Sermons

January 23rd , 2005

"What is it about ‘Loving Your Enemies’ you don’t get"? God

Reverend Dr Cheri DiNovo

I’m a big fan of pithy little quotes. I think the one that came to mind more than any other one when I looked out the window this week is that incredible quote, I thought it was Shakespeare but it’s not it’s Dorothy Parker, who said, "What fresh hell is this!"

Now you can use that in any number of circumstances in your life.
But the quote that I thought should frame this meditation because I’m going to continue to talk about the Christian path of non-violence is actually from a General and I searched out a number of pithy little quotes from Generals for this. This is from General McArthur who said, "We’re not retreating we’re just advancing in another direction."
That’s also useful in life.

Let me share something with you. This is about Gandhi just because you might not be aware of what he really did. On April 6, 1930, after having marched 241 miles on foot from his village to the sea, Mahatma Gandhi arrived at the coastal village of Dandi, India and gathered salt. It was a simple act, but one which was illegal under British colonial rule of India. Gandhi was openly defying the British Salt Law. Within a month, people all over India were making salt illegally, and more than 100,000 were sent to jail; many fell victim to police violence, but none retaliated or even defended themselves.

Gandhi was both religious (he was Hindu) and open minded, and saw the different religions as paths to the same goal. He was inspired by the teachings of Jesus, in particular the emphasis on love for everyone, even one’s enemies, and the need to strive for justice. Gandhi’s main tactic in his fight against the British was what he called Satyagraha, which means "Soul Force" or "The power of truth". Gandhi developed Satyagraha as the practical extension of ahimsa and love; it meant standing frirmly behind one’s ideals, but without hatred. Satyagraha took the form of civil disobedience and non-cooperation with evil. Civil disobedience involved breaking a specific law if it was believed to be unjust, and then facing the consequences. The Salt March of 1930, which I described above, was one of Gandhi’s greatest successes in civil disobedience. Salt was necessary to the life of Indian farmer’s cattle, and the British monopoly on salt production had led to massive taxes on the vital substance.

The other element of Satyagraha, non-cooperation with evil, consisted of pulling out all support for an unjust system, such as the British rule of India. This tactic need not break the law, but might include boycotting British products, refusing to work for British employers, pulling one’s children out of British schools, refusing to supply the British with services, and not paying taxes. In 1920, after the British army massacred 400 unarmed demonstrators, Gandhi organized a nation wide Satyagraha which used non-cooperation techniques such as the ones above, as well as public demonstrations, in order to "withdraw Indian support from the vast, monstrous Machine of Empire until it ground to a halt" (www.socialchangenow.ca).

This is a quote from Thomas Merton, "My faith is as strong as ever. There is no hope for the aching world except through the narrow and straight path of non-violence. Millions like me may fail to prove the truth in their own lives; that would be their failure, never of the eternal law."
A few themes: first of all, know this to be true, we become what we hate and we bring about what we fear most. We become what we hate and we bring about what we fear most. The second great truth of the Christian path of non-violence is non-violence is not non-action. Pacifism is not passivity. The third great truth is that faith in God is our only and our best defense against whatever enemy we face and we do face enemies. There is such a thing as an enemy. And the fourth great truth is of course a quote from a comic strip –Pogo- "We have met the enemy and he is us." The greatest enemy we face every day of our lives is the one that stares at us from the mirror. This is true of individuals and true of communities and true of nations. Here’s another quote from a General, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." That’s from Bonaparte.

Last week we had a war resister from the Iraq war, who actually had spent time in Iraq, who spoke to us about that unjust war and why he came to our country and in doing so how he broke all sorts of laws and gave up ties with his family and gave up other things we can barely imagine, to start a new life here, Why did he do that? What inspired those who do these acts of courage in the name of non-violence?

The feedback after such stories is almost universally , "Well yes but what about the Nazis? Yes, but wasn’t that what Chamberlain did before the Second World War. Yes, but what about an enemy that is relentless, doesn’t give up and wants nothing but the worst for you. What if they were actually trying to hurt a child, my child." These are genuine questions and genuine concerns and I hope I might give some examples of Christians not only now but throughout the centuries in terms of standing up to evil and non-cooperation, to stand up for what we believe. Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek and he taught us to love our enemy as ourselves.

