Peace: A Lifelong Journey

a sermon by Reverend Lynn Thomas Strauss

Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville, August 6, 2006

Readings

1st Reading: (Lament)

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.

Amos

2st Reading: (Hope)

I think I have told you, but if I have not, you must have understood, that a man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on earth for the people to see.

Black Elk

(Lament)

Another war has broken out…first Kabul, then Baghdad, now Beirut, Haifa.

We want to look away. We want to go to the movies, or on vacation, we want to listen to I-pods rather than the news. We remember other wars, other killing, other cities, names, photos. We think it’s just the same old thing, war, what can we do about it. It’s always with us. It’s the core of human history. this too will pass…and besides it’s Palestine and Israel…the continuing war of our lifetime.

But wait, it’s not just Palestine and Israel this time. It’s gotten more complicated. This Lebanon, it’s Hezbollah, it’s the Shites. It’s no longer Sharon and Arafat. It’s war in a new day…a day with internet, cell phones, amazingly accurate rocket fire. A day of a single super power. What good will walls do? Nothing is as it seems. Israel is not as it seems, Hezbollah is not as it seems, the United States is not as it seems. The Shites and Sunnis are not as they seem. There is spin everywhere.

Innocent people are dying, everyday. Will Peace ever be given a real chance?

In this new day we live in…a father takes out an ad in the NY Times Titled “How to Make the World Safe for Our Children”. The father, Leonard Greene writes:

“A terrorist killed my son on 9/11. Child soldiers are killing children. Justification for labeling others as enemies is not hard to find, given the atrocities of human history. Yet, I do not see enemies. I see only other families, families who cherish and protect their children. We all have this in common. Let us build upon this shared experience.”

In this new day, Blue-helmeted Peacekeepers are targeted and killed. In this new day, the United States Secretary of State refuses to negotiate with Iran or Syria. The President of the United States, George W. Bush defends Israel’s aggression into Lebanon.

In this new day, former army private, Steven Green, on trial for rape and murder of a 14 year old Iraqi girl and her family in Mahmudiyah, Iraq; told reporter Andrew Tilghman that he went to Iraq because he wanted to kill people. He told how he covered his dying sargeant with his own body and felt his heart stop beating.

Green said about the war in Iraq…”this war is different from all the ones our fathers and grandfathers fought. Those wars were for something. This war is for nothing.”

What is war ever for?

Author and foreign correspondent Chris Hedges, who has received awards for his coverage of global terrorism…has written a provocative book titled War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning. Recently returned from the fighting in Sarajevo in 1995, Hedges wrote:

"The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give us purpose, meaning, a reason for living. Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the shallowness and vapidness of much of our lives become apparent. Trivia dominates our conversations and increasingly the airwaves. And war is an enticing elixir. It gives us resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble.”

Or at least to imagine we are noble.

The world is in such upheaval. Old separations have fallen away with the rise of the global community. The conflicts of today are at least in part, efforts to find stability, efforts to create a new order among tribes, nations, and cultures, religions.

The major wars of today in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in Israel and Lebanon purport to be part of a larger war on terror, or a war over disputed territory, or a religious war- all seem to me to be wars of dominance, fights for power and authority and for economic advantage. Who will be the decider on the international scene, in areas of geographic or political dispute?

And why must children and child soldiers continue to die? What is our responsibility?

First we must give up the myth of separation, the myth of specialness. Our fate as a nation is intimately and forever tied to the fate of all the world’s people and nations. We cannot pretend to be free of either fear or of caring. There are no borders in the global community. There are no them and us. The only moral stance to take in face of conflict, suffering and war, the only stance to take is compassion. The only hope is in human communion.

After giving up the myth of separation we must look and listen for human communion.

The prophet Amos warned the people of the Hebrew Bible…

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.”

All the priests; the media, the pundits, the government leaders in every land, the charismatic Islamic clerics who lead from hate, Jewish thinkers who won’t let go of old scripts…so many are wandering to and fro feeling famished…seeking the saving word, the answer, the wise counsel…the silver bullet, the one action that will resolve the hunger of their people- the hunger for economic security and physical safety, and the thirst for respect and dignity.

These two things that all people everywhere need…economic and physical safety and respect and dignity. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs told us of this long ago.

Perhaps all war comes down to this. Perhaps the generals in war have different motivations and agendas…but sons and daughters and sisters and brothers, cousins and grandparents, all of families in the Middle East, or in Iraq or Iran or Korea, or China or Cuba or New Orleans or Darfur…all the families in the global community; send their sons and daughters to fight for security and for dignity. Everyone deserves safety and respect. All people, in all places:
Human compassion should be the response of the human family.

The pictures of war on television or in the papers are dangerous.

