhere does He tell us to “forgive” evil. The commandment is to love one another, and to love our enemies, not God’s and not someone else’s – but our own.

Now this flies in the face of the understanding we have and which is described in books such as “The foolishness of God”. We are taught that we must not “hate” anyone or anything – especially those who wish us ill. But is this really what the Gospels tell us to do? I will stick my neck out and say that I do not think that is what Christ tells us; I think the Rabbi has a point.

I may feel compassion, no, I should feel compassion, for those misguided individuals who fall into the trap laid by the Devil, and succumb to the temptation to use violence to achieve their twisted and warped vision of “God’s Will”. Perhaps I should see them as the victims of those men and women whose understanding of God is so twisted and warped by their own personal desire for power that they will use the gullible and the simple-minded to perpetrate these despicable acts of violence in the name of God. Perhaps I should feel a Christian compassion, but it is difficult to do so – not least when some of your own loved ones are standing exposed to this danger.

This came to a head again for me on Thursday, when faced with the real possibility that my son and elder daughter could well be among those affected.

These are not new problems; these are, indeed, the same problems Christians and the Jews themselves have had to face since God first revealed Himself to our forefathers. No doubt our children will face similar challenges in their time and their children after them. When we look at the story of King David, we find a man who was himself at one time a “terrorist”, hunted by King Saul and his men and fighting a guerrilla war to stay out of the King’s clutches. In his own reign David faced similar problems with some of his own sons, yet the key element is there for us if we choose to see it. Forgiveness comes from the wronged in each case. Saul forgives David after David spares his life in the wilderness, David forgives his son when the two meet in battle. The interesting point about both is that there is acknowledgement of injustice and of right on both sides – more interesting is what is missing from the story. Neither King “hated” their rebellious adversary, therefore the operating emotion is anger tinged by sadness – not the blinding anger engendered by hatred.

Hatred is, in my understanding, the true mark of evil. Hatred is not just the opposite of love; it is the absence of love. True hatred leaves no room for compassion, no room for mercy, no opportunity for reconciliation. Worse, it eats into the person bearing the hatred, poisoning them and doing as much harm to them as it does to those they hate. This is where the Rabbi and I disagree. I do not believe that God calls upon us to “hate” the evil doer; I do believe that He calls upon us to resist evil in all its forms. To shun it and to hold it in revulsion, possibly even, if one of you were to do me some harm, to forgive you that act, but I cannot forgive on your behalf or you on mine. Equally, I cannot forgive the enemies of God because they are God’s enemies, and He will deal with them as He sees necessary. This is where I disagree with the author of “The foolishness of God”.

David’s prayer in tonight’s reading arises from his relief at being given a breathing space from the enemies that beset him from within and without the Kingdom. Just as we are now beset by the threat of violence by those who loath and despise us, who loath and despise our way of life and our understanding of God, so we should pray to God for guidance in how He would wish us to respond – and how He would wish us to rise above the temptation to hate. It would be very easy to fall into the trap of “hating” everyone associated by religion or race, with the bombers – and it would be terribly wrong to do so.

It is perhaps fitting that this weekend we are also marking the end of hostilities in the last great global war, a war fought to free the world from the sort of evil that arises whenever man submits to hating others. Perhaps then it is not so strange that we see a rival of the concept of the hero who can go out and battle, day after day, night after night, destroying evildoers wherever they encounter them without ever themselves becoming evil. This idea that we can have some “super human” someone with powers transcending the ordinary and who is absolutely just and absolutely good. This is a theme explored in many science fiction films and stories – and it ignores an important weakness. If you hate, even if you hate evil, there is a very fine line between doing good by destroying the evil and becoming yourself a part of the evil. This is a part of the theme in the Star Wars story – the Dark Lord’s must first be Jedi Knights in order that they can be subverted through anger into the powers of darkness through rage and hatred.

The events of Thursday have been a terrible reminder that we live in a world torn by faction, torn by greed and desire for power. Within that is the hand of the Devil using the weak, using the angry, and using those without knowledge and true understanding of God to bring pain, death, and, yes, hatred to us all. We must resist that. While we may find it difficult to understand these terrible acts, while we may wish to see revenge through justice or even through military action, we must remember that the Evil One is God’s enemy. We must shun him and his works, trust in God, and have compassion for those who have given themselves to the power and to acts of evil, without giving ourselves to hatred.

Much as a part of me wants to see these evil men and possibly women punished by God for their actions, I know, indeed, it is my only hope that God is compassionate and may forgive even one of these who repent of their crimes. I would not wish to find myself in Jonah’s shoes as God reminded him of that fact outside Nineveh.

Our calling as followers of Christ is to find ways to do God’s will and work. He has called us to His service, not as His armed response unit. Our response to the events of this week must be compassion for the victims, compassion for those so lost to evil that they believe that they and they alone have right on their side, but firmness of purpose and firmness of resistance to the temptation to descend into hatred.

I will never “love” any terrorist. I find them and their methods, irrespective of their cause or the rightness of their cause, utterly repugnant. Nor can I ever find it in me to forgive them their actions and the pain and misery they wreak in the name of their cause. But I may show them compassion for their separation from the love of God and His mercy.

As we heard in our second reading, as Jesus approached Jerusalem he wept over it, for He knew what was to come. He knew what awaited Him at the hands of its rulers and its citizens yet He still had compassion for them. To me it is clear from the passage we heard tonight that Jesus feels sorrow, compassion, for the people of Jerusalem, He has offered them the opportunity to turn from their abuses and have the forgiveness so freely given, yet it is also clear that they won’t.

As David prayed, so must we pray;

“Lord what am I to you, and what is my family, that you have brought me to this?” David’s prayer is one of hope, he sees an opportunity to do something for God, something which will also help to establish his people firmly. The building of the temple was as much a political statement of determination as it was an act of worship.

If we are to overcome the forces of evil that underlay the acts of hatred we have seen this week, we must be firm in our faith and show by our actions our determination to continue unhindered and above all not succumbing to their debased level. We should pray; “What do you wish us to do, and how do you wish us to address the suffering in our midst that gives rise to the hatred which fuels these acts of evil?”

Today is the day that I mark as the anniversary of my having first encountered God, the beginning of my spiritual journey in this great faith, yet I mark it again with more questions than I have answers. I can only pray that God will provide them as I need them.

Let us pray.

Lord, in your mercy, give to us your servants understanding, compassion and the knowledge of your will that we may be your servants and serve you as you would have us serve; we ask this in the name of your only Son, our saviour, Jesus Christ.

Amen