Philanthropia: A sermon on weeds, kindness, and seeking righteousness in Jerusalem

Sermon for Sunday, 23 July 2017

7^th Sunday after Pentecost

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem

The Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith

***

Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19

 For neither is there any god besides you, whose care is for all people,

 to whom you should prove that you have not judged unjustly;

 For your strength is the source of righteousness,

 and your sovereignty over all causes you to spare all.

 For you show your strength when people doubt the completeness of your power,

 and you rebuke any insolence among those who know it.

 Although you are sovereign in strength, you judge with mildness,

 and with great forbearance you govern us;

 for you have power to act whenever you choose.

 Through such works you have taught your people

 that the righteous must be kind,

 and you have filled your children with good hope,

 because you give repentance for sins.

***

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

On Monday morning, as usual, I printed out the scripture texts assigned by the lectionary for this 7^th Sunday after Pentecost, then folded the paper neatly and placed it in the front cover of my old-school paper calendar, where I would see it each day. I do this nearly every week, as a spiritual practice and as a preaching help, because it helps me notice the presence of the Living Word in my everyday life.

For example, on Saturday morning, when I saw that a giant, thorny, very persistent weed had pushed through a crack in the wall of our apartment building, making it nearly impossible to climb the stairs without getting poked, I thought of today’s reading from the 13^th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. I remembered how the disciples asked Jesus, “What do you want us to do with these weeds?” and how he answered them, “Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will take care of it.”

I remembered these words, because I had been reading them each day…

…but then I said to myself, “Nope, Jesus, not today! THIS weed is getting whacked.”

Then I sent my oldest son out to do the job in the blistering heat. If he had been carrying the week’s Scriptures around in his pocket, he may have taken comfort in today’s reading from Romans, in which it is written:

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” Amen!

Now, it was only a few hours later that I opened my front door and saw, sitting right there, a pile of sticks and leaves, remnants from the weed our son had recently whacked. At first, I thought he was just no good at weed-whacking, and I was prepared to give him a clear lesson on finishing jobs properly. But then I realized: Someone has placed this pile here on purpose. In fact, a well-known downstairs neighbor, in a classic passive-aggressive move, has put this pile of sticks and leaves in front of my door as a not-so-subtle message. A message about what? I had no idea.

But I started down the stone steps of our apartment building, stomping heavier with each step, and had almost reached the offending neighbor’s door, when suddenly another verse from this week’s Scriptures popped into my mind. It was from the Wisdom of Solomon, an alternate reading for the week, which ends like this:

“Through such works you have taught your people

 that the righteous must be kind,

 and you have filled your children with good hope,

 because you give repentance for sins.”

“The righteous must be KIND,” I thought to myself, just as the old woman who lives below us emerged from her apartment and starting wagging her finger and berating me in Hebrew.

“The righteous must be KIND,” echoed those words again, as I considered my response to what seemed, to me, an unreasonable level of anger over a few sticks and leaves left in one’s stairwell.

And again: “The righteous must be KIND,” resounded the Living Word of God in my heart, so what came out of my mouth was:

“Yes, ma’am, I see those leaves on your doorstep. My son will take care of it.”

And, yes, I said it with KINDNESS. In spite of myself!

Yes, I was kind to the woman downstairs, and not only because it makes a good story for this sermon.

I was kind, because I remembered the Living Word which teaches that our God has shown us kindness upon kindness.

As it is written in the Wisdom of Solomon—a book found in the canon of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, but not typically found in Protestant Bibles—God is strong, and yet God judges our sins with mildness. God has great power, and yet God practices forbearance and mercy. As Christians, we know this truth of God’s character through the cross of Christ, where our Lord Jesus has shown us great love—and great kindness--for he,

“though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited, but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)

Amen! Through Christ we have received the greatest kindness of all—forgiveness of sins—and for this reason, of no other, it is our duty—and our joy—to take heed of the wisdom: that the righteous must also be kind.

Now I must say, it was not my original plan to preach on “kindness” this week. In fact, when I first read these verses, I thought to myself, “well, thank God this is the ALTERNATE reading so I don’t have to deal with that silliness.”

Furthermore, it’s been a rough week in Jerusalem. This week has been filled with terror and fear of terror. It’s been a week of security protocols and closed gates and extra checkpoints. This week, the entire city of Jerusalem has been holding its breath, waiting for what felt like inevitable violence and bloodshed.

And when Friday ended with three Palestinians and three Israelis senselessly killed, and many more Palestinians wounded or arrested, our fears were realized. Until this moment, I dare say no one in Jerusalem has been able to take a deep breath.

