Today, we’re diving into Romans 12, where we grapple with the powerful message of overcoming evil with good rather than seeking vengeance. This passage feels especially relevant as we navigate a world filled with conflict and anger. I share a poignant moment from a protest in Minneapolis, where a protester offered kindness to an ICE agent, illustrating how we can cross divides and choose compassion even in our most fervent disagreements. We often find ourselves clinging to anger and resentment, believing it justifies our actions, but we need to reflect on how this approach distances us from the grace we’re called to embody. Join me as we unpack this scripture and explore the importance of addressing our own hearts, seeking where we might be misdirecting our anger, and striving to act in love rather than vengeance.
Takeaways:
- In Romans 12, we are reminded that vengeance belongs to God, urging us to seek kindness instead.
- The podcast exemplifies how crossing divides through kindness can create meaningful connections, even in conflict.
- The speaker reflects on the cultural tendency towards vengeance and its misalignment with Christlike behavior, challenging listeners to reconsider their attitudes.
- We are encouraged to examine our hearts for hidden resentment, as it creates distance from our relationship with God.
- The discussion highlights the importance of grace in justice, emphasizing that our understanding may need a biblical reframe.
- The speaker shares a personal story of apologizing for past actions, illustrating the importance of humility and self-reflection in our faith journey.
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Transcript
If you only have a couple minutes for scripture today, I got you.
Speaker A:Welcome to today's bite sized Bible cast.
Speaker A:Today we are in Romans 12.
Speaker A:We are starting with verse, what is it?
Speaker A:19 and going through 21.
Speaker A:I'm reading out of the ESV currently though I am switching to NRSVU EU.
Speaker A:I can't keep the letter straight, but anyways, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
Speaker A:To the contrary.
Speaker A:If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
Speaker A:If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head.
Speaker A:Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Speaker A:This feels like a very relevant passage right now.
Speaker A:And it immediately brought to mind this video that I saw at the height of the media coverage of what was going on in Minneapolis where there were some protesters standing outside of the main ICE detention area.
Speaker A:And because of how many protesters there were, there were a bunch of ICE agents who had been dispatched to stand behind, basically in between the protesters and the, the building.
Speaker A:And they were kind of interviewing some of the protesters as well as some of the ICE agents.
Speaker A:And they got to this scene where one of the protesters is handing one of her hand warmers to an ICE agent.
Speaker A:And she's kind of explaining, she goes, you know, he's from Texas, he's not used to this kind of cold.
Speaker A:And so I can just basically explains that she's like just doing, having a kind action towards him, hoping that it will maybe make a difference.
Speaker A:And so there's this, this beautiful moment of this protester who believes so vehemently that what this man is doing, everything he stands for, is wrong and evil to the point that she is willing to stand in the cold for hours to protest it, crossing those lines and doing something kind.
Speaker A:Was this ICE agent's life in danger from the cold?
Speaker A:No, probably not.
Speaker A:But was he vastly uncomfortable?
Speaker A:I think they had said he was from Texas and so he just was not used to this cold.
Speaker A:Like his body had never experienced this cold before, especially for such a prolonged period, because they didn't know how long he was going to be standing out there.
Speaker A:And that is immediately what came to mind.
Speaker A:Now, obviously there's a lot of very strong opinions surrounding everything going on in Minnesota, and I have very strong feelings about what has been going on in Minnesota, and I've been pretty clear about how I feel about that here on this platform.
Speaker A:But this one snapshot was a beautiful example of crossing lines, crossing from one side of a conflict to another and extending a little bit of kindness.
Speaker A:She wasn't happy about it.
Speaker A:She wasn't like, I got you, honey.
Speaker A:She.
Speaker A:She was still standing for everything that she stood for.
Speaker A:But she wasn't allowing the divide between what she saw as right and wrong determine what her actions were going to be.
Speaker A:She decided that her kindness was going to take precedence in this one situation and was hopeful that it would then have a rippling effect and that he would think about it later.
Speaker A:As time went on.
Speaker A:And this is a really tough one.
Speaker A:We live in a society where we are constantly seeking vengeance against one another.
Speaker A:We live in a country where our president has blatantly stated he hates his opponents and he does not wish well for them.
