Whether you get your news via a newspaper, radio, TV, or the internet it is easy to be overwhelmed by the level of man's inhumanity to man. What can one person do in the face of all that evil?
Hab 1:2 O LORD, how long must I call for help before you listen, before you save us from violence?
Hab 1:3 Why do you make me see such trouble? How can you stand to look on such wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are all around me, and there is fighting and quarreling everywhere.
Hab 1:4 The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.
I could have written that any day this week. The answer is:
Hab 2:4 And this is the message: 'Those who are evil will not survive, but those who are righteous will live because they are faithful to God.' "
The Psalm continues the theme of the passing nature of evil. We are reminded that it is dangerous and there is a steep price to be paid for attempting to speed matters up. Regime change can take generations, geological change can take eons, astronomical change light-years. The sun will expand to engulf the orbit of the earth in 5 billion years; should we worry about that today? In the meantime we should be about God's business and trust in the Lord who has power o'er all things.
In Timothy Paul says something very similar. Revolution usually results in bloodshed and he who takes up the sword.... On the other hand we have a responsibility not to throw up our hands in despair and do nothing but to be about the business of living godly christian lives. However that is not to say that we should do nothing. We must remember however that the testimony of the early christians led to their martyrdom.
This would not be the first time that a set of lessons would be at odds with one another.
Luke today begins with the story of the mustard seed. It takes 100 mustard seeds to make an inch yet that seed grows in to a shrub about 20 ft in diameter and twenty feet high, call it a tree if you would. If we had faith like unto that mustard seed we could move mountains.
We are also cautioned that just because we are God's followers we should not expect special treatment. We must remember that God can create believers out of the stones at our feet. We should not expect special rewards for doing God's will here on earth. Responding in love to God's gift of grace is its own reward.
How then do we respond to the evil we see in the world? In the first place by being about God's work here on earth and devoting our lives to His service. Think globally and act locally. Our lives and actions should reflect who we are. We should do everything in our power to correct the wrong that we see around us. On the other hand we must remember that there is a price to be paid for attempting to speed things along too fast. In particular violence tends to beget violence. Remember who we are and never give up hope.
Sometimes there are no easy answers, no simple rights or wrongs. Whatever we do must be done in the spirit of Christian Love. We must never forget who we are and whose will we are about. We must be willing to take responsibility for the effects of our actions and to think calmly, soberly, and logically about what the outcomes are likely to be. The ouster of Louis XIV resulted in a reign of terror that lasted an entire year and killed tens of thousands. The overthrow of Saddam Houssein resulted in an extended period of looting and bloodletting which resulted because there was no regime in place to keep law and order once the battle was won. The political activism that removed a dicatator from power in Egypt has led to anarchy ever since. The removal of Tito from power in Yugoslavia has resulted in sectarian violence, ethnic cleansing, and factionalism that continues to this day and has resulted in thousands of deaths and the destruction of cultural icons hundreds of years old.
Contrast this with the approach taken by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu's Truth and Reconciation Commission. Justice can take many forms and punishment and retribution don't always create the results one would desire. Do we want to punish wrongdoers and fill ever larger jails with repeat offenders; or do we want them to make restitution to the victims of their crimes? Most young offenders find the latter option more onerous.
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