REDEMPTIVE VIOLENCE OR LOVE? Zech 9:9-10; Matt 11:25-30
In the past few days I have found myself reading a book entitled, ‘The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium.’ It is written by an American theologian called Walter Wink.
Wink comes from a background in the American civil rights movement and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. In both of these situations the question of the use of violence in the struggle against injustice has been debated and so it is not surprising that one of the themes of his book is the question of violence.
His contention is that society today is dominated by ‘The Myth of Redemptive Violence.’ The essence of this myth is that violence saves. We see it in much of the cartoons which our children watch. We see it also painfully enacted in both terrorism and war. It is practiced by rebels and rulers alike.
This myth, Wink argues, has a strong religious dimension. In many ways its roots are found in the ancient Babylonian Creation story. According to this story, Apsu the father god and Tiamat the mother god, give birth to Gods. The young gods are so disruptively noisy that the older gods decide to kill them so that they can get some sleep. The younger gods find out about this plot and so before it can be carried out, they kill Apsu. His wife, Tiamat, the Dragon of Chaos plots revenge. Terrified by Tiamat, the younger gods turn to Marduk, the youngest of their number. They ask him to kill Tiamat. Before agreeing to do this, Marduk persuades the other young gods to grant him on the success of his mission, the dominant place in the assembly of gods. And so it is, that Marduk brutally kills Tiamat and out of her body creates the cosmos. Later out of the blood of one of those young gods who opposed him, Marduk creates humans.
So you see, the essence of this myth is that we owe our being to acts of divine violence and our world has evil from the beginning. It is the natural way of things.
Later in the myth, we see the humiliation and revival of Marduk which perhaps is echoed in much of our television and films, the initial defeat followed by the last minute victory of the good guy.
Anyway, the message of the myth is that we can see the victory of order over chaos is won by violence. And furthermore, this myth has had such power as to lead many to believe that perpetual conflict is inevitable and has allowed tyrants to justify their cruelties on the basis that only through violence or the threat of violence, can order be maintained. Indeed many have argued that their cruelties are the will of the Divine.
And today, this myth is still powerful. We see it enacted in the cinema. We see it in many a penal policy. We see it in the justifications of the arms trade. And at present it is rife in international relations.
But this myth is a myth without hope or beauty. And whilst at times Christendom colludes with it, it is a myth which is at total variance with the Christian message. The Genesis accounts of creation are very different. They place creation, not as a result of the hatreds of violent gods, but as a consequence of the loving action of one God. Humans are not given birth in order to fight allegedly necessary conflicts. On the contrary, humans are called to share in God’s loving, caring activities. When violence enters the world with Cain’s killing of Abel, this is not how things should be but a matter that needs addressing, a problem that needs a solution. Violence is not a means of redeeming what is wrong in our world but a sign of the need for redemption. And that redemption comes to us not through force but ultimately through the self giving of Jesus, the God Man, on the cross.
Indeed the chasm between the ‘myth of redemptive violence’ and a Christian viewpoint is shown in our Old Testament reading. Against the background of a painful exile, the prophet Zechariah, looks not to revenge for the age of wrong but instead offers a vision of peace. A vision of a King riding not on a war horse, the chieftain tanks of his day, but on a donkey, a symbol of peace, with a message of peace to all the nations. No nonsense of redemptive violence here. Instead, the path of peace. And of course, it is no surprise that Gospel writers looked back to that prophetic word as they described the coming of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, on a donkey.
Do you get the picture? The dominant view of our world today may be ‘redemptive violence’ but the Christian understanding is more one of non violence, albeit creative non violence for Christians can not be passive about injustice. And therein lies the rub. Christianity is not in conformity to the dominant world view. No wonder, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans;
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God -what is good and acceptable and perfect.
And that is indeed a tough order, for all of us have within us the temptation to follow the drumbeat of conformity. Yet in following that drumbeat which takes us away from God, we lose something, for as the poet James Russell Lowell put it;
They are slaves who fear to be, in the right with two or three.
And indeed at times, we can feel that to be a Christian is a painful road. How do we live up to it? The struggle to pay the mortgage, the questions as to how long before the housing market whooshes down, the endless testing inflicted upon the young - are not these and other pressures enough? Surely we have all the burdens we can cope with? But no, says Jesus. He has come to take away the rage, to bring calm and value, to give to us a peace of mind. And if we think that to follow his way and to serve him in a world caught up in the ‘myth of redemptive violence’ is too much, he offers us hope and a promise;
Come to me, all ye that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Here we meet the true Divine invitation. An invitation to move from the rages and the spiritual forces that dehumanise - into something so much better, Christ’s abundant life. Yes, there is a cross to carry. Yes, there is a serious calling. But we face it not alone but with the whole Body of Christ. Christ is with us granting his strength, love and peace. Through him, we are caught up in victory of love rather than of conquest, and when we fall he is there not to condemn us but to pick us up.
Elie Wiesel the Holocaust survivor, who wrote that chilling book, ‘Night’ about his path to Auschwitz and his horrendous experiences there, puts it beautifully in his ‘Messengers of God;’
When God created man, God gave him a secret - and that secret was not how to begin but how to begin again… it is not given to man to begin; that privilege is God’s alone. But it is given to every man to begin again - and he does so every time he chooses to defy death and side with the living.
The ‘myth of redemptive violence’ reduces human being to brutes, devoid of a moral base and without any intrinsic value. It excuses barbarity as part of the natural order of things. Our Gospel affirms God’s love for us especially as revealed in Christ. It reveals us all to be of value to God and meriting respect from one another. It reveals to us a God who sticks with us through thick and thin. But more than that it reveals a God who invites to come to eat and drink at his Table where we receive his love and acceptance, and in bread and wine to receive his Life.
