Getting Even

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 22 – Year C

October 6, 2013

Psalm 137

By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down
   and we wept when we remembered Zion.

And so we hung up our harps,
   there upon the willows.

For there our captors asked us for songs,
   and our tormentors asked for mirth,
saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

How could we sing God's song in a foreign land?
   If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!

Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, 
   if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

Remember, O God, against the Edomites 
   the day of Jerusalem's fall,
how they said, "Tear it down!
   Tear it down, down to its foundations!"

O city of Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back 
   what you have done to us!

Happy shall they be who take your little ones
   and dash them against the rock!

One of the realities of living in the time and place in which we are living is the central cultural importance of competition.  It seems like no matter the career path, the job, the calling, the activity there is competition.  On the playground, we see children competing against one another: who can run faster, who can swing higher, who can throw the ball farther.  In the classroom we see it too: who got all the answers right on the spelling test, who was still in the teachers good book at the end of the day.  In social media we see competition about who has the most Facebook friends, who has the most blog hits, who gets the most comments and responses from what they post.  In work we compete with our competitors for jobs, we compete with our coworkers so we might be noticed by our bosses and managers.  We see it in the home too, with children competing with one another to be noticed by mom and dad.  Whether we like it or not (and even though I am very competitive I hate it) competition is a part of most of our daily lives.

If it just ended there, that would be great.  If we could just compete with one another in order to show our abilities, and just let it end there, it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be better.  Better than what?  Better than it is now.  Because, we don’t just compete, we make use of any and all options as we compete to show we are the best or the most worthy of being noticed.  We cheat, we lie, we do all sorts of really not very nice things – all to win.  And when someone does those things to us, we get mad, we get angry, we want to make things right.

Last week I was watching the kids playing on the playground before school.  Kids were running everywhere, screaming and laughing.  It was actually a very beautiful thing to watch. Then I noticed a few boys who were going to have a race across the playground.  Now, as someone who has run a few races my eyes were drawn to that activity.  I watched as one who was obviously not as fast as the others intentionally tripped another.  It was blatant.  Up jumped the boy who had been tripped and he flew into the back of the boy who had tripped him; they went down in a tumble of legs and arms.  Luckily, one of the playground supervisors also saw it and stepped in quickly.  The boy who had been tripped was screaming about how the other boy had cheated, how it hadn’t been fair.  It was all about revenge.

Let’s be honest.  All of us have been there.  We have all wanted revenge; we have all wanted to act in vengeance on another person to make it fair.  Over and over again we have seen the human tendency to react violently when another person has wronged us.  It’s the law of an eye for an eye: you wronged me so I’m going to wrong you in the same measure (if not more).  In the wild west, it was vigilante justice; even today that desire for revenge is clear.  We hear it in the voices of those who have been, or whose families have been the victims of violent crimes.  I’m often shocked and saddened when I hear the satisfaction in the voices of those who watched their assailant executed.  Revenge brought peace, or something resembling peace.  Yet, that revenge didn’t really do anything other than calm our own needs.  Think about the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and so many other situations – has acting in revenge ever done anything to really stop the cycle, has seeking to make it fair (on our terms) ever really solved anything in those types of situations?

We know it doesn’t, really; yet it seems we can’t break the habit.  Today we encounter revenge and vengeance in our Psalm.  In my opinion, it’s one of the most disturbing passages in the Bible.  That’s obviously also the opinion of many people.  In many hymnals that print the Psalms, this Psalm is excluded.  When it comes up in the lectionary cycle, we hope that they leave off that last verse.  Or at the very least give us a different reading as an option.  Who wants to think about, much less talk about or reflect on smashing little ones heads against the rocks?  But, if we could pick and choose the parts of scripture that we want to read or meditate on, we would be creating a book in our image.  Scripture isn’t meant to just be warm and fuzzy and make us feel good; scripture is at its best when it challenges us, when it forces us to squirm, when we cannot escape its call to look deeply at ourselves in its mirror.

This Psalm is a cry to God that reflects the situation of the Israelites in captivity in Babylon.  They were essentially slaves, unable to live their lives as they desired.  They had been taken from the Promised Land, they had been marched for days and weeks in chains to a foreign land, where they had been forced to work for the Babylonians.  They missed their Land, they missed the temple where they could worship God.  The Babylonians were cruel taskmasters, making their position as slaves clear to the Israelites.  The Psalm presents the idea that the Israelites were mocked with requests that they sing their songs from home, so they could be the butt of jokes regarding their “music.”  The Israelites refused, or at the very least, the Psalmist refused as the voice of the Israelite people.

The cries of the Israelites were clear, they had been abused, they had been imprisoned, they had been tortured.  They wanted to get even, they wanted vengeance, they wanted revenge.  But the Psalmist recognizes something lse.  Vengeance, revenge was not theirs to give.  The Psalmist recognizes the truth found in Deuteronomy 32, that vengeance belongs to the Lord.  It’s not that the Psalmist, that the Israelites don’t want revenge; they do.  Just look at the words, they are full of the desire for revenge.  Yet, those same words make it clear that they were leaving vengeance to God.

Seeking fairness is part of being human.  It’s the reason why we have an innate sense of justice; give two small children different size treats and see how they react.  We know in our hearts what is fair.  We know what is right, we know when we have been wronged.  Working toward justice and fairness is part of God’s desires for us.  Remember Micah 6:8; what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  God desires us to seek ways of equality and justice.  And when we see injustice, when we see the mistreatment of people we are to speak out, we are to work to do something about it.  Yet, as we work to follow God’s desires for us, we must be careful.  Our actions must be guided by seeking for justice, not by a desire for seeking revenge.

The cry of the Psalmist, the cry of the Israelites is for justice, for revenge.  But, as they cry they do not themselves declare they will act to bring about that revenge.  Their cry is a prayer to God that God will act, that God will correct the injustice that has occurred.  They will work for justice, yet God will be the active one to bring vengeance upon the workers of injustice.

It is not about not punishing someone for their wrongdoing.  It’s not about just allowing people to act whatever way they want.  This is about ensuring that when we seek to discipline someone for their behaviors we do so without allowing our desire for revenge to control us.  Jesus told his disciples to turn the other cheek.  When we turn the other cheek, it’s not about not being angry, it’s not about saying the other person will never be disciplined.  It’s about stopping ourselves in that moment, removing the emotion of revenge from the moment, and accepting that the one who has done us wrong will have to face God and God’s vengeance because of their actions – and one day, so will we.  Allowing God to be the active one does not take away the pain and hurt, but it can free us to focus on healing rather than on our response, moving forward rather than focusing on the past and how we can make someone “pay” for what they have done.

The words of the Psalm make us uncomfortable, they can make us squirm; because they are so human, and we can relate to them so well.  The reality of our own cries for revenge and vengeance echo alongside the cries of the Psalmist and the Israelites.  May we too learn the lesson of the Psalmist and not focus on how we could respond in vengeance, but on letting go of our need for revenge and allow God to be the active one.  Active both in response and in our healing.  May we find peace in God’s ever comforting presence.  Amen.