IF YOU are a regular reader of The Baptist Times then I imagine you have probably also attended the odd church members' meeting in your time. Hopefully those experiences have been happy. But of course it is isn't always so.

A colleague told me once about the worst ever experience of his ministry. Two church members fell out during a church meeting  -  and came to blows. Worse still, one of them, well and truly 'decked', ended up unconscious on the floor. (Can you imagine the record in the minute-book?)
So serious was the situation that the ambulance people had to be called to cart the unfortunate victim off. (Can you imagine the conversation that took place between the members of the crew?)

Violence is always ugly and shocking. I remember once seeing two young women brawling in the local high street. We onlookers were so stunned at the sheer vicious, spitting, tooth-and-claw rawness of it that we were paralysed, so to speak, into inaction. Ninety-nine percent of us just don't know how to handle violence. It leaves us with mouths drooping.

But let's not feel too high and mighty on this score. How many of us refrain from physical violence not because we are any better than the people I have mentioned, but because we have developed the ability to retaliate more subtly with our tongues? 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me,' I used to sing as a child. But it's a lie. The tongue can be a deeply wounding instrument. Who knows, there may even be occasions when a blow, however unpleasant, is preferable to a vicious and destructive word. You don't have to be particularly wicked to lash out physically  -  though obviously you shouldn't. A thing may be inexcusable yet understandable.

Hermann Melville, author of Moby-Dick, also wrote a sad story called Billy Budd. It's about a young sailor who yields to violence. He is routinely victimised by an officer, the sadistic John Claggart. In the judgment of all who know him, Billy is an angel, loved deeply by the whole ship's company. Physically he is magnificent; morally he is above reproach. But he has just one difficulty: when under stress he is unable to get his words out, and stammers. Having, under those circumstance, no tongue to talk with, he tends to use his massive hands...

I won't spoil the story in case you don't know it. Suffice to say that under severe provocation Billy lets fly... Captain Vere looks on in horror and declares Claggart to have been 'Struck dead by an angel of God!', like Ananias in Acts 5. So what is to happen to Billy now? Must he hang from the yardarm? Well, you will have to read for yourself.

Tragically, he was physically incapable of using words as a safety valve. But the fact is that he didn't strike his tormentor because he, Billy, was particularly evil, but because he had no other recourse.
And let's not forget, while violence may be mercifully rare in churches, it is by no means unknown. One of the most memorable features of a Baptist Assembly some years ago was a presentation by a group of women who were subjected to violence in the home  -  women whose husbands were to all outward appearances pillars of the church. And who will ever know what some children suffer at the hands of their parents? Perhaps there is some respected church member reading this who has a dark secret in this area. Perhaps it's time at last to confront the truth...

Most of us, I hope, can hardly imagine hitting another person, let alone actually do it. But that isn't necessarily the point. How many people have we wounded and lacerated by our words? How many times have we dented, even destroyed, someone else's confidence? If we are quick with words it is not that difficult to intimidate and humiliate. No, I have never seen anyone struck in a church members' meeting  -  but I have known times when someone has been reduced to silence by a sharp word or a sarcastic remark.

Where are these reflections leading? Just here: that violence of deed and cruelty of word are equally alien to the Spirit of Christ. Yes, Jesus could be strong with his tongue: the Gospels leave us in no doubt about that. But such strength was always  -  literally always  -  directed at the hypocritical and the self-righteous. And he could be forceful physically: the story of the cleansing of the temple makes that clear. But again, the strength of that anger was directed at those who were dragging the holiness of God into the dirt, not to mention exploiting the poor.

There are indeed times, then, when strong words and actions are called for. But never in a spirit of bullying or spite, of vengefulness or vindictiveness. In a world of violence, we are to be peace-makers all the way. It's worth pondering that that church member who lost control and struck his Christian brother may be less sinful in God's eyes than the gossip, the mocker or the smart alec. He who has ears to hear...

Colin Sedgwick, Lindsay Park Baptist Church, Kenton, Middlesex