Breaking the Cycle of Violence (Matt. 5:38- 48)

A Sermon preached by J. Stuart Taylor III

St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church

June 22, 2008

Before I went to the Holy Land, I imagined that our Pilgrimage would be a spiritual journey that took us ever closer to the divine light. But what we discovered in Israel-Palestine was that before we were allowed to glimpse the Light, we had to journey more deeply into the heart of darkness. Such was my experience in going to the Palestinian town of Hebron. With a contemporary population of around 200,000 Palestinians, Hebron is actually an ancient town much older than Jerusalem itself.  Because tradition has it that Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca are buried in Hebron, the city is sacred to both Jews and Palestinians. Now try to picture our little band of Presbyterian pilgrims standing on the 3^rd floor roof top in the middle of the town center, getting an orientation from a Canadian Christian by the name of David Gleason. David is a volunteer who works with Christian Peacemaker Teams known as CPT. Christian Peacemakers has had a nonviolent presence here in the borderlands of the US-Mexico border working with NMD’s. CPT has also had an on-going presence in Iraq where you may recall one of their members Tom Fox was kidnapped and executed by terrorist extremists.  And CPT is in Hebron. From this rooftop vantage point we looked out on all the neighborhoods of Hebron spread out on the surrounding hills in every direction. David pointed out to us the location of the mosque where are found the tombs of the Biblical patriarchs. He pointed out the location of 4 Jewish settlements, four huge towers that had been established in the town center over the last few years. These settlements are made up of the most militant settlers who believe that all of Israel-Palestine has been given to the Jews as a divine right. And they are willing to fight for that right. These settlers have come into one of the most important Palestinian cities, to establish a beachhead for further settlement. And he pointed out to us the Israeli military installations all over town that are in Hebron for one reason only: to protect the Jewish settlers.  We walked with David around Hebron, passing the market that lies just below one of the settlement buildings. Palestinian shopkeeper’s s in the market had to place mesh over the street to protect them from the trash and feces that the settlers throw at them. We walked by main thoroughfares in the city that were now closed to P. and used only by the settlers. We walked along the road where P. children walk to school every day sometimes facing settlers who curse them and throw stones at them.  Here in Hebron it felt to me that we were staring into the heart of darkness. Nowhere in Israel –Palestine is the conflict more intractable than in Hebron.  And perhaps there are few places in the world today that provide such a terrifying glimpse into violence and how it seems that violence holds the entire human family captive in its embrace.

From this pulpit, I have spoken often of what is called the vicious cycle of violence. The vicious cycle of injury and retaliation that imprisons the human family. In some ways this vicious cycle of violence has become for me the most relevant metaphor for what the church has called original sin.  The vicious cycle of violence in the larger field of world history is expressed in that tragic maxim- todays oppressed become tomorrow’s oppressors. At the level of our family life there are probably many of us who have witnessed or experienced how childhood wounds that go unhealed can lead to destructive and abusive behavior in the adult.  If we are honest with ourselves we can even see the cycle of violence in our daily interactions. Say that you have hurt someone or someone has hurt you. You react. We feel guilty. If you have hurt someone, our best self seeks reconciliation and forgiveness. But maybe perhaps we feel defensive so instead of confession and reconciliation, we deny, avoid and even go on the offensive with accusation and attack.  Or if you someone has hurt you. Our best self that wants  healing, reconciliation and peace struggles with that part of us that wants revenge. This cycle does not always have dramatic consequences  

