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Armed with Love

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Romans 12:9-20; Matthew 5:38-48
Tough Questions Series: Can a Christian Own a Gun?
June 17, 2017
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL
Christina Berry

As I selected scripture for this tough question, I went back and forth about which one should be listed first. I couldn’t decide whether to use the Romans text first or the Matthew text. Finally I decided to let Jesus have the last word. So our first reading is from the 12th chapter of the letter to the Romans. Attorney General Sessions quoted something from Romans 13 last week, but unfortunately he did not take context into account. Mr. Sessions quoted the instruction to Christians to obey the government. Just after the scripture Sessions quoted there is a set of very detailed instruction to love others and the text you’ll hear today is just before the chapter Mr. Sessions quoted. Like all scripture, this must be read in light of the teachings of Jesus, and in the larger context of the written word of God. Let’s listen for God’s word to us today in Romans 12:9-20:

Let love be genuine;
hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection;
outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another;
do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;
do not claim to be wiser than you are.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil,
but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;
for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them;
if they are thirsty, give them something to drink;
for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Our gospel reading comes from the gospel of Matthew, and it is a portion of the Sermon on the Mount. As I mentioned a minute ago, Christians strive to understand all scripture in context, in light of the teachings, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and in light of the love that is God. So let’s listen for God’s word to us in Matthew 5:38-48

“You have heard that it was said,
‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.
But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;
and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well;
and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.
Give to everyone who begs from you,
and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be children of your Father in heaven;
for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,
what more are you doing than others?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Can a Christian own a gun?

That’s our tough question for today. That’s not how the question was posed verbatim, but that’s how the worship team decided to pose it. Like any tough question, it is complicated, and there are no easy answers. Actually, I should say, the question of guns in America is complicated. The simple answer is: of course a Christian can own a gun. 
Plenty of good faithful Christians own guns.
So, that’s answered….

But the simple answer may not be the best way to go. So we have to consider what the broad message of scripture is. There are lots and lots of voices in the media right now that purport to answer that difficult question with simple statements. The National Rifle Association considers gun ownership to be a right that is equivalent with the inalienable rights stated by the founders of the USA:
Along with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, owning a gun is “a God-given right.”[1] One week after the Parkland school shooting, Wayne LaPierre, at CPAC, said of this so-called right of gun ownership: “It's not bestowed by man, but granted by God to all Americans as our American birthright.” I’m not clear on the reasoning that Mr. LaPierre used, but apparently God only gave that right to Americans, and I’d guess that in the NRA lexicon, it’s only to certain Americans.

Another guy, Chuck Baldwin, a pastor and conservative radio personality, says that gun ownership is not only a God-given right – it’s a requirement. Any Christian who does not own the equivalent of an AR-15 assault rifle has “denied the Christian faith” and is “worse than a heathen.”[2] “Without that,” he says “you are not even able to protect not just your family and your house, but your neighbors, your community around you; [We] are given the God-given responsibility to protect our communities.That is a biblical requirement.”

Back in 2014, Greg Abbot, who was then the Attorney General of Texas – he is now the governor of the state of Texas – ran an ad on his Facebook page depicting a handgun and a Bible. The caption read: “Two things every American should know how to use… neither of which are taught in school.”[3]

One incredulous comment said “Have you ever read the Constitution?”[4] My favorite response, though, was from English teachers, who said this ad was SO wrong. It should be "Neither of which IS taught in school"!

Equating God and guns is not new, of course. Since the 1970s, issues around guns, gun control and gun violence have been part of our national conversation. Until recently, every time there was a mass shooting, sales of guns and ammunition skyrocketed. [5] Funded by gun manufacturers and gun advocates, the NRA has lobbied hard against any regulations on gun sales or any liability for sellers, or a national registry of gun ownership.[6] So it has become almost an article of faith for many people.

And there are a lot of those people, and they own a lot of guns. In 2013, just five years ago, there were as many guns in the United States as there were people, but only a one fourth of Americans owned guns.[7] Most of those gun owners say they have guns for protection. I’m not sure protection from whom. Intruders, I suppose.

Some say they need them for self-defense against the government, but many of them are of the same party as the Attorney General who quoted scripture to say that everybody needs to obey the government. So let’s look at what else the book of Romans says, apart from the verses quoted out of context.

This kind of scripture that gives moral instruction to Christians is understood to be based on the life and teachings of Christ, and was given to people living under occupation and persecution. Even in such difficult times, Christians were called to be people of peace. 
They were not to curse others, but to bless them. 
They were live in harmony with one another 
and resist the temptation to repay anyone evil for evil. 
They were called to “take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.”
and to “live peaceably with all.”
More importantly, even in a culture of shame and honor, they were told:
“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;
for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them;
if they are thirsty, give them something to drink;
for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Now, I’m well aware that hardly anyone who owns a gun is marching out the door each day like Dirty Harry, looking for someone to offend them so they can say “Go ahead, make my day,” and take their revenge. And I’m not talking today about those who use guns for hunting, or in order to conduct their work in law enforcement, or the military.

But gun ownership is complicated. So I talked to my friend and seminary classmate Sharon Risher about this. Sharon, in my opinion, has great moral authority to speak on this issue. She is an African American, a southerner, and a Presbyterian minister. Moreover, the Reverend Sharon Risher’s mother, Ethel Lance, two of her cousins, Susie Jackson and Tywanza Sanders, and her childhood friend Myra Thompson were among the nine people killed when a gunman opened fire at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, three ears ago today.

