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Dr. David D. Young
January 21, 2007
Isaiah 30: 8-18
Luke 1: 67-80
"What About Peace?"
Today marks the third in a Winter Sermon Series, "Struggling with Tough Questions." Two weeks ago we looked at life, last week we considered the environment, and today we will pursue peace.
The Rotarian magazine once carried a cartoon of a cleaning woman in an office wiping a globe of the world as she holds a bottle labeled "global solution." Oh, if it were that easy.
"What About Peace?"
World peace is such a huge and overwhelming subject. In our text from Isaiah that Beth Beam read for us a major biblical theme is being played out. The children of Israel are not being faithful to God and they are putting their trust in things other than God.
In verse 9 and following we read:
"For they are a rebellious people, faithless children, children who will not hear the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, ‘Do not see’; and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.’ Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: you reject this word, and put your trust in oppression and deceit, and rely on them."
Throughout the Hebrew scripture – time and time again – the prophets (like Isaiah) have had to call the people back to putting their complete trust in God and God alone.
The issue here is idolatry and the fact that throughout history people have given their focus to other gods. The abiding danger of idolatry has been addressed throughout history by many of the most perceptive minds of the church. Tertullian began his essay, "On Idolatry," by describing it as,
"The principle crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world."
Martin Luther recognized that idolatry sometimes takes sophisticated forms which appear to extend to the worship of God but in fact are cleverly disguised forms of self- worship. Thus, Luther could say,
"Where you hang your heart, there is your God."
And so, John Wesley could say,
"We have set up idols in ourselves…we worship ourselves when we pay honor to ourselves which is due to God alone."
And finally, it was Paul Tillich of Union Theological Seminary fame who observed,
"Idolatry is being ultimately concerned about that which is not ultimate."
You see, idolatry is not so much misdirected ritual as it is overvalued values. Anything can be elevated to god-like status – things like power, wealth, fame and status.
Recall with me that the children of Israel made a golden calf precisely at the time Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments. They thought they could worship both. Now, we don’t worship golden calves – well, some people worship gold, if you know what I mean. In Elijah’s day the people were convinced they could worship both Baal and the God of Abraham.
People have always thought they could worship God and then put other things right up at the top of their values list. I think for us money, financial security, security, our own safety, comfort, leisure and entertainment are acceptable quasi-gods which are held almost in tandem with God – if we look at how we allocate our time, our interest, and our resources.
Idolatry is the elevation of preliminary concerns to ultimacy. When something essentially finite is given seemingly infinite significance – that is idolatry. Whenever we make security, financial or otherwise the end all – then that my friends is idolatry.
For God often calls us to risk and to be vulnerable – it’s just that it’s hard to hear that when we’re so busy pursing security. So, each of us has to fill in the blank personally if we are to recognize our own idols. For nations, practically any one, nationalism or patriotism can become so strong it literally competes with God for what is Number One in people’s lives.
And this brings us back to world peace and verses 15 and 18 of our text from Isaiah,
"In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him."
Listen to what Isaiah says elsewhere in chapter 2, verse 4;
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
Isaiah’s words echo down through the centuries. They were intoned by countless generations yearning for peace, even as they were ignored by those who rule the destiny of nations.
Historians teach us that in the millennia of recorded human history we can find no more than one hundred twenty-eight years all told when there was no war in some place on this earth of ours. One hundred twenty-eight years of peace…five thousand years of war…five thousand years of maimed bodies and burned flesh, of survivors’ tears and broken spirits.
We of our generation ignore Isaiah’s admonition at infinitely greater peril than did our ancestors. They risked individual lives – we risk humankind in its totality. Nuclear weapons and biological warfare have given us the capacity to destroy human life and to make the whole world unimaginable.
Jesus warned us about hypocrisy – you know that false sense of thinking we’re better than, or that our way is better than or that we’re more deserving than or that our flaws aren’t as bad as…well, you get the point. You know, there’s something about hypocrisy – it’s, it’s so obvious…in others. But we can’t or won’t see it in ourselves.
Jesus put it like this, before you try to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye – you could help a whole lot better if you first take the 2 x 4 out of your own eye. That was one of Jesus’ better ones!
Do you get it?
Do you really get it?
Let me say it again, if you think you can take the nuclear weapon out of your neighbor’s eye – it would really help if you took the 13,00 out of your own. Or if you think you can take space weapons and technology out of your neighbor’s eye – why don’t you take them out of your own first.
Having just celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and legacy with a wonderful tribute in the paper this morning, listen to his admonition born out of a deep Christian faith.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiples hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction…the chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
What About Peace?
