"Jesus and the Saving Power of Nonviolence"
Rev. Susan Maginn
April 12, 2009
Wy'east UU Congregation
So, I've got a Jesus sermon today.
Whenever I preach about Jesus I remember
many years ago when I was preparing to present my first sermon. I was
brainstorming some topics with my minister. I had been a student of
Zen and of Ashtanga yoga and so I had some ideas for a service about
Buddhism and Hinduism, wondering what topic could be challenging and
of interest to the congregation. My minister said, "People are going
to be pretty comfortable hearing about Buddhism and Hinduism. If you
want to challenge a UU congregation, you would preach about Christianity."
Today is one of those days. I'm preaching about Jesus, maybe to challenge but especially to remind us what is at the heart of Jesus' teachings and how these teachings are still radical in much of the world thousands of years later.
It has been said that 'no truth worth
knowing can ever be taught; it can only be lived'. (C.F. Andrews)
When Gandhi was asked how one knew one was in touch with the truth,
he offered the following as a sure-fire test:
Whenever you are in doubt, or when
the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall
the fate of the poorest and weakest man whom you may have seen, and
ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to
him. Will that person gain by it? Will it restore that person to a control
over his or her own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to
swarj (self-governance or self-determination) for the hungry
and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and
your self melt away. (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi
89:125)
Jesus did not come to convince people that he was the messiah. He did not come to start a new religion. Jesus' ministry was not about him it was about showing people what the kingdom of God was all about. The Sermon on the Mount becomes his most essential teaching, to be sure that those on the margins - the disabled, the women, the poor - that they all hear that the kingdom of God belongs to them, even though they may not be part of the power center of Jerusalem or Rome, they are known and loved by God. This is the good news. It is for the suffering and powerless, that they may go from being one of many victims of systemic sin to becoming the protagonists of their own life story.
He was not afraid to speak truth to power,
but that was not the audience he immediately sought out. Speaking truth
to power was more of a by-product of bringing comfort and justice to
the oppressed and afflicted. Eventually those on margins started to
rise, awaken and mobilize.
It was this awakening that threatened
the authorities of Jerusalem. The tensions between Rome and Jerusalem
were getting more and more tense. The Jews were allowed to keep
their temple in an occupied Israel, but for this favor they were kept
on a tight leash. Any dissidence was seen as a threat to the meager
privileges allowed within the Roman Empire. Jesus' ministry
was seen not only as a threat to Roman order, but to Jewish authorities
who felt it was better that one man should die rather than loose everything
to Rome.
In fact, not even 30 years after Jesus'
execution, their fears were realized. The wrath of Roman violence was
unleashed and the temple was destroyed.
Every single stone was removed from the
city. Every scroll was burned. Every priest killed. Every golden vessel
was melted down. The Romans wanted to destroy Judaism once and
for all.
Christine Robinson writes,
"It is hard to imagine the devastation
they felt. Imagine, if you will, what the day after 9/11 would
have felt like if the terrorists had also destroyed every national monument
in Washington D.C.: the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Wall, the Smithsonian,
the Capitol, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Imagine how frightened
we would be. Imagine our sense of loss, anger, shame. Imagine the cries
of "Why us!'"
Imagine that, and you will begin to understand
what the Jewish authorities feared could happen to Israel during Jesus'
life.
Jesus grew up seeing violence, injustice
and suffering at the hand of the Roman Empire. Some people think that
Jesus and the two poor thieves next to him were one of the few to die
such a horrific death. But there were crucifixions all the time - innocent
people being crucified by the side of the road, bodies left to rot,
people beaten, violated, taxed unfairly and enslaved.
The way to beat the Romans was not in
combat but in spiritual strength - not bowing to their will, but not
fighting back either: turning the other cheek, living a life of suffering
love.
His great act of civil disobedience was when he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and went to the halls of the temple and turned over the money tables. This act was not to hurt anyone, but to wake people up, to dramatize the injustice and restore integrity to the Judaism he so loved.
Gandhi studied the life of Jesus, was
impressed with Jesus' ability to synthesize great eastern and western
teachings. He said that the Sermon on the Mount was at the heart of
Jesus' genius - bringing compassion to the least of these, this
dimension was not found anywhere else - the east or the west.
Gandhi's mission then became not only
to free India from the British Empire, but also to awaken India to the
plight of the 'dalit', 'the untouchables', the lowest caste
member in the Hindu hierarchy. When Gandhi prepared for his momentous
walk to the sea in 1930 launching his Salt Satyagraha, he likened it
to Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Terrence
Rynne, Gandhi and Jesus, page 26).
