After Neville`s call to see Grand Torino as part of our Lenten devotions, I would just like to ask, by a show of hands, how many people have seen the movie.

The last time I gave a service I focussed on the movies, and what movies can tell us about life. Well for those who were there for that service I am going to do it again, so I apologise in advance.

But I can`t help myself. Matt and I went to see Grand Torino a few weeks ago, and were amazed by the sheer ability of a movie to address so many issues relevant to today`s society, and do it in a way that was captivating, funny and deeply moving. Of course Clint Eastwood was the director and main actor in the movie, and anyone who doubts his ability in those two roles should see it.

For those who haven`t let me give you a precis. It is based on a retired ex Korean War soldier, who is old and grumpy and racist, and who has just lost his wife. He lives in a neighbourhood that�s changing quickly, and where most of the people living there are Asian. He remains isolated, with only his dog and his car, a beautifully restored Grand Torino as company. The Asian family who live next door have a son who becomes involved in a gang, and it is Walter, as Clint Eastwood`s character is called, who saves him when the gang attempts to forcefully abduct him. This is the start of a connection that builds throughout the film between Walter and the family, who shower him with thanks for protecting them. It is particularly seen between Walter and their daughter. When the son attempts to steal his car in order to satisfy the gang�s demands, he is required to do some jobs for Walter, further emphasising the coming together of both parties. Walter ultimately befriends the family, and the friendship and forgiveness that is developed is the basis of the film.

However the gang does not go away, and the ending is something else altogether.

I suspect most people are familiar with the type of movie Clint Eastwood would usually appear in, particularly when he was younger. As Dirty Harry Clint would shoot, maim and destroy, all in the name of justice or vengeance or whatever the film was based on.

So the expectation in this film was for an ending much the same. How wrong can we be? Now, I don`t want to ruin the ending for anyone who hasn`t seen the film. It is probably suffice to say that the ending involves facing a dilemma of either returning violence with violence, after the gang does not take no for an answer, or with something entirely different. It is the something entirely different which is the surprise.

So Clint does the unexpected, does the thing we, so conditioned by redemptive violence, find jolting, stopping us in our tracts. We don�t see it as the ending we would expect. We get the unexpected!!!! Which is quite amazing for Hollywood.

Redemptive violence, what we see in Eastwood�s Dirty Harry movies, in cartoons where the goodies win and the baddies are destroyed, in every action movie that has been released in the last 10 years, is the overall motto of our day. It is the myth that order and chaos can be beaten by violence. That might is right. No matter where you look today, whether in make believe or in real life redemptive violence is presented as the answer, that violence will deliver us from what ever it is we are trying to escape from. If you doubt it look at what is happening in our world, both in the way people respond to each other to how nations respond. Conflict and confrontation is everywhere, often leading to a violent outcome.

So what has this movie got to do with us and the way we live? Well, everything. We expect a certain ending in the movie and we get another, a much more uplifting life giving ending. Society expects a certain pattern of behaviour and Jesus offers it another

When we read and think about Jesus going to the cross we realise it was an unexpected and in fact horrifying end for Jesus and for those witnessing it. But as Walter Winks says, �the irreducible fact about Jesus is that he was executed! What, executed! That is not how the story is supposed to go! The cross, in Mark`s day, had only one meaning, that terrible form of capital punishment reserved by imperial Rome for political dissenters. It applied to Jesus because his story was one of confrontation with the authorities, declaring justice over injustice, love over hate and peace over violence. The ending was inevitable, but not his response.

Bill Loader said the other night, to be an agent of God is to be a lover, not a winner. Jesus gives himself over to the violence and power of others without compromising his vision of love. He offers an alternative to what had gone before, what people expected of him and what people expected of God. The cross ends up being a symbol of sacrifice, not to save us from our sins but to provide a light away from them. Instead of redemptive violence we get redemptive love.

The reading today is really setting the scene for the ending, much like our movie set the scene here. Initially we find Peter having a problem with the ending. He responds to Jesus words that he will suffer, be rejected and die but will rise again, with outrage. While many debate whether these words are original or added later, the message is clear, the vocation of Jesus will inevitably clash with the powers of the day. Peter is probably shocked and maybe even frightened, because, as we have heard many times he thought of Jesus as a Jewish messiah, who would come and conquer and overturn things with might and glory. Yet we know that Jesus was not that sort of Messiah. Peter rebukes Jesus, but Jesus lets him know pretty plainly, that `he is setting his mind not on divine things but on human things`.

Jesus uses poor Peter as his fall guy, dismissing his response in the passage with scorn. `What, you still don�t get it`. The problem is, getting it means getting something much bigger and much more costly. And it could equally apply to us today.

