Published: February 22, 2008 12:55 pm            

Two questions

John Paul Carter, Democrat Columnist

In an address entitled “The Burden of the Gospels,” at the joint convocation of the Lexington Theological Seminary and the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky in 2005, author Wendell Berry posed two unavoidable questions for serious readers of the Gospels. They have become questions that I can’t get out of my mind.

The first is this: “If you had been living in Jesus’ time and had heard Him teaching, would you have been one of His followers?” Berry asks us to imagine that we had never heard of Jesus or read the Gospels. As we walk past the courthouse we encounter a crowd listening to a stranger.

The stranger is saying things that are scandalous and unacceptable in our modern society: “Don’t resist evil. If somebody slaps your right cheek, let him slap your left cheek, too. Love your enemies. When people curse you, you must bless them. When people hate you, you must treat them kindly. When people mistrust you, you must pray for them. This is the way you must act if you want to be children of God.”

As you are thinking how such ideas might be heard in Washington and among most of your neighbors, this stranger looks over the heads of the crowd, calls you by name, and says, “I want to come to your house for dinner.” Berry muses that, while we hope that we would invite the him to our table, inside we might not be so sure.

The second question that the Gospels pose, says Berry, arises right after the verse in which Jesus says to his disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Berry puts it this way: “Can you be sure that you would keep His commandments if it became excruciatingly painful to do so?”

Berry tells the story of Dirk Willems, a Dutch Mennonite charged with heresy. In 1569, as he fled for his life over a frozen lake with a “thief-catcher” close behind, his pursuer broke through the ice and sank into the icy waters. Without help, he would surely drown.

In that moment Dirk Willems had to decide whether the thief-catcher was an enemy to be hated or a neighbor to be loved as one loves oneself. Was he an enemy to be loved as a child of God - “one of the least of these, my brethren?”

Willems turned back, put out his hand, and saved his pursuer’s life. Although the thief-catcher wanted to let his rescuer go, he arrested him and Willems was later tried, sentenced, and burned at the stake.

Although we would like to think that we would have turned back to offer the love of Christ to an enemy, Berry says, we ought not be too sure — remembering that many Christians over the centuries have routinely thanked God for the death of their enemies.

Berry concludes that these two questions are inescapable and unanswerable. Reminding us that we humans “have repeatedly been surprised by what we will or won’t do under pressure,” he warns that even when we’ve been heroically faithful in great adversity, we can only say that we did well but remain under the requirement to do well. “As long as we are alive,” Berry says, “there is always a next time, and so the questions remain.”

As we make our Lenten journey toward Holy Week, these questions are impossible to ignore.

Editors Note: Wendell Berry’s speech can be found in his book, “The Way of Ignorance,” Shoemaker and Hoard, 2005.

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John Paul Carter’s “Notes from the Journey” appear in the Democrat’s Religion page on the second and fourth Fridays of each month. Carter, an ordained minister who attends Central Christian Church, may be contacted by writing him at 107 Bent Oak Road, Weatherford, 76086. Columns submitted to The Weatherford Democrat by guest writers reflect the opinions of the writer and in no way reflect the beliefs or opinions of The Weatherford Democrat.

        

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