Maundy Thursday: Nonviolence & Abolition

‌ Maundy Thursday: Nonviolence & Abolition I hope that Holy Week is what you need it to be, whether that is a reminder of the richness of darkness or the gift of light. Today is Maundy Thursday – a day that has long shaped and informed my understanding and practice of nonviolence as a Christian and that shapes and polishes the lens of abolition critical to that practice in our present context. Maundy Thursday is full of the dance of light and dark, and through that dance several things emerge for me. First, of course, is Jesus’ new commandment: love one another as I have loved you. Abolition Information Dive deeper into abolition during the Easter season with a six-week introductory study sponsored by Presbyterians for Abolition. For more information about the study series click here. One can choose to interpret that commandment narrowly and confine the love commanded to the circle of insiders joined in the faith and in the commitment to follow the way of Jesus. If the faith and its circle are drawn narrowly in creedal terms – I belief in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, as the first council of Nicaea put it – perhaps that is enough. Perhaps the small circle feels faithful. But if even the small circle of insiders defines itself at least in part in terms of following the way of Jesus, then the love that he commanded ought to be expressed in the way he expressed it: widely and even exuberantly transgressing narrow boundaries of orthodox religiosity. The way of Jesus draws us into wider circles than we imagine. Jesus drew the circle wide, and, as followers, we should give that a try. Violence can express a lot of things, but violence never expresses love. Violence cuts lines through community, but it does not trace a wide circle of welcome. Only a committed practice of nonviolence draws a circle wide enough to love one another as Jesus loved. To register click here Join the PPF community in Kansas City next month (May 7-10) as we learn together and deepen our commitments to spread nonviolence and build community. Click here for more information. The commandment that gives today its name would be enough to lead us to nonviolence. Of course, the story of this day doesn’t end at the table where Jesus gives the command. After the supper, and after the words that instituted the supper that draws Jesus’ followers to the table even now, Jesus went to the garden to pray and hold a vigil into the dark hours. Out of the shadows in the garden, the police powers emerged to place Jesus under arrest. Peter draws his sword to fight the powers, and Jesus intervenes. “Put away your sword.” Stepping between Peter and the police, Jesus utters a simple declaration that inaugurates an intentional practice of nonviolence and an engagement with the powers and principalities aimed at abolishing state violence. At the same time, in stepping in and offering healing to the wounded servant of those powers, Jesus practices two key features of nonviolence. First, he intervenes. He places his body in the middle of the violent conflict and deescalates the tension. He embodies the difference between pacifism and passivity. He says, in effect, “I will not draw a sword against you even if my body is at risk. I will intervene to stop harm to another.” Second, he practices solidarity. In the garden, Jesus heals the wounded who, in John’s gospel, is identified as a slave of the high priest. Thus Jesus builds an alliance with someone who is enmeshed in the system of state violence, and he constructs that alliance through healing and harm reduction. Healing and harm reduction lie at the foundation of abolition. Any vision of a world without state violence, without policing, without a prison-industrial complex can only begin to come into focus through building sustainable practices and supports for healing and harm reduction. That vision begins for me in this vignette from the garden. What begins to grow in a garden of healing? What springs forth from these seeds of nonviolence? What might begin to bear fruit for us? We know how the story goes from the garden. Judas betrays. Peter denies. Violence wins. Jesus is arrested, convicted, crucified. The powers and principalities prevail. That is the story of tomorrow. It is the story of Saturday. It seems to be the story of the Saturday world we inhabit today. That’s how the story goes. But that’s not how the story ends. Grace and peace. I hope you'll join us in study and in action! David Ensign Interim executive director Click here to give Support PPF's work of imagining and building a world of peace. Presbyterian Peace Fellowship 845-786-6743 | presbypeacefellowship.org Instagram | Facebook | Twitter