Coming this Lent...

Advent Online Courses

St. Peter’s on the Blackboard
Online Courses

Take them anytime! No need to do it all in one setting!
We are offering (courses are roughly 30/45 minutes in length) this Advent:

Learn about economic inequality and what we can do about it this Advent in an informative series of courses. In partnership with Trinity Institute and their upcoming 2015 conference called Creating Common Good, we've just launched four courses, the latest taught by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Wells. Here are the courses - one for each week of Advent:

· Economic Inequality with Julio Murray, Anglican Bishop of Panama
· Christian Responsibility with Rachel Held Evans, Evangelical blogger
· Educational Inequality with Nicole Baker Fulgham, Education advocate
· A Christian Response with Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

Other Advent offerings include:

· Introducing Advent with Tim Schenck
· Advent for Families with Heath Howe

For those new to the blackboard, there is a free “How to Take a ChurchNext Class” that will guide you through a practice class before taking your first class.  Take any of the courses at your own pace!

http://stpetersmonroe.pathwright.com

Please contact Rev. Kurt if you are interested in any of these!

Is Feeding the Homeless a Crime?

Yes. In many places.

Here's one story:

More laws target feeding the homeless in public, but advocates say it won't stop their work
By KELLI KENNEDY Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- To Arnold Abbot, feeding the homeless in a public park in South Florida was an act of charity. But to the city of in Fort Lauderdale, the 90-year-old man was committing a crime.

Arnold and two South Florida ministers were arrested last weekend as they handed out food. They were charged with breaking a new ordinance restricting public feeding of the homeless, and each faces up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

"One of the police officers said, `Drop that plate right now,' as if I were carrying a weapon," Abbott told South Florida television station WPLG (http://bit.ly/1qpgywd ).

The arrests haven't deterred the group. Ministers Dwayne Black and Mark Sims were back at church Wednesday preparing meals for a feeding at a public park later that night.

Read the whole story here.

A prayer:

Heavenly Father, in your Word you have given us a vision of
that holy City to which the nations of the world bring their
glory: Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth.
Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life.
Send us honest and able leaders. Enable us to eliminate
poverty, prejudice, and oppression, that peace may prevail
with righteousness, and justice with order, and that men and
women from different cultures and with differing talents may
find with one another the fulfillment of their humanity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (For Cities, BCP)

Bible Study: The Fast that I Choose

A Bible Study on Hunger

Key Scriptures Week 1:

Genesis 1:29-30
Exodus 16:1-12
Deuteronomy 15
Micah 6:8
Matthew 14:14-21
Luke 6:20-26
John 12: 2-8

Hunger is a God issue
• Why is there hunger?
• What does the Lord require?
Global Hunger Map at World Food Programme at www.wfp.org 

Key Scriptures Week 2:


Genesis 4: 1-11
Leviticus 19: 33-34 & 25: 35-38
Matthew 25:31-46
Luke 10:25-37
Luke 16: 19-31
1 John 3:11-18

Hunger is a global issue
• Who are my brothers and sisters?
• Am I my brothers’ and sister’ keeper?

http://www.whyhunger.org/

Fall Bible Study

October 29, November 5, November 12

Wednesdays – 10:30 AM & 7:30 PM

The Fast That I Choose: A Bible Study on Hunger

By examining the issue of hunger from a biblical perspective, the study seeks to make clear that one of the surest ways to test the quality of our walk with God is to examine the way we respond to the needs of others. Throughout the study, preconceived ideas about hunger and poverty are challenged as participants encounter God’s preference for the poor as revealed in scripture. Finally, the challenges participants to respond out of their faith in Jesus concrete ways to the reality of hunger in our world.

The Fast That I Choose takes its title from Isaiah 58:6. The words of the prophet remind us that God wants worship from the heart which has as its end the increase of God’s justice in the world.

The Common Cup

American Journal of Infection Control
October 1998 * Volume 26 * Number 5

Risk of Infectious Disease Transmission from a Common Communion Cup


For more than 2 decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated
an official position to inquirers (eg, lay public, physicians, nurses, and other health care
professionals) about the risk of infectious disease transmission from a common communion
cup. Although no documented transmission of any infectious disease has ever been traced
to the use of a common communion cup, a great deal of controversy surrounds this issue;
the CDC still continues to receive inquiries about this topic.

