Radical Nonviolence

March 8, 2026April 1, 2026
by Sara Baron

“Radical Nonviolence” based on Matthew 5:38-42 UMC Social Principles on War (Part 1 of War and Military Service)

There are 4 really specific pieces of advice in our short scripture reading today and are are more radical than they first appear. Some of you have heard this before, and for you it is a review. Some of you haven’t, and this is new information. Both are good.

When I was a child I was taught that these recommendations were to be a doormat -to allow violence to be done to me and to… well, I guess to suck it up as passively as possible. That’s not what the text says.

Jesus tells his followers to turn the other cheek. Why? Because there was a difference in ways people were hit. Equals were slapped (or punched). Subordinates were backhanded. To be backhanded was to be put in one’s place, and that place was “lower.” To turn the other cheek is to REFUSE the other person’s narrative that you are lesser.

Important note here, only the right hand got used for hitting people, the left hand was unclean. Not because lefties are bad, but because left hands were used for unclean tasks so one hand could be clean.

Walter Wink explains, “This action robs the oppressor of the power to humiliate. The person who turns the other cheek is saying, in effect, ‘Try again. Your first blow failed to achieve its intended effect. I deny you the power to humiliate me. I am a human being just like you. Your status doesn’t alter that fact. You cannot demean me.’” 1 Because if the person strikes the second cheek the only way they can do that is to treat the person as an equal! Which is to say that the Biblical themes that all people are created in the image of God and are beloved by God is the basis of this advice! To turn the other cheek is to refuse the position of subordinate and to reclaim one’s status as a full human being!

Similarly, comes the bit about suing a person for their outer garment. Let’s be clear, only someone who has nothing else would put up their (one) outer garment as collateral. And the Bible knows this well enough that there are repetitions of the law that if an outer garment is taken as collateral it must be returned to the person every night so they have it for warmth while they sleep.

As Wink says, “Indebtedness was endemic in first-century Palestine… It was the direct consequence of Roman imperial policy. Emperors had taxed the wealthy so stringently to fund their wars that the rich began seeking non-liqiuid investments to secure their wealth. Land was best, but it was ancestrally owned and passed down over generations, and no peasant would voluntarily relinquish it.”2 So high interest and high taxes were used to squeeze landowners out of their land and get their land into the lands of the wealthy. Note that Jesus assumes his hearers are the poorest of the poor, the ones whose outer garments are their debt security.

So why does he tell them to offer their inner garment as well? Because it would leave them naked. They couldn’t win in court, they couldn’t change the system, but they could expose it. “Nakedness was taboo in Judaism, and shame fell less on the naked party than other person viewing or causing the nakedness.”3 Thus, nakedness became a prophetic protest! And, it took back power and dignity for people who didn’t have any in the systems of the day.

So, too, is the recommendation to “go the second mile.” The context here is that Roman soldiers could require someone to carry their heavy (65-80 pound) packs ONE mile, but not more than one. And the soldiers were known to abuse this regularly, so there were various punishments for them, although it wasn’t ever clear what the punishment would be it if was violated. Offering to carry it a second mile would take a person whose labor had been forced and give that person back their dignity. The solider wouldn’t’ want the second mile, would have to ask the person not to, would have to acknowledge the person. And meanwhile the person whose labor had been forced would “have taken back the power of choice.”4

The final piece of advice is to give to everyone who asks, which is hard and complicated and like the rest of these deserves its own sermon, but here we are. The gist seems to be that the only way the peasants could survive was if they engaged in mutual support and sustenance.

Taken as a whole, these pieces of advice establish a radical system of nonviolent resistance. They are a significant part of the reason that the first few centuries of Christianity were emphatically nonviolent, and nonviolence was considered the essence of living out Christian faith. But nonviolence isn’t passive, nor powerless. All of this was mean to empower, to connect, to expose, to invert the system.

These are teachings central to Jesus’s third way. That is, NOT violence, NOT passivity, but nonviolence. This is one of the cores of our Christian tradition. And, as we heard in our shared reading of our United Methodist Social Principals, there is now a debate about whether or not violence is ever acceptable and while I think that conversation has immense value, we’re not focusing there today either.

