``Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: But I say that ye resist not evil: '' Thus for five hundred year the King James version of the Holy Bible has described the central message taught by Jesus, the Jewish Rabi from Nazareth and the Son of God. He uses these words to refute the Code of Hammurabi and of the laws of Moses as well as common sense and the natural physiologic response of all living creatures. As such he promotes a radical and transforming concept which fundamentally changes how human beings relate to one another.
Yet what could be more natural than to harm those who harm us? The very survival of the individual and indeed the human race depends on our ability to defend ourselves from harm and threats. Doesn't it? All animals are ``hard wired'' for ``fight or flight. '' If they weren't they would succumb to a larger or stronger predator and vanish. But by being able to inflict punishment on those who hate or harm us we can give them good reason to refrain from doing bad things to us.
By accepting the harm that people inflict on us don't we encourage people to harm us more? These two questions and many more show to the world the intrinsic foolishness and weakness of following the teachings of Jesus. Don't they? How can we be strong and effective defenders of ourselves, our loved ones, our families or our nation if we ``resist not evil''?
As David has posted in the Communicator Walter Wink translated the Greek word ``anitistenai''in a way which allows Matthew 5:39 to read ``Do not violently resist evil.'' This translation shows that `` Jesus reveals a way o f fight ing evil with all o ne's powers without being transformed into the very evil we figh t '' . Thus, when this simple concept ``resist not evil '' is translated into ``do not violently resist evil '' it becomes the very foundation of how Anabaptists live. It is this foundation that appeals to non-ethnic Anabaptists like myself. The thought that life does not have to be a continual struggle between good and evil is strange to those who live in a culture that claims that ``winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.'' If I am the center of my universe then GOOD is what I believe and BAD is what those who do not think as I do believe. I am, after all, created in the image of God and as such am a perfect reflection of God.
Yet Jesus challenges my self-centered view of the world by teaching `` Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven: '' If I love my enemies and those that curse me, hate me and wrongfully persecute me do I promote a world where evil triumphs or do I start to support a world where, because the kingdom of heaven lies within us, peace on earth can be attained. Certainly, when I understand that the God makes the `` sun rises on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust'', then I must be willing to embrace the concept that because we are all made in the image of God when we harm another human being we harm the very essence of God himself.

One of the most Christ like man to live in the twentieth century, Mohandas Gandhi, may never have read or heard of this passage from Matthew, yet he described its very essence when he wrote;                     `` It is quite proper to resist and attack a system, but to resist and attack its author is tantamount to attacking oneself. For we are all tarred with the same brush, and are children of one and the same creator, and as such the divine powers within us are infinite. To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers, and thus to harm not only that being but with him the whole world.''                                                                                     
John Howard Yoder, a man many consider the leading Anabaptist theologian in the twentieth century, taught here at AMBS for many years and described the concept found in Matthew 5: 38-48 when he wrote: ''Christians love their enemies because God does so, and commands his followers to do so. … No one created in God's image and for whom Christ died can for me be an enemy, whose life I am willing to threaten or take, unless I am more devoted to something else … than I am to God's cause. '' Yoder defines ``something else '' as ``a political theory, a nation, the defense of certain privileges or my own personal welfare. ''
When I shared these insights with a friend her whole body stiffened and she said; `` John Howard Yoder was a sexual beguiler of the worst type.'' In so speaking she echoed sentiments that numerous women in Elkhart County have had from their own personal knowledge and bitter experience. But she also demonstrates the challenge and difficulty inherent in the concept ``resist not evil.'' John Howard taught ``Since Jesus makes present the rule of God, it is clear that God's rule confronts evil non-violently.'' How my friend dealt with the injury inflicted on her by John Howard is not known to me. Certainly, the new way of living that Jesus teaches includes dealing with offenders by forgiving them, dealing with violence by suffering it, and dealing with corrupt societies by building a new order not by smashing the old.
Failing to forgive the harm someone has done unto us means that we will continue to live with that harm. As such we embody within ourselves the maxim that equates hating someone with drinking poison in order to hurt them. The object of our hatred may not know or care about what we do, but the poison certainly affects us.
Forgiving the other means that they then have a choice of accepting the gift of forgiveness or rejecting it. If someone accepts forgiveness they must acknowledge that they have harmed someone or something and will take steps to repay that harm. But if someone rejects the gift of forgiveness then they must accept the judgment that awaits them.
Peggy Gish, a CPT leader in Kurdistan was kidnapped in 2007. When one of her captors threateningly asked her ``Are you a Christian''? she answered him by saying ````You are holding us here and would do us harm. I am a Christian and because I am I will forgive you.'' The guard, taken aback by this comment said; ``No wewill not harm you, you are like my mother.'' Peggy was released within 48 hours of this exchange and her fellow hostages a few days later. R eflecting on her ordeal Peggy wrote; ``Looking back, I see that the anger I felt during the kidnapping was a gift God gave me and has been part of the forgiveness process. This anger helped me combat the feelings of helplessness encroaching on me at the time and made it possible for me to speak the truth about the harm being done. This, in turn, interrupted the guard's threatening questions. Now recognizing and facing these feelings of anger keeps me honest and real about my need for healing and God's grace.''
