A Surprising Sermon: Nonviolent Communication in the Old Testament

The other events that prompted me to revive this Peacewaves blog happened yesterday. First, I heard what was quite possibly the best sermon of my life at Marquand Chapel, given by a guest preacher, the Reverend Timothy L. Jones, a Baptist pastor from Virginia, currently studying, as did the great Rev. Dr. King, at Boston University's theological seminary. After breaking the ice
with the joke that surely somebody must have gotten sick to prompt the School to invite him as our guest preacher on such a prestigious roster of speakers, he went on to declare that he had recently opted to "unfollow" a person on Twitter. He defended his action, saying it had been somebody who always said stuff he disagreed with, somebody whose Tweets just made him angry. He had a right, he said, to make his Twitter-world a pleasant, encouraging one, where his feed is full of Tweets to which he can say "Amen!" I wondered if that was a bit close-minded, but I had a good feeling about this reverend, and kept listening.

Jones went on to give a mind-blowing exegesis of the day's reading from 2 Samuel 12, in which King David (the beloved Psalmist) is cleverly rebuked by his servant and prophet, Nathan, for killing one of his own soldiers, Uriah, and then taking the man's wife for himself. Rev. Jones' description of the story went something like this:

David was a complex man, a prayerful, prophetic writer of Psalms, a God-fearing ruler, and a big-headed, prideful, blind old sinner whose power trip emboldened him to seduce and impregnate Bathsheba, the wife of one of his soldiers, Uriah, and subsequently command the murder of Uriah to hide the adultery. Nathan, the humble prophet, rather than judging any flaws in David's character or keeping his distance, had in the past shown love to David, and had earned David's trusting friendship.

As a result, when David had confidently committed this adultery and murder, Nathan was able to reach David, and make him see the error of his ways. Of course, it wasn't enough that Nathan was a friend of David. Importantly, Nathan employed what Rev. Jones referred to as the technique of the best teachers, that is, the inductive method. In the inductive approach, a teacher does not simply tell students the information he wishes to convey. Rather, he asks the students questions, offers select facts, and guides the students to figure out the truth for themselves. 

In this case, Nathan told David a story about a cruel rich man who, having plenty of livestock, took and slaughtered the only lamb of a poor man in order to feed a guest. This story, which David soberly considered as unrelated to himself, provoked David's great righteous indignation, and he vowed that the rich man deserved to be killed for his crime. Once David had realized, both intellectually and emotionally, the injustice of such behavior, once he had grasped the principle underlying the story, Nathan simply responded, "you are the man," applying the principle of the story to David's own story. And David, whose ears and heart were naturally receptive to the words of his trusted friend and prophet, was immediately brought to bitter repentance for his own crime, and turned back to God.

After his exegesis, the Rev. Jones turned to us, and exhorted us to emulate Nathan. He called us to break down the divides that prevent us from befriending those who are different from us -- especially ideological divides. It's easy to withhold love from those we disagree with --those we judge as "wrong"--and feel like we are doing right. But, as we find in the most basic principles of Nonviolent Communication, and in the sayings of Jesus, it's judging people as wrong that's wrong. The point is not to agree with and affirm what everybody does. It's not that there's no right and wrong. What Rev. Jones called us to do in his sermon (with, I believe, the tacit support of Marshall Rosenberg and Jesus Christ) was this:

1) Speak to people with love, and be a friend to people, even if they make you angry, and even if you think they're wrong.

2) Share the truth and light that you've found, but don't expect to make people see it, or to make people change. What we can do is help them to learn, by humbly and respectfully sharing the things we've observed, and patiently encouraging them to discover the truth for themselves.

Rev. Jones' sermon brought such a pure Spirit into the room. His words and delivery were certainly impeccable, fluid and rousing. But moreover, he seemed, with his powerful yet calm, smiling face, to be radiating an awesome light which, also beaming from Mark Miller and his gang of gospel musicians, seemed strong enough to blast the last shred of selfishness right out of every heart in that Chapel.