Pacifism and the Violence Inherent in the System

Exodus 15:  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exod%2015&version=NIV1984

            I have to admit that I have a hard time with passages like Exodus 15 and its rejoicing in the violence that the Lord has afflicted on His enemies.  It’s not like the notion that the God of Israel is a mighty warrior is an uncommon theme in the Old Testament.  In Isaiah the Lord returns from Edom spattered in blood (Is. 63:1); in Revelation the blood of the Lord’s enemies flows for miles (Rev. 14:20).  But I find it uncomfortable these days.

            It wasn’t always that way for me.  There was a time—not that long ago—that I found the image of the Lord as a warrior kind of manly.  But I’ve had a change of thinking over the last several years, and I find myself deeply drawn to a pacifistic understanding of the faith.  That is, I tend to see things more through the lens of “Turn the other cheek” and the non-resistance of Jesus to the injustice inflicted on Him.  I tend to see any expression of violence as a symptom of sin.

            I don’t think I have many pastor-types who read this, but I can imagine their response.  They would say something like, “Well, Stowe is living in an idealized world and he doesn’t understand the Lutheran understanding of the two kingdoms very well.”  Well, I admit that I live in an idealized world.  I think that both Jesus and Paul expect that the Lord’s people will strive to live up to the vision of a renewed humanity that they cast.  I’m realist enough that I don’t expect we’ll ever actually, fully live up to it, but I’m idealist enough to think that we ought to keep striving for it.  As far as the two kingdoms (the teaching that God deals with the world two ways—through his ‘left-hand,’ that is, the power structures of the fallen earth still providentially accomplishing His purposes, and through his ‘right-hand,’ that is through the Gospel), I get that, but I do think that we Christians are sometimes a little too conscious of our citizenship in the left and a little too oblivious to the ways that citizenship is in tension with our citizenship in the right. 

            Many of you probably just glazed over at that last paragraph; sorry about that theologian talk.  Pastors, if you want to interact on that, let’s do it privately.

            Anyhow, getting back to my main point:  I’ve trended toward pacifism over the last few years, and I’ve been troubled by the rejoicing over the Lord’s judgment of His enemies.  I have two small solutions.  First, I suppose a little Schadenfreude (rejoicing over my enemy’s demise) is understandable.  The Egyptians had oppressed Israel for years and they were bent on even more violence and oppression, so it’s understandable that the Israelites would rejoice over that destruction.  We might do better to focus not so much on the destruction of the Egyptians and the establishment of God’s justice and the granting of freedom that goes with it.  But still, it’s understandable that the oppressed would rejoice over the downfall of those who had oppressed.

            Second, I’ve come to realize that we ought to feel uncomfortable with the judgment of even the worst of our enemies.  Lutherans talk about the two works of God—His proper work, the work that He loves to do, which is the bringing of blessing, and His alien work, the work that He does when humans force Him to it, which is the bringing of calamity.  If the Lord doesn’t want to bring trouble (Lamentations 3:33:  “The Lord does not willingly afflict the sons of man.”) and if He takes no pleasure in death (Ezekiel 33:11), it’s certainly appropriate that we His people feel the same way:  happy over the establishment of God’s justice; sorrowful that it took such violence to accomplish it; eager to convince the world that the Lord’s ways are better, if for no other reason than to avoid such terrible consequences.

            I remember teaching Bible class in September, 2001.  People were angry; people were out for blood; people were talking in terms of a war between religions.  And I said that the appropriate Christian response was to pray for Osama bin Laden.  It wasn’t a popular suggestion.  On the one hand, the government of the US, an instrument of God’s left-hand rule, needed to engage in war to bring these men to justice and to protect its citizens.  As a member of that kingdom, I supported those actions.  However, as a citizen of God’s right-hand rule, I also saw other factors at play, and as a servant of that rule, I advocated that God’s people should strive to live up to that calling.

            In a violent world filled with violent men who use violent means to accomplish their ends, it’s hard to live lives at peace.  I guess I’d ask us to just be aware that for God’s people peace is an option and more than that a high calling.