---
title: A Way Without Violence
description: A Way Without Violence
---

<https://thehardestquestion.wearesparkhouse.org>

# [A Way Without Violence](https://thehardestquestion.wearesparkhouse.org/2010/12/05/advent3ot)

 Written by [washadmin](https://thehardestquestion.wearesparkhouse.org/author/washadmin) | Dec 5, 2010 11:05:04 AM

#### Does redeeming the violence of God in the text take precedence over all other interpretive proclamation?

**by [Russell Rathbun](https://thehardestquestion.wearesparkhouse.org/2010/12/?tag=russell-rathbun)**

#### Old Testament Reading: [Isaiah 35:1-10](http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=158404149)

**For Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010: Year A - Advent 3**

It has been about five years since I first felt the warm embrace of the Order of [Girard](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNkSBy5wWDk&feature=related), primarily in the arms of [James Alison](http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng05.html). I found freedom, nay, straight-out freakin’ *joy* in their insistence on God utterly without violence.

**What I Don’t Want for Christmas**

So, as I take up round three of my Advent Isaiah, in the midst of this beautiful poetry of hope, reconciliation and straight-out freakin’ joy, there are some snaggy, snarls that catch me up.

> Say to those with a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

I want to say to those with a fearful heart: “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.” I have a fearful heart; I really need to hear that, along with the proclamation of the Second Advent that there is a way through the wilderness. That the desert is flowing, blooming, prancing, with a wide straight road, on which no traveler, not even a fool could go astray. But that second part, about being saved by the vengeance and terrible recompense − *that* I don’t want for Christmas.

 **The Nice Bits**

I know that in the original interpretive community I would not be included as a traveler on this Holy Way; I would be included among the unclean, not among God’s people. I can find a way onto this road only in light of the First Advent, through which terms are redefined and the circle of the redeemed and ransomed of the Lord is radically widened.

I have used the word “I” so many times in this post that it makes “I” uncomfortable. Does it seem like I am saying, I only want to take the nice bits and leave out the judg-y ones? It is not the judgment; it is the violence and exclusion attributed to God that I find it hard to pass over. Am I making too much of it? During the Advent/Christmas season, should I preach the hope for now? I cannot help thinking that Emanuel, God with us, would be the first among the unclean outsiders.

**The Hardest Question**

*Does redeeming the [violence of God](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5LkR3QNG8o&feature=channel) in the text take precedence over all other interpretive proclamation?*

*<http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fentity%2FRussell-Rathbun%2FB001KHIAVS%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref_%3Dntt_athr_dp_pel_1&tag=theoblogy-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957>Russell Rathbun is a preacher at [House of Mercy](http://houseofmercy.org/) in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of [Midrash on the Juanitos](http://www.amazon.com/Midrash-Juanitos-didactic-Russell-Rathbun/dp/0974298646/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279142661&sr=8-1) (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question.*

[View full post](https://thehardestquestion.wearesparkhouse.org/2010/12/05/advent3ot)

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