Beyond the Patio

Will We Have Peace?
It’s Up to us all
Micah 4:3-4

November 11 is Remembrance Day when we will remember those who fought and died during World War 1 and World War 11 and other conflicts. We will with gratitude wear poppies and give thanks for all those who laid down their lives on behalf of humankind  They faced all the atrocities of war and paid the ultimate price in order that we might have Peace.

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For many, the reason for going to war was that Peace would be the result in the end.  Peace I’m sure is the yearning of all of us. Do you remember some of the peace songs on the sixties? They expressed a yearning for peace that people today still have:

We shall overcome,
We shall overcome
We shall overcome someday
Deep in my heart I do believe
that we will live in peace someday

or

Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before,
I dreamt the world had all agreed to put an end to war…
And the people in the streets below were dancing round and round
Guns and swords and uniforms were piled on the ground

 

Such are the aspirations, the desire, the hope for peace. It’s not all that different than what we hear from the prophet Micah:

He (the Lord) shall judge between many peoples,
and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more. (Micah 4:3)

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The question we must ask is: will we have peace when conflicts end?

We would like to say, “when the war is over we will have peace!” But that is not necessarily so. The true nature of peace is not just the absence of war. Part of the biblical vision of peace was enough food for all. Part of the vision included justice for all. The vision included healing, forgiveness and love for all people. The vision of peace was that of a true community, where all people, no matter who they were, and what their situation in life were equal. Today the vision of peace would have to include a world where the over whelming problems of poverty, population and pollution would be illuminated. It would have to include freedom from anger, fear and loneliness that is prevalent in the world today. The vision of peace would have to be the same vision that Martin Luther King Jr. had in his famous sermon, “I have a dream” His dream was that some day all the peoples of the world regardless of nationality, colour, race, religion, or culture will join hands and sing together, “Free at last, free at last, I thank my God I am free at last.”

That is the vision of peace. It is a vision of a new order. It is a vision of a new humanity.

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That is the peace that many men and women died for in the world wars. That is the peace that we still must hope for and work diligently for. The torch has been passed to us so that all of us have responsibility to work for peace wherever we can in the world at large and in our own backyards.We will still have war in many parts of the world that threatens our peace. It will still be necessary to send men and women into those areas of conflict to risk their lives and work toward a peaceful end.  But also we have to realize that two thirds of our world will still face hunger, starvation and oppression. We still have division, disunity and poverty in our own country. We will still have cruelty and abuse in our own families. If we are to have peace, we will have work on all these problems with a most gracious and compassionate heart. It will take a profound cooperative effort on the part of many people  It will take a combination of a superhuman patience and ingenuity, with the grimmest courage and wisest benevolence, to keep us all within the bounds of humanness.

However, every time we mount obstacles that divide us; every time we do away with the fences that separate us; every time we overcome the prejudices that segregate us; and every time we do something to insure the well being of all people including the poorest of poor in our world and our community, we win a victory. Not only that, but we also build a memorial or all those who have fought for peace, freedom, justice and the future of humankind. Oh it is not a memorial of bricks and mortar but a memorial of our lives, and we take one more step toward that day whether it will be within our lifetime or beyond history when :

They shall beat our swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not life up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn of war anymore
but they will sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees
and no one shall make them afraid
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken

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