Showing posts with label Violence. Show all posts

This is a great video from People of the Second Chance. 



What a beautiful account of grace...of mercy...of forgiveness, plain and simple.

As I reflect on this video and the concept behind the movement, I can't help but remember Anne Taylor's Saint Maybe, which a book I had to read at Duke Divinity School under the guidance of Stanley Hauerwas.  In that book, "The Church of the Second Chance" features prominently, as a place of radical forgiveness.

I found an except of the book over at a commentary on Matthew 18 on the cost of forgiveness by Carl Gregg:

As the story goes, one day a plate glass window attracts Ian’s attention as he walks down the street. The window reads, “The Church of the Second Chance.” He can hear a hymn being sung by inside. He almost keeps walking, but instead quietly enters the church, and slips into a back pew, hoping not to draw too much attention to himself. After the service is over, Pastor Emmett introduces himself to Ian. As they talk, all the emotions Ian has been holding inside the past few weeks flood to the surface. He begins confessing to Pastor Emmett.

Pastor Emmett: What’s wrong, Ian?

Ian: I don’t even know where to start. So much has happened so quickly. It started when I told my brother…I told my brother that his wife was cheating on him. And then later that night…he drove into a wall.  Then a few days later his wife overdosed on sleeping pills. So I guess you could say I helped cause that too…more or less… He’d had too much to drink that night. I guess I shouldn’t have told him. But I was really mad. I’d been babysitting for him and his wife. And she should have been home hours ago. She made me miss a really important date with my girlfriend — or at least it seemed important at the time…. Now I’m not even sure she was cheating on him…. I mean I’m pretty sure she did in the past…. I know I wasn’t totally wrong….  So it looks as if my parents are going to have to raise the children. My sister’s busy with her own kids and I’m away at college most of the time…. Everything’s been dumped on my mom and I don’t think she’s up to it — her or my dad, either one. I don’t think they’ll ever be the same after this…. So anyhow, I prayed to God for forgiveness.  And I honestly believe it might have worked….  Oh, it’s not like I got an answer in plain English, of course.  But…don’t you think? Don’t you think I’m forgiven? I mean, I thought God forgives everything. But I just don’t feel forgiven.

Pastor Emmett: Ian, you can’t just say, “I’m sorry, God.” Why anyone could do that much! You have to offer reparation — concrete, practical reparation, according to the rules of the church. Jesus helps us do what we can’t undo. But only after we’ve tried to undo it. You, for instance, could begin by raising the children.

Ian: Raising the children? But I’m only a freshman? I’m away at college most of the time.

Pastor Emmett: “Then maybe you should drop out.”

Ian: Drop out? Drop out of college? …This is some kind of test, isn’t it?

Pastor Emmett: Ian, it’s not that simple. But God does want to know how far you’ll go to undo the harm you’ve done…. How else would God know?

Ian: Wait. You’re saying God would want me to change all my plans and give up my education?”  …That’s crazy! I’d have to be crazy! I can’t take on a bunch of kids!  Who do you think I am?  I’m nineteen years old! What kind of religion is this?

Pastor Emmett: It’s the religion of atonement and complete forgiveness…. It’s the religion of the Second Chance.

There's a rub here.

With video and The People of the Second Chance, it seems like the forgiveness, the second chance is completely free, nothing required, pure grace.  Could it be "too cheap?"

With Pastor Emmett and "The Church of the Second Chance," it seems like forgiveness has strings attached, is costly.  Could it not be "free enough?"

I struggle with this. 

I want to live in the forgiveness and grace of God but I'm not sure how much that forgiveness should cost me so that there is a purging of my sins, so that I can more readily be able to receive the gift that is given.  This has always been a struggle for me.  I've always struggled with forgiveness. I think going back to my childhood it's been a struggle for me.  I've always been more comfortable showing grace than receiving it.

So, how can I receive the free...but not cheap...grace of our God?

Or, the question I prefer to ask, how can I offer it to others?

He's very harsh here...but I think right on the money.  Bill Maher has this monologue -- a mini-homily, really -- in response to the celebration of Christians to the death of Osama bin Laden a month or so ago.  He says that, that whole "loving enemies" thing that Jesus talks about is a pretty major part of the teachings of Jesus and that one really can't call themselves Christians if they deny this by hating enemies and hunting them down to kill them.  He claims that, if Christians ignore "turning the other cheek" and the call to love those who do them wrong, they are merely FANS of Jesus and NOT FOLLOWERS.  He says that this is "like joining Greenpeace and hating whales."

This video is NOT SAFE FOR WORK.  There is swearing in it.

But, after spending so much time reflecting on Davin Kinnaman's book UNCHRISTIAN, it's interesting hearing a self-proclaimed non-Christian tell Christians that they aren't being Christian enough...all the while using our own Bible as evidence against us.

Image via WikipediaAs we reflect on the death of Osama bin Laden, the celebration in the streets, the call of Christ, justice, grace and peace...

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. You may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. You may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate, nor establish love. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”
1967

HT/Maggi Dawn

Image by joykennelly via FlickrPete Wilson asks:

I wonder if I would have been excited if the news had reported that Bin Laden had repented and accepted Christ as I was when I heard he had been killed?

 

Would we have jumped up and down over that?

Found this at Jesus Needs New PR. 

One of the comments on the post says:

Blessed are the peacemakers but if you wish to settle for a little less blessedness here is a cross for you….

photo © 2010 akasped | more info (via: Wylio)

(Written by President Bill Clinton on April 18, 2010 on the 15th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings.  From an Op-Ed article in The New York Times.)

Interesting thing about Web Comics.  They can be very current.  Here's one I read regularly, "The Joy Of Tech Comic."  It's a comic that talks about, well, tech stuff usually and a lot of social media.  Today the artist twists the now well-known map which can still be found on Sarah Palin's Facebook site.  Its the map of the US with which have crosshairs over the districts of House of Representative officials that her team wanted defeated in 2010.  Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot yesterday, is represented by one of the crosshairs.

While her spokespersons have clearly stated that the crosshairs on the original map were not "gun sights" but "surveyors' marks" the Palin team has been forced to defend their poster and some of their rhetoric.  To point people to her Facebook stage she had Tweeted, "Don't retreat.  Instead -- RELOAD."

The Arizona shootings were the work of, it appears, one troubled person.  To make a direct link between the map or Palin or the Tea Party or Republicans or whatever, and the shooter is dishonest.  However, I think this cartoon, and current reaction to the event, has made it clear that we need to change the tone of our discourse.