However, it seems worth mentioning that those who believe violence and war are sometimes necessary usually would do so within the confines of Just War Theory which states that before a decision to go to war can be considered justified these conditions must be met:

The war must have a just cause.
It must be waged by a legitimate authority.
It must be formally declared.
It must be fought with a peaceful intention.
It must be a last resort.
There must be reasonable hope of success.
The means used must possess proportionality to the end sought.5

Note that for Christians and United Methodists, stating that Just War conditions have been met and it is thus legitimate to go to war is the most permissive standard within our Christian tradition, and others would say that there is no such thing as a just war, nor any justification for violent action.

Walter Wink is one of the thinkers who lands in that second position, but he points out that there are places where those who believe in just war and those who believe only in non-violence line up:

Both acknowledge that nonviolence is preferable to violence.
Both agree that the innocent must be protected as much as possible.
Both reject any defense of a war motivated solely by a crusade mentality or national security interests or personal egocentricity.
Both wish to persuade states to reduce the levels of violence.
Both wish to hold war accountable to moral values, both before and during the conflict.6

I would suggest for us that those are the principals we use was we make our shared assessments about what our faith requires of us in the days we are living. And, I’m going to go ahead and state the obvious that the current war in Iran does not meet the standards we hold.

Furthermore, the non-profit “Military Religious Freedom Foundation” reported this week that complaints have come in that commanders are telling their troops that the war in Iran is part of God’s plan to usher in the return of Christ.”7 More than 200 such complaints have come in, from more than 40 units (as of Thursday). The first one was. “A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer on behalf of 15 of them.”8

Now, we around here are not well versed in the premise of Armageddon, so let me clarify a few things. The first is that the book of Revelation was written as a letter to support people living the violence of the Roman Empire while trying to live the nonviolence of Jesus. It is written as vision, and with some warping of time to give it deniability as being about the Roman Empire. Some parts of American Christianity have globed on to an idea of a final battle based on Revelation 16:16, “And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Harmagedon.” That said, while the battle lines are drawn, in the book of Revelation they never occur, and instead Jesus comes in and ushers in the new heaven and the new earth. Which is to say that the WHOLE of “Armageddon” premise is just… made up.

And using those myths to justify war, which is what happens every time the US enters a war in the Middle East, is an abuse of Christianity and Christian tradition to serve the values of the empire. The debate within the Christian tradition is about if ANY war can be justified. What is being articulated to try to motivate our military is a perversion of Christianity that is antithetical to our scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.

Christianity, like other world religious, holds that are people are of sacred worth. We never take killing lightly, and the power of the state to kill doesn’t change that standard. For now, we need to hold firmly to our own tradition, and refute any premise that tries to use Christianity to justify unjust war. We need to hold firm to the sanctity of human life, and commit to nonviolence in all the ways we are able.

We need to live out the love of God we have experienced, and trust that love has its own power. And, while we are at it, The United Methodist Board of Church and Society has some trainings for us about how we can respond with nonviolent resistance like Jesus taught us.9 Thanks be to God for a denomination that helps us know how to follow in the ways of Jesus. Amen

1 Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), p.176.

2 Ibid, p. 178

3 Ibid, p. 179.

4 Ibid, p. 182.

5 Ibid, p. 214.

6 Ibid, p. 224.

7 https://myemail.constantcontact.com/MRFF-Inundated-with-Complaints-of-Gleeful-Commanders-Telling-Troops-Iran-War-is–Part-of-God-s-Divine-Plan–to-Usher-in-Return-o.html?soid=1101766362531&aid=3OTPFAZxIrI

8 https://jonathanlarsen.substack.com/p/us-troops-were-told-iran-war-is-for, accessed 3-

9 https://www.umcjustice.org/latest/lenten-webinar-series-ashes-to-action-lent-as-non-violent-resistance-8953

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

March 8, 2026

Sermons

To Do, To Love

February 1, 2026March 17, 2026
by Sara Baron

“To Do, To Love, To Walk” based on The United Methodist Social Principle on Civil Disobedience Micah 6:1-8

For many of us, the requirements of Micah 6:8 are profoundly familiar. What God requires of us is that we to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God. Justice, kindness, walking with God. To do, to love, to walk.

