We live in an incredibly violent
society. Violence is everywhere: in movies and TV shows, on the evening news,
and even in the catch-phrases that we use. It seems to be in the very air that
we breathe! And it wasn’t always this way. Oh, gangsters and members of the
Mafia have always been violent; but until relatively recently, that violence
was for the most part hidden from public view. Now, we can’t escape it. Video
games like Death Race or Mortal Combat encourage its players to
kill as many opponents as possible in order to win the game. Television shows show
the effects of violence in all kinds of ways. I recently stumbled upon an old
episode of CSI. In just the first
five minutes of the show, I saw a bloody corpse hanging on a barbed wire fence
with its decapitated head impaled on a nearby post. When I was a kid, I watched
shows like Leave It to Beaver, where
the only violence was Eddie Haskell threatening to punch out the Beav if he
tattled. (And we knew that Eddie would never do that, anyway.) And the movies
are experts at depicting violence. In 1952, the year that I was born, the three
most popular movies were Moulin Rouge
(a biography of artist Toulouse-Lautrec),
Singin’ in the Rain (a musical) and The
Quiet Man (a love story). Sixty years later, the most popular movies were The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hunger Games, every one of them
violent or based on a violent situation.
But while the violence that we see in
movies and TV and video games isn’t real, the deaths that have taken place as a
result of mass shootings over the past 20 years certainly are. Their names fall
on our ears like the tolling of a bell in a funeral procession.
Columbine
Virginia Tech
Fort Hood
Sandy Hook
Emmanuel AME Church
Pulse nightclub
Las Vegas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Over 300 men, women, and children have
lost their lives since the Columbine High School massacre took place in 1999. What
in the world is going on?
There is no easy way to answer that
question. I’m not going to analyze the causes of violence this morning. That’s
the work of a sociologist, not a preacher. I’m not going to offer a political
solution to the problem, either. Jesus didn’t give us any political solutions,
and neither will I. But Jesus does call
us to reject violence wherever we find it; and the fact is that violence has
infiltrated our society to such an extent that most of us accept it as normal. And
it’s not normal! It’s not normal to be entertained by torn flesh, bullet-ridden
bodies, and decapitated corpses! And if we want to draw nearer to God, we need
to free ourselves from the swamp of violence in which we are mired. I’m going
to suggest that during this this Lenten season, instead of sacrificing small
luxuries such as chocolate or cookies, we try our best to sacrifice some of the
violence that is part and parcel of our daily lives.
Now, you may object that no one here is
violent. On the whole, we all live peaceful lives. That’s true. I’m fairly
certain that none of us is going to plan a mass murder anytime soon. But do you
know what we will do? We’ll use
violent words and phrases without giving it a thought. Instead of saying, “I’ll
give it a try,” we’ll say, “I’ll take a shot (or a stab) at it.” Instead of asking,
“Are you ready to start?” we might ask, “Are you ready to pull the trigger on
that?” (Do you see what I’m shooting for here?) And I’ll bet every single one
of us has said, at one time or another, “I’d like to knock some sense into his
head!”
I’m just as guilty as anyone! Those
catch-phrases show how easily we have accepted the violence in our culture! Why,
we don’t think twice about it! What if, during this Lenten season, we did think twice about it? What if we
decided to take a tiny step towards reducing violence by eliminating violent
language from our vocabulary for the next 6 weeks? It might not decrease the
violence in our society by much, but it would certainly make us more aware of
how pervasive it is!
Changing our speech is relatively easy.
But his next suggestion will be much harder for some of us. What if we
sacrificed watching violent movies and TV shows during Lent? Could we watch The Greatest Showman instead of Death Wish? Could we tune in to The Big Bang Theory instead of Game of Thrones? We might even consider
turning off the evening news in order to avoid some of the images of bloodshed from
around the world! If we sacrificed some of the violent entertainment that we
watch regularly, even just for a few weeks, we might start to recognize how
twisted that violence really is!
Finally, just for the next 6 weeks,
let’s practice turning the other cheek. Now, I understand – that’s sacrificing
our rights as citizens to respond to insults, slurs, and other affronts any way
that we like. But the way that we like
to respond isn’t the way that Jesus wants
us to respond! I recently ran across a story that is almost unbelievable given
today’s climate of retaliating for every slight. And it took place, of all
places, on Facebook, that hotbed of trolls who use offensive vocabulary and
even worse grammar! It seems that a young lady who is, admittedly, overweight
posted a modest photo of herself on her Facebook page. The internet trolls came
out of the woodwork! One told her that she looked like a pig. Another advised
her to get off her big fat rear and exercise. A third asked her why she was
offending their eyes by posting the photo at all! Now, what would you do if anyone said those things to
you? Most folks on Facebook would immediately respond in kind. “You think that
I’m fat?? Oh, yeah???” or something of that sort. But this wise young lady responded
in a very different way. She said something positive to every single one of her
attackers! She complimented one on the lipstick that she was wearing in her
profile photo; and she thanked another for the suggestion that she exercise,
saying that it gave her motivation to improve her general health! Do you know
what happened? The vast majority of the folks who had insulted her contacted
her to apologize for their ugly words.
Do you suppose that Jesus is on to
something when he tells us to turn the other cheek? Could we help to
de-escalate the violence in our society by learning to do just that? The book
of Proverbs (15:1) says that “a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word
stirs up anger.” Maybe we should take that advice seriously.
“Those who live by the sword will die by
the sword." That’s still as true today as it was when Jesus said it. My prayer
is that the violence in our society will be rejected by men and women who are
as tired of it as I am, and who decide to practice non-violence in their own
lives in greater or smaller ways. It may not be an easy sacrifice, but it’s one
that I guarantee will draw you closer to God during this season of Lent.
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