Lately I have been reading Walter Wink's Jesus and nonviolence: A Third Way. As I was reading it Wink makes a wise decision in making the reader examine himself with the understanding that as much as we hope to fight violence with nonviolence we cannot forget that violence is within us all as a result of the fall and to fail to recognize our own darkness from within we will risk becoming self-righteous.
I suppose we would be like the Pharisees having abided by the written law but really being white washed tombs and dead.
Please, YHWH, keep us from becoming self righteous in our quest for your justice to reign in the hearts of all people. May we come to the cross, may we follow you through the fires but may we always do so not by our might or even our will but by your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, Amen.
