This past week a group of Mennonites walked 141 miles from Harrisonburg, Virginia, to Washington, D.C., to urge Biden and the Congress to support an immediate cease fire and to protest U.S. complicity in the war in Gaza through our supply of much of the weaponry Israel uses, including the bombs that have killed so many women and children. They sat down in government buildings and sang hymns; many were arrested,
Historically, the Mennonites are a peace church; they are pacifists, refusing to return violence for violence. We practical people smile, thinking this approach is unreasonable, especially in today’s world. Perhaps, but they take the words of Jesus literally, something the so-called biblical literalists do not do with their support of guns.
What should our response to violence be? Not just on the grand international scale, but on the more personal one as well. Many of us squirm when forced to consider this all important question. We say it’s abstract, hypothetical, not real, but it is very real. We must find better, nonviolent ways to respond to the violence we see around us.
Prayer for the Day
Told that we are not to return violence for violence,
We find ways, O God, to justify our actions;
Hearing the words from Scripture to love our enemies,
We search for a means to vindicate our responses.
But, you, O Lord, call us to task with your words,
Even as we claim we follow your commands.
In the name of the One who points to new directions,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they cast upon the waters comes back poisoned.
James Baldwin, writer, from No Name in the Street (1924-1987)
Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak... Non-violence is hard work.
Cesar Chavez, union organizer for farmworkers (1927-1993)
You have heard that it was said, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; … you have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Jesus, from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5: 38-39, 43-44