In church on Sunday, a man told a story about his grandmother. He said that she was a gardener. She loved tending to her vegetables, turning the soil, waiting for rain, bringing in the crop. She told him, "There's just something good about helping God make green beans."
That wasn't the point of the story, but it stuck with me, and it made me think about something that has been bothering me for several weeks. I can't claim to know much about the mysteries of God, but I do believe that he is almighty and all-powerful. If he was so inclined, I believe he could snap his fingers and POOF! Peace would reign in the Middle East. God is such that he could so radically change the minds and hearts of those in conflict that the Israelis would start a Hezbollah-Hugging club.
But God doesn't seem to work that way. I don't know why, but he chooses to use us, these tired, broken people, to help him work on his earthly kingdom. Like the grandmother in the story, we are part of a kind of creation-machine, and we, if we so choose, have the amazing honor of helping God make green beans. Or helping him establish healthy relationships among families. Or helping him create peaceful interactions between enemies.
It isn't that God can't make the dang green beans hisownself. I don't understand why, but he uses us to help him out. Which brings me to my dilemma.
What is our role in this catastrophe? What is my role specifically? As a Christian, I believe I should pray for those enmeshed in this conflict. But praying for peace...praying for justice...praying for competent and trustworthy leadership...OK, it's all well and good. And I believe in the power of prayer. But what more am I to do to help create an environment of peace? What can I possibly give to help heal any of these ancient wounds? How can I help even one person understand that violent force can never beget true peace? Where do I begin?
I don't know. So I'm just fumbling through prayers, writing on this silly blog, doing the best I can here in Wilmore, and hoping that those in the positions to do something on a larger scale will be wise, loving, patient, forgiving, and filled with the spirit of peace.
Here are some fantastic words of wisdom from C.S. Lewis:
Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. [...] And half of you already want to ask me, 'I wonder how you'd feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?'
So do I. I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point. I am not trying to tell you[...]what I could do - I can do precious little - I am telling you what Christianity is. I did not invent it. And there, right in the middle of it, I find 'Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.' There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms.
If we are to live the Biblical example of forgiveness, then when our enemies strike us, we are not to strike back. We are called to forgive as Mr. Michael Berg forgave the men who brutally beheaded his son; we are called to forgive as Eva Mozes Kor forgave the Nazis who subjected her to nameless atrocities; we are called to forgive as Christ forgave those who crowned him with thorns, mercilessly beat him, and nailed him to a tree. Many say this is totally irrational; complete folly; a death wish. Many Christians say this. But, if we are Christians, it is what we are called to do, who we are called to be. It is one of the ways we live as God calls us to live, and I can't imagine that the peace of God will be brought about in any way but this.
3 comments:
susanna,
wow. probably one of the best articles i've read in a while on the delimna we face as active agents in this story called creation. i bet when you and nolan decide to have little nolan's running around, their brains are going to be too big for their heads. your beautiful, smart and witty. nolan is a wise man... (don't think he is as smart as you though!) :-)
blessings and keep writing - i'll keep reading.
ken in luverne
Very profound and well written. You should start a blog or somethi....
oh, wait - I guess you already thought of that.
Yeast in the bread dough that helps raise up the Kingdom of Heaven - that was this post to me. Thank you.
Just now getting around to reading this -- not much time for blogging lately.
You make worthy points and a worthy appeal for peace, but (having spent most of my life in the study of human conflict) I can't help but be struck by the fact that most of the world is governed by some derivative of Roman law because the Roman infantry learned the value of the sword as a thrusting (vs. cutting) instrument during the first two Punic Wars. This also explains why Pontius Pilate, not the Sanhedrin or a cabal of Zoroastrian priests stood in judgement of Christ and, for that matter, set us on the road to separation of church and state. You quote CS Lewis, but no one ever said better words in defense of the non-pacifist Christian position. Not all outcomes in the world are equally good; some are quite evil and are pursued by people with evil intent. Sometimes these people must be resisted with force. We should be willing to lay down our lives in allowing others to sin against us, but we have a heavier responsibility when the issue becomes one of defending other people. The Old Test. explicitly, Christ implicitly (in, for instance, his praise for the Centurion), and millenia of Christian tradtion all testify that -- sometimes -- defending others justifies the use of force.
To cite the Romans again, Harry Turney-High put it memorably in "Primitive Warfare:" "Roman courage in closing with the enemy resulted in the Romans selling the Greeks as merchandise."
There is a substantial part of the world that would as soon as not sell us (and all other non-muslims) as merchandise -- or better yet, sever our heads like slaughtered lambs. I do not consider that a neutral outcome. I happen to think it necessary to fight that part of the world community, becuase the alternative is genocide and slavery. So does Israel, which is fighting one of more vicious and better equipped parts of the enemy entity.
Whether we get sold as merchanidse, or worse, in the coming century will depend to a large extent on how much courage we show in closing with and fighting the enemy.
Monk
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