"Righteous Indignation" Romans 12:9-21 Henrietta United Church of Christ Rev. David Inglis September 16, 2001 Little did we know a week ago that our world would be turned upside down and shaken, that our sense of basic trust would collapse like the twin towers, and that we would be spending the week in shock, in tears, unable to concentrate, feeling helpless, feeling fear, feeling rage. Many of you had to deal with the fears and unanswerable questions of your kids, while you’re trying to function with a hole blown through your guts. So what do we do with all of this tangle of horrible feelings? This past week we’ve come together to try to heal and comfort and sort out and come to terms with this calamity. And we may need to keep doing that for some time to come. But as we slowly begin to recover from being hit so hard, something in us wants to do something. We start feeling riled up and provoked to action. Personally, I want to see a show of power! I want to destroy the enemy--whatever the enemy is! Is that wrong? Is that unchristian? I don’t think so. I think this fiery energy can be very productive-- if  it’s channeled into righteous indignation. Now, righteous indignation is not the same as self-righteous indignation. Self-righteous indignation sees this crisis only from the vantage point of the self: "We’ve been wrongly hurt, so we’ve got to hit back big and hit back hard, no matter who gets hurt, as long as the world sees how strong we are. Our innocent suffering justifies our making someone else suffer." When we think about the thousands of innocent people who were suddenly and horribly victimized by terrorists, and the 400 rescue workers who died trying to save them, it’s understandable that there would be a lot of self-righteous indignation rising up in us and our fellow Americans. The only problem is, there is every danger that if that’s what fuels our reaction, we will be just as guilty of heinous crimes against innocent people as the evil terrorists we deplore. There are many Americans who are saying we ought to "bomb Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." So, as we begin to recover and try to give our children a sense of security, mothers and fathers in Afghanistan who have nothing to do with Osama bin Laden are trying to help their children deal with the fear that America is going to bomb their homes. But as Bonnie Bates has been saying all week, we as Americans need to rise to meet this crisis, rather than sink to the same level as the people who brought it on us. That is my hope too. That’s why we need to channel our pathos and passion into righteous indignation. Righteous indignation or righteous passion is founded, not on the assumption of our own self righteousness, but on the need to be aligned with God’s righteousness. In the Bible, "righteous" doesn’t mean being holier-than-thou. It means sustaining a right relationship with God. Its spirit is not pride but humility. It draws its life and power from submitting to a higher power, and higher will, and a higher measure of goodness than our own. Its attitude is not pride, but humility before God. That’s the spirit expressed in our Pledge of Allegiance: "One nation, under God"-- submitted to God, a righteous nation established on righteous principles–"with liberty and justice for all." Those are our national ideals that we must not lose hold of. It looks to me like the events of this week have put human civilization at a fork in the road. I believe one road leads to recurring cycles of terror, hatred, intolerance, and fear. I believe the other leads to healing, strength, unity, and security. The first road is called self-righteous vengeance. The second is called righteous passion. Righteous passion, like self-righteous indignation, wants to see a show of power. These terroristic acts have made us feel powerless and vulnerable to further attitudes. Powerlessness in the face of threats and terror is one of the most horrible feelings a human being can experience. We hate feeling powerless, and God doesn’t want us to be powerless. So we must find our power again. But there are two kinds of power. The first kind is "power over." It feels powerful by overcoming others and taking away their power or destroying them. In fact, it only experiences its power when it is overcoming, destroying, rendering powerless, or looking at its arsenal and imagining itself as capable of doing this. This is the power of both bullies and the super heroes that destroy them, of dictators and the militaries that overthrow them. We prayerfully act out this kind of power through sports, cartoons, and action figures. Most people believe that’s what power is–the power to overpower. That’s why we ask, "Where was God on Tuesday morning? If God is all-powerful, why didn’t He overpower their wills or intervene in the laws of physics that made those planes hit their targets? Why didn’t God just take control and break the chain of cause and effect?" At least part of the reason is that there is another kind of power, which is true power because it is God’s kind of power. It isn’t "power over," but "power with." It is not the power to destroy but the power to create. "Power over" is based on the illusion that we are all separate entities, and that what I do to you or what happens to you affects you but not me. "Power with" is based on the deeper truth that all world religions and now modern science have revealed: all things and humans are integral parts of a dynamic, living interdependent world. What happens to you and what I do to you affects me, both because it affects the world I also live in, and because in an invisible but deep way, we are all connected. If you doubt that we live in an interdependent whole with each other, just look at what’s been happening since Tuesday morning. People by the millions all over the world have been rolling up their sleeves to give blood, including Yassar Arafat. Thousands of volunteers have poured into New York City or stand ready to help. Some of you have already written letters to grieving families or exhausted