Did you know that during the Second World War, Danes, Christians mainly, wore the Star of David on their shirts when the law came into effect that all Jews should wear the star? This isn’t just a story of the Second World War. This is a story of just a few years ago in Billings Montana, where Neo-Nazis were targeting Jews during Passover when Jews were displaying Menorahs in their windows and so a United Methodist minister in that town called for all Christians in that town to also place the Menorah in their windows. This is an act of non-violence and non-cooperation with evil, a brave and courageous act.

What should have been the response of Christians with the rise of fascism in the Third Reich? Well it certainly wasn’t Chamberlain’s response and it wasn’t the response of those who did nothing. It was the response for example of the Confessing Church, of Bonhoeffer who though a small percentage of Christians, led Christians out of the mainstream German Churches and formed their own Church, their own Seminaries and all paid the price. There was a call that went out at that time that all Christians should voluntarily get on those cattle cars, that all Christians voluntarily should have marched into those camps. And certainly there was a call that all Christians should not support Hitler, after all, he was ‘elected’. There was a call out that all Christians should do everything they could to prevent this man from coming to power and that once he was in power, to do everything to resist him. Had they done that they would have prevented the war and prevented the rise of the Third Reich. These are historical realities.

There are some other historical realities. One of them is that war never works. Isn’t it interesting? We’ve tried it over and over again, it’s sort of like that Twelve Step mantra, "Crazy is doing the same thing we’ve always done and expecting different results." Well we’ve been trying war now ever since humans have walked on this planet and guess what, it’s never worked to rid us of war. Never. We still kill and we are still killed. It does not work. Bizarrely and predictably enough we become what we hate. We bring about what we fear.

I read a sermon on the net in preparing for this today by a Mennonite minister and he was saying that he really and truly believes that the American government is now what you could call, ‘Fascist’. Now perhaps that’s overstepping it a bit but he laid out all the ways in which the American government acts just like the Third Reich. One of the points that he made that I think was pretty profound was that he said a telling example of Fascism in your midst is when you believe that you are right and that you represent the best of human achievement and human civilization and that everyone in the world should behave just like you. Interesting?
Have the Churches acted in non-violent ways, in non-cooperation with evil, which by the way, is anything but non-active? Jesus, you know, before I get into this, said, "Turn the other cheek." And we think of that as a gesture of giving up, like a whipped dog, who cowers, who crawls into a corner. But that’s not at all what the action of turning the other cheek looks like. Turning the other cheek looks like getting hit, falling down, getting up and standing in the face of evil once again. Getting hit on the other cheek, falling over, getting up and standing in the face of evil once again, being hit, yet again, and getting up, falling over and facing evil once again. It is a brave and courageous action. It costs.

A wonderful example of doing what Churches should do was in the former Soviet Union where Churches represented the centers of resistance. That’s where people met in solidarity against the Polish Communists. That’s where they gathered to plan the next action. Churches became sanctuaries away from the secret police. Churches were active and involved in trying to bring down those regimes. They were successful!

They were successful! The end of Communism did not come about because of nuclear weapons, did not come about because of a military adventure. It came about because people with non-violence acted with non-cooperation in the face of evil. That’s what brought it all down. Like T.S.Elliott said, ‘without a bang, with a whimper’, the entire structure of the USSR. It brought down the Berlin Wall. It brought down segregation in the States. It brought down the Raj in India. Non-violent non-cooperation with evil is the most powerful force that we have as humans and it is the most Christian.