But if we can see the dynamics of this vicious cycle in our own lives, we can better understand how it works in Israel-Palestine. Let’s look at the cycle of violence there Israel-Palestine. While in Israel, a missile was fired by Palestinian extremists from Gaza to a little town nearby called Sderot. Fortunately no Israeli’s were killed. No this act of violence directed at Israeli civilians must be denounced. It is a violation of the most sacred convictions of Muslims, Jews and Christians. But if we stop here we have not yet understood the cycle of violence. I said last week that the military occupation is the reality that is largely invisible to the US public. The American public stops short of recognizing that the Israeli occupation going on for 60 years is the original act of violence that took from the Palestinians their homes and villages, their very country. This is the reality that is being inflicted on Palestinians every day that eventually leads some Palestinian extremists to respond with violence.  This occupation in no way justifies these Palestinian attacks against civilians. These attacks must be categorically condemned.  But we cannot understand the cycle of violence in Israel-Palestine unless we make visible the invisible occupation. So a militant Palestinian shoots a missile from Gaza. And it hits a civilian target. And then the Israeli’s respond with an attack of their own. Missiles perhaps built by Raytheon, are sent into the neighborhoods of Gaza. And our media portrays this to the American public as justifiable self defense on the part of the Israeli’s.  But to say this simply ignores that the Israeli attack is also directed toward civilians. It is an indiscriminate attack against civilian neighborhoods and the casualties inflicted are more often than not, many times more deadly than those inflicted on the Israeli’s. By every legal and moral definition, to send an Israeli missile into a neighborhood of civilians is as much an act of terrorism as is a suicide bombing. Do you remember the OT injunction, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth? It sounds to our ears like a license for revenge. But it was originally intended to be a restraint on violence. If you are seeking satisfaction for an injury, you cannot exceed the injury or loss itself. An eye for an eye. But under the sway of the vicious cycle of violence it is difficult to adhere to this minimal moral restraint. Here is the awful truth of the cycle of violence. It is self-perpetuating, with no identifiable beginning and no foreseeable end.  In the vicious cycle of violence, we become captive to traumatic pain and the fatal logic of retaliation.

How do we break out of the vicious cycle of violence? Let me circle back to Hebron. We asked David and the CPT staff how they responded to these challenges with non-violence. It was rather simple they said. Every morning we walk with the Palestinian children to school and in the afternoon we walk them home. We hope that our accompaniment is a deterrent to settler violence.  When it is not, we may suffer the same abuse that the children suffer. Here is one attempt to break the cycle of violence. And here is another. While in Hebron, we were supposed to meet a group of ex-Israeli soldiers who have served in Hebron. They refused to obey the orders of their superiors to carry out extreme military violence against civilians. We did not meet with them because they were no longer allowed by Israel to come to Hebron. But prior to my trip I had the opportunity to see and hear their testimony on film. Soldiers told how if there was any disturbance anywhere in Hebron, say a shot was fired, these soldiers were ordered to launch multiple grenades indiscriminately in the general direction of the shot, toward a particular neighborhood. They refused to do this anymore. And since leaving the service they have formed a movement of ex-soldiers called breaking the silence. Those courageous soldiers could have called their movement, breaking the vicious cycle of violence. In spite of the seemingly bleak prospects for peace in Israel-Palestine, I came back feeling hopeful because of what I saw on the ground: individuals communities using creative non-violence to begin to break the vicious cycle of violence. Let me quote my fellow pilgrim and friend, Dr. Don Mead who wrote a report of our delegation “Our principle host organization, the Holy Land Trust, has an extensive program of non-violence training.  They currently have a staff of about 40 trainers who regularly offer training in villages and towns of the West Bank.  Currently, much of this is focused on confronting the problems that arise as a result of the construction of the wall. We visited one village where people trained in non-violence each week confront those defending the construction of the wall which cuts them off from their lands.”  We actually participated in a non-violent demonstration of Palestinians who were lined up on one side of a stretch of barbed wire face to face with a squadron of Israeli soldiers. The Nonviolent action could have easily come unraveled when an Israeli soldier tossed a stun grenade into our midst. But still the Palestinians maintained their commitment to NV.

