Mark 1.14-20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came, proclaiming the good news… let’s pause on those words. John is Jesus’ cousin.
John has been outspoken in calling people to a change of heart, and his preaching has extended to public criticism of Herod, the most violent and capricious of men, who has set up house with his brother’s wife. You may remember what happens next- Herod gets drunk at a party, is entranced by the dancing of his step daughter and promises to give her whatever she wants as a reward for her performance. After a brief consultation with her mother she demands- and receives- the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
John, as we read our passage this, has not yet been executed, but everyone knows that his life hangs by a thread and that the chances of his surviving Herod’s “hospitality” are vanishingly slim.. He is just one in a long line of messengers calling for change who seems destined to be crushed by violence.
Last week, a young woman at Tehran University – Ahou Daryaei - bared her head and stripped to her underwear in protest at the oppressive Iranian laws requiring women to be covered head to foot at all times. There is video footage of her being bundled violently into a police vehicle. The authorities have attempted to stigmatise her as mentally disturbed. Perhaps you do have to be a little crazy to stand up against Herod or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard . There has been no news of her since her detention.
Well you might ask, what do John the Baptist or a young woman in Iran have to do with us this Remembrance Sunday?
Both John the Baptist, and Ahou Daryaei, show extraordinary courage. They use non-violent means to confront and shame violent, oppressive regimes. By simply lifting a mirror up to institutions of violence and fear, they create explosions of light which travel far further than they could imagine.
They do the unexpected, they spread messages of freedom and truth which no act of violence could possibly achieve.
Today, we remember the many, many thousands of servicemen and women who have been consumed by the machinery of war. We remember their sacrifice and their heroism, we remember with gratitude that they endured in horrific circumstances which most of us cannot imagine. Indeed many, along with their families, continue to face those situations as they suffer from Post Traumatic Stress, physical disability and the long shadow of bereavement- friends and colleagues left behind.
Speaking personally, I am grateful for that. I have close friends and family who have served and I know just a little of what they have given, willingly, honourably, to serve the common good, what they continue to give..
However, armed conflict is not what Christians are called to.
Jesus lived at a time when Israel was under occupation by the Romans and many of his followers assumed that he would be not just their Rabbi but their General, a Warrior King, leading an army to victory, shedding the blood of the enemy. That was their expectation. But Jesus doesn’t take the expected path, and as Christians we are not to follow the expected path either.
Human communities have resorted to violence and conflict as a means of settling disputes since human consciousness first evolved.
You may have noticed that, as a strategy for bringing peace or resolution, it has not worked. Violence has succeeded in bringing death and devastation, the destruction of crops and homes and cities and civilisations, it has very nearly wiped out whole populations.
It has not brought lasting peace.
And most people in today’s armed forces recognise this- they spend a huge amount of time trying to change the hearts and minds of local populations, because they know that if they don’t, any territorial gains will be impossibly hard to hang onto.
If we really want peace, we must change our hearts and minds. This year has, again, seen hideous, barbaric violence in more countries than we can name. We have also seen rioting and arson on our own streets, fear and hatred stirred up. It is the responsibility of each one of us to turn, to change our hearts, to change our minds, to pray earnestly that our love of peace will overcome our desire for victory.
Jesus says to the people who follow him “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news” or, in another translation, “change your hearts, and have faith in the good tidings”.
We must choose to be people of peace, to lean the whole weight of our lives on the good new of God’s kingdom. To believe what we actually know to be true: that there is enough food on the earth for everyone to be fed, there is enough land on the earth for everyone to live on. We inhabit, even in these days of climate crisis, a world so abundantly provisioned that even with 8 billion of us, there is enough.
There is no material or moral need to fight over land or resources. If we each, truly, take seriously the call to love one another and to trust in God’s goodness instead of trusting the weight of our weapons, we can become people of peace.
The path of nonviolence is not easy, and it most certainly isn’t safe- just as John suffered and died, Jesus also found the path of non-violence led directly to his torture and death.
But the path of violence is hardly a safe one either, is it?
However, peaceful steadfast resistance is the path of change. It is the path towards those explosions of light we see in the courage of that young woman in Tehran, in the love of Jesus for us all as he dies on the cross, in the glory we see in his body, risen with its wounds, because the overwhelming power of the love of God, ultimately, triumphs over death and violence.
May we, in this generation, be those who change our minds.
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