Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Can I Murder? {Reflections}
What would you do if faced with the ultimate decision to use violence in self-defense or to protect a loved one? This week on Reflections with Ryan Braley, we explore the unsettling moral terrain of violence and pacifism through a personal story involving my father-in-law. As we navigate the tough questions posed by my seminary friend Sam, we wrestle with the tension between our instincts to defend and Jesus' teachings on nonviolence and the kingdom of God.
We'll dig into historical and biblical examples—from Peter's sword-wielding moment in the garden to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—to examine whether violence ever truly resolves conflict. Is pacifism a viable stance in today's chaotic world? Does defending the innocent sometimes necessitate breaking the peace? Join us for a compelling and challenging dialogue that aims to shed light on these age-old ethical dilemmas and offers insights on how faith might guide our responses.
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What is up everyone? It's Ryan Braley here, and welcome to our Reflections podcast, as I mentioned last week. Look, we're in the middle of a sermon series at Central here. We call it you Pick where we let people just sort of write in ideas or questions they have about faith and life and God and in this case, even ethics. Hey, what do you? You know, and we'll preach a sermon on it, but we've got so many that come in we can't answer them all, and so I wanted to take just like a couple of podcasts and answer a few of them.
Speaker 1:And so last week we talked about the Old Testament, violence of God, and how do we make sense of that or how can we interpret those passages? And this week the question comes from my buddy, sam, and Sam, who's in seminary right now good dude, he writes is it lawful or acceptable to take a life in defense of yourself or another? Are we always to be pacifists in regard to war or conflict? If we're to be pacifists, how do we stop evil man? This is an age-old question that would take many, many hours and long books to answer, but I'm going to just give a couple of thoughts here. I love the question. It's a wonderful question. My father-in-law and I were talking about this and we were talking about I tend to be a person who opposes violence, in almost every case, I think and so he asked me he's like Ryan. Well, if someone broke into the house, would you not defend your wife and kids, his daughter? You know, this is my father-in-law, bob, who's a good dude, so I'm on the spot. But I said, of course I would, and in that moment I would do anything I could to keep my wife and kids safe, including, probably, violence. Okay, if I'm being 100% honest and most of us would say yes, of course that's the best thing to do, and I don't know if it's the best thing to do, but I would do it. And then, you know, as I stood before God, later on I would try to make it right. But I wonder if that's always the exact answer that there is Like, maybe there's another way to defend my wife and kids without using violence, but in the moment I would for sure do whatever I could to defend them and keep them safe. And the question I guess, is like is that right or is it always right? And the answer really is, I'm not entirely sure.
Speaker 1:Jesus seems to promote a way of nonviolence. You know he doesn't endorse violence. He tells Peter when Peter, you know, tries to defend him in the garden, peter takes out his sword and cuts off one of the soldier's ears, and then Jesus tells him put your sword away. Dude, that's not the kind of kingdom where I'm not promoting that kind of a kingdom.
Speaker 1:The world at the time of Jesus and today, knows all about the kingdom of the sword. We know it. You bomb us, we bomb you back, and in doing so we recruit more of your friends and family to be enemies of ours and in doing so we recruit more of your friends and family to be enemies of ours. And it goes like this it's a cycle of violence you punch me, I go get my brother. We come back and punch you, you go get your brother and your cousins Come back and attack us. We just go back and forth. It's this perpetual cycle of violence and it seems like what Jesus is saying to Peter and gosh look at our history.
Speaker 1:Violence doesn't solve problems. Generally, it might make them lie fallow for a short while. There are instances where violence seems to kind of like subdue everything or like kind of quelch the fire, like I think of, like the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II and these extreme examples where, like it does seem to end the thing. That was kind of. But I wonder what it does in the long term and in the long run. And the kingdom of God is not built on the sword. And Jesus is saying, hey, we don't need more kingdoms of violence, we've got plenty of those. Look at our history, we're filled with violence. And so Jesus sort of comes to bring another way.
Speaker 1:I'm also not sure that pacifism was what he was bringing. I mean, they had swords. I don't know if Jesus had a sword, but some of his followers had a sword. Peter had a sword. He doesn't ever rebuke the Roman centurions that he runs into. He doesn't say, hey, stop being in the army. This is wrong, it's morally incorrect. Don't do that. He doesn't seem to be a straight-up pacifist either. And Jesus many times is sort of co-opted by our modern ideologies and you can't do that. That's not what Jesus is all about. Jesus was his own man.
Speaker 1:But I do think he does promote a kingdom of nonviolence, and here's why Violence doesn't stop anything. It perpetuates more cycles of violence. We know this is true, as I mentioned a minute ago. So I guess what I'm wondering is are there other ways to engage the world? Like Dr King, I think of Mahatma Gandhi, other people who are people of nonviolence? Is there a way to engage the world like this that actually does change the world, that ends the cycles of violence? So, rene Girard, if you want to get crazy, read a book by Rene Girard. He wrote many books, just Google him and he's a French philosopher and thinker and he's sort of an expert in literary works as well. But he talks about this perpetual cycle of violence and how violence only creates more violence and he actually frames the cross as Jesus absorbing the violence of the world.
Speaker 1:If you watch Jesus on the cross, everybody's over and against Jesus. He calls it the scapegoat mechanism, where we feel better about ourselves when we all rally over and against another person and we scapegoat them Like hey, we all hate that person. So now we're all friends. And in the cross scene, everybody, the Romans, the Jewish leadership, even in I think it's in Mark's gospel it says people who are passing by. It's like just people out on, like a stroll going to get ice cream. They start slinging insults at Jesus. Everybody's like insulting, crying out for his blood. They all want Jesus to die, even these passersby who are like just a bunch of wanderers.
Speaker 1:You know, whatever it's odd, it's the most odd thing. All these folks would never be friends or in the same movement otherwise. But here they are, all over and against Jesus, and Jesus could have come down and just wiped them all out. I mean, he could have called down legions of angels, the Bible says, and just smote, smited, smoted, smoted. Could have smoked everybody, but he doesn't do that because he knows that more violence doesn't end the violence. What does it? Is this holy God becoming a human absorbing the violence of the world.
Speaker 1:Friends, we don't need more mentors or gurus to teach us how to be violent. We don't need it. We already know how to do it. We have enough systems of violence. We need a counter movement to violence, and maybe it's pacifism I don't know, because pacifism, as Sam suggests, that doesn't always stop evil and fair enough.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if there's a third way that we can engage with, but I do think that Jesus promotes a kingdom of nonviolence, of laying down the sword, and people like Jesus and Mahatma Gandhi and Dr King, it costs them their lives. So I don't know about the short term how these things work. In the long term, though, that's the kind of the pathway I would take. So I guess I would wonder I don't know if it's lawful or not, and I don't know what I would do in those moments or not but I do think the North Star in my life is a pathway of nonviolence, as much and as often as I can, and see what happens in the long run, and maybe that's my third way.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think I'm out of time. So, hey, great questions, sam. Love you, buddy, and we'll talk to you guys soon, peace. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg. Peace.
