9.00am and 10.30am Sunday 1 June 2003
Rev Des Botting
Readings: Matthew 5:1-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
(This message is the sixth in a series of messages on Modern Day idolatries. Much of the material for this series is gleaned from the second part of Marva Dawns book, Is It A Lost Cause? Having the Heart of God for the Churchs Children (Grand Rapid, MI: Eerdmans, 1997).
Not so long ago, I was traveling down Hillsborough Road toward the lights where it links up with Mt Albert Road. I had noticed in the left hand rear vision mirror that the car that was following the car behind us was weaving right and left trying to get past the car in front which wasnt allowing the car to pass. I didnt think anymore about it until shortly after we stopped at the lights I heard the sound of broken glass. Turning round I saw the driver of the second car back with a bar in his hand abusing the driver of the car who wouldnt let him pass through a broken window. Incidents like this are becoming increasingly common, but it is only the tip of the iceberg of violence in our society. A number of the bus shelters are running advertisements about anger management courses to help people control what often leads to violence, whether it is verbal, physical or emotional.
I. We all have the potential to be VIOLENT. Sometimes I feel anger rising up within me, particularly when I see injustices being done because of prejudice. Other times I get angry because Ive been thinking only of myself and my convenience, or my pride has been wounded. The Bible does not say that anger is necessarily wrong. Jesus was angry on more than one occasion. The Bible does say, Dont get so angry that you sin.[1]
One of the ways in which we can help children prevent, resist and overcome violence is to recognise it in ourselves. There have been a number of times when I have spoken harshly to one of the family, and have apologised later because it has been out of frustration rather than for any good reason. Verbal violence can be destructive in a subtle way, when we fail to encourage our young ones in ways that we can and they need.
Children can learn so much from the example we set in this area that can help them form good habit patterns in their own lives. When we humbly acknowledge our mistakes, it helps them to learn and discern what is acceptable behaviour, and encourages them to apolgise when they have overstepped the mark. It is also important for them to realise that when they are punished, it is given out of love, not anger. Some parents give the punishment later rather than at the time, to give themselves a chance to calm down and the child time to think about what theyve done. Children need discipline. Proverbs says, If you love your children, you will correct them.[2] But they have a keen sense of justice and so the punishment must be appropriate to the wrong they have done. Great care is needed in the area of disciplining children, as there are so many examples of children being either abused or overindulged.
Secondly we want to looks at what are some of the
II. Contributors to Violence in our Society.
As we think of reasons for the violence in our culture, two things immediately come to mind. The effects of
blatancy of television, movie and rock music violence are escalating at an alarming rate and that much of the aggressiveness and crime on our streets is directly related. The effects of the latter is a subject in itself and cannot be covered here. Research has shown that there is a clear link between violence and the amount of television a child watches. In an article entitled, Turn off the TV or you might end up hurting someone, the New Scientist magazine says, Watching just one hour of television a day can make people more violent. And children aren't the only ones affected, say researchers in New Yorkadults are as well.[3]
It tells of the results of a study of 707 New York State families with a child between the ages of 1 and 10 when the study began. Individuals were interviewed four times between 1975 and 1993, and television was among the behaviours noted down. In 2000, the families filled out a questionnaire about aggression, and the researchers cross-checked it with FBI and state records.
They found there was a significant link between watching a lot of television and later aggressioneven if a person had not been violent at the start of the study. This was true even after the team accounted for other risk factors for violent behaviour, such as childhood neglect, growing up in a dangerous neighbourhood, low parental education and psychiatric problems.
Of boys who watched three hours or more of television each day around the age of 14, 45 per cent went on to commit an aggressive act against another person, compared with 9 per cent of those who spent less than an hour in front of the box. Almost a quarter of the three-hours-a-day group went on to commit robbery, threaten to injure someone or use a weapon to commit a crime.
In females, the strongest link showed up in their twenties. Of women who watched three hours or more television around the age of 22, 17 per cent went on to commit an aggressive act, compared with no one in the group watching less than an hour a day.
