Heroes and Villains

Heroes are those who do what is good, villains are selfish and hurt others.

Heroes are those who are faithful and true, while trusting in God’s great love.

If we do justice, love kindness, walk with God in humbleness;

Do justice, love kindness, we’ll be heroes too!

Throughout July and August, we are following the theme “Heroes and Villains” in Saturday and Sunday worship. My hope is to pick up on some of the lesser-known “heroes” of the biblical stories, with the “villains” as their counterparts, to explore what faithfulness can look like. 

Heroism can be messy and unclear at times, just like villainy can be filled with moments of sympathetic doubt. We can take last week’s story as an example. In the story of Cain and Abel that many of us have heard along the way, the villain could be Cain, contrasted with the innocent victim Abel. I invite you to shift the focus a bit and to see God as the hero this story, because of how God’s actions compare to Lamech. (You have to read the whole 4^thchapter of Genesis to get the full story.) God shows mercy when executing justice against Cain. Lamech imitates God’s language but arrogates to himself the right to execute justice without mercy. It raises the difference between imitation and pretense. To imitate God would have been for Lamech to mingle mercy with justice. Instead, Lamech simply embodies the age-old principle of “might makes right” when he kills a young man for striking him. Lamech does, however, invoke God’s words of protection over Cain and even amplifies them as the legitimation of his actions. In doing so, it seems more like a pretense of imitating God than actually imitating God. 

I know I’m rehashing last week’s sermon, but I can’t get away from that contrast. One can imitate God– by taking God’s words and echoing them as the principle of one’s actions. Or, one can pretend to imitate God– by using God’s words to justify actions that are quite different from what God would do. I’m convinced this distinction is at the heart of the prohibition against taking God’s name “in vain,” or using the imprimaturof God for one’s own purposes.  

Therein lies the challenge of anyone who proclaims the gospel. Preachers need to discipline their work to ensure that we are not just using the Scriptures as a pretense to push our agendas or rail about our pet peeves. Non-preachers – as believers who are called to proclaim the gospel also – need to ensure that we are not just invoking “God talk” to justify our actions or sanction our opinions. By contrasting God’s action with Lamech’s pretense, we can identify one difference between heroism and villainy as whether our justice is expressed with mercy, or simply a matter of sheer vengeance. 

This week our “Heroes and Villains” theme brings us to the story in the book of Esther, where we contrast the actions of Queen Vashti and the king’s highest official named Haman. You don’t want to miss it. 

PSA: Tomorrow is our monthly “Meet Me at Muldoon’s” event. Come join us for worship and music! 

Mark of St. Mark