Haters Gonna...?

The scripture referred to is Jeremiah 15:15-21, Romans 19:9-21, and Matthew 16:21-28.

“What could I do?” said the inmate. We were speaking through the open meal flap in his cell door. He was in Alpha, our unit where they put people for being a danger to themselves or other inmates. His rhetorical question came at the end of a recitation of all the times he had hit other people, usually, according to him, in retaliation for their hitting or attacking him. His question implied he couldn't have done otherwise. When someone strikes or assaults us, we react and try to pay them back in kind. It's natural. It feels good. It doesn't mean it is good, however.

If you ask me, a lot of our problems in behaving ourselves has to do with the fact that things that feel good emotionally or physically are not always good for us morally or psychologically or even physically. So far I've lost 13 pounds on my “if it tastes good, spit it out” diet. Actually I've just cut out soda and snacks, restricting myself to only eating meals and healthier ones at that. But the hardest part is denying myself those delicious empty calories that food scientists have worked so hard to make addictive. Anything that feels good is addictive, at least for certain people. Science shows us in brain scans that people really can get addicted to not only alcohol and drugs but food, gambling, sex, extreme sports, and yes, even anger. Anger can trigger dopamine reward receptors in the brain and the discharge of adrenalin which gives us energy in “fight or flight” situations. And that can feel good, even when experienced vicariously, such as watching a bad guy get his just desserts at the hand of the hero in an action movie.

Why do people join hate groups like the alt-right, neo-nazis, or ISIS? Why do some people complain constantly? Part of the reason is anger is addictive. Which fits my favorite non-technical definition of addiction: the indulgence in any substance or activity that one persists in despite mounting negative consequences. There is actually a 12 step program called Rageaholics Anonymous.

Anger can be constructive, especially when used to redress injustices in society or to improve conditions in an industry. In 1911, the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory killed 146 workers, 123 of whom were women. When it was discovered that the owners had locked all the exits and stairwells to prevent them from taking breaks, leading 62 of the workers to leap to their deaths from the 8^th, 9^th and 10^th floors, societal outrage led to changes in safety standards and better working conditions.

The trick, as Aristotle pointed out, is being angry with the right person or persons to the right extent at the right time in the right way. Too often anger tips over into rage and the result is not making things better but doing a lot of unnecessary damage to things, people and relationships. But even truly righteous anger, anger over real evil, can present the same problems, especially when those who cause the evil are in power.

In our passage from Jeremiah, the prophet asks God to bring down retribution for him on his persecutors. The Hebrew verb literally means “avenge or punish.” Jeremiah warned the nation that Judah was going to fall to the Babylonian Empire and this was not a popular message. He was rejected by family, neighbors and friends as well as by false prophets and kings. One of the most dramatic acts of rejection is when an officer of the royal court read Jeremiah's latest prophesy to King Jehoiakim. As the officer finished each section, the king cut it off the scroll and threw it into the fire. During his 40 year ministry, which covers the last 5 kings of Judah, Jeremiah would be imprisoned, thrown into a cistern and taken to Egypt against his will. So his anger at all this opposition is justified.

Rejection literally hurts; neuroscientists say the brain releases his own natural painkiller, mu opioid, whenever we suffer pain, whether it's physical or emotional. So Jeremiah is not being hyperbolic when he asks, “Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?” All this rejection is getting to him.

Still Jeremiah's anger pushes him a bit too far. As his position as truth-teller becomes more and more painful, he reacts by lashing out at God. As someone once said, hurt people hurt people. Generally speaking, those who hurt or harm others perceive themselves to have been hurt or harmed. But, as we see in hate movements, when they lash out, they don't confine their words and acts to those who actually caused them pain or damage. Indeed, because their hate is generalized to an entire race or religion or class of people, they are of necessity less particular as to whom they negatively affect. For instance, some on the alt-right verbally attacked the appearance and character of Heather Heyer, the woman run over by a white nationalist in Charlottesville. Why? As near as I can tell they couldn't turn on one of their own, however outrageous his actions, so they had to denigrate the person he killed and make it look like she deserved it. They resorted to the tried and true method of blaming the victim. Ironically, by doing so, they turned her into a martyr and more fully exposed the depth of their own evil.

Jeremiah can't hurt God's feelings by characterizing him as a deceitful brook, a mirage in the desert that promises refreshment but doesn't give it. But if he thinks of God that way, as untrustworthy, his relationship with the Lord will deteriorate. Paradoxically, Jeremiah is blaming the messenger, an injustice he himself knows only too well. God is giving him the message which others find unpalatable. But ultimately God is doing so to save his people. He is like a doctor who is not sugarcoating how bad the patient's condition is, so that they take it seriously. He wants the people to change the disastrous course they have taken. Like all the prophets, Jeremiah's message is for people to repent, to turn away from their self-destructive ways and turn back to God. But first Jeremiah must be the one who turns back to God. He needs to start trusting God again. And God says he will defend Jeremiah from his enemies. “If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall serve as my mouth. It is they who will turn to you, not you who will turn to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord.”

And that assurance of God's presence and protection is enough for Jeremiah. He continues to get God's message out.

The imprecatory psalms are like Jeremiah's pleas that God punish those who harm us. Some are chilling. All I can say is that it is better to take such feelings to God rather than act on them. Paul picks up on that in our passage from Romans. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them....Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all....Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written. 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, say the Lord.'”

