Today’s
Scripture Reading (May 26, 2019): Psalm
35
The words of Jesus just before his
crucifixion highlighted the coming persecution. “A time is coming and in fact has come when you
will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am
not alone, for my Father is with me. “I have told you these
things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:32-33). There is no
ambiguity in Jesus’s words. You will have trouble. Don’t expect it to be
different. Christians will be persecuted, and we shouldn’t expect it to be any
different because our leader was also persecuted.
And yet, I feel a
contemporary tension in Jesus words. I think, sometimes, we misunderstand them.
Too often, we encounter trouble and respond with these words of Jesus. Didn’t
Jesus say, “In this world you will have trouble.” We seem to think that our faith
is confirmed because of the oppression that we feel from those outside of our
faith. But the truth is that we can be a homophobic, xenophobic, rude, and
unloving group of people who are justly condemned for our actions, and yet we somehow
still feel that this oppression confirms our faith. But that isn’t really true.
Often the persecution and trouble that we receive is deserved, and has nothing
to with faith. Jesus is not talking about experiencing trouble that we deserve.
He is speaking about the church as a loving and affirming group of people who
are oppressed in spite of all of the good that we do in the world.
And it is this kind of
oppression that is bothering David as he writes this Psalm. His complaint is
not that people oppose him with good reason, but rather that his enemies have
set traps for him “without cause.” In spite of all the good that David feels he
has done, there were those who still oppose him and want him to fail. And so
David turned to God for his defense.
God will forgive us of
our sins when we turn to him and admit that we have done wrong. But we can also
turn to him for the strength to do right, even when doing right might bring us
trouble. Christians are designed to stand up for what is right, not because of
the political gains that might result, but simply because it is the right thing
to do. We deserve trouble when we do what is wrong or immoral, or even when we
support dishonest people. What our communities need is for us to stand up for
what is right, no matter what trouble might come as a result.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Psalm 36
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