Eastertide
May 4, 2017
Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 2:19-25
For it is to your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. –1 Peter 2:19-21
No one deserves to be beaten for anything. Beating for punishment just proves to the recipient of the thrashing that violence is a proper way to deal with discord. It tells the one being beaten that he or she just needs to be more violent the next time. A foster mother called me once frantic. Her recently placed two to three-year-old foster child kept scratching herself to the point of drawing blood. Clipping her nails did not help. She was finally outfitted with little mittens. The child’s psychologist thought she was missing her mother and she associated her mother with pain. It was the only way of love she had ever known.
It is sad to think that disciples faced grave danger as they traveled throughout a world where violence was the measure of success. Their audience was unaware of a God of love. Jesus’ parable of the sower planting seeds comes to mind. (Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:1-15) Only some seed fell on fertile ground ready to receive it and nurture its growth. Violence seems to be more prevalent in our world today. The evening news is full of it. The message of God’s love is just as crucial today as it was 2000 years ago and there are those who have no idea what it means unless they see it in our actions.
By the way, I returned that little girl to her mother after a lot of hard work on the mother’s part recovering herself from a life of being abused. Her healing touch helped her daughter’s return to wholeness as did the love of a wonderful foster mother.
Prayer: Lord, make us doers of your love. Help us illuminate the world to recognize love wins over violence always. Amen.