Pastor John, St John's UCC Owosso

“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.”

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

These words of Scripture give me hope, comfort and challenge at a time when so many people are experiencing sadness, destruction and hopelessness. I pray you, too, find hope, comfort and challenge in these holy words.

In these days of extreme violence all over the world, what is the difference between the peace Christ gives and the peace the world gives?

First, a brief examination of the peace the world gives. The dictionary defines peace as: an absence of; war, hostilities, quarrels and disagreements.[i]

The absence of these behaviors is a good thing because all these behaviors manifest themselves in violence. However, I believe we have ample evidence from history that the world is incapable of achieving such nonviolent behavior. In fact, as we see most recently in Iraq, the world uses violence to achieve its definition and understanding of peace.

Today many world leaders, world religious leaders in particular, use Scriptures to support violence. For example, they say in reference to the peace passages I quoted above, “Jesus and St. Paul were speaking of a future time when the Lord will come again and institute his kingdom of peace on earth; then all Jesus’ disciples will live forever in peace. In the meantime God’s peace which we cannot yet fully understand because it hasn’t fully happened will give us the peace of heart and mind we need to see us through the wars that must necessarily happen as we battle evil.”

Some of that is true, however when the battle against evil becomes violence against innocents we are not living Jesus’ teaching. Religious leaders who preach otherwise are either duped by the world or are themselves part of an evil system of violence being used to control the world’s people and wealth. In either case they do not know and cannot know the peace of God in Christ that surpasses understanding because to have that experience of God they must first love as Jesus loved; everyone, everywhere, especially enemies.

Many religious leaders and in particular leaders of the three great monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are using their words to promote violence. As a disciple of Jesus I will only speak to false teachings I see being promoted by Christian leaders.

As the dominate religion of America Christianity is being used by religious and political leaders in our country to promote an agenda of violence. For example, all of us have heard world leaders who call themselves Christian refer to the evil of Islam. To support their opinion they quote selected passages from the Qur’an which refer to the use of the sword to spread Islam. These religious and political leaders are selectively using scriptures from the Qur’an out of context to foment fear and distrust to promote their violent agenda.

This selective use of scripture by religious extremists to support false teaching is being used by parties on all sides of conflict to justify violence. An example: Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). Those words of the Prince of Peace are taken out of their original context and used to support war and tyranny. That is done by misinformed Christians to initiate war and by enemies to explain why Christians are a violent, warlike people.

But the peace of Christ which surpasses understanding is experiential and is, therefore, not something the world can figure out. It is experienced as a gift of God and it is experienced in the day-to-day living of Jesus’ teaching of love.

We of St. John’s UCC have been blessed with that God experience through our relationship with our Muslim friends from Flint. We have discovered that knowing and praying with Muslims is neither a threat to our faith or our lives. Our faith in and understanding of Jesus’ teaching has grown because we reached out in love not condemnation and violence. Because of this we are an example to our communities that Christian and Muslim can not only get along but be friends and co-workers in God’s kingdom on earth. We have witnessed this truth in our midst now we must proclaim this truth to a world that is acting in ignorance and being led by violent men.

The peace of God which guards our hearts and minds in Christ is given and experienced when we love as Jesus loved. The world will hate us for proclaiming that truth, it hated Jesus before it hated us, but the truth of love is the only way peace in the world and the elimination of violence can ever be achieved.

In the book, Nonviolence - Twenty-five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea, author, Mark Kurlansky writes: “Though most religions shun warfare and hold nonviolence as the only moral route toward political change, religion and its language have been co-opted by the violent people who have been governing societies. If someone were to come along who would not compromise, a rebel who insisted on taking the only moral path, rejecting violence in all its forms, such a person would seem so menacing that he would be killed, and after his death he would be canonized or deified, because a saint is less dangerous than a rebel. This has happened numerous times, but the first prominent example was a Jew named Jesus.” [ii]

Jesus will come again and peace will reign, but in the meantime in our democratic form of government we have the responsibility to let our elected leaders know how we expect them to govern. I believe we should tell them we no longer will accept or support policies that initiate and continue violence.

Let us not be duped by religious and political leaders who misuse Scripture and use hate-filled, condemning, divisive language that is intended to cause fear and thereby justify violence. Rather, my sisters and brothers in Christ, by promoting nonviolence we can sing: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.”

[i] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, (Houghton Mifflin Co. 1976), 963.

[ii] Mark Kurlansky, Nonviolence, Twenty-five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea, (Modern Library, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, 2006) 14-15.