Because in the reading we then hear Jesus speaking of the cross, tying it to discipleship. Let me read what it says again (Mark 8:34-36). But what does it mean to deny oneself. It certainly does not mean we restrict our food or chocolate intake as Nev reinforced last week.

No, to deny oneself is to offer an alternative model for living, it is to admit political and social and personal alignment with Jesus, leaving behind those things in society which do not conform to his message. It is to deny the safe and easy option, for one which is costly and may inevitably lead to suffering and death but which ultimately leads to life. Not a life in another place but fullness of life here and now. And conversely, to deny Jesus is to forfeit true life and purpose. Bill Loader summarises it beautifully, `In Mark�s context it is to choose to be faithful followers of Jesus and not to renege on all that he stands for when faced with pressure and persecution to deny him. Being true to him, to God and to ourselves.`

So the cross represents a dying to the conventions of the world, of rising to a new identity, and a new way of being. And as we know this is very risky business, as Jesus discovered. To preach nonviolence, love and justice in our world is to court ridicule and possibly retribution. And to suggest that we should serve others would be a joke to those who worship the individual`s right. But as Jesus assures us, this path is the path to life, true life.

But the most unexpected aspect of the cross of Christ is still its symbol of nonviolence, and discipleship as a vocation of nonviolent resistance to the powers of the day. A symbol so shocking to many early Christians who expected their messiah to be all powerful, they could not fully grasp its message. Yet we know that violence begets violence and that often the cost of violence has a huge and never ending effect for both the victim and the perpetrator. We also know, however, the way to new life is through love and forgiveness, not through violent acts which we think will make us winners. In the movie Grand Torino it is represented graphically. Walter is forever trapped in the violence of the Korean War, in what he did and what he had to do and what he chose to do. It took the love of an Asian family, a family he associated with death and destruction, to wake him from that nightmare. And he takes a different path, when called upon to make a stand.

But this stand of nonviolence is sometimes very hard to achieve, both individually and as a society. While we have seen how the way of nonviolence can be successful in bringing about a new beginning, in such places like South Africa, Germany, Poland and even the Philippines, there are examples like the one I found in the paper the other day.

In this article villagers in a town in the Congo have been forced to take up arms to protect themselves from Ugandan rebels known as the Lord�s Resistance Army (a name which is a travesty in itself), who have been running riot in the area since October. They were left deserted by the town�s 3 policemen and there was no response from the military and United Nations peacekeepers to resident�s pleas for protection. So the community leader called a meeting and told everyone to bring whatever weapons they had, which mostly were old or handmade, and to be prepared to fight.

Since then the residents have successfully driven off two attacks by the rebels, who continue to randomly kill others in the area. However aid workers and human rights activists are worried that in this part of the Congo where dozens of militias and rebels roam around these self defence groups could transform into a menacing force.

In a perfect world we would and should side with God, the God of peace. However, sometimes it`s not that simple. Sometimes, people feel they don�t have a choice, such as the situation in the Congo, a situation we could never imagine ourselves being in. Or in the example of Dietrich BonhoEffer, who, while a pacifist during the Second World War, participated in a plot to kill Hitler. Yet Bonhoeffer never regarded his action as justifiable, he saw it as a sin and threw himself on the mercy of God. He did not use his act as a legitimisation of war because he knew God`s game plan hadn`t changed. It is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow, it is just sometimes we find it hard to stick to, surrounded as we are by the myth of redemptive violence. However, we will always have choices to make and decisions about whose side we are on. This is the challenge we face everyday, even in Perth, Western Australia.

In the end we can find strength in the truth of Jesus` message. God gives life and this life involves peace and justice and nonviolence. Violence only leads to heartache and pain and darkness and death, as Walter and many others have discovered. As Christians, our call to carry the cross of Christ is a call to carry the cross of nonviolence and love. It is a call to be co creators with God and with Jesus into a new way of living. A way which involves practising justice, service and conflict resolution in our daily lives, and empowering others to engage in peacemaking as an alternative vision for the world.

Because people do not suddenly wake up one day and reject everything that our society teaches them about how they should act. No, we need to be proactive, and teach, particularly our young people, another way.

When we were down in Busselton the Anglican Church ran and still runs a program call BUZZ, managed by a chap called Steve Heron. BUZZ stands for Build Up Zone and it is a program working with children and young adults teaching them how to resolve conflict in a constructive way, build resilience, self confidence and how to interact and work effectively with others. Here in Perth there is another program running called Empowering Peacemakers, which works to empower the next generation of eco-evangelists and peace prophets by connecting to kids in schools. This program was founded by Jarrod McKenna.

These are the type of grassroost programs that are helping to change attitudes and ideas and that need our help. For we are all called to be part of the answer.

As Walter Wink put it p 228.

So let us take up our cross now, and follow Jesus, and see where it leads. For as he said, `those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it`. We and our society may be surprised at the ending!!!!