AMEN
This sermon was preached at Alwington on July 3rd 2005 at a Communion Service
Wink comes from a background in the American civil rights movement and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. In both of these situations the question of the use of violence in the struggle against injustice has been debated and so it is not surprising that one of the themes of his book is the question of violence.
His contention is that society today is dominated by ‘The Myth of Redemptive Violence.’ The essence of this myth is that violence saves. We see it in much of the cartoons which our children watch. We see it also painfully enacted in both terrorism and war. It is practiced by rebels and rulers alike.
This myth, Wink argues, has a strong religious dimension. In many ways its roots are found in the ancient Babylonian Creation story. According to this story, Apsu the father god and Tiamat the mother god, give birth to Gods. The young gods are so disruptively noisy that the older gods decide to kill them so that they can get some sleep. The younger gods find out about this plot and so before it can be carried out, they kill Apsu. His wife, Tiamat, the Dragon of Chaos plots revenge. Terrified by Tiamat, the younger gods turn to Marduk, the youngest of their number. They ask him to kill Tiamat. Before agreeing to do this, Marduk persuades the other young gods to grant him on the success of his mission, the dominant place in the assembly of gods. And so it is, that Marduk brutally kills Tiamat and out of her body creates the cosmos. Later out of the blood of one of those young gods who opposed him, Marduk creates humans.
So you see, the essence of this myth is that we owe our being to acts of divine violence and our world has evil from the beginning. It is the natural way of things.
Later in the myth, we see the humiliation and revival of Marduk which perhaps is echoed in much of our television and films, the initial defeat followed by the last minute victory of the good guy.
Anyway, the message of the myth is that we can see the victory of order over chaos is won by violence. And furthermore, this myth has had such power as to lead many to believe that perpetual conflict is inevitable and has allowed tyrants to justify their cruelties on the basis that only through violence or the threat of violence, can order be maintained. Indeed many have argued that their cruelties are the will of the Divine.
And today, this myth is still powerful. We see it enacted in the cinema. We see it in many a penal policy. We see it in the justifications of the arms trade. And at present it is rife in international relations.
But this myth is a myth without hope or beauty. And whilst at times Christendom colludes with it, it is a myth which is at total variance with the Christian message. The Genesis accounts of creation are very different. They place creation, not as a result of the hatreds of violent gods, but as a consequence of the loving action of one God. Humans are not given birth in order to fight allegedly necessary conflicts. On the contrary, humans are called to share in God’s loving, caring activities. When violence enters the world with Cain’s killing of Abel, this is not how things should be but a matter that needs addressing, a problem that needs a solution. Violence is not a means of redeeming what is wrong in our world but a sign of the need for redemption. And that redemption comes to us not through force but ultimately through the self giving of Jesus, the God Man, on the cross.
Indeed the chasm between the ‘myth of redemptive violence’ and a Christian viewpoint is shown in our Old Testament reading. Against the background of a painful exile, the prophet Zechariah, looks not to revenge for the age of wrong but instead offers a vision of peace. A vision of a King riding not on a war horse, the chieftain tanks of his day, but on a donkey, a symbol of peace, with a message of peace to all the nations. No nonsense of redemptive violence here. Instead, the path of peace. And of course, it is no surprise that Gospel writers looked back to that prophetic word as they described the coming of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, on a donkey.
Do you get the picture? The dominant view of our world today may be ‘redemptive violence’ but the Christian understanding is more one of non violence, albeit creative non violence for Christians can not be passive about injustice. And therein lies the rub. Christianity is not in conformity to the dominant world view. No wonder, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans;
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God -what is good and acceptable and perfect.
And that is indeed a tough order, for all of us have within us the temptation to follow the drumbeat of conformity. Yet in following that drumbeat which takes us away from God, we lose something, for as the poet James Russell Lowell put it;
They are slaves who fear to be, in the right with two or three.
And indeed at times, we can feel that to be a Christian is a painful road. How do we live up to it? The struggle to pay the mortgage, the questions as to how long before the housing market whooshes down, the endless testing inflicted upon the young - are not these and other pressures enough? Surely we have all the burdens we can cope with? But no, says Jesus. He has come to take away the rage, to bring calm and value, to give to us a peace of mind. And if we think that to follow his way and to serve him in a world caught up in the ‘myth of redemptive violence’ is too much, he offers us hope and a promise;
Come to me, all ye that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Here we meet the true Divine invitation. An invitation to move from the rages and the spiritual forces that dehumanise - into something so much better, Christ’s abundant life. Yes, there is a cross to carry. Yes, there is a serious calling. But we face it not alone but with the whole Body of Christ. Christ is with us granting his strength, love and peace. Through him, we are caught up in victory of love rather than of conquest, and when we fall he is there not to condemn us but to pick us up.
Elie Wiesel the Holocaust survivor, who wrote that chilling book, ‘Night’ about his path to Auschwitz and his horrendous experiences there, puts it beautifully in his ‘Messengers of God;’
When God created man, God gave him a secret - and that secret was not how to begin but how to begin again… it is not given to man to begin; that privilege is God’s alone. But it is given to every man to begin again - and he does so every time he chooses to defy death and side with the living.
The ‘myth of redemptive violence’ reduces human being to brutes, devoid of a moral base and without any intrinsic value. It excuses barbarity as part of the natural order of things. Our Gospel affirms God’s love for us especially as revealed in Christ. It reveals us all to be of value to God and meriting respect from one another. It reveals to us a God who sticks with us through thick and thin. But more than that it reveals a God who invites to come to eat and drink at his Table where we receive his love and acceptance, and in bread and wine to receive his Life.
AMEN
This sermon was preached at Alwington on July 3rd 2005 at a Communion Service
posted by Rev Paul Martin at 12:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home