In New Zealand violent crimes increased from 487 per 100.000 population in 1979, to 1326 in 1996, almost three times as many within 17 years. Violent crime accounts for approximately 10 percent of all recorded offences, and in 2000 serious assaults class of offence were 3.7 per 1000 population.
TV ONE News on 9 December 2002 reported that our New Zealand government is setting up a panel to investigate whether new moves are needed to curb the level of violence on television, and are to report back with recommendations this September. The report said that childrens advocates say that by the age of 16 a child watching what is considered to be a normal amount of television will have seen 16,000 simulated murders or real murders and will also have seen over 200,000 acts of violence. Green MP, Sue Kedgley, who is behind the initiative, says, The evidence is overwhelming from international research that there is a strong link between exposure to violence on television, and, particularly, violence in young boys,
This morning we are looking at
III The Idolatry of Autonomy, and its violent consequences. Autonomy is idolising INDEPENDENCE, that is, each person functions independently and follows his or her own well-being and prosperity without much consideration for the common good. It is doing your own thing with disregard to everyone else. Part of it is to do with having control over ones life and ones future. This was very much part of the youth culture of the 1960s, who in their search for freedom, chose to ignore the wisdom of their parents and teachers, of the past, and of traditions (in the most positive sense of that word), without any understanding of what that rejection might mean. Many have come to see later in life that they threw the baby out with the bathwater. Now they are searching for some kind of moral authority and better answers than they found themselves, in that in their parenting they gave up their mentoring role as parents and left their children to their own devices and the destructive formation of the media, and now dont know what to do with the results. Their children joined them in chasing after a false freedom from work, school responsibility, that does violence to others and that actually makes them slaves to their own self-interest.
Our world has always been violent. Jesus himself said, You will hear about wars and threats of wars Nations and kingdoms will go to war against each other. People will starve to death, and in some places there will be earthquakes. But this is just the beginning of troubles.[4] Latent within all of us there is the desire for power, to be in control of our own lives. The world has known for a long time that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely, but more recently the drive for power has taken several new twists. One is that now power is frequently obtained by emphasising ones role as the victim. There have been some outlandish claims using this ploy.
We need also to be aware of the power plays that can happen within a Christian community, too, and recognise that what God requires is that we Honour Christ and put others first.[5]
Not only must we understand the roots of violence in our culture if we want to train our children to resist, prevent and overcome it, but also we ourselves must realise and help them to know that
IV. EVERYONE can be a Peacemaker, in this world of injustice, neighbourhood brutality, warring nations and religious conflicts. The issues of violence are so huge that most of us feel helpless to do anything about them. Yet the Scriptures make it clear that we as individuals and as Christian communities can be effective peacemakers.
What can we do to bring Gods peace to the world?
2. We are to work to reduce four things that Gerhard Liedke makes reference to in his article, The
Christian Understanding of Peace. These are all things that Jesus conquered at the cross and empty tomb, and which, someday, God will ultimately eliminate altogether. In the meantime, if we mean what we say when we pray your will be done in and through our lives, we are offering ourselves to be Gods agents in the work of diminishing these four dimensions of suffering. This is something we can all be involved in. We effectively contribute to progress toward peace by diminishing any one of these components at any level. There is something here that each of us can do. The Christian community can be a significant force in building peace in the world! Because we know the truth of Gods gracious gift of peace, EVERY CHRISTIAN can work to reduce
a. VIOLENCE
For example, when we teach our children, A kind answer soothes angry feelings, but harsh words stir them up[8], we are saying that when they respond to a hateful remark at school with a gentle answer they are mininising violence between individuals and therefore contributing to world peace. When they answer their teacher courteously instead of rudely they build peace and learn habits that will continue to multiply good by snowballing kindness. Some schools train older children to sort out small conflicts that happen on the school playground and therefore are teaching them to serve as peacemakers. As adults we can help towards conflict resolution in our work places and in meetings we attend. Some are called to mediate to decrease violence on a worldwide scale. But the important thing is to realise the fact that every individual effort to reduce any sort of violence on any level contributes to the calming of the world as a whole.
