“Hate Evil and Love Good” based on Amos 5:11-15 and Mark 11:15-19

Do you ever wish there weren’t quite so many tables that need to be turned over? I mean, Jesus was totally justified in his action. And it was brilliant, and I love it. In his non-violent direct action he managed to convey that the Temple had been co-opted by the Empire and was serving the Empire and not God. He reclaimed for the people the faith of their ancestors and put them on notice that the Temple was not representing that faith. Which likely they knew, but maybe some of them mostly ignored because it was too hard to admit that the Temple of Solomon was being used as a vehicle of oppression rather than freedom. Like Jesus’ parables, his actions bring into the light a lot of things that people would rather not see.

(Jesus Mafa image)

And, like Jesus’ parables, his actions freaked out the people in power. Mark seems on target in naming that this action was a part of the decision to kill him but Christianity has a terrible historical relationship with Judaism, and I want to be sure we name that the chief priests who are said to be conspiring to kill him were appointees of ROME and that was one of the concerns Jesus was raising. While nominally Jewish, they were a tool of oppression, rather than being guardians of God’s freedom.

I think this is one of the challenges of faith traditions. There is POWER in communities of faith, and there is power in faith leadership. We are working together to make meaning of the world around us, to listen for the voice of God, and we make assessment of what God likes and dislikes about the world around us. Which is our work. The meaning making work. But that means that whoever wants to oppress others really wants us on their side to claim they are doing right and not wrong, and heavens faith leaders quite often follow those leads and end up blessing and justifying all kinds of horrible things.

We have power, so people want to abuse it, and far too often they succeed. And Jesus, God love him, and others of God’s prophets call it out.

And there is a lot of calling how to do – both in the church and in the world. And I, for one, would be happier if there were less need. I read an opinion piece in the New York Times this week entitled “The Happiness Gap Between Left and Right Isn’t Closing” by Thomas Edsall. Apparently people have been studying this for 50 years and the left is simply less happy than the right. He wrote:

Those on the right are less likely to be angered or upset by social and economic inequities, believing that the system rewards those who work hard, that hierarchies are part of the natural order of things and that market outcomes are fundamentally fair.

Those on the left stand in opposition to each of these assessments of the social order, prompting frustration and discontent with the world around them.”1

Well, that’s a fair assessment, huh? Makes me wonder how Jesus felt about doing this Temple Protest. Was he angry? Sad? Simply resigned that it was necessary? All of it at once? Clearly he would have preferred his faith tradition NOT be co-opted for oppression, but I do wonder how he made sense of it.

According to the article,Timothy A. Judge, the chairman of the department of management and human resources at Notre Dame, has also written on happiness and the left and the right. There is an idea that taking on hierarchy, patriarchy, racism, and institutions is depressing because it is HARD, it is harder than believing you have a lot of control in the world. Judge says:

“I do share the perspective that a focus on status, hierarchies and institutions that reinforce privilege contributes to an external locus of control. And the reason is fairly straightforward. We can only change these things through collective and, often, policy initiatives — which tend to be complex, slow, often conflictual and outside our individual control.

On the other hand, if I view “life’s chances” (Virginia Woolf’s term) to be mostly dependent on my own agency, this reflects an internal focus, which will often depend on enacting initiatives largely within my control.”

As I read the article, I noticed that things were getting pretty interesting for me internally. First of all, I didn’t know progressives were less happy than our counterparts and I wanted it to be untrue. But, I couldn’t argue with the fact that it would be nicer to think that things are generally working than it is to notice that a whole lot of things are not working. That’s just TRUE. But by this point I was thinking about the reality of social change. It is unpleasant to deal with the brokenness of the world, but if we don’t deal with it, we just let it continue! And, yes, change is complex, slow, conflictual, and often what we can offer is only a tiny piece of what is needed. AND, … that’s just how it is!!!

Sure, it is nicer to only deal with things that we can control, but that would leave us complicit with injustice.

