Eric’s Sunday Sermon; On Social Unrest

It is possible that social unrest is just how it should be. Social unrest tells us that we are not resting but rather active. A democracy requires unrest. We must be vigilante and not idle. There is a wonderful term; “Do not rest on your laurels”. Social is also a great term meaning interaction between two or more.

You got it! And we say “whenever two or more of you are gathered in his name and there is love.” And then we look to Jesus again and he gets downright real angry at his disciples when he asked them to stay vigilant yet they slept. And of course there is a wonderful verse on “Stir it up”.

Just shift over to our Gandhi and down to our Mandela and lest we forget our friend in love King and our dearly new departed Lewis. Of course we find the American Civil War or the Revolutionary War. Just think of our original Martin Luther. And of course the deaths of the disciples throughout half a century.

Social unrest is a cornerstone of all great social endeavors. Violence is an unnecessary act. Social unrest can be done peaceably thank you very much King, Mandela and Ghandhi. How do people proclaim their faith and get lead off to slaughter when they simply could have denied their belief? We are told of the story of Peter denying he was a Christian 3 times before sun up. That story is key to democracy.

Messy

Much social unrest and revolution is garbage. Make no mistake there are issues.

If today you are complacent and easy does it, good for you. That would be, in these times, unrest. Harder to proclaim life is working out than “I hate you”. I hate you is no longer social unrest. Maybe violence to prove a point but becoming the norm and so boring. Violence and hurt is now acceptable. Perhaps that social unrest is good. Should we say that when a certain group pays another group to be violent against a system that is social unrest? Perhaps it is just about the money or to vent.

I must admit that I do not like to see .0001% of our people being hurt by social unrest. I also do not like it being 89.120% of our news cycle. I am not the messenger with a bent except for love.

Life is not good. Life is great. Social unrest needs to be calibrated. “Something” is wrong. Life is not wrong. My social interaction with you is fantastic even if we yell, the alternative stinks. Boredom can set in. A type of normal depression. A “who cares” attitude. Yet that .0001% keeps issues on tables in kitchens around the world. Good on them. Last I heard was that there were over 50,000 protestors of some sort in my country of 350 million. Let me check the numbers and then divide by “peaceful” and come up with the .0001%. Now why do I check ten news sources and get 100% of them focusing on 0001% of the peoples? And why is it that in my community I do not see a single notion of this social unrest? I get around and for sure there are 200,000 that are at peace with their brothers and sisters.

OK my neighbor’s live Mariachi band until 2 am tested that peace but in fact the music was outstanding. You see an issue might be a problem but life is not the problem. If someone’s life is miserable or hate filled, they do not need social unrest, they need help and rest. I do not know how true but I here there are people “deranged” because of one social issue or person. Those people need help and rest, not unrest.

Way of Life

Love is a way of life. We must strive to be “in” love. Hate and anger are a way of death we must strive to be “out” of hate and anger. How can you possibly want a better life for you and yours through hate and anger? Be settled in yourself and consume love and peace and then let unrest kick in. Unrest caused by a derangement is simply sad and hateful.

Sometimes life is not all that disquieting and complicated. Show me a protestor who does not want peace and I will show you a problem. Show me a protestor that wants peace and I will show you a solution.

Peter after denying Christ 3 times was later killed/murdered because he would not deny his faith. Once he took a sword and cut off the ear of a soldier. He was chastised severely by his Lord. Social unrest is only valuable when done in love and peace. Otherwise it is merely more unrest and foments even more and more and so on.

Now back before AD there was a fine thinker that wrote a book called Plato’s Republic he was in fact the founder of “modern” civil disobedience. He gave us choices when we felt civil unrest. Stay and fight. Fight, lose accept punishment. Leave. Do nothing was basically not an option when injustice was occurring.

Violence? Sure, why not? From young boy to manhood I accepted violence as the clear conclusion of injustice. You fought and you got whooped and the next day you fought again. Now keep in mind that I was young and that things like corporal punishment were still acceptable punishments in school. Bad language would get you in as much trouble as fighting in the school yard.

Now in the area of law there are two rules that are kind of still there today. One is an admission and the other fighting words. A silent admission is when someone says something so wrong about you that the normal man would take action against it. Fighting words are such words that would make your blood boil to a point of justifiable violence. Each man and each circumstance is different. When I was young calling a person an SOB was literally calling your mom a Bi---. Were you weak to walk away? Were you justified in fighting over it and losing be darned.

Now into all this mix on the western side of the world is Jesus. No thank you please. Turn your cheek 7 time 70 and love your enemy. As an elder man I practice both. Oh I can squash my little social unrests and would march if the deal was really about systemic injustice. But I cannot and will not accept violence as a notion of propriety in my wonderful society. Injustice is the exception here and respect the rule. Civil unrest due to the actions of bad people is as useless as the nipples on a man.

Love just overcomes this. There is no unrest in love. We are to love our enemy and respect their divergent points of view. Again, horribleness is the exception and not the rule. To fight against individual horrible is to confront directly the wrong doer, not his neighbor which is senseless through all of the above.

I think they had flaws. I think they had bad habits. But I think Mandela, Gandhi and King had it right. Pounding away, time after time, beating after beating, jail after jail is the ticket against civil unrest from both sides. “Unrest”. I knew it when I was younger. Today I see, .001 percent fighting against .001 percent.

In general love wins out. 99.99% of people live in harmony. OK maybe my love numbers are wrong. Maybe only about 89% love each other. That does not cause mean civil unrest.