b. NEED
Four weeks ago, when we considered the idolatry of consumerism, we looked at ways in which we as families and as a Christian community can assist in reducing need by our contributions to agencies such as Christian Love Link, or through our Outreach House funds, that provide assistance to those in need. The important aspect of these is to involve our children with us in some way.
c. BONDAGE
By means of family or congregational discussions when issues come up in the news we can nurture in our churchs children an awareness of the many kinds of bondage under which people suffer in our society or around the world, and look together at ways in which we might be able to help. We also need to make them aware of other types of prisons that people need to be freed from, such as bondages to fear or loneliness, being in slavery to wrong ideas and being absorbed with oneself, the jails of self-hatred and rootlessness, the prisons of despair and meaninglessness.
d. ANXIETY.
Our children can also participate in freeing others from the many kinds of anxieties that plague various levels of our society. Helping a schoolmate in a subject that they find hard, or offering to tutor someone who has trouble with reading can be a way to build peace in the world especially because lack of education contributes greatly to poverty and violence in our society. Some congregations offer homework supervision, or tutoring projects in which followers of Jesus of all ages can assist. Sending cards to people under stress, especially those in responsible leadership positions can remind them that others are aware of what they are going through. This brings home something we can all do, that is pray for the leaders of our nation and world rulers. These are some of the ways in which we as families and as a church can reduce anxiety and thereby build world peace.
(As the hymn we sang a few moments ago says, God is the one who teaches us peacemaking through His son, Jesus Christ, and the biblical concept of Shalom the Hebrew word for peace. We need to be lifted above all thought of vengeance or envy or hate if we are going to be agents creating Gods peace. This hymn emphasises that we work at peacemaking in all the avenues of our lives in church and home, in school and all beneath Capitol done, in shop and industry, city and farm by what we do as well as by what we do not do, living in order to cause no one harm. We pray as we sing this song that God would fill all our heart with the powr of shalom, (so that everyone everywhere can be) living together, the whole world our home. To pray these prayers genuinely involves us in bringing about their fulfillment so that we are thereby submissive to Gods work through us so that these peacemaking purposes of God can be accomplished in all that we are and say and do.)
Each day as Gods agents our children and we can seize many opportunities to contribute to reducing violence, need, bondage, and anxiety on various levels of our world. Even although our contribution may seem insignificant, we should never forget these words of the Apostle Paul: Always keep busy working for the Lord. You know that everything you do for him is worthwhile.[9] Ultimately, we know that God himself will be successful in bringing the world to wholeness. Therefore, we can confidently do our part, and encourage each other, in finding ways to minimise the factors that keep our world from the peace God intends. And as we become involved, so our children will learn that every Christian can be involved in some way in this process. God can be at work through each of us and all of us together to build peace!
young and old feel loved and wanted. It takes time and effort to do this, but the rewards are great. God has paved the way through what He did in Christ to defeat violence forever. This enables our children and us to truly find ourselves and then to build peace by giving ourselves first to God and then to others. Instead of clamouring for power, we live in a community that practices vulnerability, consensus, and authentic servanthood after the model of Jesus. Jesus modeled this throughout his public ministry. As he washed the disciples feet he said, I have set and example, and you should do for each other exactly what I have done for you.[10] We turn from idolising independence to find in the community of Gods people the intensive mentoring care all of us need, and genuine home we all most desperately want, and the possibilities we all seek for building peace in the world.
[1] Ephesians 4:26a (All Bible references are from the Contemporary English Version unless otherwise stated.)
[2] Proverbs 13:24a
[3] New Scientist vol 174 issue 2337 - 06 April 2002, page 16
[4] Matthew 24:6-8
[5] Ephesians 5:21
[6] 2 Corinthians 5:18
[7] Romans 14:17
[8] Proverbs !5:1
[9] 1 Corinthians 15:58b
[10] John 13:15