A few years ago I had what I considered to be a dream job. I had designed a project that I was excited about, had helped acquire grant funding for the project, and had put together an incredible team of people to carry out the project. We were in the second year of a three-year grant, ahead of schedule and under budget, and everything was looking good. Suddenly my boss told me that he wanted to uproot my whole team and our families and move us across the country so that he could keep a closer eye on the project (i.e., micromanage it). I knew when I heard him speak that my dream job was gone. Although we were all offered continued employment with the company if we moved, none of my team accepted the offer, and we went our separate ways. I was hurt and angry. "How dare he destroy a great team and ruin a great project?!" I asked myself. As the dust began to settle, though, something remarkable happened. Doors began to open that I hadn't paid attention to before. Opportunities arose that I hadn't been aware of. Now, several years after my dream job crashed and burned, I have another job I like even better, and I did move my family across the country after all, although in a different direction. I'm back home with family and friends, I have a job I love, and life couldn't be better. My boss's decision to break up my team seemed like a personal disaster to me at the time, but now that I look back on it, I realize that God used it to open doors of opportunity for me, and for the other members of my team as well. When Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, he may have thought to himself, "Some day, if I ever get out of here, I'm going to get my revenge!" As time went by, however, Joseph began to prosper, and he eventually realized that God was at work behind the scenes to bring him to a place where he could help his family. "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good," he tells his brothers in Genesis 50:20. Does that mean that God is responsible for the evil that people do to each other? No! It means that God can work through difficult situations, tragedies, and even purposeful wrongdoing to accomplish the divine will. What's important for us to realize when we're in the midst of such a situation is that God is still in control, and God can use us in our changed circumstances, if we have the right attitude. Seeking revenge for real or perceived wrongs may make us feel better in the short term, but it will not accomplish God's will, nor will it make us better people. When we seek revenge, or even hold a grudge, we are accomplices in our own destruction. Alexandre Dumas' book The Count of Monte Cristo is a literary case study in revenge. After suffering a terrible injustice, Edmond Dantès emerges from prison to avenge himself on his enemies. He is eminently successful in his quest, though in the process he also brings pain to some who don't deserve it. Ironically, he also finds that revenge doesn't give him the satisfaction he thought it would, and in the end he finds himself compelled to extend at least a small measure of forgiveness. Joseph offers a sharp contrast to Dantès. When Joseph gains the power and authority necessary to seek revenge and is presented with the opportunity to do so, he instead offers forgiveness and blessing. God asks no less from us.
For a period of several centuries from the late medieval period until the nineteenth century, the nations of England and France were mortal enemies. During the Hundred Years' War they fought, and they continued to struggle with each other in the early centuries of the modern era, through the American and French Revolutions, and during the Napoleonic Wars. Finally, however, the two nations made peace, fighting side by side during the two World Wars of the twentieth century, and they are now joined in the European Union. Other nations that were formerly enemies have reconciled: England and Ireland, Honduras and El Salvador, and even Iran and Iraq (much to the chagrin of those who planned the U.S. invasion of Iraq). Today's psalm speaks of the blessing that it is when "brothers" learn to live together in unity. The imagery of Mt. Hermon in the north and Mt. Zion in the south suggests that the psalmist had in mind a political reconciliation between the former kingdoms of Israel and Judah, now living under the control of a foreign empire (probably Persia). What would be the basis of this new unity? The psalmist suggests that north and south share a common religion (indicated by the priesthood of Aaron), a single geographic region (the proximity of Hermon and Zion), and a common political center (Jerusalem). Unfortunately, this southern perspective on unity worked against the creation of a unified people in the postexilic period. It's true that the people of the north and south shared a common religious tradition which focused on the worship of Yahweh, but the priests who functioned in the northern sanctuaries were not recognized as legitimate by the priests in Jerusalem, though both claimed Aaron as their ancestor. The southerners' insistence on Jerusalem as the political center of a new, unified nation would also have rubbed the northerners the wrong way, for they had their own holy cities: Bethel, Shechem, Dan, and especially Samaria. The psalmist's desire for unity is commendable and undoubtedly sincere. However, his desire for unity was never realized, in large part because inhabitants of north and south did not envision unity in the same way. We see a similar situation in Iraq today, as Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds struggle to create a constitution that will be acceptable to all three groups (and to various subgroups within these groups). On a larger scale, we see in the United Nations an attempt at unity, based on a set of principles such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the idea that international conflicts should be resolved by negotiation and international judgment rather than war. That ideal is far from reality, too. Nevertheless, it does provide the world with an imperfect yet viable framework for unity, if nations really take seriously their commitments to human rights and peace. Unity does not imply one hundred percent agreement on forms of government or economic systems, much less religious practice, but it does require that nations respect first the basic human rights of all their own citizens, especially those that represent ethnic or religious minorities, and second the right of neighboring nations to self-determination (within the context of a respect for human rights). Unity cannot exist in the context of arms races, border disputes, and political interference of one nation in the legitimate affairs of another. Unity on an international scale is also impossible when certain nations see themselves as above international law (e.g., the U.S. rejection of the International Criminal Court), when they take for themselves prerogatives that are inaccessible to other nations (e.g., permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council), or when certain nations are allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction denied to others (especially nuclear weapons--the goal must be total nuclear disarmament). How good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! As Christians, we should pray for and work with citizens of other countries and from different faith traditions both to imagine and to create a unified world, one in which India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, North and South Korea, Taiwan and China, Russia and Chechnya, and the U.S. and Cuba can dwell together in unity.
