More Than Lyrics
Forgivness makes it possible to live together.
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Some of us learned that song early and sang it often. We witnessed actions consistent with the song as those who looked different from us received the same love and care we did. Yet, some of us learned it from those who knew the lyrics but later learned that it is as deep as it went. It is not hard to find illustrations today.
For those increasing instances of a lyrics deep call to the love of God in Jesus, it would be more consistent to sing that song by adding one line,
Just keep them far, far from us.
And this is not about Washington, D.C. This is about Main Street—our Streets.
The issues that plague us are not simply matters of melanin. Efforts to codify Social Darwinism as the criterion for educational support for those needing more than the fittest make the consideration more about one's genes. That is, it is much deeper than the hue of one’s skin. Rather than love all of God’s children, some would prefer a day when those children we would rather not see or hear are tucked away and isolated. Or, in the words of the Gospels, to consider them least important, last, so that they do not strain the system and left out because they are too much trouble.
When the word system is used, it sounds like some disembodied force. We use it to avoid taking responsibility for what we created. The system becomes the scapegoat without acknowledging who created the systems at work in our world.
Our participation in the system takes shape when we make different a category into which we can pitch people. And that is how we wittingly or unwittingly participate. We have no foresight to see that one of these days, we will be in someone else’s category named different because we are not like them.
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.
While I recall the lyrics and tune just fine to Jesus Loves the Little Children, my ears don’t work with Rap Music or Hip Hop, but they don’t work with Death Metal or Heavy Metal either. I prefer to make out the words without having to Google them. I am showing my age.
But poet and culture critic Hip-Hop artist Kendrick Lamar, K Dot, recently won Record of the Year at the Grammys for Not Like Us. He won Best Song for the single, Not Like Us. His performance during halftime of the Super Bowl was panned by those who, like me, did not understand the words, could not connect with the cultural artifacts in the show, and knew nothing about diss tracks. If Lamar is anything, he is honest. In short, rather than try to understand what was going on, he was dismissed as West Coast.
Ultimately, the song's point is that they are not like us. Lamar noted,
Not like us is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent. Now, if you identify with the man that I represent … This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering.
He’s a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he’s less of a man.
If I’m thinking of "Not Like Us", I’m thinking of me and whoever identifies with that.
Jesus created no diss tracks—or did he? If we listen, we can hear Jesus calling out those who repeated lyrics without depth of action. He also called all of us out when he told us what the Kingdom of God looked like, even more so, what the God He Reveals is like.
But he was dismissed then and today for the words he spoke. Words that run afoul of the systems we create and then assume have total control. We hear Jesus’s words repeated but with the same lack of depth as those who taught us the words that Jesus loves everyone but did not follow up with demonstrations of that love to everyone.
We must admit that we may be like those who read the words of Jesus, but that is about as deep as it goes.
Before you decide the tone is too much, that it sounds like the Pastor has gone to meddling and is not positive enough, hear the words Shawn read again,
But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you.
We may need to reread them often.
Jesus asks the impossible. And that is the point.
Our first assumption is that upon hearing Jesus’s words, they are too difficult for us. None of us follow these instructions 100 percent of the time. We carry the wounds of others who chose us as enemies, hate us, curse us, and abuse us. We often forget that others may be suffering the scars as we choose them as enemies, hate them, curse them, and abuse them. And this is frequently more subtle than outright confrontation. In our day, these take the form of ignoring, canceling, gossiping, and character assassination.
If we listen to Jesus’s words, we may realize that we all have participated in the ongoing prevalence of a self-protection system through aggressive resistance to Jesus’s words. Don’t confuse this with submitting to evil behavior out of some sense of sadistic obedience. More often, those substitutes are a means to ignore how we treat others by putting them in the different category. We satisfy ourselves that we are not as bad. But that is the very thing that produces the worst from human beings.
Settling into the cynicism that comes with the realization of these complex realities of enemies, haters, cursers, and abusers is not what Jesus calls us to. This is no excuse for us to give up and give in to the hater within. We share memes exhorting us to love over hate. The fact that we human beings produce such memes indicates how hard it is for us to do so.
Jesus does not give us a way out by affirming that we are at least a little better than them.
But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you.
Yes. Today we confess how hard this is. Look at our wounds. See what has been done to us. And, in a moment of honesty see what we have done to others.
That may be the point. Jesus calls us to a way of life that He committed Himself to. And since the call is for all of us, Jesus entered our world and, by His life, makes clear the point. We need someone to do what we cannot do for us. He is the One Who shows us mercy so that we may become merciful by His mercy. All of us.
During a different halftime show of the Super Bowl in 2014, the Irish Band U2 released a non-album song, Invisible. More people might recognize the song by a line in the lyrics,
There is no them. There is only us.
Red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in His sight.
There is only us. So when Jesus outlines the Kingdom's activity, His instruction is to love enemies, haters, cursers, and abusers. Or love one another with no qualifications.
The Good News included in the “we can’t” is that He does. He loves us! And when Jesus frees us from the captivity of the enemy, hater, curser, and abuser within, we understand how the forgiveness of God shapes us and what sort of good place in the world the Church may become for the sake and blessing of the world.
Here is what the mercy of God creates heard from the Cross,
Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
Listen to a description of what forgiveness does described by a preacher one hundred years ago, in a world like ours today. I substitute the word men with the word people.
Do you not also think that the fearful condition of our time is fairly shouting for such ears and eyes? Yes, it is waiting for people who have faith, but not faith in themselves nor faith in their faith. No, it wants people who have faith in God who can make all things new. It is waiting for people who have learned again what forgiveness is. Forgiveness saves. Forgiveness reconciles. Forgiveness must permeate our politics again; forgiveness and not moral codes; forgiveness and not Moses-zeal! For forgiveness alone makes it possible for us to live together. Forgiveness alone heals wounds.
Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
How?
Trust the One Who Is Merciful. Remember James's words - mercy triumphs over justice
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