February
12, 2017: 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
MMACC –
San Diego, CA
Readings:
Leviticus:
19:1-2, 11-18, 33-34
Psalm
119: 15-16, 7-20, 33-34, 36-37, 38, 40
1
Corinthians 2:6-10
Matthew
5:18, 38-48
The aspect of today’s gospel that is
perhaps most well known to us is the exhortation to turn the other cheek. “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek,
turn the other also.” Now, it may seem strange that the right cheek is
specified, but there’s a reason for this. Jesus’ words here aren’t just a
blanket statement that if someone punches you on one side, to give them the
other side. This isn’t support for being a doormat, rather, it’s a new way of
responding to injustice. To understand this, it’s helpful to get some
background on the context.
If we remember, Jesus is preaching these
words to a people under occupation. Roman soldiers considered the Jewish people
their inferiors. The situation here isn’t about a fair fist fight, but of a
Roman soldier (or any person with “superior” status) backhanding a Jewish
person. Since most Roman soldiers were right handed, if you were to punch
someone, you’d hit their left cheek, but if you backhand them, you hit their
right cheek.[1] And this topic
is one that a few biblical scholars, including Paul Penley and Walter Wink have
done some work on. Jesus’ instructions to his followers both recognize the
class structures that are at work in the surrounding society but also call for
a peaceful subversion. Instead of retaliating in anger or meekly accepting the
injustice, Jesus is advocating a response that demands respect from the Romans.
A response that affirms the humanity of the Jewish people and their rights. By
breaking the cycle of violence, by “taking the high road,” Jesus hopes to
trigger the conscience of the perpetrator.
Of course, this peaceful subversion isn’t instant. We’ve seen in our own
country’s history with the work of civil rights activists just how long it
takes to accomplish change. We’ve seen it in the work of Nelson Mandela in
South Africa. It takes time. It takes persistence.
One of the soundbytes from the news this
past week that has stuck with me is the words Mitch McConnell used in speaking
about silencing Elizabeth Warren when she tried to read a letter from Coretta
Scott King on the floor of the Senate. "She was warned. She was given an
explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” he said. These words of his have
become a sort of rallying cry. She
persisted. Elizabeth Warren isn’t the only one who persisted. Rosa Parks:
she persisted. Ruby Bridges, one of the first black children in an integrated
school; she persisted. Edie Windsor, whose lawsuit against the federal
government paved the way for marriage equality; she persisted. Harriet Tubman,
a former slave and spy who led hundreds of slaves to freedom; she persisted. Ida
B. Wells, iconic writer, activist, and suffragette; she persisted. Shirley
Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and the first black woman
of a major party to run for president of United States; she persisted. Ilhan Omar,
a former Somali-American refugee elected to congress in 2016; she persisted.
Sylvia Rivera, the first 'trans activist' to call for a Gay Liberation movement
inclusive of trans identities; she persisted.
Persistence doesn’t always make you
popular. Indeed, people might tell you to sit down, shut up, or go away. They
might call you annoying. Or worse. But there is something holy about
persistence. Something holy about disrupting the system of injustice that
exists around us. God does not call us to be complacent. God affirms our
holiness – not because of our actions or our worthiness. Leviticus reminds us
“You shall be holy, for I your God am holy.” How then do we carry out the
exhortations form Leviticus – to be just, to welcome the stranger, to not seek
vengeance…? We are, after all, only human.
We persist. We remember our shared
humanity. That all of us are children of God – the construction workers waiting
in the home depot parking lot, the clerk at the shopping store, the person who
cut us off on the freeway, the undocumented worker, the family of refugees who
has nothing left to go back to, the Muslim girl worried whether wearing a head
scarf to school will cause her to be bullied, the trans child afraid to come
out for fear of getting kicked out, the politician whose actions horrify us.
Jesus asks us to persist. To persist in loving even those we might view as
unlovable. To persist in working for justice in an unjust world. To persist in
going the extra mile.
[1]
Paul Penley, “Turning the Other Cheek: Jesus’ Peaceful Plan to Challenge
Injustice,” http://www.reenactingtheway.com/blog/turning-the-other-cheek-jesus-peaceful-plan-to-challenge-injustice
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