Micah is one of the prophets, and the prophets are the ones who call out injustice. That is, that most often they speak to the fact that God wants society to take care of everyone, and make sure the hungry have food and the unhoused are housed and the widows and orphans can access life giving resources. Debts should be forgiven, judges should be impartial, there should be no systems of oppression nor domination.

To do justice includes calling out injustice, and acting justly. Paying agreed upon amounts, finding ways to re-balance imbalance, sharing, taking responsibilities seriously. God’s dreams can’t be fulfilled unless individuals and societies DO justice.

I am so grateful that the second one is kindness and not niceness! We are to love kindness. Isn’t that a delight? Not just do kindness but also love it, notice it and be excited by it and celebrate it and embrace it. LOVE kindness. Love how it feels to be kind, love how it feels to receive kindness, love how it feels even to see kindness.

And, finally, “walk humbly with God.” Sometimes I hear this one and the energy is on the “humbly” but I think it should be on the “with God.” Remember we are not alone. Remember that God is with us, and God is powerful, and God is loving, and God is at work doing good in the world, and that we GET TO work with this God of love and also just savor God’s love in our lives.

This week I came across a piece entitled “How to Take Care of Your Mental Health Under Fascism” by Dr. Lauren Fogel Mersy who I know NOTHING about other than she works in Minneapolis as a licensed therapist, but I appreciated her point that we are supposed to oscillate “between coping skills that confront what is happening and coping skills that take breaks for respite.” Every one I know is DOING this, but I – for one – did not have clarity on it is as a model for health. We do the things, whether it is ingesting the news or reading history, calling our representatives, showing up for protests, posting our views, making donations, checking on people… we do the things. Some of the are HARD, they take a lot. (And, for me, I mostly mean ingesting the news is hard.) But then we do the other things… we craft or create, we get together with friends, we play and eat, we do yoga or mediation or puzzles, or watch or read something escapist, or sing, or get exercise or simply pray.

And we go back and forth.

We confront what is happening and we feed our souls. That is, we do the important things, and we do the other important things. And within this we do all the things: we do justice and we love kindness AND we walk humbly with God and it is all in there.

The work of coping skills that confront includes so many of the things we’ve been doing. For me, it helps to connect this with the work of doing justice. And, as we know, sometimes the justice loving requires Civil Disobedience. Jesus did it, and sometimes his followers need to as well, because God’s commandment to love our neighbors take precedence over obedience to immoral authorities. And thanks be to God that our denomination names this important truth.

There are astounding stories these days of the many ways that doing justice is happening. Have you heard the stories of people in Minnesota protecting their neighbors by standing watch over schools and then the stories they tell of other people bringing them coffee, or handing them 3-d printed whistles, or just showing up to keep them company for a bit? People who are doing front line work are doing their work supported by others doing different work and together whole communities are holding strong in the face of unrelenting pressure from the domination system.

The people who do the best organizing are the ones who know the power of art and music and culture to strengthen community and commitment. Singing together matters, beauty matters, COFFEE matters. (Huh, it is almost like churches do know a thing or two about bringing people together!)

The work of coping skills that offer respite connects really well to loving kindness as far as I can tell. Loving kindness for others AND for ourselves. The inspiring stories, noticing the wonder, and of course the imperative escapism of zoning out.

I’ve been loving kindness by noticing good things. When the news troubles our souls, it can be far too easy to focus on the horrible and horrifying things around us. But when we are looking for them, we are able to see that there is an abundance of good too.

This week I’ve been noticing snow removal. This is might sound trivial, but let me explain. I now walk a 5 year old to and from school every day and it makes me very attentive to conditions of the sidewalks. In my neighborhood most people put forth a decent effort and that’s great, but usually a few houses along our route… well.. don’t and it turns out that the ease of the route is really impacted by whether or not EVERYONE has cleared the sidewalks.

