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“Can’t We All Just Get Along?”
Romans 12:9-21
A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
Thirteen years ago, Rodney King was
hauled out of car and received 54 blows as people stood and watched and the
violence escalated. His face badly
bruised, he would say to whoever would listen a few days later as violence
erupted in South Central LA, “Can’t we all just get along?” It was perhaps a simplistic question to a
complex situation, like the history of racism, police brutality, and abject
poverty while leaders turn a blind eye.
But the question still haunts us.
“Can’t we all just get along?” is really a question that points
deeper—to questions like:
Aren’t we better than this?
Is this despair all there is?
Do our leaders have to provide the
only answers?
Didn’t Jesus come so that we might all have life and have it abundantly?
As Tracy Chapman sang,
“Why do the babies starve
When there's
enough food to feed the world
Why when there're
so many of us
Are there people
still alone
Why are the
missiles called peace keepers
When they're aimed
to kill
Why is a woman
still not safe
When she's in her
home
Love is hate
War is peace
No is yes
And
we're all free”
(from Why off her self-titled debut
CD)
Why do we fight wars?
Why are people still getting shot
in the North End of Minneapolis?
Why are there so few solutions?
Why do we glorify violence?
Why can’t we all just get along?
We can’t get along if we ignore all
of the underlying problems. What Rodney
King was saying was twofold. First can’t
the violence stop? And second, can’t we
deal with its causes?
These are all good questions. The questions came to my mind as I was
reading and rereading this scripture from Romans 12. It seems like Paul is telling the people under the thumb of the imperial
power structure in
In Romans 12, Paul is paraphrasing the Sermon on the
Mount. His 12 verses here are the cliff
notes for Matthew 5, 6, and 7. We’ll be
looking at Matthew’s longer version in the coming months as we seek to discover
what a truly subversive community might look like in this dog-eat-dog world.
Paul says that we are to let love be genuine. We know there are people who say they love us
and have buts attached to them. You
know, “love the sinner, but hate the sin.”
This is love with and asterisks.
This is not genuine love. Paul is
calling for genuine love.
Now the word that Paul uses for love is not eros or agape, but
He then tells us to show this love by having our
competition to be one of service:
“Outdo one another in showing honor.
Don’t lag in zeal.
Be ardent in spirit.
Rejoice in hope.
Be patient in suffering.
Pray.
Contribute to the needs of the
saints.
Extend hospitality to strangers.
Serve God.”
This is the relatively easy
part. The harder part is to do what is
required in verse 14: Echoing Jesus, he
says, “Bless those who persecute you, and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be haughty—but associate with
the lowly.
Do not claim to be wiser than you
are.
Do not repay evil for evil for
vengeance is God’s prerogative.
Do what is noble in the sight of
everyone.
Live peaceably with one another.”
Can’t we all just get along?
These days it’s hard to get along
when disagreements about war and peace and tax policy and worker’s rights, and
gas prices keep us intensely polarized.
But in the midst of this, the genius
of Christianity is that we are to hold to a higher standard. We are not to succumb to the polarization and
the demonizing of each other. It is
exactly what the powers and principalities are counting on. As long as we fight with each other then we
take the heat off of those in positions of domination. The more we demonize each other the more the
powers get away with the injustice.
Paul was writing not to change the
structure of Roman society from the top down.
He was writing to continue the work of Jesus to change the world from
the bottom up. If the people of the
world made the conscious decision to stop hating each other and stop demonizing
each other and living in such a way as to model the kingdom of God in the midst
of the Kingdom of Rome or the Kingdom of Washington or the Kingdom of some
obscure cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan, then we will sow the seeds of hope in
our world.
Think about it, if we were to do our
best to get along with one another a bit better, then we might have the power
to make some real changes in the world.
It could start by saying that we all wanted to find
decent jobs for all people. That would
be an act of
We could stop excluding people based upon their skin
color, their age, their gender, there sexual orientation, that would be an act
of
We could ensure that people had health care. That would be an act of
We could ensure that people had enough to eat throughout
the world. That would be an act of
We could ensure that fossil fuels be balanced with
alternative energy sources, conservation and care for the earth. That would be an act of
We could ensure that streets were safe and that people
cared as much about their neighborhoods as they do about their material
possessions. That would be an act of
When someone has lost a loved one through war, or
disease or by violence, we would hold that person tight and show them deference
and even more compassionate respect.
That would be an act of
Paul concludes his remarks by talking about how we are
to deal with our enemies. He says to
feed them, give them something to drink.
When we do that in the face of evil, then the hot burning coals of
repentance may well come upon them. The
only real way to defeat an enemy is to transform them into a friend. That’s what Paul means when he says do not be
overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.
So, how about it?
Are we ready to do all of that in the service of
God? It’s a real tall order, I
know. And yet it is vital for all of
us.
For the past six months or so, I have been getting
together for lunch with some colleagues with whom I disagree vehemently. Actually, I would say I disagree with one of
them vehemently; the other two are somewhat in the middle. The middle-people actually called us together
because they realized that we were two people at opposite poles of religious
life, belief and practice. They thought
it would be fun to get us together.
Well, I’m not sure fun is the word I would use. Instead, I would say that enlightening,
frustrating, and tiring are more apt descriptors. But when we get together, we spend time
trying to live into Paul’s admonitions for us.
We try to hear each other. We get
deeper than the polarizing aspects. We try to have our philadelphia
moments. Some days we are better than
other days. What I have found is that I
know the person more and I understand him more than I once did. I believe that he prays for me, just as I
pray for him. I believe his faith is
real, and I think he thinks mine is real.
When we meet, we eat and drink and we try to overcome the evil that is
so tempting around us—with good. The
meals are a good start.
I know many of you live the principles Paul and Jesus
talk about in scripture. My encouragement
to you is to keep on living in community.
Keep on finding moments of
Remember, they are your brother and your sister. In God’s plan enemies are to be transformed
in to friends. It is the vision of
Christianity. That is the hard and
immensely rewarding task of Christianity.
It is more than just getting along—the absence of violence. It is really
getting along, the presence of community in our family, in our church, in our
city, in our state along the picket lines, in the battlefields, in the world.
When we do that, then “getting along”
means getting on the long road to recovery from our addiction to violence, our
propensity to confuse evil with good and the temptation to paint each other
black or white, red or blue. In God’s plan, “getting along”
means seeing everyone, everyone, EVERYONE as a sister
or a brother. When we live Philadelphia-based lives, we can’t help
but get along the road that leads to hope, mercy and peace. May it be so for all of us.