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Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45; Romans 12: 9-21; Matthew 16:21-28
God’s fiery words make plain the Creator’s preferential option for the poor and suffering: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters… I have come down to deliver them…to a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:7-8). God calls Moses to lead the people to freedom, wholeness, and a multi-layered peace: Shalom.
Here is the spiritual-political tradition in which Paul can stand and proclaim the vision of Jesus: “[E]xtend hospitality to strangers”; “Bless those who persecute you”; “Do not repay anyone evil for evil”; “If your enemies are hungry, feed them”; and “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:13-21). Paul exhorts in the tradition of God speaking to Moses through a burning bush.
The liberation wrought by a Moses or a Paul never comes without social struggle and personal suffering. Jesus rebukes Peter for his enormous miscalculation that suffering would not be required (Matthew 16:23).
In 2005, preparing to repay “evil for evil” has a far higher cost than would the deliverance of God’s poor to wholeness and health. The United States maintains 5,200 operational nuclear weapons and Russia 7,200, with both countries keeping more than 2,000 on ready alert. (The nuclear headliners, North Korea and Iraq, have 6 and 0 nuclear warheads, respectively.)
Blessing those who persecute? Feeding our enemies? Trusting God and not nuclear gods for deliverance? It will come with the renewal of our minds, the redemption of our dreams, and the consuming voice of God in our ears. One day, a change will come.
God’s fiery words make plain the Creator’s preferential option for the poor and suffering: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters… I have come down to deliver them…to a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:7-8). God calls Moses to lead the people to freedom, wholeness, and a multi-layered peace: Shalom.
Here is the spiritual-political tradition in which Paul can stand and proclaim the vision of Jesus: “[E]xtend hospitality to strangers”; “Bless those who persecute you”; “Do not repay anyone evil for evil”; “If your enemies are hungry, feed them”; and “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:13-21). Paul exhorts in the tradition of God speaking to Moses through a burning bush.
The liberation wrought by a Moses or a Paul never comes without social struggle and personal suffering. Jesus rebukes Peter for his enormous miscalculation that suffering would not be required (Matthew 16:23).
In 2005, preparing to repay “evil for evil” has a far higher cost than would the deliverance of God’s poor to wholeness and health. The United States maintains 5,200 operational nuclear weapons and Russia 7,200, with both countries keeping more than 2,000 on ready alert. (The nuclear headliners, North Korea and Iraq, have 6 and 0 nuclear warheads, respectively.)
Blessing those who persecute? Feeding our enemies? Trusting God and not nuclear gods for deliverance? It will come with the renewal of our minds, the redemption of our dreams, and the consuming voice of God in our ears. One day, a change will come.