Given the reality of this situation in our city, I had thought about preaching a sermon on the Christian imperative to work for peace and justice. I considered preaching about non-violence, or perhaps even the church’s call to be prophetic in these challenging times.

What I didn’t consider—at all—was preaching on “kindness”, because to tell you the truth, when I first read verse 19 of chapter 12 of the Wisdom of Solomon, I didn’t even process the word “kind”. What I read, and what I thought I understood, was:

“Through such works (God) has taught the people that the righteous must be…NICE. ”

And my instant reaction was: “FORGET NICE.”

I’m tired of nice!

I’m tired of oppressors telling oppressed people to be “nice” or “appropriate” in their resistance.

I’m tired of Precious Moments Jesus.

I’m tired of 3-D hologram dinner placemat Jesus (you can find him for sale up the street near New Gate, if you’re interested!)

I’m tired of religion that tells me to behave, to stay in line, to never offend anyone—and therefore to never say anything.

As a preacher friend of mine put it recently in her sermon, “If your Christianity makes you comfortable, you’re doing it wrong.” Amen! (thanks, Rev. Angela Khabeb!)

Yes, this week especially, I am tired of “nice Christianity”, and I have no use for nice Jesus, either. You know who I’d like to see at the gates of Jerusalem today? I’d really love to see the Jesus who casts out demons, kicks over the tables of the temple moneychangers, and pays absolutely no attention to giant rocks sealing the doors of tombs.

This Jesus would never leave a passive-aggressive pile of leaves at my front door! He would just knock on the door and tell me to clean it up. Amen!

No, I didn’t like it one bit when I thought I read in the Scriptures, “You have taught us that the righteous must be NICE” and yet, that verse from the Wisdom of Solomon wouldn’t leave my head or my heart this entire week. For this reason, I decided to take a closer look at it, and at that word “kind.”

The Wisdom of Solomon was written in Greek, so I looked up that Greek word translated into English as “kind”, and discovered that it is “philanthropia.”

This word “philanthropia”—from which we derive our English word “philanthropy”—really has nothing to do with being “nice.” Philo + Anthropos means, literally: Love of humans.

So, one might translate the Wisdom of Solomon, chapter 12 verse 19 as saying:

“You have taught your people that the righteous must be LOVERS OF HUMANKIND.” 

The righteous are those who love their fellow humans.

And this means, fellow disciples: the minute we make space in our hearts for hatred of brother or sister, we are no longer walking in the path of the righteous.

The minute we say “they deserved it”,

The minute we say “It’s for their own good,”

The minute we justify human rights abuses under the guise of "security",

The minute we justify the killing of anyone – innocent or guilty, on our side or the other side, whether they were “rioting” or whether they were living in illegal settlements – then we are no longer practicing “philanthropia”. 

We are no longer righteous. 

And we are certainly no longer following in the footsteps of Jesus.

Our Lutheran bishop here in Jerusalem, Bishop Munib Younan, often quotes his favorite Bible verse in his speeches and sermons. It is 1 John 4:20, where it is written:

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.

(He also often adds "And unfortunately, in our world today, we have many liars!")

Love of God and love of our fellow humans go hand in hand. They cannot be separated! Therefore, if we want to love God, we must love our neighbors. ALL our neighbors.

We must stand firm against any speech or action which de-humanizes the one who is a different religion, gender, nationality, color, creed, or political party.

In the face of war, of oppression, of persecution, of terror, and of growing extremism and division in this city and in the world, as people of faith we must remain lovers of humankind. We must stand firm on the side of "philanthropia".

We don’t have to be nice…but we always must be kind. 

I dare say we haven't seen much of such kindness, from anyone, this week in Jerusalem.

But on Friday, as I watched the day's violent events unfold on livestream from my living room a few blocks away, there was one image which kept coming across my Facebook and Twitter feeds.

It was of a young Palestinian Christian man, wearing his cross necklace, and holding a Bible. He was standing in a line of his Palestinian Muslim friends, praying with them.

I couldn't stop looking at that photo.

 Now, I don’t know who the young man is. 

I don’t know if he is a “nice person.”

I don’t know if he’s from a “nice family,"

or whether he lives a "righteous life,"

 or if he is active in his faith other than for that particularly day and that photo opportunity..

But what I know is, in that moment, he was bold. 

He was a lover of God, and of his neighbor.

He was kind.

And therefore, by the grace of God, he was righteous.

As we go forth this week, empowered by the Holy Spirit, let us also say “yes” to love, to kindness, and to righteousness. Let us say "yes" to hope, and to the free gift of grace we have received through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.