 “On the other side of the conflict, we met with the leader of an Israeli kibbutz who has worked closely with Arab neighbors to ensure that the wall is located in a way that is fair to them, providing on-going access to their fields.  When the people from the kibbutz were mobilized for a military duty, the neighboring Arabs made sure the fields were tended for their Israeli friends.  We met with an Israeli and a Palestinian working together in a “Bereaved Parents Circle” to tell their powerful story. Each had lost a child through a senseless act of terror.  Each was able to move beyond their initial rage to a commitment to speak out in schools and other similar locations to end the cycle of violence.  Their testimony left us with a deep sense of awe and respect. But ... there are people on all sides of this conflict who have firmly turned their back on efforts to deal with it in a non-violent way.  They feel that more can be gained for their goals through the continuing use of violence, and that efforts at reconciliation undercut their ability to achieve their goals.  This is true of each of the three examples I just referred to.  I mentioned the Holy Land Trust nonviolence training program. The founder of this organization, the non-violent activist, Mubarak Awad was perceived as such a threat to the Israeli’s that he was bundled out of the country and told that he may never return.  Similarly, several of the trainers in his non-violence training program have been jailed or sent out of the country”  I mentioned the amazing example of the Israeli kibbutz, made up of Russian Jews. They were working with the Israeli government to y seeking to adjust the path of the wall to accommodate the needs of the Palestinians. Years ago a Palestinian terrorist came into the kibbutz, sought out one of the leaders and killed him and his whole family. The terrorist knew that he could not allow an example of peaceful co-existence between Jews and Palestinians. One of those parents from the Bereaved Family Circle, after telling his story to others in his own faith community had someone say this to him: “the terrorist bomb should have killed you as well.”  For those who believe that military or violence-based solutions will bring them better outcomes, a growing appeal of non-violence is a profound threat to their vision. (Don Mead).There are dark violent forces on both sides of this conflict that understand the power of non-violence and are prepared to do whatever it takes to stop it.

So where is the hope to be found in the midst of the Palestinian –Israeli conflict for a nonviolent, peaceful resolution to the conflict? For that matter, where do we find hope in the world or even in our own lives that are held captive to the vicious cycle of violence? I found hope in all these people and communities practicing non-violence. But ultimately for us as Christians, our hope is in Jesus who unleashed into the world his Gospel of non-violence. Our hope is in Jesus who proclaimed the Gospel of Non-violence through the Sermon on the Mount and who practiced   the love of enemies.  You have heard it said, an eye for an eye but I say unto you love your enemies and do not respond to evil with evil. You have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say unto Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” The theologian Walter Wink has written that the ultimate religious question is no longer the question posed by the reformation how can I find a gracious god. It is instead, how I find God in my enemy. There is no other way to God except through the enemy. In our time and place, Love of enemies is the litmus test of authentic Christian faith. We have talked before about how Jesus Gospel of nonviolence was hardly an impossible ideal or an invitation to become a doormat but rather a creative loving way to engage conflict. All over the world there are people of faith who are now beginning to see and act free of the domination system.  No matter how terrible the sufferings of God’s people, the reign of God has already begun in their demonstration of non-violent love. This is no pious fiction. The power of God is already manifest because people, not just Christians but God’s people in all faith traditions Muslims and Jews as well who were formerly terrified are now willing to be fired from jobs, beaten, jailed, even killed for a fairer world. As Christians, we believe that the authority of the Risen Christ is already establishing itself because victims of violence are not only affirming their own humanity, but also doing so in a way that affirms the humanity of their oppressors. We find hope in the cross and resurrection of Jesus who took his gospel of non-violence and love of enemies to the ultimate end of laying down his life rather than resorting to violence. In the crucified one, god has entered the world on behalf of all the victims of violence. But even more than that, in the crucified one this God has entered the world on behalf of not just the victims of violence but the victimizers as well, offering love, forgiveness, reconciliation. In the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, God has shattered forever the vicious cycle of violence. In the Crucified and Risen one, we have a foretaste of the coming triumph of non-violent love. May it be so.

Postscript:   

An old rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had ended and the day begun. Could it be asked one of his students when you can see an animal at a distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a dog? No answered the rabbi. Another asked, “ is it when you can look at the tree in the distance and tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree? No answered the rabbi. It is when you can look upon the face of your enemy and see that it is your brother or sister. Because if you cannot see that, it is still night.” Enemy love is the key to the survival of this planet. Either we discover the God who causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good or we may have no more sunrises.