September 9, 2001

Ian Lawton

Ordinary Sunday 24     Exodus 32:1,7-14     Luke 15:1-10

I once heard a stand up comedian mocking the television and violence debate by saying, "I watch a hell of a lot of comedy on television. That doesn't mean I'm seeing comedy all over the streets."' Cute joke, yet maybe it ignores the facts of the matter.

It is now a common view that violence begets violence. The average child we are told watches over 1500 murders on television before the age of 12, then we wonder why there are 12 year old children committing horrific acts of violence in the community. Violence in the home, violence in the media, oppressive social structures, beget the same attitudes in the community. Violence is a learned response, it is a tragic cycle of abuse. Yet it is a cycle which can be broken.

I heard a wonderful story proving this point from a family therapist who uses the 'narrative therapy' model. He had been called to a family's home to speak with them about their young son who was out of control, and didn't respond to anything his parents tried. The parents had been told that their son had a medical condition which made it impossible for him to control his own behaviour, let alone his parents attempting to control his outbursts. The family sat in the living room with the therapist and sure enough before long the boy was rioting, tearing the room to pieces, hitting and screaming and oblivious to his parents pleas. In between screams, the parents said to the therapist in desperation, "He's impossible. There is nothing we can do to break the pattern. We've tried everything."

The therapist challenged them and asked if he could prove to them that the pattern could be broken. They agreed and the boy was taken and locked in his room where he screamed blue murder and began taking the room apart. The therapist walked over to the stereo and tuned the music up to its highest volume. He just left it blaring out and the parents looked at each other and him and wondered what the hell he was doing.

After a few minutes of loud music, he very suddenly turned the music off, and they found that the boy had gone silent. After a few moments, the boy started up again, and again he turned the music to its highest level. After a time, he suddenly turned the music off and sure enough the boy had stopped. This pattern was repeated several times, after which the therapist said to them, "Playing loud music is no answer to anyone's problems. The point is that patterns can be broken. We've just seen that happen. You don't have to accept that his behaviour is uncontrollable. You've just seen your son control his own behaviour. It can be done. Lets work on this dilemma together."

The Bible presents a story which also has a pattern of violence and abuse. The story tells us that one nation's freedom came at the expense of another nation. Violence begets violence. Our Exodus reading is a vision of genocide, and it serves as the foundation for the whole Bible story. We have always assumed that the Exodus story is a positive freedom story. Yet consider the cost of this freedom. The Israelites would be delivered from their oppression by turning their tyrants into their slaves.

The world Jesus lived and moved in was a world where the patterns of self-righteous violence were well and truly in place. Those who believed they possessed the favour of God would do anything to maintain their freedom and their privilege. It must have appeared to be a pattern, which was beyond redemption. Yet Jesus did precisely that. He turned the violence ideology on its head. He offered an alternative, non resistant, creatively non-violent response to conflict.

He forced those who ruled by force to face their own hearts. He exposed their abuse, named their corruption for what it was, and offered another way of leading and changing. Ironically, the cross is the ultimate symbol of non-violence. The Apostle Paul described the cross wonderfully as disarming the powers and authorities, making a public spectacle of them (Colossians 2;15)

Today's gospel is a call to take up our crosses. It is a call to make creatively non-violent responses to power abuse. The land of milk and honey is not so much our right to freedom by oppressing others, as our responsibility to live peacefully and challenge others to offer the same respect.

Non resistance is a strong theme in many religious texts. The two which impact me most are Jesus saying- 'Do not resist an evildoer' and the Tao saying 'give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself.' Another Tao text states-

'To reduce someone's influence, first expand it;
 To reduce someone's force, first increase it;
 To overthrow someone, first exalt them;
 To take from someone, first give to them.
 This is the subtlety by which the weak overcome the strong:'

Let the practical implications of these texts impact you. The principles apply to all relationships. There is always more than one option or response. The considered response will so often be more creative and effective. And the same principles apply to our global community as it still seeks to come to terms with the causes and effects of terrorism, territorialism and ongoing conflict.

The challenge is there for us a year on from the fateful events of September 11. The challenge is there as we celebrate the foundations of our church to commit to lives of peace and respect for all people. Conflict is inevitable, if not necessary. Conflict is a necessary condition for change. As Dorothy Thompson said, "Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict -- alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence. "The key word is alternative. We have choices. Our life stories and the story of churches and our world are scripts which are in our control. We choose how the story will pan out. We choose our responses. We choose non-violence.

I finish with an extract from a letter to the Herald which appeared yesterday, capturing amazingly well the point of my reflection today. "By the time I was 10 I knew my family was not like any other because my dad was a violent, abusive man, mainly when he had been drinking. By the time I was 14 I got thrown out of school, by 15 I was in trouble with the police. I was sullen, sometimes violent, angry and frightened. After a short stay in a woman's hostel at 16, I realised this was a path I didn't want to follow. Something within me changed; I didn't want to remain angry for the rest of my life or blame other people or society for the way I felt. It was up to me to make the change. I went on to learn a trade, run my own business, get married and have a beautiful daughter. Unfortunately I was the only one in my family who broke the pattern of violence. It has been lonely, is sometimes still scary and yes the anger is still there. But I did learn that you can turn the anger into something positive. It can give you determination to make changes." NZ Herald, 31 August 2002.

What wonderful courage. What inspiration! The call of the gospel is a life of non violence. God save us from all forms of violence. God bless us with peace, not the absence of conflict but the presence of all that makes life whole. God, give us the courage to write the script for our lives, for our church and for our world.

Links:

http://info.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/CDCP/violence/statistics.html

(Some stats on violence from America)

http://www.dvc.org.nz/stats.htm (New Zealand statistics)

http://www.dulwichcentre.com.au/homepage.html

(For a journey through narrative therapy)

http://answering-islam.org/Terrorism/violence.html

(A brief but helpful look at violence in the Bible and the Quran)