No good deed ever goes unpunished

Long, long ago when I first heard someone say no good deed goes unpunished, I thought it was a joke. In my later years, I began to realize the statement was more truth than folly.

I was a young pastor in the 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr. was thrust onto the American scene. He challenged segregation and racial discrimination based on skin color in southeastern America. He later took his campaign north. He and his supporters took the peaceful, nonviolent route. They organized marches and sit-ins. They sang songs of hope and peace as they went about their chosen course of action. King spoke eloquently. He was thrown in jail over and over. At times, these crusaders were beaten by police, faced snarling police dogs and stood their ground while being attacked by water from high-pressure fire hoses. Eventually King was shot and killed.

From the security of my California church office, I could not understand what was going on. A good man was asking a nation committed to liberty and justice for all to deliver on that promise. The eighth beatitude says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”

When Jesus spoke those words, what was his understanding of righteousness? What is the content of a righteousness that produces persecution?

Christians are a divided camp. Some believe righteousness is about the condition of the person who has received a cleansing of the soul through the death of Jesus on the cross. The only righteousness a person ever experiences is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is given as a gracious gift.

As a born-again evangelical Christian, I hold dear my personal relationship to Jesus of Nazareth, my messiah and Lord. Having said that, I take issue with some of my Christian friends about the meaning of righteousness.

“This does not refer to the righteousness of God, but to suffering in a just cause, suffering for their own judgments and actions,” wrote German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his commentary about the beatitudes. I agree completely.

Bonhoeffer was a part of the resistance to the Nazis in Germany. He was hanged at the personal order of Adolph Hitler.

The serious followers of Jesus from Nazareth are called upon to do a special kind of right. They are called upon to do the kind of right that challenges wrong. That is what Jesus did and that is what Jesus expects his disciples to do.

Our Christian churches are populated by a lot of “good” people. Hang around churches and any fair-minded person will find hard-working, honest people who are good parents, generous in charitable giving and kind and dependable in behavior. They ring bells for the Salvation Army and volunteer for Catholic Social Services. They are people who are never found in court. If every resident embraced these behavior patterns the police would be out of business.

Herein lies the problem. The commitment of these good folk does not include challenging the evils peculiar to our own time and place. If they did, they would experience conflict on a daily basis. The call of our Christ is not to “the good life.” It is a call to doing the right that challenges wrong. Inevitably, it leads to the persecution to which the eighth beatitude refers.

If anyone decides to follow Jesus, that person will find plenty of evil to challenge. If you do not know how to find the wrongs that need to be challenged, here is my advice — follow the money and follow the power. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with either wealth or power. My basic concerns are in how wealth and power are obtained and how wealth and power are used.

Today in America, most wealth and power is attained through selfish manipulation. The working poor are trampled in the process. Basic community needs are ignored. Most wealth and power is guarded with tenacity and is used for self rather than common good.

Here in Alaska we are watching the nuts and bolts of the corruption of money and power. The players became easy to spot. They don caps with the initials CWC (Corrupt Weasels Club). As one by one, the CWC members go to jail and I do not think the lure of wealth and power has been truly conquered. A new crop of practitioners will develop very quickly.

The only answer is to raise up a new crop of people who will do right acts that challenge wrong. That is the Jesus way.

With the eighth beatitude, Jesus made a promise: “Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” It is not a bad deal once you give up the pursuit of wealth and power.

The Rev. Howard Bess is the pastor of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist church in Palmer. His e- mail address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.