In this letter, the CDC strives to achieve a balance of adherence to scientific principles and respect for religious beliefs. Within the CDC, the consensus of the National Center for Infectious Diseases and the National Center for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and
Tuberculosis is that a theoretic risk of transmitting infectious diseases by using a common
communion cup exists, but that the risk is so small that it is undetectable.

The CDC has  not been called on to investigate any episodes or outbreaks of infectious diseases that
have been allegedly linked to the use of a common communion cup. However, outbreaks or
clusters of infection might be difficult to detect if: (1) a high prevalence of disease (eg,
infectious mononucleosis, influenza, herpes, strep throat, common cold) exists in the
community, (2) diseases with oral routes of transmission have other modes of transmission
(ie, fecal-oral, hand-to-mouth/nose, airborne), (3) the length of the incubation period for
the disease is such that other opportunities for exposure cannot be ruled out unequivocally, and (4) no incidence data exist for comparison purposes (ie, the disease is not on the reportable disease list and therefore is not under public health surveillance).

Experimental studies have shown that bacteria and viruses can contaminate a common
communion cup and survive despite the alcohol content of the wine. Therefore, an ill person
or asymptomatic carrier drinking from the common cup could potentially expose other
members of the congregation to pathogens present in saliva. Were any diseases
transmitted by this practice, they most likely would be common viral illnesses, such as the
common cold. However, a recent study of 681 persons found that people who receive
Communion as often as daily are not at higher risk of infection compared with persons
who do not receive communion or persons who do not attend Christian church services at
all.

In summary, the risk for infectious disease transmission by a common communion cup is
very low, and appropriate safeguards-that is, wiping the interior and exterior rim between
communicants, use of care to rotate the cloth during use, and use of a clean cloth for each
service-would further diminish this risk. In addition, churches may wish to consider
advising their congregations that sharing the communion cup is discouraged if a person has
an active respiratory infection (ie, cold or flu) or moist or open sores on their lips (eg,
herpes).

Lilia P. Manangan, RN, MPH Lynne M. Sehulster,
PhD Linda Chiarello, RN, MS, CIC Dawn N.
Simonds, BS William R. Jarvis, MD Hospital Infections Program, National Center for
Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Department of
Health and Human Services Atlanta, Georgia.

References
1. Hobbs BC, Knowlden JA, White A. Experiments on the communion cup. J Hyg1967;65:37-
48.
2. Burrows W, Hemmons ES. Survival of bacteria
on the silver communion cup. J Infect Dis
1943;73:180-90.
3. Gregory KF, Carpenter JA, Bending GC. Infection hazards of the common communion
cup. Can J Public Health 1967;58:305-10. MEDLINE
4. Furlow TG, Dougherty MJ. Bacteria on the common communion cup [letter]. Ann Intern
Med 1993;118:572-3. MEDLINE
5. Dancewicz EP. What is the risk of infection from common communion cups? [letter].
JAMA 1973;225:320.
6. Kingston D. Memorandum on the infections
hazards of the common communion cup with
especial reference to AIDS. Eur J Epidemiol 1988;4:164-70. MEDLINE
7. Gill ON. The hazard of infection from the shared communion cup. J Infect 1988;16:3-
23. MEDLINE
8. Loving AL, Wolf L. Effects of holy communion on health

© American Journal of Infection Control

Everyday Ethics

To be humble, to be kind.
It is the giving of the peace in your mind.
To a stranger, To a friend
To give in such a way that has no end.
We are Love
We are One
We are how we treat each other when the day is done.
We are Peace
We are War
We are how we treat each other and Nothing More
(Nothing More by Alternate Routes)

How we treat each other speaks to how we live out our everyday ethics.

This article was quite challenging in what it says about those ethics.

A Window Into Everyday Morality via Text Message By BENEDICT CAREY NY TIMES SEPT. 11, 2014

An excerpt:

The survey found no significant differences in moral behavior or judgment between religious people and nonreligious ones.

It did find some evidence to support theories developed in lab experiments. For instance, psychologists describe good deeds as “contagious,” and so it appeared in the new data. People on the receiving end of an act of kindness were about 10 percent more likely than the average person to do something nice themselves later in the day. On the other hand, those who granted that kindness were slightly more likely than average (about 3 percent) to commit a small act of rudeness or dismissiveness later in the same day – granting themselves “moral license” to do so.

