In Sunday’s readings from Peter, we are told, “If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God.” Are we to be patient when the suffering is intentionally inflicted and repeatedly so? That describes bullying. Jesus was never patient about people suffering under bullies. In today’s Gospel Jesus addresses rulers who are bullies describing them as “thieves and robbers” who come “only to steal and slaughter and destroy.” These same bullies – Caiaphas and Pilate and their cohorts – eventually bully Jesus – to death. But Peter proclaims the bullies and the bullying salvific; “this Jesus whom you crucified” “handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross… By his wounds you have been saved.” Given that a supposed ‘holy book’ sanctifies bullying, falsely telling us we are saved by Jesus being bullied unto death by ruling bullies, we need not wonder why bullies feel so sanctified and why bullying is so rampant.
Humanity is governed by a religion of bullies, Militarism. It is the religion of the chief priests who bully Jesus and of Pilate who bullies him further. Militarism is the religion of the U.S. Empire and certainly its current Pilate, the bully President. He mocks, ridicules, and insults, especially those he perceives as vulnerable, and, like the schoolyard bully, he does so to the delight of his throng of weak supporters. Supporters of the bully are this culture’s current bullying cohorts, Biblical nationalists. Biblical Nationalists are also bullies. For decades in the U.S. they have mocked, ridiculed, and insulted people, inflicting harm on vulnerable Muslims, LGTBQ persons, and those who are poor. Some are currently bullying health officials to re-open communities threatened by the coronavirus. These white supremacists are armed with pistols, rifles, and assault weapons for they come “only to steal, and slaughter and destroy.” They are bullies given by Fox News a bully pulpit and supported in their efforts by a bully president. Like all bullies they need to be stopped. They need to be turned away from their bullying religion of Militarism and toward a peacemaker, Christ – whose name they give themselves. In practice they cannot be so named for they are un-Christ-like. We can help change that discrepancy. We can help the bullies convert. We can invite them to relate in communion with the Christs of this world, be they Muslim, LGBTQ, or poor. We can invite them to help heal the Christs of this world who are sick with the coronavirus or who are grieving the suffering of sick loved ones. We can invite them to gather not as gun wielding bullies but as physical and spiritual healers. We can reach out and help them to put down their bullying weapons of fists, anger, and guns and spread respect, courtesy, and kindness. As exasperating as it is, we need to keep inviting the bullies to conversion.
“I once got baited into clocking some undeserving boy… And when I walked away, the kids were cheering And though I grinned, deep inside I was hurting But not nearly as much as I’d hurt him. He stood up, his glasses broken and his face was red… it has always eaten at me… And wherever you are, that poor kid, I’m so sorry For forty-six years now. … I got a friend who lives in the desert outside Santa Fe… It’s been fifteen years since I last saw him… I’m going to go there and tell him face to face, “Thank you.” For discovering my talent so early For helping me along in this beautiful musical world I was meant to be in.” (I Watched the Film ‘The Song Remains the Same’ – Sun Kil Moon)
Prayer: Spirit of Peacemakers, we vow to keep inviting bullies into communion, love, and healing.
Question: How am I currently enabling bullies and their weak supporters? How am I inviting bullies to convert?
May 03, 2020 Gospel John 10:1-10 Fourth Sunday of Easter