Isaiah 40.1-11; Mark 1.1-8
The world’s a bit of a mess, I’d say …
But, then, it’s been that way ever since Cain killed Abel …
So, what do we do?
Do we wash our hands of it all? Circle the wagons and protect our own? Surrender our ideals? Hunker down in our little part of the world? Pray, and hope for the best?
Here in this place, and in churches all around the world … Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
What is peace?
The Hebrew word Shalom says it well: to make something whole, complete … everything in its place, and place for everything.
The flourishing of society … the welfare of all …
They shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.
Life is not a game to played where the winner takes all!
Life is a shared effort:
To lift up the fallen,
help the weary,
carry those who cannot walk,
bless all in their need -
the lady at the well, afraid and lonely.
the beggar by the Pool of Siloam, ignored.
the lost sheep and the Prodigal Son - does anyone care?
In recent years, I’ve heard conservative politicians and pundits use the terms “takers” and “makers” … the makers all live in gated communities and drive fine cars … the takers all live on the other side of the tracks, so to speak, and drive beaters.
There is no peace in this kind of thinking … only division and fear … guilt and shame … envy and resentment.
Human beings are given to this kind of thinking because of sin - sin fractures, sin divides and digs ditches … sin plucks the fruit before anyone else can get it … sin pats itself on the back, and kicks everyone else into the gutter …
Not that this kind of thinking if of recent invention …
Step back in time with me, to March 4, 1858, when Senator James Henry Hammond of South Caroline said:
In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill. Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a class you must have, or you would not have that other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement. It constitutes the very mud-sill of society and of political government; and you might as well attempt to build a house in the air, as to build either the one or the other, except on this mud-sill. Fortunately for the South, she found a race adapted to that purpose to her hand. A race inferior to her own, but eminently qualified in temper, in vigor, in docility, in capacity to stand the climate, to answer all her purposes. We use them for our purpose, and call them slaves.
This has been the poison in the human story … this is sin revealed for what it is: cruel, ugly and deadly.
But when we sing of peace, when we offer up our prayers for the world, when we speak the name of Jesus, there are no such divisions …
Paul the Apostle wrote the definitive word: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ.
… πάντες γὰρ ὑμεῖς εἷς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.
We all share the common lot - poor in spirit … saved by grace … created by the hand of God … we’re all in this together … as the Bible says: we weep with those who weep; we rejoice with those who rejoice.
We feed the hungry … we welcome the stranger … we cloth the naked … we visit those in prison …
… … … … …
Ann Patchett recalls a time when she and a friend rented a room on the coast of Scotland … gathered in the sitting room, one evening, watching “… in horror as the owner sat and pulled apart the most beautiful sweater I’d ever seen, winding the yarn back into balls. ‘I wanted a new sweater,’ she said while we sat their aghast, unable to save it. ‘I’ve had this one for years.’”
Undo the old, rework it into something new … I can’t think of a better definition for the Christian Life!
God is always and forever the God of tomorrow …
The past is the old sweater, love unravels it, faith knits something new … same yarn, same love, same goodness, but reknited for a new day.
…. …. … …. ….
Another fine writer, Linda Hogan, a Chickasaw poet and essayist, in her book about the Osage Indian murders in Oklahoma at the turn of the 20th Century …
One of her characters, Michael Horse, says he’s written another chapter for the Bible … it goes like this:
Honor father sky and mother earth. Look after everything. Life resides in all things, even the motionless stones. Take care of the insects for they have their place, and the plants and trees for they feed the people. Everything on earth, every creature and plant wants to live without pain, so do them no harm. Treat all people in creation with respect; all is sacred, especially the bats.
Live gently with the land. We are one with the land. We are part of everything in our world, part of the roundness and cycles of life. The world does not belong to us. We belong to the world. And all life is sacred.
Pray to the earth. Restore your self and voice. Remake your spirit, so that it is in harmony with the rest of nature and the universe. Keep peace with all your sisters and brothers. Humans who minds are healthy desire such peace and justice.
These powerful words reflect the heart and pain of an Indigenous writer … the heart and pain of anyone who thinks deeply and cares about life … these powerful words, strong and beautiful … leave me with a question:
Where are the peace-makers?
They’re right here … in these pews, down the street and around the corner, and all around the world …
Listen carefully, and you’ll hear them sing:
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
Hallelujah and Amen!