The reporter that came up from Portland Oregon last week to do a little story on our Church, was amazed at this place, that we do what we do here. It is an amazing place, this place. One of the questions he asked was, "Your stand on same sex marriage is pretty well known. Your whole congregation, they’re here because of that aren’t they?" I said, "Au contraire, we have people in this congregation who disagree with me and with our Council on same sex marriage." Isn’t that a blessing! We have people who sit in our pews and are faithful members of this congregation and don’t think same sex marriage should be legalized. Isn’t that wonderful! That’s the test of a true community, of a true Church, when we don’t agree and we still sit in the pews together and we still try to make this place work because we get that we will never agree with one another. That’s the test of true Christian community, when the two sides can sit together. I said to some one else, that we pride ourselves that we are inclusive and of course inclusion always has its edges, you know those who aren’t quite as included as someone else. He said, "Well who wouldn’t be included?" And I said that I liked to think that everyone could be included in this family of Christ but I can tell you that if Stephen Harper came in here wearing a suit he might feel a little uncomfortable and that then he would be our cutting edge of inclusion because then it would be incumbent upon each person here to welcome someone like him into our midst as a true brother and sister. That’s what makes Church a Church. That’s what makes a Christian a Christian, that we can love our enemies as ourselves! Sun Tzu said, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer"

I saw a wonderful documentary the other night called ‘The Fog of War’ about Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson. He’s now become something of a Peacenik and runs around talking about the end of war. He said (and he should know as he was the Secretary of Defense during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and also the Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War) that everyone involved during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should be tried as a war criminal. He said it was an act of great evil and that’s what he lives with every day.

Romeo Dallaire, would say about the same thing. These are great Generals!
So what about us? What does it mean to be Christian not just in large historic moments but also in those quiet moments of just being? Someone said to me this week, "But isn’t the call to be a Christian the call to change one’s life?" This was someone that disagreed with us about the ‘issue’ and felt that the call to be a Christian was the call to ‘change’ our behaviour. Absolutely, the call to be a Christian should call us to change our behaviour and call us into the ethical life. That’s what we gather here on Sundays to learn how to do. That’s what we practice every day and every week and every year we hope, is change within ourselves, change in our opinions, change in the way we see the world, change in the way we approach our enemy and change in the way we look at that greatest of all enemies, ourselves. Change is what we’re all about. The world can’t change if we don’t. Gandhi’s great line was, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

The question Jesus always puts before us is that call to repentance, that’s what he preached after all, around the entire world of his day. Repentance, change, give up what you’re doing, do things differently, do something new, don’t be the person you were last week. Be a new person. Be a changed person. Be a person in Christ. Be a person who is more Christ like. This is the call upon each of us. I said to the person I was speaking about, "That might mean you might have to change your opinion." She agreed. And she said, "You might have to change your opinion." I said, "Absolutely." She said, "I guess we won’t know who’s right until we meet in Heaven." We won’t know who’s right until we meet in Heaven! Isn’t that a wonderful statement? First of all the assumption is, we both will meet in Heaven and the other assumption is that we’ll both keep talking.

One of the joys of my job is to be able to speak across the great moral divides of our times. Not to speak to people who agree with everything I say but to speak as one Christian to another. I explained to the Portland Oregonian reporter that that’s what makes Canadians different. We’re not polarized in the way, perhaps, our neighbours to the south, are. We’re still keeping the conversation going. That’s what makes The United Church different from some other Churches is that the conversation still keeps going. Our leadership speaks out and has always for social justice in the face of evil but it keeps the conversation going with those who still might disagree, who still sit in our pews and still keep coming out faithfully on Sundays and still support this incredible institution. It keeps talking.

And ultimately, don’t fear. You bring about what you fear, you know. Our relief from fear, our ultimate defense, the only defense that any of us have, is our faith in God. You know we should never put our faith in the military no matter how strong is it or in the government no matter how strong it is, or for that matter, in a neighbour or an institution or a Church or anything else. Never put your faith in that which turns to dust. Always put your faith in that which is eternal.
No matter what you or I do or say or argue about there is one rock to which we can always cling, one fortress, that is God. We trust in God. Would that countries actually believed that! We don’t trust in ourselves here. We trust in God. So remember just like McArthur said, "We’re not retreating. We’re advancing in another direction."
Or like Gandhi said, "There is no future without non-violence." Or just like McNamara, "We must put an end to war. There is no just war anymore."
Amen.