When members of the Olympic Committee call 32 year-old swimmer, Ryan Lochte "just a boy" after lying about his drunken disorderly destruction one night in Brazil by saying he and others were robbed at gunpoint by a group dressed as police officers, I was filled with anger and a sense of hopelessness. Travon Martin, Tamir Rice, and countless others were "just boys," Lochte is a fully grown man with an obvious sense of entitlement.
For days I’ve been taking turns between ignoring the issue completely, pretending it doesn’t exist, and floating in a paralyzing sense of confusion and hopelessness. And after this period of wrestling with this on my own, I came to my senses and realized the only healthy thing to do was bring it to the Lord and let God tell me what to do.
I suppose its like that video on the power of vulnerability, only by taking the risk of failure do you reap the truest rewards. What am I missing by loving God in theory but keeping God at arm's length in practice?
A while back, a rabbi friend of mine posed an interesting question:
----- I'm sitting in a wonderful interfaith learning session at the Hillel Institute, and our Christian partner has brought "Amazing Grace" as a text.
Jew # 1 in our group turns to me and says: How do we translate "grace" into Hebrew?
Jew # 2 says: What an interesting question. I never know what it means in English. -----
I was asked by a Rabbi what the Hebrew word for the Christian concept of "grace" might be (I read Biblical Hebrew). Here was my immediate response:
Strong's Hebrew Lectionary of the New American Standard Version of the bible says in Hebrew grace is h8467. תחנה techinnah; from 2603a; favor, supplication for favor:-- grace (1), mercy (1), petition (4), supplication (18), supplications (1). Or h2580. חנ chen; from 2603a; favor, grace:-- adornment (1), charm (1), charm *(1), charming *(1), favor (51), grace (8), graceful (2), gracious (3), pleases *(1).
I think grace in Hebrew would be less like "blessing" h0835. אשׁר esher;, and more like "to be made/able to stand" h6965. קומ qum; or h5975. עמד amad;
Grace and the Law are inexorably linked. In Christian teaching, Torah can not be filled by us in our natural state, the supernatural importation of grace allows for its fulfillment. Grace is giving you more than you deserve (the grace period on a bill perhaps). Mercy is withholding what you do deserve (when David didn't kill Saul that time they were in the cave).
Have attached a couple pages on grace and the law that might be elucidating. The highlight of that text is: "(e) Thus the revelation of grace, while it takes up and includes in itself the revelation of law,-a.dds something different in kind; namely the mani-festation of the personal love of the Lawgiver. Without grace law has only a demanding aspect. Only in connection, with grace does it become "the perfect law, the law of liberty" (James 1 25). In fine, grace is that larger and completer manifestation of the divine nature, of which law constitutes the necessary but preparatory stage." Systematic Theology: A Compendium -Augustus Strong
But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” Matthew 5:39
This, as other passages support, exhorts the hearer to avoid repaying evil with evil, even when confronted directly with physical violence. It is certainly true that Jesus thematically eschewed earthly victory gained through force or defense in favor of an ultimate victory through obedience to and freedom in God. But it is not equally true that Christ’s messages are entirely esoteric and largely irrelevant to earthly struggles. Many may view this as Jesus advising that we be a punching bag for others, not only taking abuse but also volunteering for more. Based on this interpretation, this course can and has been minimized; deemed as impossible or foolhardy and dismissed as a behavioral ethic or relegated to the internal aspects of Christian living.
There is, however, an important exegesis of this text with a different and nuanced understanding of Christ’s intent that keeps the behavioral relevance and concreteness of this saying intact. Slaps -it says slaps not punches, so this means the palm of an open hand- to the right cheek were done with the left hand. In the time and place of Jesus, open-handed blows from the left hand were acts of humiliation and abasement as opposed to ones of severe violence and harm, as blows to the left check or elsewhere would have been. Christ advises in this scripture that we not respond in kind to our assailant. We are instead to take the power from the person trying to humiliating by not resenting indignities but instead “daring” them to truly harm us. This indicates to them that their efforts to abase us – and the institutionalized systems that support this – have failed and are flawed, and the only way we can be wounded is with a true act of violence – which “bullies” are often unwilling or afraid to perform.
In this way, Christ is indeed advising us not to strike back. Taken in its proper context, however, this advice is given not to victimize, but actually to liberate the follower from humiliation and victimization by those that would attempt it in this manner. What can easily be read as pointless and abject cowering and cowardice is in fact the opposite. In this case non-violence is a valiant act that can lead to liberation; the liberty in Christ of which the apostle Paul revels.