Psychologists have also contended that a fundamental difference between the political right and the left is that conservatives tend to think of morality in terms of loyalty and faith, while liberals focus on fairness and liberty. And so it was in the survey. Participants to the right identified more breaches and affirmations of loyalty, and those to left saw more examples of unfair and generous treatment.

I am surprised a bit at what the survey found; but then again as is pointed out, our worldview will also play a role in the contagious good deeds or not.  Much food for thought.

Hunger in America

"An estimated 14.3 percent of American households were food insecure at least some time during the year in 2013, meaning they lacked access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members." (USDA: Household Food Security in the United States in 2013)

What can be done to help those who are food insecure?

One way to help those in poverty, is to intervene earlier...

The Way to Beat Poverty By NICHOLAS KRISTOF and SHERYL WuDUNN NY TIMES SEPT. 12, 2014


An excerpt:

James Heckman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at the University of Chicago, says that our society would be better off taking sums we invest in high school and university and redeploying them to help struggling kids in the first five years of life. We certainly would prefer not to cut education budgets of any kind, but if pressed, we would have to agree that $1 billion spent on home visitation for at-risk young mothers would achieve much more in breaking the poverty cycle than the same sum spent on indirect subsidies collected by for-profit universities.

Second, children’s programs are most successful when they leverage the most important — and difficult — job in the world: parenting. Give parents the tools to nurture their child in infancy and the result will be a more self-confident and resilient person for decades to come. It’s far less expensive to coach parents to support children than to maintain prisons years later.

What does that mean for all of us? We wish more donors would endow not just professorships but also the jobs of nurses who visit at-risk parents; we wish tycoons would seek naming opportunities not only at concert halls and museum wings but also in nursery schools. We need advocates to push federal, state and local governments to invest in the first couple of years of life, to support parents during pregnancy and a child’s earliest years.

Another place to turn: http://feedingamerica.org/how-we-fight-hunger.aspx

As the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, our nationwide food bank network members supply food to 46 million Americans each year, including 12 million children and 3 million seniors. Feeding America benefits from the unique relationship between local member food banks at the front lines of hunger relief and the central efforts of our national office.

To help in Monroe & Connectciut:

http://www.ctfoodbank.org/

http://www.monroect.org/FoodPantry.aspx

Domestic Violence

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who set the solitary in families: We commend to your continual care the homes in which your people dwell. Put far from them every root of bitterness, the desire of vainglory, and the pride of life. Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness. Knit together in constant affection those who, in holy wedlock, have been made one flesh. Turn the hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the children to the parents; and so enkindle fervent charity among us all, that we may evermore be kindly affectioned one to another; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This prayer for the family, reminds me that every prayer seeks God's care upon our homes and our families.  Sadly, many families experience violence at the hands & mouths of other family members.

The Huffington Post is doing a series of articles on this subject:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/12/why-didnt-you-just-leave-family_n_5805614.html 

It is important that we talk about this and shed the light that is necessary on such a dark part of our society. But not only talk, but do something about it too! 

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Looking for help in Monroe?  http://www.cwfefc.org/ - Center for Family Justice (of eastern Fairfield County, Connecticut)


http://shamelesssurvivors.com/ - a website by a survivor of DV

Take Church with you in August

You can use the following as a daily practice with your family or if you are traveling and will miss Sunday worship at church it can be used as your family Sunday worship...

Service

Say the following together or have one person read it for you.

Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. From Psalm 51

Read the Scripture for the week and talk about one or more of the questions for the week.
Be silent for a moment and then either out loud or silently remember the names of the people and things that you are worried about, that you hope for and that you are grateful for.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory
for ever and ever. Amen.

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Grant, we beseech you, Almighty God, that the words which we have heard this day with our outward ears, may, through your grace, be so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of good living, to the honor and praise of your Holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Weekly Readings

Week of August 3

Matthew 14:13-21 – When Jesus heard about John, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. When the crowds learned this, they followed him on foot from the cities. When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion for them and healed those who were sick. That evening his disciples came and said to him, “This is an isolated place and it’s getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said to them, “There’s no need to send them away. You give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here except five loaves of bread and two fish.” He said, “Bring them here to me.” He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves of bread and the two fish and looked up to heaven, blessed them and broke the loaves apart and gave them to his disciples. Then the disciples gave them to the crowds. Everyone ate until they were full, and they filled twelve baskets with the leftovers. About five thousand men plus women and children had eaten.

