Tag Archives: Peace through Love

Peace through Violence

Living in the Spirit
June 13, 2017

Scripture Reading: Genesis 21:1-7

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ And she said, ‘Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’

 Sarah named her newborn “He laughs” for that is what Isaac* means. Perhap she was recognizing that God got the last laugh enjoying Sarah’s being dumbfounded that what the messengers had promised came true. Life does not always come out the way we want it as it did in Sarah’s case. As Paul says in Romans 28:8, We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

The USA is critical of our fellow NATO members who have not yet reached their goal due in 2024 of spending 2% of their gross national product on defense. The USA contributes 3.6% of its GNP to NATO. Our total defense budget in 2015 was $598 or 54% of our total budget far exceeding the expenditures of other nations. While I think we all could agree that a good defense is necessary, perhaps we should look at what those NATO countries are doing that works not related to defense. The homicide rate in the USA is 16.3 per 100,000 in Europe it is 3**. Most of these countries assure an adequate level of health and mental health care for their citizens, most provide excellent public education system to prepare their children for work. If the USA had even an adequate mental health system would we have lost the 9 killed in a Bible study at church in Charleston; would all those children and teachers have died at Sandy Hook?

Peace through power enforced by violence was the ancient Roman way. When greed and power get entangled even great empires fall. The man called Jesus, born near Sepphoris, one of the cities overrun by Rome about the time of his birth, had a front row seat to seeing the results of peace through power and taught a different way. Those of us who follow him today need to consider carefully the wisdom of his way. Perhaps our NATO partners have something to teach us.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when our lust for power and greed overtake our way of being. Teach us how to love each other. Amen.

*http://biblehub.com/hebrew/3327.htm
**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

All scriptures are quoted from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Trauma

Eastertide
April 28, 2017

Scripture Reading: Luke 24:13-35

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’ –Luke 24:13-18

The experience of trauma imprints a permanent memory, which we sometimes erase from our consciousness often to have it reappear when least expected known as post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. Soldiers are all too well acquainted with it but those of us on the news periphery know it also. Where were you when Kennedy was shot or for the younger set on 9/11?

I was sitting at my desk at the State Capitol Sequoyah Office Building some 20 blocks from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office building on April 19, 1995 where the now dubbed Oklahoma City Bombing occurred. I honestly did not feel the shake of the building in my office but as if a conductor brought down a baton coordinating the playing of a first note, all the staff outside my office jumped up from their desks and cried out, “What was that?” None of our lives were ever the same again. Radios and TVs were immediately turned on and the horrid scene of a building destroyed appeared. A call went out for blood donors particularly for those of us with O- type. I ran to my car and drove to the closest donor center only to find a line two blocks long. The radio announced another one opening close by and the line was long there too but I joined it. It is beyond my imagination how the people of Syria and surrounding nations deal with such events daily with few resources left to help, not even enough time to bury their dead.

I also have trouble imaging rows of people hanging on crosses just outside my city executed for failure to follow the Roman rules. Some were no doubt what we might classify as criminals today. Others were just in the government’s way. Rome provided peace through violence; something we continue to practice today. Crucifixion was disconcerting on any day, disaster when the one on the cross was not only loved, but was also deemed the source of salvation for all.

The road to Emmaus represents the path we all choose to take once an immediate trauma concludes. How it impacts are lives and how open we are to seeking good after evil determines our futures and the futures of all we are called to love.

Prayer: Lord, as we travel toward Pentecost walk with us even when we do not recognize you. Kindle in our hearts the fire to purge evil from ruling us and fill us with your love as our source of strength. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.