Dear Friends,

 “But he started it!” How often have you heard that phrase when you are trying to resolve a fight between two children? When I was an elementary school teacher, I spent a fair amount of time settling disputes between angry students in which each claimed to be innocent, fighting back only when the other had initiated the struggle.

I don’t need to tell you that we are hearing those kinds of comments in our current political discourse. Candidates promise that they will not resort to negative campaigning, and then the attack ads begin. Other candidates accuse one another of inciting anger, hatred, and even violence.  But who started it?

It’s not really the best question to ask. To the extent that any one of us has contributed to disrespecting those we disagree with, or cheering on someone who is appealing to our lesser angels, then we have contributed to the problem. A better question to ask might be, “Who is ending it?” Who is stopping the rancor, the accusations, and the implicit, if not explicit endorsement of violence?

Many of the world’s Christians are about to walk again with Jesus through the last week of his life, as the services of Holy Week and Easter begin. In the momentous events of that week, we see a person who, when confronted at every turn with evil, hatred, and persecution, chose to end the spiral of violence.

Jesus lived in a time when the Roman Empire exerted its force with brutal and capricious violence. Yet when Roman guards came to arrest Jesus, he told one of his disciples to put away his sword.  When brought before his accusers, he did not respond with taunts toward them. And when ultimately, he was led to his death as innocent victim, among the last words ascribed to him were these: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Caught in a downward spiral of violence, Jesus chose to respond with love – not a sweet and sentimental love that denied the reality of evil, but rather with a fierce, insistent love that has resonated through the centuries.  In his death on the cross, he was not looking out at the world and saying, “Who started it?” Instead, he was proclaiming, “This is the way to end it.” This is the way to end our rancor, our hatred, and our diminishment of one another.

The weeks and months ahead present a significant challenge for us as a nation. We can and will argue about “who started it.” More importantly, we can each make a commitment to speak, to listen, and ultimately to vote in such a way that we are ending, rather than beginning a debate that diminishes us all. May the Holy Week ahead remind us of our particular vocation as Christians to bear witness in the world to Jesus Christ, whose own witness and way overcame every evil, and even death.

Faithfully,

Tom