CELC The Fourth Sunday of Easter

The Fourth Sunday of Easter – April 17, 2005

1 Peter 2:19-25

Do you remember that one of my favorite sayings is, “While in life pain is inevitable, misery is optional.”

This week I encountered another saying that will probably soon be my favorite: “Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.” This saying is attributed to Chili Davis, who I did not know. So I looked him up and it turns out he was professional baseball player until retiring in 1999. It seems appropriate to be quoting a proverb spouting baseball player as the baseball season begins.

While “Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional,” may be a sage saying, the one that troubles me today is this, “I don’t get mad, I get even.”

I cannot answer for you, but I am aware that I must have said that myself over my lifetime. Many people have said it in my presence, people I would consider to be some of the most faithful folks you would want to meet.

However, I cannot any longer consider “I don’t get mad, I get even,” to be a faithful statement. I have made a decision not use it ever again.

My decision not to say, “I don’t get mad, I get even,” comes from reading 1^st Peter. In chapter 2, verse 23 when talking about our Lord Jesus you read from 1^st Peter, “When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.”

There, in a few words 1^st Peter tells us that Jesus did not “get even.” He wasn’t about keeping track and making sure that if someone offended him, hurt him, somehow dealt with him in a wrong way that the thing to do would be to get even.

Yet, you and I know that in our world, our time, our place, getting even happens all the time. You and I know this to be true because inside of us a little corner of us reacts each time someone offends us or hurts us or wrongly treats us. This little corner, this hidden, dark place is where we say to ourselves in these words or others “Don’t get mad, get even.” It is a little corner in the deepest secrets of our lives.

Jesus, though, when abused, did not return abuse. No, he entrusted himself to God, the One who judges fairly. As you and I look into the dark, deep corner of our lives and discover that when we are abused our first reaction is to retaliate, we are not trusting God who judges fairly and completely. There is no reason to return abuse when you trust that God will judge justly and take care of the abuser. It is challenging, though for us to trust God that completely.

So, a little corner of us continues to whisper, “I don’t get mad, I get even.”

The good and great news of 1^st Peter this morning is that we are forgiven our lack of trust in God and are forgiven our need to always get even.

Did you hear those lovely words? “[Christ] himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

I’ve got to say that those closing words of verse 24 really spoke to me: “…by his wounds you have been healed.” If Easter means nothing else to us, it means that our need to get even with others is forgiven and healed by the very risen Lord Jesus himself. How truly blessed we are that God heals us in the cross and grants us resurrected life; resurrected life that means we can begin now by not having to get even when offended. Resurrected life that means we do not have hold a grudge against others.

And this is not our doing. It is God’s doing in the cross. It is God who makes possible the transformation in us so that we no longer need to whisper, “Don’t get mad, get even.” It is God who transforms us in the cross so that the little dark corner of our lives that demands retaliation becomes silent. “…by his wounds you have been healed.”

1^st Peter with love and kindness continues in verse 25, “For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” There is a description of me, for sure, as one who goes astray and is only returned to the shepherd and the flock as God comes in the cross with healing and forgiveness. Perhaps this is a description of you as well.

Being returned to the shepherd and the flock means it is no longer necessary to worry about getting even. Joyously, a faithful believer can spend their time and energy on other matters. Since you do not have to get even, which takes so much time, energy and effort; you can spend your time listening to others, feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely and sick, and doing so much more. Imagine the possibilities.

And imagine a world that would walk as we walk in faith and no longer have to get even when offended. What a different world that would be. Amen.

Pastor Robert F. Holley