Furthermore, as I was reading, I found myself reliving so many conversations we’ve had around here. This stuff is really, really true. The author also quotes Nick Haslam, a professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne, who:

“cites studies showing that strong ‘correlates of holding expansive concepts of harm were compassion-related trait values, left-liberal political attitudes and forms of morality associated with both.’ Holding expansive concepts of harm was also ‘associated with affective and cognitive empathy orientation and most strongly of all with endorsement of harm- and fairness-based morality.’ Many of these characteristics are associated with the political left.”2

And, another light bulb went off. We who are called to be compassionate and empathetic, and we who come to the world with some natural compassion and empathy and are able to maintain it despite the costs – it isn’t actually easy to face the world AND feel it.

When I say I wish there were fewer tables to be overturned, I mean I wish there was more justice and less need to work for it.

But, I’m so very grateful we have the example of Jesus overturning tables, and regularly messing with the status quo, and all the rest of the Bible doing the same, to keep us on our toes. I don’t want to be a faith leader who greats meaning for oppressors. I don’t think we want to be a faith community at peace with injustice. I don’t want to NEED to turn tables, I don’t think Jesus did either. But we do what needs to be done.

Interestingly, the article ended with another quote from Timothy Judge:

I know this is perhaps naïve. But if we give in to cynicism (that consensus can’t be found), that’s self-reinforcing, isn’t it? I think about the progress on how society now views sexual orientation and the success stories. The change was too slow, painful for many, but was there any other way?

Well, it turns out that’s pretty on point for us, huh? We’re now 28 years into being a Reconciling Congregation, a decision that was made carefully over 2 more years, and we are newly a part of denomination that doesn’t actively harm queer and trans people. Many of us have turned tables to create this change. Many have made meaning to help it be clear that God’s love isn’t small and judgmental but rather is enormous and life-giving. We have used our voices to bring change.

And, dear ones, I want to point out that from 1972 to 2019 things kept on getting worse and worse. At General Conference in 2016, Love Your Neighbor Coalition Volunteers were prepared to shut down General Conference AGAIN to prevent further harm. That threat, we believe, was part of the motivation to create the 2019 General Conference. And I promise you this – all the tables that were turned along the way were turned ON PURPOSE to bring the change. People know the win wasn’t going to come through legislation, nor the judicatory, and the only answer was to raise the temperature in the room.

And in 2019 the worst possible outcome came. The church doubled down on its homophobia, and in fact defined Christianity as a commitment to homophobia. It was unfathomably awful. We, here discussed if we would stay or go. We didn’t want to be a part of it anymore, but we didn’t want to give up either.

Today, it is clear that the organizing we did after 2019 and the disaffiliation process created by 2019 (which was intended to kick US out) created a new day. But until the votes started coming in for the “2020 General Conference” – the one that ended last week, don’t let the dates confuse you – until the votes started coming in we couldn’t believe it because we’d been hurt too many times.

For the rest of my life when someone says turning over tables doesn’t matter, I’ll know better because I’ve seen it work. For the rest of my life when things are very dark, when things look like death, I’ll remember that 2019 was the death of my hope in The United Methodist Church, AND that 2024 was its resurrection.

I wish there were fewer tables to turn, but it turns out there is ONE LESS table to turn. Thanks be to God. And it turns out it got turned because people stayed with empathy and compassion, because people worked together, because they stayed to do the hard work even when it seemed hopeless, because they didn’t give up. (Note, however, that some people had to take breaks, and some people had to leave, but COLLECTIVELY we kept going. Justice work includes taking breaks.)

Amos nails it:

Seek good and not evil, so that you may live,

and so that YWHW God Omnipotent

may truly be with you as you have been claiming.
Hate what is evil and love what is good

maintain justice at the city games. (5:14-15a, Inclusive Bible)

Dear ones, we are called to seek good and not evil, to hate what is evil and love what is good. And it is HARD to stay in this work and see what is wrong and feel how much harm is done, and have hope. But, hope is worth having, because as we’ve been saying all along, “Love wins in the end, and if Love hasn’t won, it isn’t over yet.” And at least on one thing, Love has won, and that reminds me that I can trust that God who is Love will ALWAYS win. Amen

1https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/opinion/conservatives-liberals-depression-anxiety.html

2Ibid