Transforming Power
Jonah 3: 1-5, 10
Mark 1: 14-20
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart

”Violence repels us, but violence also attracts us.
Violence alarms us, but violence also entertains us.
Violence destroys us, but violence also protects us.”

These words come from a study from the World Council of Churches entitled, Why Violence?  Why Not Peace?  
In 2001 the World Council gathered to begin a Decade to Overcome Violence, saying,  

“We come together from the four corners of the earth aware of the urgent need to overcome violence that pervades our lives, our communities, our world and the whole created order.  We launch this decade in response to a deep yearning among our peoples to build lasting peace grounded in justice.”

A decade of resources and relationships working to overcome violence against spirit, mind, body; to overthrow the abuse and  misuse of power; and to cease religious violence in word and action.
We have such a long way to go.

This week former Senator George Mitchell was named U.S. special envoy to the Middle East. He said he believed that a goal of a Jewish state and a Palestinian state living side by side was possible and that conflict, even if centuries old, could end -- something he learned during the negotiation of peace in Northern Ireland.
"From my experience there,” Mitchell said, “I formed the conviction that there is no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended. Conflicts are created, conducted and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings."

Because the U.S. has long been the most dominant international player in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we carry deep responsibility.  We begin with ourselves.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things inside yourself, not in another.”

Peacemaking begins with peace within. The transforming power of repentance, turning, returning to God, acknowledging one’s responsibility, returning to one’s true self, trusting love to cast out fear and hatred and guilt.  Peacemaking requires being “totally realistic and totally hopeful.”  Peacemaking requires pouring resources of our lives and our world into the effort.

Mother Theresa said, “Peace is not something you wish for, it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, something you give away.”

“The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time “Get up, go to Nineveh, that exceedingly large city, and proclaim it the message that I tell you.”  So Jonah set out....
Now some of you may remember what happened the first time the Lord sent Jonah to Nineveh ...Jonah headed out in the opposite direction!  He did not want to risk his life to warn the Ninevites! Not only a city of Gentiles! Nineveh was the capitol of the Assyrian Empire! The Enemy! Evil! Nineveh was the center of commerce, power, war, an exceedingly large city that took three days to walk across.  So Jonah defied God and – what happened?
(boat, storm, overboard, fish, vomited up, back where he started)

When God came to Jonah a second time sending him to warn the Ninevites ... Jonah went. But he wasn’t happy about it. He walked in one day’s distance and gave a cursory one-sentence sermon to the people there: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”  

And then, an amazing thing happened.  All the people of Nineveh believed.  They repented!  They grieved all they had lost by abusing power.  They changed!  They took responsibility! They turned from evil! Everyone - from the King to cattle – repented.   A vast city... and its government. Verse 8 reads, “All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands.”

God saw this and God changed. God turned from destroying Nineveh.
The only one who did not change was Jonah.  Jonah was angry because God was merciful. Transformation can ruin revenge. Compassion can destroy punishment.  Mercy creates alternatives to violence.

In our gospel lesson, Jesus announces that the Kindom is near, that the moment is now, so Repent and believe the good news. Restoration and reconciliation are already happening and so we are free to let go and let God be God.  We can turn and return to God, to our true selves, to a new way of living.  

In 1975 the Alternatives to Violence Project began peace building through connection in prisons, schools and communities.

One inmate who participated in this project over time said, “It made me look at how I relate to other people, that I was doing it on a threat to threat basis, and the fact that that is not necessary. It saved my life, it gave me another option.”

How do we break the cycle of violence of thought and action? Education, experience, and relationship.

In San Francisco the No Violence Alliance has seen a significant 60% drop in returns to prison due to a program of engagement, education, support, relationships, accountability and investment in people leaving prison.

We may not all be in prison, but we can still relate on a threat to threat basis.  We can still long for a second chance, a chance to turn, to return, to repent and believe good news of a new way of living.  As cranes of hope and peace are created from folding, bending, turning again, may we trust our lives and our future to the ongoing creative, transforming power of God made visible in Jesus.

Jesus called disciples into relationship.  Jesus created community that supported held accountable a total reorientation of lives. More than students, admirers, followers, disciples, we are called to be apprentices of Jesus in the work of God’s Kindom here and now and not yet.  Apprentices of the prince of peace in places of conflict. Beginning within.  Beginning with us.

Peace activist John Dear said, “Violence occurs when we forget and deny our basic identity as God’s children, when we treat one another as if we were worthless instead of priceless.”


Remember Susan’s dance.  
Remember the children.
God’s Kindom is near.
Repent and believe the good news.

Amen.