I shared with Sharon a story of my friend Ron, a Texas country boy, who had a loaded gun in the house for personal protection. They lived in the country and Ron had instructed his wife Lisa on how to chamber a shotgun shell if she heard an intruder.
“If somebody comes in the house or threatens you or the baby,” he said, “you chamber a shell. If they don’t run when they hear that, shoot them.”
Ron had been out of town at a livestock judging event, and his wife Lisa was not expecting him home until the next day. Ron came into the house quietly that night, on tiptoe, carrying his shoes. He thought he was successfully sneaking into the darkened house until he heard, from the dark at the top of the stairs, the unmistakable sound of a shotgun shell being chambered, and his wife’s trembling voice saying,
"You take one more step up those stairs and I will shoot you dead.”
Ron said, “I stood perfectly still and said, ‘Lisa? Honey? It’s me.’”

When I told her the story , Sharon said, “Exactly! 
If you have a gun in your house, and someone tries to break in, 
what is the very first thing you are going to do?”

You’ve heard the stories – there’s a fight, and argument, there’s a dispute, and when there are guns, those conflicts become deadly. Pretty simple: If you have a gun, you are more likely to shoot somebody!

Sharon told me last Wednesday that too many of us live in a bubble, a place where we only hear people who agree with us, and think that we are safe from all the evils of the larger world. I told her we’d recently had an attempted school shooting in Dixon, and she reminded me of our responsibility as Christians.

She said each one of us has our “lane,” the place where we are, and that each one of us needs to stay in our lane and do what we can. Sharon’s been adamant that we need to DO something. In an interview she said,
“I think my job is to get to people’s hearts. I think that’s where the change has to come -- in the person’s heart. And then that’s where I think the church comes in. It’s our job to use the Holy Scriptures and the message of God to lead with our hearts. Because if we lead with our hearts, then we will do more good than ever do harm….If you get that person’s heart and their willingness to move into action, it will just be good for everybody. And we could try to have that beloved community that Dr. King talked about.”

In response to the oft used thoughts and prayers, Sharon said, “Are you really praying? Are you really praying? “It takes more than prayers to deal with the things that we have to deal with as a society right now. Yes, God gives us prayer, but he gives us the motivation and the willingness to take action,” [8]

Sharon has taken action by quitting her job as a chaplain and becoming a public speaker and activist. That is probably not the action that each of us will take, but each of us has our “lane” and can take some action.

To know what that action might be, to know what it might look like, we turn not to lobbying associations or government or movie stars. We turn to Jesus, and what he tells us is not easy. What Jesus tells us is what should support and frame and center our every thought, every prayer, every action. Some of you may have heard of a group of evangelical Christians called “Red Letter Christians.” Here’s what they say about themselves:

“The goal of Red Letter Christians is simple:
To take Jesus seriously by endeavoring to live out
His radical, counter-cultural teachings as set forth in Scripture,
and especially embracing the lifestyle prescribed
in the Sermon on the Mount.
By calling ourselves Red Letter Christians,
we refer to the fact that in many Bibles
the words of Jesus are printed in red.
What we are asserting, therefore,
is that we have committed ourselves first and foremost
to doing what Jesus said.
Jesus calls us away from the consumerist values
that dominate contemporary America.
Instead, he calls us to meet the needs of the poor.
He also calls us to be merciful,
which has strong implications in terms of war and capital punishment.
After all, when Jesus tells us to love our enemies,
he probably means we shouldn’t kill them.”[9]

I’m not going to try to expound on what Jesus said, because it is simple to understand, even if it is not easy to do. So I’m just going to repeat it. Here are the words of Jesus about revenge, enemies and love:

“You have heard that it was said, 
‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. 
But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 
and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 
and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 
Give to everyone who begs from you, 
and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. 
You have heard that it was said, 
‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be children of your Father in heaven;”

Following Jesus does not give us the God-given right to bear arms.
Following Jesus calls us to live as those prepared to die,
knowing that in life and in death, we belong to God.
We who follow the teachings of Jesus,
are not armed with weapons,
but armed with love.

Amen.

We used this prayer in worship. I'd intended to use only the second part of it, since it begins with a reference to another shooting. But there was, indeed, another shooting, this time in Trenton, NJ.
Sad, Tired, and Angry: A Prayer in the Face of Gun Violence


[1] https://www.christianpost.com/news/nra-president-second-amendment-granted-by-god-americans-birthright-219018/
[2] https://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/3725/Yes-I-Said-It-And-I-Stand-By-It.aspx
[3] http://www.houstonpress.com/news/greg-abbotts-awful-gun-n-bible-ad-gets-an-f-in-grammar-6723313
[4] https://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2013/03/abbott-wants-guns-and-bibles-in-schools/
[5] https://www.vox.com/2018/3/7/17066352/gun-sales-mass-shooting-data
[6] http://money.cnn.com/news/cnnmoney-investigates/nra-funding-donors/index.html
[7] https://qz.com/1095899/gun-ownership-in-america-in-three-charts/
[8] https://www.faithandleadership.com/sharon-risher-god-using-me-messenger-gun-safety
[9] https://www.redletterchristians.org/what-is-rlc/

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