Midweek Faith Lift
March 14, 2018
Safe Passage Through the Highways of Your Mind
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Good Morning! We are now on #6 of the Big Ten, and we are breaking open the commandment from Exodus 20:13 “You shall not kill.” (RSV) Taken literally, it would mean that we don’t eat meat, we cannot take a life in self-defense, we do not go to war to attain peace. No killing, at all. It is clear that as a human race, we have not taken this at face value. Instead we have drawn all kinds of lines in the sand about when it is ok to kill and when it is less ok and when it is completely wrong. Clearly we continue to struggle as a people with this issue and we struggle to find the thread of sanctity in all the arguments for having unlimited access to guns in our country. What will it take for us to reclaim the sanctity of life, all life? What will it take? That is the question we are sitting with today. How do we move from Scared to Sacred?
The 6th commandment is from the Hebrew Scripture and the time of Moses. While it is an ancient directive, the history of the Jews is replete with wars and killing among the twelve tribes and beyond. The Levite priests were responsible for the slaughter of animals for people to eat and had a host of rules to follow to keep kosher. These rules were for the safety of the people so that the meat was healthy to eat and for the sanctity of the animals whose lives were honored even as they were taken. There are many ancient faith traditions, which also have prescriptions about taking the life of an animal for food. The Native Americans had very clear boundaries about what was acceptable and what was not. Meat as food was to sustain the people, not a source of profit or income.
As I sat with this talk on Tuesday, watching it snow, it became clear that this matter of not killing was not going to be an easy one to wrestle with at all. The cheap shot was to go on a rant against the NRA and the idiocy of advocating “that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to have a good guy with a gun!” Traveling down that path, the only logical conclusion is that everyone has a gun, and I am not willing to live in a world where everyone is armed. That is a world that presumes that everyone you meet is potentially out to kill you in order to prevent you from killing them. That consciousness is literally, morally, psychologically, spiritually a dead end. Can’t go there!
When I put the question of safety and no guns in church on the Unity Minister’s Discussion Facebook Page, I heard a whole range of responses including one minister who is considering carrying a concealed weapon while on the platform. He is a former military person who is well trained in the use of firearms. It is clear that many, many ministers are struggling with how to respond to this issue of mass shootings and the safety of the congregation on Sunday morning. There are no blueprints for this, other than “Thou shall not kill!” which we, as a culture seem to have completely discarded. I take my stand with the kids in Parkland, Florida: no one should go to school, to church, to the mall, to a concert, to a movie, to a college campus and have to fear for their life. No one! The killing needs to stop!
Butterworth wrote this book, Breaking the Ten Commandments in 1988, long before the “great political divide” in our country and the era of mass shootings in schools, college campuses, malls, movie theaters, concerts, churches, and other “soft targets.” Butterworth spoke out strongly against guns and killing. On page 87, he says: “It is interesting how many arguments are set forth against such things as gun control-even though guns are made to kill. If there is anything that symbolizes the willful breach of the letter of the 6th commandment, it is a gun. No matter that it is reserved for hunting or for self-defense, it is, and was intended to be a lethal weapon.”
From the perspective of 1988, most of the murders and killings were premeditated and were crimes of passion against an alienated family member, lover or known individual. There was gang violence, against other gang members. Now, 30 years later, we as a culture have allowed killing to broaden to mass killings, we are truly faced with a moral question of where we draw the lines. The real question, which I posed at the beginning of this talk is “What will it take for us to reclaim the sanctity of life, all life?”
Well, it seems the answer is to break open the 6th commandment into a higher consciousness, into a perspective of “metamorality” that offers us a bigger picture. And as always, Jesus had something to teach us about that.
Matthew 5:21-22
Concerning Anger
21 “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire. (RSV)
What is the message here? Jesus is telling us to widen our understanding of the meaning of “killing” and that we do it with our thoughts, our words and our intentions; our anger. He clearly understood that if we allow our anger and desire for vengeance to run the show, it does not bode well for us, either individually or collectively. It creates a kind of hell that we all have to live in. It seems to me that we are living the truth of that right now, in 2018.
It is important to note that Jesus doesn’t tell us to not get angry with one another. His message is to realize that what you do with that anger is of paramount importance and makes you “liable to judgment.” He is telling us a great spiritual truth about what these powerful emotions can do to us; what we sow we will also reap. In today’s language, we would say, “What goes around, comes around,” and it impacts our minds, our bodies and all our affairs and often swiftly. We may want to make it a morally righteous anger, but we can’t hide out behind righteousness. Why not? Because the word righteous really means “right use” and feeling morally superior to “the other” is not the right use of anger.
Our question becomes what is the right use of anger that would empower us to reclaim the sanctity of all life? Well, Butterworth points us in the direction of our Way Shower, Jesus. And here is what Jesus tells us to do:
Matthew 5:38-39 (RSV)
Concerning Retaliation
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, “Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also;”
Friends, I believe that is what the young people in Florida are doing. They are showing their pain and grief and agony. They are turning the other cheek and showing the world how much this hurts. They are speaking for the first graders at Sandy Hook who were not old enough to speak up. They are speaking out passionately, not shooting back. They are demonstrating the “right use” of their anger to call the adults up to a higher consciousness where we solve conflicts without guns and killing one another. They are speaking truth about the killer and that they knew he was a very troubled person. They are saying it is possible to know that and do something to help the troubled person. They are saying it is necessary to keep lethal assault weapons out of his hands. And they are demanding that the adults listen to them and take action to stop this. That is higher consciousness in action, and it is powerful, focused and effective.
There is one more important word from Jesus and that is about enemies and what to do with them. Here is what he says:
Matthew 5:43-45 (RSV)
Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust.
Did you notice that Jesus pointed out that God doesn’t hate your enemies? All life is sacred in the energy of Love. Our challenge in this commandment is to live into that as our reality. Can your ex-spouse, boss, brother, sister, parent, opposite political party walk safely on the highways of your mind? That is our question and we keep the 6th commandment when we deal with our anger and use it in the right way; we find a path to lift consciousness higher for all. We have that conversation with the NRA member without seeing the enemy face on the human being sitting across from us. That is a tall order, but that is what keeping the 6th commandment asks of us.
Butterworth leaves us with a wonderful story of how to deal with an enemy. It is on page 90 of Breaking the Ten Commandments and it goes like this:
In ancient Egypt there was a pharaoh who had this insight into love and nonresistance well ahead of his time. It was the time-honored custom of putting to death all captured soldiers. However, he would talk with them, forgive them, and release them. His critics were incensed and on the verge of rebellion. His response: ‘What, do I not destroy my enemies when I love them?’
Who is the enemy that you are called to “destroy” with love? When you can do that, when we can all do that, we reclaim the sanctity of all life. That is how we move from Scared to Sacred.
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb