Record of our discussion on 15 January 2020.  

1. Worship:  

We relaxed – and then meditated on peace, listening to these portions of Scripture:

• Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  (Rom 12: 17-18)
• “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.”  (Matt 11: 28-29)
• But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (Gal 5: 22)
• Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  (Phil 4: 6-7)
• “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33)
• Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)

Then we said the Prayer for Cities 

2.  While we were reminding ourselves of the purpose of the group, someone in the group (I won’t attribute comments to names so we continue to feel free to speak openly, but will when someone commits to an action) raised an interesting situation that illustrates how this group can help each other respond as followers of Jesus to what occurs around us. As background, the residents of their suburb are concerned about security and wary of strangers. Residents have in the past had people removed who seemed threatening by apparently innocuous activities like preaching (!) or looking through gates.

While walking in the area, he noticed a man drawing water from a leak in the road.  He wondered whether he was homeless and this was his only source of relatively clean water.  The subsequent discussion ranged widely and included the following insights:

• Our member could invite the man back to get clean water from home and find out what else he needed.  
• The fear always is that caring of this kind can lead to escalation, both in demands by the person and increasing numbers.  We agreed we should do what is right and face escalation if and when it happens.
• Some neighbours may well object.  They are scared.  It is valid to be scared, but they need to be introduced to the people they are scared of, so unreasonable fear can be dissipated.  Good idea to invite neighbours (one at a time) to one or other act of service to/with the kind of people they are scared of.
• The buildings of the church with which we are all associated have recently been beautifully extended and redecorated. It is a pity that so much was spent on high quality finishes when some of that might have been spent on ablution facilities for the people who come to the soup kitchen on Thursdays.  We noted that there is room for beauty and even extravagance (cf the women who washed the feet of Jesus), and that we should not assume we know what the Thursday “congregation” want/need without talking to them.  One of our number who is involved on a Thursday found that they are largely migrants and want cleanliness, clothes and jobs.
• This led us to talk about the priorities of our church community.  Should the Sunday congregation (inside the building) receive more attention and resources than the Thursday (and other) groups (outside)?  The Sunday congregation provides the income.  The fear of losing that can easily influence whose interests we prioritise. But the church is us, not “them”, so we should take our part in influencing what happens by attending events where decisions are made.  In speaking to leaders in the church, we should remain humble and listen before speaking.  Peter will engage supportively with Zole and Jonathan will speak to Fred to understand current priorities.  We could explore having the Thursday group and others represented in the leadership of the church.
• While we should work at an institutional level to change society, on a daily basis our neighbour is the next person we see in need.  A great idea was to keep resources in the car (one of us uses Marie biscuits and long life milk) and then get to know those we support regularly and in that way discover their other needs.  Not only does that provide material resources, but it also humanises the others and creates dignity.

Purpose of the group:

I see this as a group for each of us 

• to learn what it means to follow Jesus in the 21^st Century, and . . .
• to be held accountable for what we feel called to do
• to be helped to find the calling we seek, if we do seek it
• to offer guidance and accountability, even if not called to anything specific.

The blog Introduction: This blog arises from the perception that much of what is said and done as “Christian” is either irrelevant to what Jesus intended, or opposed to it. With that goes the conviction that we must act and speak courageously to correct this. We are called to love God and neighbour. Unconditionally. This love should arouse such anger against injustice and oppression of God’s children and creation that we act to bring about changes in whatever sphere we influence. With this blog I am inviting friends to join in helping each other understand how to do this. There are many wonderful sources of inspiration for this, which I hope we will share and contribute to from a South African view of the world.

3.   Study on violence:  The ff is largely based on something Jonathan wrote for the gender-based violence think tank at Bedfordview Methodist Church.  That is on the blog.

Luke 19: 41-48:   And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

• For whom did he weep?  All of Jerusalem, including and maybe especially the powerful.  We don’t know if he meant that Jerusalem could have been saved from the Roman devastation of 70AD. In other contexts Jesus did seem to want to move away from the simple cause and effect relationship of sin and punishment.  He wants everyone to be in a loving community and do what is right regardless.

• What was his mood?   Both compassionate and angry. One seems to feed the other. We noted that throughout the Gospels Jesus shows anger with religious authorities and irritation with his followers who were so slow to understand. We are enjoined to be angry but not to sin. Inner anger needs to be acknowledged and expressed in nonviolent (loving) ways. The oppression and suffering of others ought to generate anger in us if we follow Jesus. Anger needs compassion to make it constructive, and compassion needs anger to make it transformative.

• Against whom is violence a crime?  (Matt 25:40 – we do it Jesus)

• Who was Jesus angry with then?  Religious leaders who misled the people and his slow followers.  Interestingly, he generally did not seem to be angry with the common people, despite their failings.  

• Who is he angry with now?  Probably again religious leaders and his followers!

• So what does this compassion and anger drive us to do as Christians?  See the GBV paper for thoughts on each of these.
  • Structures
  • Teaching
  • Language
  • Social change

Who is our enemy?  (Eph 6:12 – not people but principles and powers)

• Ministry: to victims and to perpetrators.  
• Personal change

• What is nonviolent social action?

“Fighting with peace”.  Satyagraha is literally polite insistence on the Truth (reality/good). Gandhi saw it as the force born of truth and love. “Its root meaning is holding on to truth, hence truth-force. I have also called it love-force or soul-force. In the application of satyagraha, I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself.”

Satyagraha differs from passive resistance in three respects: It “is a weapon of the strong; it admits of no violence under any circumstance whatsoever; and it ever insists upon truth.”

1 Peter 3:9:  “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

Yet, Matthew 10:34-36: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’”

This does not tell us to turn against our families; it just indicates dramatically what will happen when we have the courage to use love-force

4. Future studies:  We agreed to work through Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ. 

We agreed not to follow their structured Guide although I will circulate it for private study.  We will each need to buy a copy of the book.  

5.  Next meeting on Wednesday 19 February.  Apologies from Renate and Mitzy.