Dealing with violence by suffering may mean going as far as Christ did by walking from Jerusalem to Golgotha while the crowds cursed him and spat upon him. To live the example Christ gives to his followers Ron Sider, at the 1984 Mennonite World Conference in Strasberg, challenged Anabaptists by saying:           ``…. We must not only abandon our mistaken ideas and embrace the full biblical conception of shalom. One more thing is needed. We must take up our cross and follow Jesus to Golgotha. We must be prepared to die by the thousands.                                             Those who believe in peace through the sword have not hesitated to die. Proudly, courageously they gave their lives. Again and again, they sacrificed bright futures to the tragic illusion that one more righteous crusade would bring peace in their time. For their loved ones, for justice, and for peace they laid down their lives by the millions.               
Why do we pacifists think that our way Jesus' way to peace will be less costly? Unless we Mennonites and Brethren in Christ are ready to start to die by the thousands in dramatic vigorous new exploits for peace and justice we should sadly confess that we really never meant what we said.''
Ron Sider's call to action lead to the founding of the Christian Peace Maker Team (CPT). This organization has put its members into the center of conflicts in order to ``get in the way'' and non-violently end the conflict. Tom Fox, a member of CPT in Iraq was taken prisoner and eventually killed. Contemplating his own possible death Fox wrote; ``We reject violence to punish anyone. We ask that there be no retaliation on relatives or property. We hope that in loving both friends and enemies and by intervening nonviolently to aid those who are systematically oppressed, we can contribute in some small way to transforming this volatile situation.''
Building new, just societies to replace old corrupt ones without smashing them offers a challenge that is as current as the headlines out of Egypt and Tunisia and many other countries in the Middle East. How the people of those countries deal with the powers that they have replaced will go a long way to resolving or continuing the violence that has for so long been part of the heritage of that region. Father Raymond Helmick, a Jesuit Priest and Professor of the Conflict Resolution at Boston College, spent over forty years of his life dealing with conflicts in such different places as Jamaica, the Middle East, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. The basic foundation of his ministry comes from understanding ``that … recognizing in the other the image of God acknowledges the common heritage of the three Abrahamic religions which unite in basing the dignity of all human persons on their creation in the image of God.'' Certainly finding a peaceful way to take advantage of the vast political changes that have just occurred in Egypt and Tunisia will be made possible by utilizing the insights of Father Helmick. May we pray that wisdom will allow a peaceful society to emerge?
By accepting the radical, fundamental and transforming call to ``do not violently resist evil'' we can become agents that make real in the world a place where all people are treated with compassion, justice and wisdom. But how do we go about creating such a place. Seeing the Image of God in the Other allows us to accept their humanity with all its strengths and weaknesses. Those who believe that doing God's will include blowing up themselves and others need to be treated with respect by trying to understand why they would consider doing such a horrendous act while at the same time helping them to understand that such acts refute the very gift of life given to us and as such do not create a society where all can live in peace. Bringing about such a peaceful transformation of society starts with each of us acknowledging that non-violence is the only effective way to replace violence. And that of course means thinking very deeply not only about why we should ``not violently resist evil ''but how we replace ``evil acts'' with acts of kindness and forgiveness. Such actions require far more discipline, strength and courage than the simple, visceral response of anger and rage which violence frequently evokes in us.
The benefit of viewing our problems or enemies from a different perspective empowers the Dali Lama to recite each morning this prayer from `` Eight Verses on Training the Mind'' . Written in the eleventh century by the Tibetan saint, Langri Thangpna, it reads in part:
         ``Whenever I associate with someone, may I think myself the lowest among all and the other                  supreme in the depth of my heart.                                                                              When I see beings of wicked nature, pressed by violent sin and affliction,                                  may I hold these rare ones dear as if I had found a precious treasure.                                       When others, out of envy, treat me badly with abuse, slander and the like,                                  may I suffer the defeat and offer the victory to others!                                                      When the one, whom I have benefited with great help, hurts me very badly,                          may I hold him as my great Guru.                                                                                 In short may I, directly and indirectly, offer benefit and happiness to all beings,                                 may I secretly take upon myself the harm and suffering of all beings.''   
The benefit of this Buddhist approach can be found in an article in last months' CHRISTIAN CENTURY which describes the book WITHOUT BUDDHISM I COULD NOT BE A CHRISTIAN . In it Paul Knitter, a Catholic priest and teacher at Union Theological Seminary, states; ``Buddhism was a gift. … It has helped me to maintain my spiritual and intellectual integrity. '' As an example he talks about, how in the 1980's, he was actively engaged in the political struggles in El Salvador. Buddhism's seeming passivity in the face of injustice disturbed him . When he asked a Buddhist friend ``you mean that you will wait even with bodies piling up in the street? Even when people are being dragged out into the street and shot?'' Her response ``Yes. We wait for an opening'' disturbed him at the time. ``Now I think of how many times we rushed to `action', our egos flaring, and ended up nipping at each other and accomplishing little. Being in dialogue with Buddhism has helped me to see the paradox.''





Thus, may I leave you with this Morning Prayer that my good friend, The Venerable Wu Ling has taught?
                           With the wish to help all beings,                                                                                         May all my thoughts, words and actions                                                                           be void of attachment and ego.
May they arise                                                                           from compassion and wisdom.
                           May they be imbued                                                                                                 with patience and joy.
Starting each day with these thoughts as my guide offers me an opportunity to live out what it means to ``resist not evil''. I rarely go through a single day without violating some part of this prayer. But sometimes I find myself coming close to living the way it demands me to live. And when that happens, I then find myself being closer to that radical, fundamental and transforming message taught by Jesus of Nazareth.