rescue and cleanup workers, and I hope more of you will. Many of you have drawn together to pray, light candles, weep, comfort each other, and draw strength and hope through the unity of our spirits. Are we interconnected into one living, dynamic, interdependent whole? China, North Korea, and Pakistan–their people and their governments–have clearly expressed their sympathy and support. At Buckingham Palace they suspended the changing of the guard for the first time in history and played "The Star Spangled Banner." One foreign newspaper headline read, "We’re all Americans now." Hearing that on Wednesday brought me to tears. The song "He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands" speaks a truth we can now see. This is "power with," you see. We can feel its strength and hope in the air and in our hearts and souls when we come together these days. You might say, "Well, maybe it helps us feel better and helps us heal, but what good is it against terrorism?" Well, the world is ready as never before to unite against terrorism. Some of the few countries who tolerate terrorists on their soil are showing signs that they are open to changing their policy. This would be an excellent time to mount a unified campaign to expel terrorists from within those countries, and to develop zero tolerance for them organizing and training in any country. Terrorists have been tolerated in some few countries like Afghanistan because the people in power hate the nations the terrorists hate. If we start bombing their country and killing their innocent civilians in a strong show of "power over," we will destroy some recently-abandoned training camps and possibly even kill a few terrorists. But we could also create 100 new extremists who are eager to kill Americans for every one we happen to catch. They will be the peaceful citizens who lose homes, friends and family members to American bombs and shells because they happened to be somewhere near an intended target, and who see no other way of stopping American aggression against their country. If we think that conquering terrorism will require a long-term military effort, we’re right. It will be a permanent effort that only escalates and spreads faster the more vigorously we pursue it. I do believe that this is exactly what the terrorist organizers were hoping would happen when they mounted this huge attack on our national symbols. They were hoping to draw us into a war and arouse the self-righteous rage of the victims of that war. This is why the words of Paul that we heard this morning, and the words of Jesus, and the scriptures of every world religion, including the Muslims’ sacred book, the Koran, speak strongly against vengeance and returning evil for evil. That only adds to the evil and deepens the darkness. Paul says, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." It may sound hopelessly idealistic. But in truth it is the most practical advice, because it is the only thing that’s effective. Last Monday, the day before the attacks, I met with a group that included a pastor who had just returned from the Holy Land. She spent time in a couple of Palestinian villages that had been repeatedly shelled by Israel because it was believed there were terrorists in there. One three-generation family she had a meal with was rebuilding their home for the third time. In their living room was the remains of the latest shell, which, like all the shells, was made in the USA. The family welcomed her openly and generously shared their meager meal of rice with her. "Why?" they wanted to know. "Why is your country helping Israel do this to us and ours neighbors?" She was still in the village the next morning when Israeli tanks rolled in and pushed large stones and rubble across the roads so the men couldn’t get to work and their children couldn’t get to school, and she heard stories of the many indignities they had to live under all the time. She came back from her trip extremely upset and fired up to tell the world a part of the tragic Middle East story that seldom makes our news. "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." It was Palestinian Muslims who practiced this wisdom on her, and it worked far more effectively than if they had thrown rocks or threatened her. I’m not suggesting that we feed and coddle terrorists. But if we dehumanize innocent people and demonize their causes and justify their destruction, evil will have triumphed over us all. It is only "power with," power which recognizes that we are all inextricably connected, that has the power to create a new order of harmony. Paul tells us in Romans 12 some things we can do in our little corner of the world to strengthen the fabric of humanity exercising God’s kind of power--"power with." He says, "Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Pray for those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." These are the kinds of things we and Americans all across the land have been doing so beautifully this week, and it’s what makes America strong from the inside. On Friday evening at 7:00, millions of Americans lit candles and held them outside for the world to see. What a wonderful display of unity and hope that was! Someone penned these words: Jesus bids us shine with a clear, pure light Like a little candle burning in the night; In this world of darkness we must shine– You in your small corner, and I in mine. –Excell This is why I have hope. The terrorists have rocked our world. But now, the future is in our hands. We are Americans, "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." If we live up to that, we can mobilize "power with"–God’s creative power--to lift our world out of these dark days, unite it around the higher principles that call us to greatness, and weave the human fabric that we’re all a part of so closely that there is no place where hatred and terrorism can find a home. "Even the smallest light can make a difference in the darkest night." May we each keep those candles burning in faithfulness and hope.

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