I know we are all looking forward to the arrival of Spring. Today, we got a welcome taste of what is coming with temperatures around 50 degrees with full sunshine. Ahhh!

There’s another season quickly approaching–the season of Lent that begins on February 18, Ash Wednesday, and continues for 40 days (not counting Sundays) ending on Easter Sunday. Traditionally, it is the time of year to fast, and many people who observe the season give up chocolate or some other tempting edible or drinkable item. Our church has approached the season a bit differently since 2007 with a Lenten Compact–a communal fast that focuses us not only on our relationship to God, but also on our relationship to one another, our communities, our nation and our world. Using Isaiah 58:6-7, we pursue a “true” fast – one that is not just the act of denying oneself of something – but a fast that creates justice and reconciliation, by breaking the yokes that bind us and the yokes that bind our neighbors.

Fifteen years ago, our Lenten Compact called us to “fast from violence” in its various forms. We are repeating that Compact this year, but our focus is a bit different. Fifteen years ago, we were concerned about street violence, domestic violence, the pervasive violence on TV, in movies and video games and even road rage. This year, we will once again “fast from violence,” but with violent crime in Chicago at a 60-year low, our focus will shift to the state-sponsored violence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol agents who have aggressively arrested migrants and asylum seekers (most without criminal convictions) without judicial warrants, detained individuals and families–including children, tear gassed our streets, shot and killed protesters, and terrorized communities in Chicago, Minneapolis and other US cities. We’ll also look at legislative violence that strips healthcare, food assistance, housing assistance and more from needy families and rescinds regulations that protect the environment and vulnerable communities. Finally, we’ll take up the issues of militarism, the Warrior Ethos, and the new colonialism.

Chicago has been warned that ICE is returning to the city to continue “Operation Midway Blitz.” We don’t know what that will look like or how it will impact our communities, but we need to be equipped with the spiritual tools to resist the violence and protect our communities in a manner consistent with Jesus’s call to nonviolence and peace-making. It will not be easy. Jesus recognized the inherent danger of resisting the powers that be and told his disciples that he was sending them out as sheep among wolves. He also advised them to be wise as snakes, yet harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

So, this Lent is our training ground. The ways of “eye for an eye” and “fighting fire with fire” and violence are incompatible with Jesus’s call to love–love of our neighbors and love of our enemies. Nonviolence sounds like complete foolishness in a world that rewards cruelty and domination. Even the idea of nonviolence rubs against our old nature. But we ‘have stripped off the old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds and we have put on the new nature that is being renewed to become like our Creator. (Colossians 3:9-10) So, Let’s train together in the “foolishness” of nonviolence and pursue the likeness of Christ.

If you would like to know more about the Lenten Compact or want to follow the “40 Days of Nonviolence”, devotionals and resources will be posted at the Kimball Church blog.