Skip to main content

Peace As A Response To Violence

The past couple or three weeks have been interesting; for some scary; and for others, devastating. The world carries on as the world has always carried on, with callous disregard for others in a variety of ways. Whether it is the negligent death of a man in Minneapolis or the spreading of the anger and frustration-fueled killing of others, burning buildings, and general destruction, we see the results of a society and people who know God less, and less.

Violence and greater power are used to control, to frighten, to coerce others so that we can express ourselves and achieve what we think we want. We end up with neighborhoods destroyed in the name of justice and we end up with wounded and dead innocent people in protest of abuse and brutality.

Christianity at its core values humanity and human life. Because of that, the Christian is called to live a life that is giving, open, and compassionate. Sometimes that may move us to protest, to campaign, to pressure our representatives in government for change. Those are all legitimate activities of followers of Jesus, although there are some who would even proscribe those behaviors for Christians because “we are citizens of Heaven” rather than of any country or community.

In all of our activities against injustice, against inhumanity to man, against violence, anger, and strife, we cannot ourselves become perpetrators of those things. If we are Christian policemen, we don’t neglect the welfare of those in our custody and if we are outraged at the treatment of others, we do not join in the chaos and violence toward others. We are called to work for peace, to find common ground with the hurting, the destitute, and the oppressed—however they are oppressed.

Peacekeepers will be called children of God because they live with a focus on the things of God. We are called to love as God loves even those who crucified Him; even those—like us—who made his coming to forgive sin necessary. As we have witnessed the events of the past weeks, it’s easy to pick a side, to choose a champion for our views, and to cheer or at least explain away their behavior towards others. We are to be careful of this tendency because in doing so, we contribute to division, to strife, to evil.
The challenge for followers of Jesus is how to work for peace, for reconciliation, for healing in the midst of high emotions and a seemingly endless stream of atrocities.
As you and I discern our calling and our direction in these times, let us ask that God will direct our thoughts and our minds so that rather than polarizing our world further, we can work for and example the presence of God in the world for people on all sides of these recent events.

May the Lord of peace walk with you this week.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elders redux

A reader (I am always amazed that people actually read this blog) submitted a rather long comment on the original post on Elders. It is apparent that the reader did some good homework as the comment has several, well, more than several, reference citations. It is clear that they both read the original post and did some Bible study before posting their comment. Because the comment was so long, I thought it appropriate to post another entry rather than bury the response in the comment log. In the following discussion, I have included the text of the comment without the Scripture references. If you want to read the comment in its entirety, scroll to the Elders post and click on the comment. --------------------------------------------------------- [Comment~~~~The church is expected to be a people in exactly this sense. We are the people of God who are charged with continuing and preserving the values, culture, hopes, and the identity of God’s people in our time.~~~~ Does this include th...
7 comments
Read more

Passover, The First Born, Abraham, and You

Israel has been in captivity in Egypt, Moses has completed his contests with Pharaoh, and the People of Israel have been expelled from Egypt. The death of Egyptian firstborn children and livestock has compelled their removal into the wilderness. At the end of Exodus 12, God institutes the Passover in remembrance of the Angel of Death passing by the homes of Jews on the night the Egyptian firstborn children were killed. Notably, they were spared if in a house with blood around the door.  The Passover is established for Israel herself, including their slaves who have been circumcised. If a sojourner wants to celebrate the Passover with you, he can after he circumcises all males with him. I suspect that pretty much eliminated any visitors participating. In chapter 13, the protocols include redeeming Israel's firstborn. In this discussion, God says your firstborn belongs to God, and you must redeem your firstborn or you must kill it. God has redeemed Israel's firstborn by the blood...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wineskins II

       In chapter 16 of Matthew, Peter ‘makes the great confession’ - Jesus he says is the Son of the Living God. At Covenant, when someone wants to become a member or to be baptized, we ask them who Jesus is and we expect this response. Peter is correct when he says this, but it is not clear that Peter (or the other disciples) understood the ramifications of his statement. Following Peter’s statement we find a series of incidents that make us wonder just how much Peters actually believed what he had said.      In the first instance, Jesus compares Peter to Satan. Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem and there he will die. Peter exclaims that he will not let that happen; Jesus will not be killed. Peter is expecting great things from Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God on behalf of Israel and he cannot fit Jesus dying into his hope for a greater Israel under this Messiah. This cannot happen, he reasons. Jesus’s response is a harsh re...
Post a Comment
Read more