Rod Romney: Gems of wisdom on violence and peace

The following excerpts are from a recent address by
Rev. Dr. Rod Romney to an audience at the University
of Idaho. To read the full text, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/revrickm/message/610

Jesus said if someone strikes you on one cheek turn to
him the other also. By so doing you are not inviting
someone to hit you again. You are letting him know
that you are basically uninjured and that you refuse
to be unfairly treated. You refuse to be either a
victim or a victimizer, for you know yourself to be
both worthy and lovable. Thus you step out of the
circle of fear into the circle of love. The way of
love and gratitude is the most difficult choice you
will ever make, for it goes against every instinct and
against much of what you have been taught to believe.
But once you understand that love calls for neither
submission nor revolt, just acceptance and hope, then
you begin to look for what the way of nonviolent love
requires.

Walter Wink, a Christian writer, in his book, "Jesus
and Nonviolence," points out the three choices we have
in every conflict we face. Fight is where we choose
armed revolt, violent rebellion, retaliation and
revenge. Flight is the way of submission, passivity,
withdrawal and surrender. The third way, which Jesus
suggests, is Loving Nonviolence. This way offers a
creative alternative to violence, You assert your
dignity as a person, you meet the situation with
ridicule or humor, you break the cycle of humiliation,
and you recognize your own power in being willing to
suffer and grow rather than to retaliate and wither.
You thereby force your oppressors to see you in a new
light by depriving them of a situation where force
would be effective. Imagine what would happen if
individuals and nations would turn to this third way
as a method for settling disputes, instead of killing
each other, as we are currently doing in Iraq.

A young man from my church in Seattle said to me once
(after I had preached a sermon on nonviolence during
the Persian Gulf War), "What you have presented looks
impossible; you are advising us to let others run over
us and destroy us." "No," I answered, "that's not
what I am asking us to do. I am asking us to look for
a third way, a way that would transform violence into
love and seek a just peace in this world." He
replied, "But that would accomplish nothing." To
which I answered, "And exactly what does war
accomplish, other than the incredible loss of
thousands of lives and greater destruction to this
planet earth?" He shook his head and walked away.

There has to be another way besides fight or flight.
We need dedicated young people to find that way. Wars
are usually declared by old men for two purposes:
power and profit. Since these old men don't have to
fight the wars they declare, they have to be fought by
young men and women, who did not create them in the
first place, but who are made to believe it is their
sacred duty to defend their country.

What if groups of young people in our colleges and
universities would covenant together to explore the
viability of a third way, the way of nonviolence?
Might not a new way then appear that would take us out
of the endless shadow of war and away from the
position of pro-death that so many in our world seem
to embrace. War has now become almost obsolete,
especially with the kinds of weapons that have been
developed which could obliterate entire nations. If
we could devote our time, energy and creative
expertise toward building peace and understanding and
expressing gratitude and hope, the world we would
leave to our children would be a far better and safer
place than it is today.
...

A few years ago, shortly after I retired, I was
invited to be a guest speaker at a church in Seattle
and was given the title: If I Had Only One Sermon to
Give. It was the first time since high school days,
when I was told to speak on the US constitution and
what it means to me, that I had been given the title
for a talk I was to give. I found the idea
intriguing, but for days I was unable to decide
exactly what I would preach about if I had only one
sermon to give. Then in the early morning hours, that
time when we hover between sleeping and waking, I had
a dream that a man came and stood by my bedside and
gave me the three points for the sermon. Now we know
that dreams are the activity of our subconscious, and
we also know that wisdom we have hidden inside
ourselves is often revealed in that way. Perhaps it
is also a way by which God speaks to us. At any rate,
here are the three points that were given to me in
that dream.

(1) You are deeply loved and freely forgiven, you
always have been and you always will be. (2) You are
here primarily to love and to be a caretaker of
yourself, of others, and the world. (3) You are one
with everything that is. No one is special, because
everyone is, and no one is separate because everyone
and everything is connected, parts of one great cosmic
family. These are the basic truths of life. Live by
them and share them, and you will fulfill what you
came here to do. Tat Twan Asi.

I have preached several sermons and given a number of
talks since then, but I keep returning again and again
to those three points. I am grateful they were given
to me, and each time I remember them, I am filled with
hope. But what about those strange sounding words at
the end, Tat Twan Asi?

This _expression, Tat Twan Asi, is found in the
Sanskrit, a Hindu sacred writing four thousand years
old. It literally translates, "that thou art," and it
means, "There is only God, and you are that." You are
not the small self you think yourself to be. You are
the limitless consciousness that is the truth in all.
You are the word of God to the age in which you live.
You are God's love, God's justice, God's peace. There
is only God, and that thou art.

Many of us have been taught to believe that God is a
being outside ourselves who will help us only if we
live good and faithful lives. But what if who God is
and what God wants to do depends on us, on each one of
us? What if there is only as much God in this world
as we are willing to express? If we believe that to
be true, should we not then live more responsibly,
more graciously, more tenderly, and more lovingly to
all people, to all creation? Perhaps that is what the
kingdom of heaven really means. When people are as
loving and forgiving to one another as they want God
to be them, perhaps only then will the new world be
born that we have all been longing to see.

Meanwhile, as my granddad used to say to us when we
lived on the farm, Ya still gotta chop wood and carry
water. We still have much work to do. So let us give
thanks for what has been. Let us hold in our hearts a
bright and imperishable hope for what is yet to be.
And let us work tirelessly to be the truth, the love,
and the peace of God on this beautiful earth.

[From "Thanks for What Has Been; Hope for What Will
Be," by Rev. Dr. Rodney R. Romney, delivered at
University of Idaho 75th Anniversary of Christian
Student Center, Moscow, Idaho; September 17, 2005]