Study after study has shown that soldiers become de-sensitized. After you kill the first time it is easier to kill again. After you see a comrade die the first time, you are less horrified when it happens again. How do you respond to pictures and reports of today’s wars. Do you linger over the photos, do you watch news show after news show? Sometimes we turn away too quickly, try to blot out the reality of war…and sometimes it preys on our subconscious, and we, like the soldiers can become de-sensitized.

Has our soul as a nation become so stained by the number of dead reported that we compare each number with the death toll on September 11th…or the number of names on the Viet Nam Memorial, or the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust, or the number of Blacks sacrificed to slavery, or the number of women raped the world over on any given day, the number of the murdered in DC or MD…the numbers begin to numb, until no one life seems to be worth much.

Should we debate peace plans, negociating strategies, pull-out scenarios? Should we make demands, concessions, predictions?

What can we do? How can we face the reality of the headlines and still live with hope and love in our hearts? What about Peace? Is it possible?

Many of us have worked and spoken out for peace at other times in our lives. Some of us have served our country in times of war and times of peace.

(Hope)

I believe we do share a commitment to compassion as the highest virtue. Perhaps we share a vision for a world at peace. This commitment to compassion and its expression in peace is reflected in our UU Principles and Purposes. It is written in the front of our hymnbook:
"We covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all."

This is where hope begins…with our principles, with our values. With compassion for the human family and peace and justice for the world community.

This is a grand hope. A great vision. A vision worth working toward. A hope worth praying for. A vision worth sharing.

Our second reading this morning is from native American leader, Black Elk:

“I think I have told you, but if I have not, you must have understood, that a man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on Earth for people to see.”

How do we perform a vision?
How can we give form to the vision of world peace?
Peace is a grand vision, but we must start small.

Lao-Tse, Buddhist teacher tell us this about peace,

If there is to be peace in the world,
there must be peace in the nations,
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors,
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home,
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

The Peace movement starts in your own heart.

Perform your vision of peace by living in a peaceful way. Use language of love, not of anger. See the beauty that lies under evil. Begin to think of the world as one community rather than separate countries. Learn a new language. Buy this book of Peace prayers.

Subscribe to this magazine Teaching Tolerance it is filled with ideas for family activities that promote co-operation and affirmation of differences.

Learn about conflict resolution. When discussing politics with a friend tell them about the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group that formed in 1996 and worked effectively to monitor and intervene constructively in conflicts during the last decade. There’s a book, by Adir Gurion Waldman called “Arbitrating Armed Conflict: Decisions of the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group” that tells this success story.

Tell them about the young adults in Lebanon, the “Samidoun” which means, “Steadfast”, they are helping the families and the elderly who have Had to flee their homes and are now living in parks and parking garages, the young people are organizing games for the children, bringing medicines to the sick. One 19 year old said; “we felt we had to do something”.

Put a peace sign on your car bumper. Buy a tie-dye peace symbol t-shirt for your grandchild and tell them about the sixties peace movement.

Did you know that the Viet Nam Memorial is the most visited memorial in Washington. Go there, be reminded of the costs of war, find fresh resolve for a vision of peace.

Peace is a life long journey. It is a continuous path. Do not be afraid or cynical. Do not be diverted. Imagine Peace. Begin to live your vision of a peaceful world.

Start with your own life.

Foreign Correspondent, Chris Hedges, encourages us to find life’s meaning in love, not in war. Let us find our way to nobility through love. Let us create security for all through love and generosity. Let us extend respect for all because we have loving hearts.

When Hedges, felt the most hopeless in war zones, he made a point of talking to couples in cafes or walking along the river. He saw in couples in love a universal truth. He saw that is it only through love that humanity will survive.

To live our vision of world peace, we must begin by reaching out to those closest to us. We begin by seeing the divinity in each person we meet.

And we extend this awareness of the power of love to others, recognizing that they also love and are loved. …love that is like our own.

You might be thinking that this is too sentimental or soft a message to help on the level of global conflict. But wasn’t this the message of Ghandi, the message of MLK, the message of Jesus, the message of the grandmothers. I haven’t arrived at wise words for Condoleezza Rice to use in negociations…but if she and all others at the table live a vision of world peace – if they live from a place of peace in their hearts, then the words they say will be inspired….for the power of the vision of peace will be released and will make a difference.

When we truly live our vision in the here and now…then the power of that vision will be released. Love will give our lives meaning. Love will enable us to resist in our nature what we know we must resist, and affirm in our nature, what we know we must affirm.

One way to give substance to our vision of world peace is to install a peace pole here at UUCR. I hope two or three of you will step forward to make this happen in the next few months….then we will have a concrete reminder of our connection to the global community and a constant prayer of peace will rise from this holy ground.

Love will be the power that brings about world peace. There is much we can do, as individuals and as a religious community, on our lifelong journey to peace. It is never too late. Let peace begin with me.

Shalom, Saleem, Peace.