Well, one response is to bury our heads in the sand out at Tod’s point and just stick to our little protected lives here in Greenwich. But, we all know that isn’t really possible – yet, some people do try. It is so hard to get our heads around world peace – except as we catch a vision of God’s peace.
A little less than a month ago we celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace. Image that, the Prince of Peace. If you look at his life and teaching, you’ll realize he wasn’t joking about that. You heard it said of old "an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" but I say to you love your enemies, turn the other check when somebody hurts you.
Zechariah in our passage from Luke that Rev. Kuriakose read for us spoke of how his son John would prepare the way for the one who was to come - a mighty savior. Only his way was not the way of might – it was a different way. Hear again verses 78 & 79,
"By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
We know that God’s peace is not simply the absence of war – but also the presence of justice.
Putting pervasive peace together in our world today is enormously complicated.
"Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the result of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism.
Peace is generosity.
It is right and duty."
So proclaimed Oscar A. Romero, the late archbishop of El Salvador.
I have to confess, this morning, that when I was much younger it was very easy to preach on peace. It’s much harder as I get older. It’s so complicated and there are no easy answers. In fact, I really struggled with what to say for today. And I realize that I really, really don’t have much to say.
I’m not going to have much effect on world peace. But, perhaps I can have an effect on you – if you let me. And each of you can do something – and perhaps have an effect on someone else.
You see, if we think we can bring about world peace – we’re wrong. But, if we think we can’t do anything to bring about peace – we’re wrong, too.
What About Peace?
Seeing snow recently – was a refreshing reminder that we really are in the midst of winter. A story:
"Tell me the weight of a snowflake," a coal mouse asked a wild dove. "Nothing more than nothing," was the answer. "In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story," the coal mouse said.
"I sat on the branch of a fir, close to it’s trunk, when it began to snow – not heavily, not a raging blizzard – no, just like in a dream, without a wound and without any violence. Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741, 952. When the 3,741, 953rd dropped onto the branch, nothing more than nothing, as you say – the branch broke off."
Having said that, the coal mouse flew away. The dove, since Noah’s time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for awhile, and finally said to herself, "Perhaps there is only one person’s voice lacking for peace to come to the world."
I’d like to return to Moses for a moment. He was receiving the commandments from God while Aaron and the others were making a golden calf – you know – like some of those other things we make almost god-like.
Hear the Ten Commandments now in the balm of peace:
1. YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME
If you want peace, then help build trust in God’s way and its road signs.
2. YOU SHALL NOT MAKE ANY GRAVEN IMAGES TO BOW DOWN TO AND SERVE
If you want peace, then do not form prejudices about others, but be open to meeting everyone.
3. YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD IN VAIN
If you want peace, then do not take your convictions and misuse them to condemn others.
4. OBSERVE THE SABBATH DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLY
If you want peace, then strengthen the fellowship and following which grows out of the Sunday worship service.
5. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOPTHER
If you want peace, then practice settling conflicts as good partners.
6. YOU SHALL NOT KILL
If you want peace, then respect life above all else.
7. YOU SHALL NOT COMIT ADULTERY
If you want peace, then be faithful to those to whom you are united and pledged.
8. YOU SHALL NOT STEAL
If you want peace, then do not take part in the exploitation and oppression of others.
9. YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOR
If you want peace, then erase the image of enemy from your thinking and speaking.
10. YOU SHALL NOT COVET ANYTHING THAT IS YOUR NEIGHBOR’S
If you want peace, then give up always wanting more.
We can only impact peace as we interact and touch others around us in this very world in which we live – and friends, that is important.
So, What About Peace?
It was Wendell Berry who said,
"If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously, continuously, carefully, and bravely as we have ever prepared for war."
Now, the realists listening this morning would say, "World peace probably won’t come in our life-time, if ever." But I say that doesn’t mean we should give up.
Just this past Friday night I was talking with a friend about the cathedrals in Europe and it hit me in the midst of that conversation that the builders of the Gothic cathedrals worked for hundreds of years, knowing that only some future generation would enjoy the full glory of those temples of God. When it comes to building peace are we less than they were?
What About Peace?
Again, it was Martin Luther King, Jr. who said,
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
I don’t have any magic answers for world peace – but I can tell you what Michelle and I are going to do this week. This Saturday we are driving to our nation’s capitol to participate in the march on Washington for peace. I want to make it crystal clear that there is zero pressure on anyone else to join us – and that’s why we’re not well organized. However, if anyone feels moved to join us in car pooling to D.C. simply give one of us your name and we’ll see how many want to go and we’ll try to set things up for the trip.
What About Peace?
However you choose to pursue it – I say… go for it!!!
Amen!
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