Speaker A:That is insane.
Speaker A:And we can tend to very much get into this.
Speaker A:And I've.
Speaker A:I've seen a rise of this specifically in US Evangelical Christian culture, where we almost use righteous anger as an excuse to vent our own frustrations.
Speaker A:And we look at ourselves, ourselves being the church, particularly the conservative U.S. church, as almost these bringers of justice, these bringers of vengeance against evil.
Speaker A:And I want to be very clear that that attitude is not Christlike.
Speaker A:Scripture is very clear that we are to leave vengeance itself to the Lord.
Speaker A:That does not mean we don't seek justice.
Speaker A:But I think we all have a pretty screwed up view of what justice is.
Speaker A:When you go back and look at what the Bible actually has to say about justice and what God actually means when he talks about loving justice, that is very far from our view of justice.
Speaker A:We tend to look at it very much as a crime and punishment kind of a thing.
Speaker A:And that is just not what we're working here.
Speaker A:I think we tend to forget about grace when we are looking at justice.
Speaker A:We tend to, in the conservative Christian culture, have this view of if someone does something wrong, they deserve punishment full stop.
Speaker A:And then we kind of tend to not apply it to situations where we are like, oh, this person's gonna be fine, or oh, this personal sin of mine, this is gonna be fine.
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:I deserve grace.
Speaker A:This person I like deserves grace.
Speaker A:But these people over here, they deserve grace to get what's coming to them.
Speaker A:And that is a completely unchristian view to take.
Speaker A:When we look at what happened on the cross, you know, we're coming up to Easter right now.
Speaker A:When we take a look at everything that Jesus endured leading up to the cross and then being on the cross, everything that he did for us was completely undeserved by us.
Speaker A:Not only was it Undeserved.
Speaker A:It was the opposite of what we deserve.
Speaker A:And so when we kind of look at justice as this crime and punishment thing and look at ourselves as the bringers of this righteous justice, that puts ourselves in the place of Christ, that puts ourselves in the place of God determining who deserves what punishment in what time frame, what deserves to happen to them, what grace they do or do not deserve.
Speaker A:And frankly, it's kind of appalling.
Speaker A:I used to be in a relationship with someone who desperately wanted someone to break into their home so they would have an excuse to pew pew them.
Speaker A:That is.
Speaker A:That is kind of a good picture of what this situation feels like, what the culture has kind of begun to feel like.
Speaker A:We are so boiling with anger, we are so boiling with resentment.
Speaker A:We are so boiling with these negative feelings and don't know what to do with them.
Speaker A:We are just looking for an excuse to vent our frustration.
Speaker A:We are just looking for a scapegoat to bear the negative feelings that we have and to essentially, if you ever read the book the Whipping Boy Growing up, it was this honestly kind of messed up book that a lot of us read in elementary school.
Speaker A:And essentially the premise is there is this prince who is very poorly behaved, but because he's a prince, you can't whip the prince for bad behavior.
Speaker A:But someone needs to get the punishment.
Speaker A:So they find this street urchin, who I fully had a crush on when I was in elementary school.
Speaker A:I'm just gonna be so real with you.
Speaker A:I was getting Shasta from the horse and his boy vibes, and I had a huge crush on Shast of it anyways.
Speaker A:And so they take this street urchin, this poor orphaned child.
Speaker A:I think he was orphaned or maybe they found his mom at the end, I don't remember.
Speaker A:But he is the designated whipping boy.
Speaker A:So every time the prince does something bad, the whipping boy gets whipped.
Speaker A:And do you think the prince gives a single crap about how often the whipping boy is getting whipped?
Speaker A:No, he is just a.
Speaker A:A vessel to be punished so the prince doesn't have to be punished.
Speaker A:And friends, I think that we tend to be the prince and the person responsible for meting out the punishment.
Speaker A:In this case, we tend to direct our negative feelings at anyone besides those who are important to us, to those who are on this like, little list of people who deserve to be spared and everyone else, especially those who have been othered by us, by the church, by society, by our social group as a whole, they tend to receive the brunt of the punishment from us because of our own anger in ourselves, and we see them as fit to direct all of our anger, all of our frustration, everything at and as a result, we end up escaping the punishment that would likely help us get our act together because it's being given to someone else and it doesn't affect us at all.