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There are some acts that, once accomplished, can never be reversed. Once you crack an egg, you'll never get it back together again. Once you sneeze, you can't unsneeze. Once you have a child, that child will always be yours. Paul says that God's choice of the nation of Israel as a special people is such a permanent, irrevocable act. Even if all do not now accept the gospel that he preaches, he says, God still loves them, and one day they will receive the same mercy that God is now showing to the Gentiles who have accepted the gospel. It's easy to understand why Paul believed that "the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable." Paul was a Jew, and for most of his life he fully accepted the teachings of mainstream, Pharisaic Judaism. Just because Paul became a Christian didn't mean he stopped being a Jew or stopped caring for other Jews. On the contrary, Paul had a tremendous love in his heart for his own people, and he wanted them all to come to believe like he did. The best preachers are often those who are taking the message of God to their own people, whether actual or adopted. Hosea's message to the Northern Kingdom of Israel is full of a compassion that is lacking in Amos's forceful message to Israel, for Hosea was an Israelite, while Amos was from Judah. The evangelization of the Goths wasn't accomplished by Roman Christians but by Ulfilas, a Gothic convert to Christianity. St. Patrick was kidnapped as a boy by Irish pirates and lived among the Irish for several years. Years later he returned to his adopted country with the message of the gospel. More recently, Christianity has spread in Korea not through the work of Western missionaries but primarily through the work of Korean Christians. Naturally, such conversions by a "native son" are not unique to Christianity. The prophet Muhammad was quite effective in spreading Islam among the Arabs. Of course, it makes sense. Who better to spread the message of God's love among a nation than someone who speaks the language, understands the customs, and above all loves the people? When we love people who are our friends and neighbors, who share our language and worldview, it is easy for us to believe that God loves them in a special way as well. What is not so easy, sometimes, is to understand that God loves other nations and people groups just as much. Yes, the Jews were called by God and were God's special people. The Hebrew Bible is a testament to God's faithfulness to the Jewish people. But they were not God's only chosen people. "Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?" (Amos 9:7). Jesus said, "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold" (John 10:16), probably a reference to the Gentiles. The fact of the matter is that God has many different chosen people; in fact, we are all chosen, because God loves us all. God has a plan for each of us individually, and God has a plan for groups and nations. That we see ourselves as a people special to God is fine, as long as we acknowledge that we have no monopoly on God's grace or God's love. As Paul said, "God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all." May God have mercy on us, on our neighbors, and on our adversaries as well.
The story of Jesus' interaction with the Canaanite woman (a.k.a. the Syro-Phoenician woman) is one of the most unusual stories in the New Testament. Jesus is walking through the district of Tyre and Sidon, when he is approached by a local woman who has obviously heard about him. She urgently requests that Jesus heal her daughter, who is possessed by a demon. When she persists in her entreaty, Jesus says, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. . . . It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." The woman replies, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." On hearing this, Jesus responds, "Woman, your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you wish," and immediately her daughter was healed. Commentators tend to focus on the conversation between Jesus and the woman. Was he insulting her when he compared her plight to that of a dog? Was he suggesting a spiritual hierarchy in which Jews came before Gentiles? Was he merely testing her faith? These are interesting questions that deserve discussion, but I want to focus on a different question. Why did Jesus go to the region of Tyre and Sidon in the first place? If he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, why was he in Gentile territory? Tyre and Sidon are a long way from Jesus' home in Galilee, especially by foot, and comparatively few Jews lived in the region. If he was looking for Jews to preach and minister to, he was better off in Galilee or Judea. If he was trying to escape from the multitudes for a time of rest, there were many places much closer that he could have gone. Maybe Jesus went to the region around Tyre intentionally, perhaps because the Hebrew Bible speaks so negatively of the region and its people. Book after prophetic book records negative oracles against Tyre--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Zechariah---all contain "divine words" against the kings and inhabitants of the region. Jesus, however, had a different idea. The cities of Tyre and Sidon would fare better on the day of judgment than Jewish cities like Bethsaida and Chorazin, Jesus said (Matthew 11:21-22). Jesus had a heart that reached out to the underdog, the sinner, the outcast, and I think that's why he went to Tyre. In truth, the people of Tyre were no better or worse than those in any Jewish city. Like the inhabitants of Capernaum, Nazareth, and Jerusalem, the people of Tyre needed to hear that God loved them, and Jesus went to deliver the message. Who are the people of Tyre for us today? Are they the people who live in the rough part of town, people in prison, or immigrants from another country? Do we shy away from them, convinced that God must not love them as much as God loves us? If we do, then God is calling us to overcome our prejudice and our fear, journey to Tyre, and show them God's love. I think we'll find that the inhabitants of Tyre are a whole lot like our friends and neighbors. In fact, they're a whole lot like we are.