|
Peacemakers – Act!
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus
Christ. For in Jesus’ name we are amazingly and abundantly blessed with the
presence of God who continues to speak to us and guide us enabling us to
live God’s holy will.
I continually give thanks to God for
bringing me to St. John’s United Church of Christ, where the commandment of
Christ to love one another is heard and lived so joyfully; where love one
another means no “other” is excluded from our love; where we see and love
Jesus every day of the week as we feed and clothe our Lord; where the love
of Christ continues to challenge our understanding of faith and we have not
become too comfortable and complacent in our religion as if God had no more
to say to God’s children – for our God Is Still Speaking.
God Is Still Speaking in Jesus’ name and
fulfilling Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John, “But the Advocate, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and
remind you of all that I have said to you” (14:26). God Is Still Speaking
and those with ears to hear and who choose to – are listening. I am certain
that when our Lord returns he will find his children at St. John’s UCC
attentive to his voice and living the great call and gift of God; to be
God’s children on earth.
Today many people claim to be God’s
children, yet there must be some confusion as to what it means to be a child
of God. I say this because in Jesus’ name God’s children are both feeding
children and dropping bombs on children.
According to Jesus’ words in Scripture there
is one great distinguishing characteristic of God’s children here and now on
earth; they are “peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9, 44-45).
To some people “peacemaker” may be title and
therefore a noun, but to my understanding Jesus used peacemaker as a verb to
define the actions that lead to a title, “children of God.”
The world is looking for peacemakers. We
live in a world that is torn apart by a war that we call the “war on
terror.” The horror of this war has visited the very doorstep of thousands
of families in our nation and hundreds of thousands of families world-wide.
Around the globe and within our nation people are looking for and clamoring
for peacemakers. I believe God is calling God’s children (peacemakers) to
action.
On Sunday, March 2, 2003 before the war in
Iraq began, St. John’s UCC in conjunction with our friends at the Flint
Islamic Center, and a few other pastors ran a three-quarter page
advertisement in the Owosso Argus Press and a half-page ad in the Flint
Journal. In those ads we encouraged our nation to use its economic power
rather than its military power to effect social change and promote democracy
in Iraq. In the ads we said: “Let us make friends and not enemies with our
wealth and prosperity. Let America continue to be the leaders of and the
symbol for justice, liberty and freedom for all.” We suggested that our
actions in Iraq should include:
“Repair and Build Roads
“Put Hospitals and Schools on Those Roads
“Offer Free Medical Care and
Education to Civilians
“Continue Such Infrastructure Aid
in Afghanistan”
We suggested those actions because through
much prayer and discussion we believed them to be God’s will for God’s
children as revealed through Jesus. Our brothers and sisters of the Flint
Mosque also believed them to be God’s will as revealed through Muhammad. In
addition to the ads, we wrote letters and called our elected representatives
and encouraged others to do the same. Because of our actions we were
privileged to suffer for our faith in Christ. We were called cowards,
traitors and anti-Christ. We were told the only way to defeat today’s evil
was by force of arms. But, our faith in Jesus has remained firm, we have
loved our enemies and prayed for our persecutors, and our trust in the
Christ and his teaching has been proven true. Force of arms has only caused
the war to worsen. There is no peace and there never will be peace apart
from God’s will for God’s creation.
Supporters of war often say, “Remember
9-11.” Because of our choice to use violence instead of love to defeat evil,
people in Great Britain, Spain, France, Italy, India; people around the
world have now experienced their own 9-11’s.
The power that attacks and kills innocent
civilians to achieve its purpose is evil: the only power great enough to
defeat evil is love: “God is Love” (1 John 4:16).
Children of God, peacemakers, it is not too
late to act in peace in Iraq. The most often quoted reason used by
“insurgents” to justify attacking our military and killing our children is –
the presence of our military. So, let us begin to immediately bring our
military home. As we bring our troops home, let us invest more in the
infrastructure of Iraq. Let’s build roads and put hospitals and schools and
farms and power stations on those roads. In doing this we will be making
peace and be living another of Jesus’ teachings to share our great economic
blessing (Luke 12:48). When we live Jesus’ teaching, we receive God’s
blessing.
Leaders of our county often invoke God’s
name and blessing on our nation. I hear “God bless America” at the close of
almost every politician’s speech. To fully receive God’s blessing we must
live God’s will. We who claim to know God’s will through Jesus must denounce
violence not only in word but also in deed. To initiate war as we have in
Iraq, to choose violence to effect social change and defeat evil is
anti-Christ and we cannot expect our God to bless us if we refuse and reject
God’s Son.
The people of our nation and the world are
ready for peace. In the United States we yet have the right to peacefully
change public policy. Let us, Jesus’ disciples, rise and courageously make
our voices heard as brothers and sisters of the Prince of Peace. Then will
the prayer of the hymn be known and fulfilled:
“Lead us from death to life,
from falsehood to truth,
from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead us from hate to love,
from war to peace;
let peace fill our hearts,
let peace fill our world,
let peace fill our universe.”
--#581 New Century
Hymnal
Jesus promised, “Peace I leave with you; my
peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let
your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (John 14:27). May
you know that great blessing of peace in your life and may Jesus’ peace move
you to new action in peacemaking.
Still In One Peace ~ pastor john
|