1. What do you do when you get bad news?
2. What are the times that you want to be by yourself?
3. Have you ever been afraid that you didn’t have enough of something that you need?
4. Can you think of ways that God has blessed you?

Week of August 10

Matthew 14:22-33 – Right then, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side of the lake while he dismissed the crowds. When he sent them away, he went up onto a mountain by himself to pray. Evening came and he was alone. Meanwhile, the boat, fighting a strong headwind, was being battered by the waves and was already far away from land. Very early in the morning he came to his disciples, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” They were so frightened they screamed. Just then Jesus spoke to them, “Be encouraged! It’s me. Don’t be afraid.” Peter replied, “Lord, if it’s you, order me to come to you on the water.” And Jesus said, “Come.” Then Peter got out of the boat and was walking on the water toward Jesus. But when Peter saw the strong wind, he became frightened. As he began to sink, he shouted, “Lord, rescue me!” Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him, saying, “You man of weak faith! Why did you begin to have doubts?” When they got into the boat, the wind settled down. Then those in the boat worshipped Jesus and said, “You must be God’s Son!”

1. Can you remember times when you were afraid?
2. What does it feel like to be afraid alone? To have someone with you when you are afraid?
3. Have you ever tried something you weren’t sure you could do?

Week of August 17

Matthew 15:21-28 – Jesus went to the regions of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from those territories came out and shouted, “Show me mercy, Son of David. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession.” But he didn’t respond to her at all. His disciples came and urged him, “Send her away; she keeps shouting out after us.” Jesus replied, “I’ve been sent only to the lost sheep, the people of Israel.” But she knelt before him and said, “Lord, help me.” He replied, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and toss it to dogs.” She replied, “Yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off their master’s table.” Jesus answered. “Woman, you have great faith. It will be just as you wish.” And right then her daughter was healed.”

1. Can you remember anyone who annoyed you? How did you react?
2. Have you ever asked for something you really, really wanted – what was that like?

Week of August 24

Matthew 16:13-16 – Now when Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Human One is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” He said, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

1. Who have you heard other people say that Jesus is?
2. Who do you say that Jesus is?

Week of August 31

Matthew 16:24-28 – Jesus said to his disciples, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will find them. Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives. For the Human One is about to come with the majesty of his Father with his angels. And then he will repay each one for what that person has done. I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see the Human One coming in his kingdom.

1. What are the things that are most precious to you?
2. What would it mean for you to gain the whole world?
3. What do you think it means that Jesus will repay us for what we have done?

Wine Tasting Prayer

Used at our 7th annual Wine Tasting, adapted from various sources:

Most merciful God, we celebrate with great delight your good gifts this evening. We delight in this community gathered to taste of your bounty. We thank you for this wine before us. The beauty of the color, the aroma, the fragrance, that engages our senses and speaks of your beautiful, fragrant, colorful presence in our lives. We thank you for the food paired with the wine, for all the loving hands that have gone into making this bountiful tasting tonight. Renew us with the beauty of your life, refresh our spirits and souls and fill us with your delightful presence that we may be a fragrant offering of such joy and love to others. Amen.

Challenging Violence - ECW Sermon by Bishop Curry

Bishop Jim Curry gave an outstanding sermon on challenging violence at our ECW Lunchoen on May 1.

You can find it here:  http://www.ctepiscopal.org/News/customer-files/BishopJamesCurrySermon_ECWMay2014.pdf

A small excerpt:

In Connecticut there are well over 1000
Christian Churches – and scores of
synagogues and mosques. And most of them are islands
of good works and faithful
people that are insulated and
isolated from one another.
I know that is true among
Episcopal Churches. If we truly believe in
Jesus Christ - if we
believe that he has
created in himself one new humanity – then we
as his disciples have to act out of the
power which is ours in Christ. We need to
reach out to one another for our common good.

The cross that I wear was made for me by an artist from the country of
Mozambique. It is made out of pieces of
destroyed automatic weapons – AK47’s --- that
were used in their long and bloody civil war. For over twenty years Mozambique has
been at peace. And a great reason for that is
that the churches came
together after the war
to encourage people to turn in
their guns and weapons of war
in exchange for instruments
of production in their new society. Over
the years nearly a million guns have been
collected and destroyed. Mozambican artist
s have taken these destroyed weapons and
made them into art – objects of beauty and imagination. 