Speaker A:So what I want to encourage you with today is to break out your journal.
Speaker A:Read through this passage by yourself again.
Speaker A:,:Speaker A:It really helps me to actually write out scripture.
Speaker A:I'll write it out in cursive and then my journaling I do in print and it's kind of hard to tell because my handwriting is really messy.
Speaker A:I'm left handed and I have adhd, so I've got two strikes against me for messy handwriting.
Speaker A:But anyways, I want to encourage you to read through the scripture again and sit in as quiet a place as you can find, as quiet as is reasonable for you.
Speaker A:Especially when my kiddos are over.
Speaker A:I'll even put my AirPods in and put on like noise canceling mode to just try and get like a little bit more quiet.
Speaker A:But whatever a peaceful situation could possibly look like for you today, sit in that and ask God to show you where are you taking vengeance?
Speaker A:Where are you even if that's not an actual action that you're taking against someone, where are you maybe harboring anger in your heart that is misdirected?
Speaker A:Or where are you allowing evil to overtake you by holding onto that resentment?
Speaker A:Or for hoping for someone else's downfall, whatever that might look like?
Speaker A:Ask God to show you where that exists in your heart.
Speaker A:I actually had to send an apology message to someone this morning while I was doing my quiet time because I realized I had handled a situation in a way that was what I had said was accurate and was speaking truth to someone.
Speaker A:But the way that I had done it was not as kind as it was could have been.
Speaker A:And so I reached out and I sent an apology message in the middle of my quiet time this morning.
Speaker A:And so even when we take away the effects that our actions have on other people, our actions absolutely affect ourselves.
Speaker A:And so allowing our hearts to hold on to a little bit of vengeance and hope for someone's downfall and see a little bit of joy when someone experiences negativity who we deem as deserving of negativity, that impacts us, that impacts our heart, and that creates just a little bit of space between us and our Heavenly Father.
Speaker A:So I want to encourage you today, actively seek out where that vengeance may lie in your own heart.
Speaker A:Actively seek out where you may be harboring a difference between the grace that you accept and the grace that you hope for someone else and then actively do something about it.
Speaker A:Okay, that is all I have for you today.
Speaker A:I would love if you shared this video these are uploaded as podcast episodes on my podcast the Trigrit Podcast with Rachel Grit.
Speaker A:You can find a link L I n k to that over in my profile.
Speaker A:TikTok has been dinging me quite a bit lately for using the L I n k word, so I'm going to try and stop doing that.
Speaker A:But I would love to hear your comments.
Speaker A:What thoughts do you have?
Speaker A:What does this bring up for you?
Speaker A:Does this make you feel uncomfy at all?
Speaker A:Because when we start to feel uncomfortable, that is the Holy Spirit at work.
Speaker A:We've kind of been taught that any discomfort means that something is untrue or that we need to walk away from it.
Speaker A:But I have found that in my time as a believer that that discomfort is assigned to lean in because the Holy Spirit is doing some work.
Speaker A:And that work is often uncomfortable.
Speaker A:This will be my second Narnia mention in this video, but I love the scene in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Speaker A:I believe it's the Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Eustace becomes a dragon accidentally and is in so much pain because he had put this bracelet on his arm and then turned into a dragon while he was asleep and now it's digging into his arm and causing all this pain.
Speaker A:And how Aslan turns him back into a boy by ripping the scales off of him.
Speaker A:In order to be restored to who God created him to be, he needed to go through some very painful transformation and I really, really want to get a big tattoo of dragon scales with like some rips through them.
Speaker A:I think that would be so cool.
Speaker A:And I'm always looking for an excuse to get another tattoo.
Speaker A:So as soon as I have a little extra money, you betcha.
Speaker A:I will be looking for a tattoo artist who can bring my vision to life.
Speaker A:I've got a girl who does really great work, but I think this might be something that I need someone who like specializes in color for.
Speaker A:Anyways, thank you for joining me today.
Speaker A:I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments and I will see you in the next one.
Speaker A:Bye.
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