This is a sermon delivered by Rev Johnny Paton the week after Fr Samuel Barhoum 

Ephesians 3: 14-19
Matthew 5: 38-48

Did you know that the airport runway at Machrihanish near Campbeltown is reputed to be the second longest in Europe?
You can stand on a small hill at one end and there amongst the moss and grass and sand dunes stretches out this thin grey ribbon of tarmac that seems to go on and on for ever.
 It fair takes your breath away!
For the most part because you do not expect it. The few small buildings around give you no sense at all of the vast runway that is all but hidden there. All the RAF jets used it from the Second World War right through to the cold war. Many was the American warplane whose first touch on British soil was at Machrihanish. Concorde used to practice landing and take off manoeuvres all in a oner never bothering to actually stop just burning rubber and taking off again without bothering to turn round or taxi. Now its mostly small stuff that lands, hospital and service planes, private light aircraft, Paul McCartney wanting a weekend away,
 yet it is still some piece of construction.

Though it met its match recently from a rather unexpected foe.
 Rabbits, lots and lots of rabbits.
I met Donny Kelly, the local pest controller recently, told me he had warned the base that once those rabbits went exponential there would be trouble. They did not listen to him.  By the time they did it was almost too late, by then the rabbits had actually started to undermine the runway. There were so many burrows that although the surface tarmac was intact the rabbits had radically excavated what lay underneath. I think he said he got the contract in May. I met him in January or February, 8 months later.
Guess how many rabbits he had culled?
 A 1000? 2000? 5000? No. 10,000 rabbits.
 I still cannot get my head round that number.

Mind you I am still trying to get my head round the Rev Samuel Barhoum’s visit from Raineh in Galilee last week. I mean I read my newspapers, I listen to my television and radio but when you meet someone up close and personal and hear his story as a Palestinian Christian of how he and his fellow Moslems are treated as second class citizens in Israel. Well you sense the deep burning injustice that he feels, especially for his family and their young ones.
 Where quota systems prevent them from getting an equal opportunity for education.
 Where water is strictly rationed for his people and not so strictly for others. 
I heard one peace-loving Moslem politician intone on the airways,
 ‘we are victims of the victims,’
a decent sound bite. His description of how his people are victimised by a Jewish people who once were victims themselves.

I sat opposite Samuel at a meeting in 121 George Street with our present Moderator David Lunan and a number from our own church and others. He spoke of the injustices, but somehow managed to be amazingly positive and spoke of peace. I asked him how he managed it, he said
 ‘we are Christians, we always have hope,’
but it turned out that that was only part of the answer.

Jesus once said, according to Matthew, ‘you have heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you do not resist an evil doer, but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, ( note the word right), turn the other cheek also and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.’ Now it sounds like to me and always has done that you are asking to be walked over and trampled into the dust, it sounds like signing up to be one of 10,000 rabbits, it sounds like laying yourself open to be another victim of injustice. But here I am indebted to a Dr Walter Wink, a biblical scholar and his book ‘Engaging the Powers.’

His take on it is this, why does Jesus talk about the right cheek? Imagine that you are a poor slave in ancient Palestine and your master is facing you and about to strike you, he cannot use his left hand, since it was used only for unclean tasks, therefore, he must use his right hand. So if you offer him your right cheek and he is facing you, he can only hit you with the back of his right hand. In Jesus’ culture, this backhanding was as it sounded, a humiliation. The message was ‘remember your place, beneath me.’ So if you then offer your left cheek he can no longer backhand you. If he hits you at all, it would have to be a fist. Apparently such was a gesture between equals, thus by turning the other cheek you have reclaimed your dignity and are saying you refuse to be humiliated. Convinced!?

What about the giving of your cloak as well? The scene unfolds, you are a poor person in the dock, you have lost everything and now your creditor wants the shirt off your back. Literally. And you are now to give your cloak as well according to Jesus, the word being ‘chiton’ in Greek. Apparently the word for cloak is better translated as under-garment not over-garment and to do that would mean that you would stand naked. According to Wink, in Jesus’ culture it was not so scandalous to be naked yourself as to look upon another person who was naked. Your creditor must now experience the humiliation he has tried to bring on you. Once again you have regained your dignity by taking back your power to choose your own response without violence and by offering your oppressor to see the error of his ways. Convinced!?

And lastly the second mile? A Roman soldier could force a local civilian to carry his pack one mile, it was a law set by the Romans themselves. They were shrewd enough not to antagonise the locals too much, indeed the soldier could be punished if this distance was exceeded. You come up to the mile marker and instead of returning the pack in a fit of pique you cheerfully keep on carrying it, the soldier is now confused, and also afraid he will get punished. He now has to plead with you to put the pack down. Once again you have regained your dignity by exercising your power to choose your response and refusing to behave as a victim, all without striking the soldier or otherwise getting caught up in the cycle of violence. Convinced!?

It certainly a fresh way of looking at passages that we sometimes take too literally.

All of which made me think of Samuel again. His congregation refuses to act the same way as they are acted upon.
They have exercised their power to choose how they will respond:
 by campaigning for peace and justice at every level;
 by being part of Kids for Peace and having groups of Jewish, Moslem and Christian
  young people at peace camps together;
 by not returning the anger they feel at being oppressed with an anger that could spiral into violence.

And this is where he told me the other part of his answer about how he kept joyfully hoping. Remember he said
 ‘we are Christians we always have hope?’
Well the rest of the answer was that he and his congregation had sat down and dealt with all the issues and feelings and pain and sorrow and anger at their situation, and worked out through bible study and prayer a response that was quite remarkable and radical. They worked out that it was no good fighting fire with fire, instead they dug down deep into their very souls and reckoned that their first response was to return the love of God that they found in their own faith.
 And that is their raison d’etre,
 that is their core belief
 and everything else they do comes from that deep rooted belief in the love of God. 

Ephesians 3 and 17 and the notes in the order of service.
 ‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith as you are being rooted and grounded in love.’
Rooted gives us the word in Latin ‘radish’ and ‘radical’ and to be rooted in love is to be radically different. I was impressed. Samuel maintains a joy and hope in adversity that is dignified and positive. His congregation, in my limited estimation, seems to exemplify such. And I cannot help but think that this is the living out of these verses from Matthew about cheeks and cloaks and second miles.

And for ourselves in our own situations when we feel put down by others?
We too can dig deep into the well of love that will give us the strength to maintain our dignity.
 It’s not just about fighting back.
 It’s not just about reacting.
 It’s about thinking outside of the box and working out a strategy that keeps your dignity
  but does not burn bridges and gives hope a chance.
 It’s about sensing the love of god so deeply, so radically, that we are able to be positively good for the world.
  There is a cost, we may have to ‘suck it in’ as they say.
  There is a cost, we may have to turn the other cheek, on our terms though.
   And then even solid tarmac runways should look out,
   and then even solid sovereign states should look out,
   and then even solid personal indifference should look out,
    for we can dig deep,
    find love,
    and undermine all manner of solid opposition
    with dignity and hope.
    Amen.