This cross tells the story
of our faith. Weapons of war and instruments of
violence have been broken apart and reshaped
into the greatest sign
of peace and hope the
world has ever known. On the cross, God took the worst that we humans can do to one
another – to torture and kill each other – and
in Jesus’ love for us – broke the violence
and reshaped it into the greatest sign of hope and peace for all time.  

In God, with Christ, and in
the power of the Spirit we have the ability to challenge
violence. You and I are people of
the cross of hope and disciples of the Christ who is our
peace and who has broken down all dividing walls. Today, let us renew our common
work to end violence in every community - remembering those who have died
(Marcelina, Ben, Charlotte, Shane, Taijhon
and Torrence and those we name now aloud
or silently) and remembering those who live with
the scars of violence (Takira, Tyrek, the
parents of Hartford, New Haven, Milford and Newtown and so many more). May God
give us strength and courage and singleness of heart to do this work

Forgiveness Challenge

We invite you to join us in the #ForgivenessChallenge. When each of us makes this decision to choose forgiveness instead of choosing to retaliate or to simply hold onto our anger we can change our lives. But when more people make this choice we can have a much greater impact on our communities, our countries and our world. So use the resources here to encourage your friends and acquaintances—perhaps even your enemies—to join the Challenge. Together we can change the world!

With love,
Desmond and Mpho Tutu

Sign up, and starting May 4th you’ll receive a daily inspirational email from the Archbishop and Mpho Tutu, with a link to join their online forgiveness community. Inside, you’ll get:

• Daily exercises to teach you how to forgive anyone for anything.
• Extraordinary stories from ordinary people who have been transformed through forgiving or being forgiven.
• Interviews with the world’s top forgiveness experts, great spiritual leaders, and well-known celebrities, including Alanis Morissette and Arianna Huffington.
• Community support from people just like you who are trying to live a more forgiving life.
• And it’s free!

Go here: http://forgivenesschallenge.com/

“Often when we are suffering from loss or harm of some kind, forgiving can seem too overwhelming, too complicated, to even consider.  How do we forgive if there has been no apology or explanation for why someone has hurt us so? How do we think of forgiving when we feel the person has not done anything to “deserve” our forgiveness? Where do we even start?
Forgiving is not easy, but it is the path to healing.” ~ Desmond Tutu

Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace II

“Challenging the Mythology of Violence”
Given by the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, Bishop of Maryland
April 9, 2014

Let us pray.

Come by here, my Lord, come by here. Come by here, my Lord, come by here. O Lord, come by here. Someone’s dying Lord, come by here. Someone’s dying Lord, come by here. Someone’s dying Lord, come by here. O Lord come by here. Be present be present Lord Jesus.
The Episcopal Church aims to model at this gathering a civil and respectful conversation about violence in general and gun violence in particular — a dialogue that our society has not been able to accomplish. It arises out of a dream that a number of us had of gathering together Episcopalians from across the spectrum of geographical, political and theological differences to learn from each other, pray with each other, and discern together what the Spirit may be saying to us as church leaders. In order to do this, we need to agree to make this a safe space, a “condemnation-free zone” for the next three days.

It will not help us to pre-judge each other here. Do not assume that just because someone owns firearms that she or he is a right-wing, violence-prone, conspiracy theorist who does not want to end gun violence in our cities, towns and rural places. And, on the other hand, do not assume that just because someone supports legislation to put limits on gun ownership that he or she is a left-wing, un-American, Constitution-tearing snob who wants to take away your private property and who does not himself or herself own firearms. These are all unhelpful conversation starters, and not conducive to the building up of Christian community! So, let’s leave all pre-judgments at the door, agreed?

What this means is that we are here to listen as much as we are here to advocate positions. “Listening is the act of entering the skin of the other and wearing it for a time as if it were our own.” (David Spangler in Parent as Mystic, Mystic as Parent) It is in this climate of tolerance and respect that we can begin to address a major public health crisis in our country that increasingly is defining our image both here and abroad.

I want to speak to you know about Challenging the Mythology of Violence.

In the United States of America, the world’s only remaining superpower and self-proclaimed moral force for good in the world, 30,000 of its citizens are killed every year by firearms. Another estimated 100,000 are shot every year, most of whom will carry permanent injuries, and all of whom will carry emotional scars for the rest of their lives. Just think about these figures…what it means is that every 8-10 years, one million people are shot in this country.