You'll remember Martin Luther King
and the nonviolent march from Selma to capital building in Montgomery,
AL. People who walked with King were spiritually trained before
the walk began. They were trained to march with love and to, above all,
to not fight back. One marcher was later interviewed and was asked,
"What if a participant could not promise that they would not fight
back to protect themselves?" She said, "Then that person would not
be allowed to march."
Very often nonviolence can be mistaken
for being passive. But to be passive is to be compliant. To be aggressively
nonviolent is to effectively bear witness to the injustice without violence.
For Gandhi, Jesus and King, a community
of faith was essential to living a life of nonviolence. It is all too
easy for us to slip into the pervasive violence of the world and even
easier to slip into passive pacifism, where we are not harming with
our actions, but rather we are harming with our inaction and ignorance.
To be able to not fight back, you must
go through the kind of self-purification that is modeled in the life
of Jesus, Gandhi and King. There are temptations such as Jesus
encountered in the wilderness. If someone cannot master these temptations
- the temptations of the senses, the temptation of the human ego's
fascination with power - then nonviolence is not an option for you.
Jesus saw the obvious source of power
for the Roman Empire: the armies and weapons. His mission was to show
people that the source of power for the Kingdom of God was wholly different.
It was a power that came not through arming yourself but through humbling
yourself, through foot washing, through serving, acknowledging the presence
of God in the heart of every being.
Nonviolence is how Jesus lived and also
how he died. When he was taken into custody, given a bogus trial, humiliated
in the streets of Jerusalem, wearing a cloth and a crown of thorns,
beaten while carrying a cross that was too heavy for any man and denied
the company of those few faithful women, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene,
the only people who had not abandoned him in the end.
I think we have all heard at one time
or another that we are saved by Jesus' death. It can be a bewildering
statement to make sense of. But lately, I have come to wonderÉPerhaps
we are actually saved by Jesus' death, not because he was the
perfect sacrifice for a bloodthirsty God who would wish the death of
God's own son, as early church fathers would have us believe. Rather
we are saved by seeing how a man - not unlike you, not unlike me -
could devote his life to bring hope to the hopeless and to die with
love in his heart, asking God to forgive them for their violence and
fear, loving his enemies even in his last moments.
I think many of us trip up with Jesus'
execution. Over the years, I have heard many people say that they were
raised being told that God is all-powerful. And, if that is true, and
Jesus is the son of God then why would God allow Jesus to die? People
just could make sense of this question and when it was asked they did
not get much support from religious leadership and so they left the
church of their youth.
To me, this question is so important
and gets straight to the heart of the nature of God and human beings.
And the answer for me is pretty simple: God is not all-powerful.
The other day my daughter and I were
watching Madagascar and the DVD stopped working. I ejected the disc,
cleaned it and put it back in. She was very excited about seeing this
and so while the DVD was loading she said, "Please, please God let
the movie work!" I smiled and told her, "Movies aren't God's
business." She sighed heavily and said, "Oh. OK."
Jesus's life and death were not God's
business either. God did not allow Jesus to die. Jesus did. Jesus made
certain faithful choices - to live out the Sermon on the Mount, to
question patriarchy by welcoming women and men as disciples, to demand
that his followers not fight back on his behalf - all of this led
Jesus to the cross.
In this light, the cross comes to symbolize
the political cost of discipleship, the potential fate for someone who
lives aggressive nonviolence in an aggressively violent world.
And so it was with Jesus. And Gandhi.
And Martin Luther King, Jr.
God is not a force with the power to
stop or start us. God is a far more subtle force that lovingly lures
us and calls us forward. But the choice to do or not to do is all up
to us.
So be it. Amen.
Our prayer today is by Paul S. Sawyer
Let us pray.
Loving God,
We gather today in humility,
Awed by the stone rolled back;
And the surprise of the empty
tomb.
We gather in defiance
Of the pain and the injustice that came before;
And of the pain and injustice
that will likely come again.
We gather in hope
That life can begin anew;
That our differences can be bridged
That the beloved community can
arise at last.
We gather in faith,
That the light shines in the darkness,
And the darkness does not overcome
it.
We gather in wonder
Of the beauty we can see;
And of the mystery of all we can
never know.
Here amid the lilies,
Amid the warm glow of friends and families
come home:
We pray for faith and strength
To stand for what is good;
To do what we must
To live lives of integrity and
peace.
We pray in gratitude and joy
For this community;
For the beauty of this day;
For the hope and love promised
In this ancient story,
In the stone rolled away.
Amen.