Training for Peace ?
The famous Bible passage (Isaiah ch 2) says that the technology used for war will change to be used only to support life, not take it. That passage ends by saying: nor will they train for war anymore.
Coaches tell their players, “What you do in practice you will do in the game.”
If you train for war, when game time comes, what will your response be?
War, of course.
If you wait until the moment of violence to respond and if you have trained only to respond with further violence, what will your response likely be?
If we want continued violence and war then we should continue to train for violence and war.
The Scale of Our Efforts to Build Peace
If we want peace then we need to train for peace and commit ourselves just as fully to building peace in our hearts and lives and in our world as all the war colleges, ROTC programs, weapons designers, basic training, special forces training, and taxation systems around the world commit themselves to preparing for war.
Does that seem overwhelming? Like spitting into the wind or shoveling against the tide?
If we try to overcome the culture of violence and death just by human efforts we will be assured a lifetime of frustration and failure.
That is not what we are looking for.
We seek to make our hearts and lives open and available to God’s Holy Spirit so that we will to will God’s will, and we let God’s creation continue in our hearts (building up hearts of love) and through our lives in the world (building up shalom – peace, justice, balance, health, rightness).
Jesus’ Example
Our leader – our Lord, our Saviour – is Jesus, the Prince of Peace. He was not a violent person.
He committed no acts of violence against anyone. (One time he did drive the moneychangers out of the temple with a rope in his hand, but no one was recorded as being injured let alone killed.)
When he was arrested to be crucified he told his disciples to bring the two swords they had – but he never told them to use their swords. I believe Jesus had the disciples bring the swords to show that he knew he was going to be arrested, that he could have chosen violent resistance, but that he was actively choosing not to respond with violence. When Peter – always the first to act – did use one of the swords, Jesus told him to put it away, then proceeded to heal the person whom Peter hit with his sword.
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus told him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” Matthew 26:52-54
The next day Jesus told Pilate,
My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place. John 18: 36
As it is, Jesus’ disciples do not fight that way.
The Bible’s Vision
There is a way other than fighting.
This is what Isaiah son Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He will judge between nations and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation nor will they train for war anymore.
Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. Isaiah 2: 1-5
He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths, Isaiah says.
Much later, Zechariah, prophesying by the Holy Spirit, said that his son John (the Baptist) would prepare the way for Jesus, so that Jesus could
guide our feet into the path of peace. Luke 1: 79
Two Kingdoms
There are two kingdoms at work in our world.
One operates by darkness and death.
One operates by light and life.
When the kingdom of darkness and death achieves its apotheosis, its final form, its complete victory, its highest and fullest expression – it destroys itself in one final, cataclysmic poof, and then goes away.
When the kingdom of light and life achieves its supremacy it will fill the world with abundant life and light and love. And it will achieve this end without war and violence.
What roles do we have?
We cannot create or destroy either kingdom. That is in God’s hands.
We can choose which one to join.
We can choose the extent to which we give ourselves to either one, to let its principles shape our hearts and lives.
We could choose some kind of “middle ground,” but Jesus did say in another context, So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3: 16
It is an old choice.
Speaking under the inspiration of God’s spirit Moses told Israel,
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. Deuteronomy 30: 15
The same choice lies before us today.
Do not be deceived. We cannot serve two masters.
We cannot follow two, opposing paths – life and death – at the same time.
The works of death have no part in the kingdom of life.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
If you have already chosen to serve in the kingdom that operates by the principles of death, think again about changing sides.
If you choose to serve the kingdom of life, do so with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, in the power of God’s Spirit.
This image again comes from the early Renaissance Italian surveying book I got from a friend. Apparently surveying instruments aided warring armies somehow? Somehow it seems appropriate for our theme.