This comes at a tremendous cost to our society: one million emergency room scenes, one million families grieving, one million victims and survivors trying to put broken bodies and wounded souls back together again. The financial costs to our health system, the longterm costs of physical rehabilitation, and the emotional costs to the victims and their families last for decades.

The violence affects us all. Whether it is in the middle class enclaves of Newtown, CT, on a native American reservation in the Dakota plains, a school campus in Colorado or Arkansas, an Army base in Texas, or on some forgotten street in Baltimore, Maryland - we are a nation in mourning over the killing of its children.

What’s going to stop the epidemic of violence in our state, in or country, and in our world? The Christian Gospel has proclaimed for thousands of years that there is a cure – but we have lost confidence in our day that that ancient solution will work. For according to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the cure for violence is love.

Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you…” (Luke 6:27)

What? Our violence-ridden culture would have us believe that what Jesus said in the gospel were wonderful words back then 2,000 years ago, and they may have worked well back there in Galilee, but we live in the real world in a very dangerous 21st century. Love your enemies? Love those who want to harm you? No, we must fight our enemies, outwit and outmaneuver our enemies, destroy and kill our enemies before they destroy and kill us.

And yet, Martin Luther King Jr., many years ago had this to say about these words of Jesus:
Jesus has become the practical realist…Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, the command [to love others] is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies. -November 17, 1957

Well how can it actually work? Remember a story that Gerald May, the Christian psychotherapist and spiritual guide at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in the Washington area, he once recounted this story: “It was in 1976, and I had just received my first-level belt in the gentle Japanese martial art of Aikido: the practice (do) of the harmony (ai) of the universal energy (ki). A visiting master called me to the front of the room and he asked me to attack him. He stood quietly as I charged at him, then turned his head slightly away. My speed increased as I felt powerfully drawn toward him. Then he bowed his head slightly and looked back at me, and I found myself lying comfortably on the floor. We had not even touched…

“He explained that he had aligned himself with my attacking energy, joined it from his own centered stillness, and gently guided it back around me to towards the ground. From my perspective, it seemed I had inexplicably decided to lie down and rest.”

What was that force, that non-violent power? Power, in human terms, is the ability and use of force to accomplish one’s will over persons or situations. But dunamis, the word for “power” which occurs over 120 times in the New Testament, is a creative, dynamic power that is very different from the “power over” aspects of human force or control. Dunamis is spiritual power; the power that can only come from God.

As for human, or worldly, power, the United States is unquestionably the most powerful nation in the world. We have unparalleled economic power, so much so that it is said when the US economy sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. We have immense technological power that enables American influence and culture to be felt to the farthest reaches of the earth – even into the universe. We have unmatched military power, with capabilities of destroying targets with pinpoint accuracy from hundreds of miles away.

And yet, with all the power that is possible to acquire on this earth, still the United States of America is not able to force the rest of the world to act in accordance with our will, or to further our own national goals wherever and whenever we desire. Despite our massive human power, we frequently find ourselves powerless to get persons or situations or countries under our control. We find that we cannot force others to do what they do not want to do.

So we need to make a distinction between power on the one hand, and control on the other. To illustrate that difference, I want to tell you about Louise Degrafinried. Several years ago in Mason, Tennessee, an elderly black woman named Louise Degrafinried astounded the nation when she persuaded an escaped convict from a local prison to surrender. He had a gun, and with his gun, he thought he had control. He had surprised her husband Nathan outside their modest home and forced him inside.

But Louise was not afraid of the gun. The short, grandmotherly woman told the convict to put his gun down while she fixed him some breakfast. Now, I don’t know if you know anything about the amazing curative powers of a Southern home-cooked breakfast, it’s really built about fat. While cooking the meal, Louise spoke of her faith and how a young man such as he should behave, and that with God’s help he could turn his life around. Between the breakfast and her words, in no time at all, the young man was on his way back to the Tennessee prison.

The escaped convict had control, the control of the gun. But Louise Degrafinried had power.

There is a fundamental distinction between control and power. It is very important that we see it, both in our personal lives, in our society, and in our theology. God, we say, is “omnipotent” – all powerful – and that is true, but we must not confuse that power with control. God is all-power, but not all-control. God has plenty of power, but chooses to exercise little control over the world.