This week is the first big snowstorm since we started walking and the sidewalks were in much better condition than usual. This surprised me, and I paid even better attention and found signs that neighbors were taking care of each other. Snowblower tracks flowed continually from one property to another. Rock salt color also crossed property lines. And, my personal favorite right now is the house on the corner across from the elementary school where a 5 foot high pile of plowed snow creates a barrier from exiting the sidewalk… and the people from that house broke through the mess on one side (outstanding work that) and then used their snowblower on their LAWN to create a path around the insanity snow pile to let kids get to school safely. (Please note my child climbs over this pile, but I appreciate the path nonetheless.) Collaboration, creativity, and care are visible on our city sidewalks!

The third piece of what is required of us is to walk humbly with God. That one doesn’t show up in the therapists model, probably because she wasn’t aiming her words at a spiritual community. For me though, the capacity to do justice and the attention to love kindness come out of my walking with God. God holds me and upholds me, makes space for my anger and fears and joys and delights, offers me patience and hope when I run out, and more than anything just is WITH me reminding me that I’m not alone and we’re not alone in the work we do. We’re not alone in doing justice, God is with us sanctifying and strengthening the justice we do. We’re not alone in loving kindness, God is with us sanctifying and strengthening the kindness we love.

God wants full and abundant lives for all people. That’s why we work for justice AND why we love kindness. And that’s why we stay connected to God in prayer and worship, ministry and study, in savoring quiet moments and the wonder of music and art.

We are asked to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. That is, we are called to confrontation and respite. So, in case I haven’t been clear enough yet, truly dear ones, oscillating between confrontation and respite is IMPORTANT, do both and don’t judge your needs for balance. I’m pretty confident God doesn’t judge us for needing respite. Thanks be to God. Amen

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

February 1, 2026

Sermons

A Little Humility

January 25, 2026March 17, 2026
by Sara Baron

“A Little Humility" based on The United Methodist Church Social Principle on “Colonialism, Neocolonialism, and Their Consequences” and Isaiah 49:1-7

I was once a part of a team that was working fervently to restructure The United Methodist Church for greater equality. We had a diverse group of wise people on the team, we worked carefully and intentionally, we felt the movement of the Spirit, and we created legislation to enable our dream.

And then, as part of other advocacy we were doing, we asked colleagues from outside The United States to read it and support it. I was excited to share it. We were finally going to deconstruct some of the colonialist history of The United Methodist Church and put power where power belongs.

Until my colleagues told me they thought it was a really terrible idea that would harm them greatly, and asked why we hadn’t let them read it BEFORE we got so far. Which was a little bit discouraging, especially because they convinced me they were right.

Years later a new plan for restructuring The United Methodist Church emerged, one that had been created outside the United States and then adapted to fit feedback from people within the United States. It was similar to the one I’d worked on, but without the fatal flaws.

In May of 2024 that plan, “Regionalization” passed our General Conference and The United Methodist Church is in the process of implementing the plan. It means that we are less centralized and have more localized control. It means that our global voice is reserved for global issues, and it means that there is now going to be a space for the US church to work on its issues together (which didn’t used to exist.) There is balance, and equity, and shared leadership and power. It is a beautiful plan that I was happy to support and look forward to seeing live.

It also means that while The United Methodist Church has now removed its structural homophobia, we are going to give different regions in the world the chance to take their own stances on it. Which means that there will be parts of the church that are blatantly and unapologetically structurally homophobic, and I have to admit I don’t love that. But, also, I like it more than the WHOLE denomination being structurally homophobic, and in the end I don’t think that the will the global majority should define localized expressions of Christianity …. even though that means that things I don’t like may happen.

But back to the beginning, the plan we put forward: the whole experience left me humbled. I am horrified that I didn’t realize we needed feedback earlier, and that others didn’t either. I’m embarrassed that I thought that what I experienced as a good idea would be good for others and I was so arrogant that I didn’t think that required double checking with others. In trying to eliminate the colonialist history of The United Methodist Church I ended up being part of replicating it.

