"Here I stand"

Parson Tom’s Tomes

“Here I stand I can do no other!” It is a good line attributed to Martin Luther during his trial at the Diet of Worms, even though historians can find no trace of it in the accounts of the trial itself at the time. Luther was “Standing his ground” against the accusations of heresy by the Roman church, in which he was an Augustinian friar. The church wanted to “Stand its own ground” from the assaults on its theology, and therefore declared Luther an outlaw which meant anyone could kill him with impunity. From Luther’s stand the ground shook under the feet of the comforting illusion of solid, unchangeable, united, Western Christendom and we get the Reformation and so began a series of religious wars that lasted for centuries and the blood of millions poured into the ground from the slaughter from both sides.

There is something appealing about “standing your ground” and I have a tendency to point to the times of “standing my ground” with more than a hint of pride. However, the recent events in Florida with the trial George Zimmerman slaying of Travon Martin in which Zimmerman was acquitted because the law allowed him to “stand his ground” with deadly force made me want to review my pride.

I remember a conversation in the early hours of the morning in the dormitory when I was a freshman- almost a half century ago. The boy/men (I was 17 the others were 18 and older) were discussing how it was legal to kill another person. It was proposed by a pre-law student, oh so wise in the ways of the world- as we all thought we were, and agreed by the group, that if one shot a burglar trying to break into their house, they would need to drag the body into the house and say that the burglar had made it into the house and say the shooter acted in self-defense in defense of his home, a man’s castle. I remember thinking at the time that I had nothing worth stealing that was worth the life of another human being.

Almost 40 years later, when I accumulated a bunch more “stuff” someone stole a set of porch furniture one dark night off the front porch of the Rectory, having used bolt cutters to cut the chains bolted into the floor as a theft deterrent. I was filled with red rage and wanted to catch the culprits and do major damage to them. After calming down and lots of prayers, I realized it was not that the stuff was that important, but it was ego, my pride, that had been assaulted. I did not want to live in a life in which the comforting illusion of in vulnerability was exposed.

The problem is that we do live in a world in which we are vulnerable. My pride invites me to “stand my ground” but my faith says it really is not my ground for that on which I stand is “holy ground” and the space between me and another person is sacred.  I can only speak for myself, but I invite you to ask yourselves on what it is that you “stand your ground”?

SHALOM