Outrage is all the rage today. People get so excited by things posted on the internet that I rarely read the comment section of any website. And 99 times out of 100 the folks who are angry don't know the people they are mad at and usually don't know all the facts. But their reaction can be so extreme that folks have been fired for what they have tweeted or posted. Sometimes they deserve it; sometimes they just said something stupid, a joke that wasn't well thought out, or a gut reaction that they should have filtered through their prefrontal cortex before it got to their mouth or their thumbs. The trolls on the internet make no distinction between evil and idiocy, nor do they understand mercy or forgiveness.

Now some people actually say and do awful things that merit a response. Isn't it too bad that there isn't someone who knows all the facts and even knows the hearts of those involved, someone who can make a truly just judgment of the incident and handle it appropriately? There is, says Paul; it's God. More importantly, it's not you!

When someone does or says bad things to us, we are not to lash out in anger or pain; we need to trust God to take care of it. This is hard. This is one of the hardest things Jesus asks of us: to love our enemy, to act and speak lovingly to them. To turn the other cheek. But it is an expression of our faith, of our trusting God to do the right thing.

Then Paul paraphrases Proverbs 25:21-22: “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.” The last part is a bit hard to understand. What does “heap burning coals on their heads” mean? It could mean God will in good time rain down his punishment on them (Psalm 140:10), especially if you are acting nobly. Or it could mean that when you respond to their hostility with kindness, they will burn with shame. You acted honorably; they did not. It is interesting that in the book of Daniel the resurrection and final judgment are described thus: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to shame and eternal contempt.” (Daniel 12:2) In the honor/shame culture of the Bible, as well as of Asia, Latin America, the American South, etc., what could be worse than experiencing burning shame and dishonor forever? That would be hell to them.

We are to leave the passing of judgment on others and the determination of repayment for evil to God. It's not our job. We are not the comic book character the Punisher, taking upon ourselves the role of judge, jury and executioner. We are to act the way doctors or nurses do, giving care to any and everyone, regardless of their moral state. And who knows? By responding to their hate with love, we might just change people's minds and lives.

Peter couldn't see that in today's gospel. He couldn't see how Jesus getting himself killed was going to make anything better. Like most people, Peter saw the world in terms of winners and losers. Winners didn't get captured by the enemy and they certainly didn't die. And yet we recognize self-sacrifice as the greatest form of heroism. 24 year old Welles Crowther was an equities trader working on the 104^th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center. On September 11. 2001, after a United Airlines plane stuck the south tower, Crowther called his mother to tell her he was OK and then started leading people down the stairs, carrying one wounded woman on his shoulders. Then he went back up again and again and again, putting out fires, giving first aid and leading people down to safety. To protect himself from the smoke, he wore over his nose and mouth a red bandana, which he had received as a child from his father, a volunteer fireman. Crowther himself became a junior firefighter at age 16. So it was appropriate that when they found his body on March 19, 2002, he was with other several other firefighters and emergency workers in the command post of the south tower lobby.

Marvel Comics, perhaps inadvisedly, put out a special comic book, depicting their New York based superheroes cleaning up after 9/11. But in reality a true hero was in the south tower that day, saving lives, dressed not in armor, or a winged helmet, or in spandex, but in a red bandana.

And what Welles Crowther did for the people trapped in that tower, Jesus did for the whole world. Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Paul adds, “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

That's why the symbol of Christianity is a cross. It says that God loves us enough to die for us. He wants to save us from the flaming wreck we have made of our world and our lives. He is willing to walk through hell and high water to rescue us, no matter what it costs him. And so Jesus tells us, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” How essential is this to being a Christian? Jesus also said, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27)

At the jail one of the most popular requests I get is for rosaries, which inmates like to wear as a cross necklace. Roman Catholics tell me that's not how you are supposed to use them. I tell inmates they are not magic talismans. Sometimes I wish I could tell folks on the outside that crosses are not merely jewelry or adornments, either. The cross is a sign of the worst thing we could do to God and the most wonderful thing he has done for us. Jesus bore the cross out of love for us; our cross is not our personal problems but the problems of others that we are willing to bear out of love for them.

So it is misleading if we wear crosses but are not willing to act in self-sacrificial love for others. It is misleading if we put a cross on a building but don't reach out to help the needy. It is a flat-out contradiction to burn a cross, unless your intent is to show the world just how wrong you are by destroying the symbol of God's love for all.

It is natural to want to hurt those who hurt us. It feels good. But we are more than mere animals. We don't always follow our instincts. We overcome them to reach out to others, to work with them, to build a world that would not exist if we stayed in our tribes, loving only our own and hating all others. But as we see from all the racism and xenophobia, fear and hatred are still our default settings.

Jesus came to change that, to change us. He showed us how to love, completely and fully, even those who hate and hurt us. And his love and grace and forgiveness changes haters. Like Saul of Tarsus, one of the church's fiercest opponents who became one of its greatest proponents. Like former KKK leader Johnny Lee Clary. Like serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam.” Like neo-Nazi and convicted murderer turned pastor Johannes Kneifel. Like former jihadi terrorist Bashir Mohammad. Like former Holocaust denier and member of the American Atheists Larry Darby. All of them turned from hate to followers of God's love Incarnate, Jesus Christ. Because the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. If you hate something you are still passionately concerned with it and that ardent loathing can be turned to love. Haters gonna hate. But if given the chance, if they let Jesus into their lives, haters gonna heal.