This may all be important to explain why I have a strong knee-jerk reaction to this Isaiah passage. Now I love Isaiah, I particularly love Isaiah 40-66, and my knee-jerk reactions to Isaiah passages are usually the equivalent of smooshy kissy faces. But in this case, I read “Kings shall see and stand up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you” and I just think…. Ugh.

The people of God are in exile and dreaming of what God is going to do to restore them and then they get these visions of being an empire dominating others and having the kings of the earth bow down and … could we not just let other people do thing their ways and not always be trying to have our religious perspective dominate everyone all at once?

Which is also to say, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and learning about White Christian Nationalism recently and apparently I’m now reading it into the Bible whether it is there or not. I double checked my reactions, and yeah, I’m reading things in that aren’t there. It isn’t even the people of Israel that are going to be bowed down to – it is the Suffering Servant who God is working towards. Although that may help me know why I’m so sensitive about it, Christians have associated Isaiah’s suffering servant with Jesus from the get-go and White Christian Nationalists do extra nasty things with that idea.

Really nasty things. See: the news. See: ICE executing peaceful protesters. See: our country is trying to claim parts of the world it has no right to See: our country is invading the sovereignty of other nations. Maybe it isn’t shocking that I’m reading a lot into Isaiah.

What I read into Isaiah sounds like Colonialism. Probably because I’ve been steeped in colonialism and the work to free myself from its grip is work I’m still doing. It is also work that seems urgent.

So, I offer you the rest of that verse that started bugging me. “Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, “Kings shall see and stand up; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’” That is, the servant is the one “deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers” and that servant is the one to whom the powers are going to bow down. Letting go of my fears of empire for a moment, this is a classic Godly inversion of powers. A person who is a slave, who lacks power, who is hated, is the one that God is using in the world and who ends up being God’s representative to the people.

In situations of oppression, it is the people being harmed who have the best view of what’s wrong, how it is wrong, how it impacts them, and how they’d like to change it. That’s what I wish I’d thought of when I was trying to fix the church. The people impacted are the ones who have the right to lead the change, and those of us who want to help get in line BEHIND them and do what those impacted ask us to do.

That’s part of how we participate in building the kindom of God rather that replicating the power structures of the world. And, while I believe I see the evils around us very clearly, I see other things too. Right now, those RADICAL and PROFOUND inversions of God are so very present and precious and wonderful. When impacted people lead and others are willing to follow, even the powers of violence and oppression can’t stand.

State sponsored violence is being used to harm and kill, in an attempt to consolidate power and break the will of people to claim the power love. But the power of love isn’t broken, not even by the powers of state sponsored violence to kill. WE HAVE ALREADY HEARD THIS STORY. We know how it ends. In my mind the biggest story of the week was that people working together incredibly effectively to stop harm and live love! An article I read this week pointed out that the 2020 organizing in response to the killing of George Floyd has been instrumental in allowing the Twin Cities to respond now.1 The organizing has been amazing, the outpouring of love has been amazing, the rapid responses, the breadth and depth of human love being shared is simply awe inspiring. It hasn’t stopped the violence, I know, and I rage and I grieve. But, we are people of a nonviolent revolutionary, and we see once again the power of organized nonviolence. Violence can kill, but it can’t kill love.

Friends, those who wish to dominate others and oppress them and condemn them and continue the history and actions of colonialism and racism and ethnic cleansing are doing everything they can to break the resistance. But love is winning.

Love is winning.

God is with us, and love is winning and even when we or others get it wrong – God isn’t going to stop trying. Love is going to win.

I don’t know how long it will take, but I do not believe that the power of love can be stopped. Let’s hold onto it, with all we’ve got. God is with is, love is going to win. Thanks be to God. Amen

Downtown w:Minneapolis demonstration January 23, 2026 (Thanks Wikipedia)

1 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/20/minneapolis-organizes-trump-ice-crackdown?CMP=GTUS_email