The unchecked human need for control arises out of fear: fear of a chaotic and unsafe world. “If only the world were more predictable,” we think, “then I would feel better, I would feel safe.” It is because of fear that humans tend to theologize a controlling God. Thus we also tend to believe that it is our duty, led by a controlling God, to control others by any of the means of control at our disposal – especially weapons. And there lies the idolatry.

But the agenda of God is not to control, but to love. Love always seeks the best for the beloved, even at great cost. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…not to condemn the world [but to save it].” (John 3:16-17)

The power of love to change the world cannot be underestimated. To quote Martin Luther King, Jr. again, he called that kind of power “soul force”. The great American civil rights leader learned the principles of soul force from his reading of the ethics of Jesus, and from Gandhi’s use of the phrase to describe his methods of nonviolent resistance.

In terms of social change, “soul force” is based in the power of an idea: freedom. If our great nation has any real power at all, it is in the abundance of freedom that we enjoy here and our willingness to share this power with the world. It is the only export that we have that has power over others – not money, not bombs, not self-interest, but freedom. Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “When a people decide they want to be free, the nothing can stop them.” They can even stare down the barrel of a gun – and they will prevail.

This soul force is not only the power to change human lives, but it is the most effective force that is available to humans to change whole societies toward the vision of God for the world. In the book “A Force More Powerful”, written by Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall in 2000, the authors carefully document over 15 movements of mass social change that have resisted systems of injustice on every continent of the world. They have concluded that the 20th century should have been known as the century that has demonstrated the triumph of nonviolent action as the most powerful force in the world. This massive and well-documented book reminds us that…

…it wasn’t physical force that drove the mighty British empire from colonial India in 1947, it was soul force.
…it wasn’t physical force that successfully resisted the Nazis in Denmark and saved many Jews it was soul force.…
…it wasn’t physical force that brought down the dictator General Martinez in El Salvador in 1944…
…it wasn’t physical force that brought down segregation in the American South in 50’s & 60’s…
…it wasn’t physical force that restored democracy to the Philippines in 1986…
…it wasn’t physical or violent force that moved Lech Walesa and Solidarity into power in Poland…
…it wasn’t physical force that brought down totalitarian regimes in the former USSR and Eastern Europe…
…it wasn’t physical force that dismantled apartheid and the racist government in South Africa…

In each case, it was soul force.

If the above representative list seems new or shocking to you, it is because we have done a poor job in this country of teaching any of the principles of nonviolent action as a way of solving conflicts. We don’t do it. Many fear that our culture will never do this, because we have become intoxicated with violence as the only effective means to achieve our personal goals and national aspirations. We have worshiped for too long at the altar of the gun to solve our problems. This has led to what can be called The Mythology of Violence; namely, the widely held myth that violence works, and that nonviolence is a pipe dream for idealists who do not know how the world really operates.

I want to emphasize here that there is a time-honored tradition in Christianity of sometimes having to resort to a “just war” in certain extraordinary circumstances, and we are very dependent upon our brave men and women in the armed forces who are sometimes called upon to fight and put themselves in harm’s way on our behalf. We are grateful for their service and the service of all uniformed people; we pray for them and for our leaders to make wise decisions before sending them into armed conflict. But you do not need be a pacifist like Jesus, Gandhi or King in order to learn any of the almost 200 methods of nonviolent action that have been proven to be effective in removing unjust institutions and governments, and restoring peace and freedom. As Christians, as followers of Christ, we are called upon to teach peace as well as to practice peace, which means we have to continually re-learn the ways of peace in a culture that’s awash in violence. We must repent, both individually and collectively, for believing that violence and killing will be the answer.

Just this past week I had the privilege of spending some time in Baltimore with the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who was there to give a lecture. I told him about this conference addressing violence, and I reminded him of some words he said 11 years ago that had a profound effect on me in my thinking about violence. It was early 2003 when our nation was embroiled in an intense debate on whether or not the United States should invade Iraq to address the problem of Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction. Dr. Williams said at that time:

“If all you have is hammers, then all you see is nails.”

His warning was clear. If we put our trust only in guns and bombs to make peace, then we only see solutions that demand the use of guns and bombs.

Perhaps Martin Luther King, Jr. can teach us once again how to “live together as [family] or die together as fools.” Six months before he was cut down by an assassin’s bullet, he said this in a sermon:

To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and. we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to love. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”

That is the power of love. We need to teach that. That is soul force…the way of Jesus.