| Does What Jesus Said Matter? Looking Forward to our Next War |
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“Does What Jesus Said Matter? Looking Forward to Our Next War”
March 20, 2007
Umstead Park United Church of Christ
Douglas S. Long
Let’s see…
Ides of March, March 15… this past Thursday
St. Patrick’s Day- yesterday
Tuesday is the 4th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq
War
And Wednesday is the first day of spring
It’s hard to keep up with all the special days…
Did I say the 4th anniversary of the beginning of
the war with
A war that need not have happened at all, that now has claimed…
what?
3,195
-23,000
-hundreds of thousands
of Iraqis dead
-1.7 million Iraqis
displaced in
-2 million Iraqi
refugees in other countries
Folks… I’ve had a hard week.
I know some of you have, too.
But one of the things that happens when you're tired is that
your defenses are down… you're not as careful as how you say what you say…
This can be bad… but it also can be good.
Sometimes honesty needs to be aired.
I have little energy for this war… It’s like beating your head
against a wall when there are matters closer to home.
And then I ask myself… whose home? … and what’s the
importance of the matters?
My home needs a
little painting (so Denise tells me).
Their homes (Iraqi) are being obliterated.
My arm needs physical
therapy.
Their arms are being blown off.
God,
forgive my self centeredness, for growing prematurely tired of dealing with my
country destroying your children in another part of the world.
And then, and then I read the Friday 'News and Observer'…
(N&O article from Friday)
In the Faith Section…
War
Protest Draws Few
After four
years, few Triangle faith communities have signed on to oppose the
Yonat
Shimron, Staff Writer
"In general, it's [the war,
is] barely a blip on the radar of most churches," said Steve Taylor,
director of missions development for the Raleigh-based North Carolina
Conference of the
"Churches are impacted by the
general culture around them,"
…
most clergy take a status quo approach.
"War is always viewed as
something to be avoided at all cost," said Bishop Michael Burbidge of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh during a recent TV appearance. "But it's
a balance of security and protection to society. ... There's a hope and a
confidence and a trust that people who have information in greater detail than
we know are doing what's best for the country."
Asked if he favored an end to the
war, Burbidge said, "There's a reason, perhaps, why we can't do it right
now."
Most clergy, most churches, take a status quo approach. Well
not here, not today.
In the words of my friend Ken Sehested, one of the pastors
of “Circle of Mercy” a dually aligned UCC and Alliance of Baptist congregation
in Asheville, NC… In Ken’s words-
“We believe in the separation of church and state. But not
in the separation of values from public policy.”
So we’re going to talk about the war a little this morning.
I was talking with a clergy person not too long ago… and
they were lamenting on the topic that divides the church today… not war… but
defining who people can love (It is so
absurd… limiting love… that’s the issue that the Church at large deems most
important… telling people who they cannot love! Arghh!!)
Anyway, so this clergyperson was lamenting that Jesus hadn’t
said anything specifically on that topic. The assumption was that if he had,
there’d be no debate.
I rather quickly, perhaps too abruptly, pointed out that
there were other things that Jesus said that we pay little attention to, so I
wasn’t sure it would matter in that instance had he made a proclamation. For
example:
"You
have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I
tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”
Does what Jesus said matter?
Maybe the words of Jesus seem too abstract in the reality of
the push and pull of the nations. I would argue that it’s the war that is too
abstract for those of us in
Anyone fear they’d hit an IED (an improvised explosive
device) on the way over here this morning? No, the reality of this dirty war
doesn’t hit home to us.
Here are a few facts that bring it closer:
-Of the 3,195 U.S. soldiers dead… 74 were from
-Of
the 23,000 U.S. soldiers wounded… 603 from
Is the war getting better? Is a
resolution close at hand?
After four years, the Iraq War
continues unabated. You don’t need for me to recite the statistics. You can
read them in any morning paper.
Again,
from Ken Sehested:
It is not our habit
to engage in partisanship on any political party’s agenda. We
believe in the
separation of church and state. But not in the separation of values from public
policy.
So
let me bring the injustices a little closer home in a different manner… the total cost to the
(…and even the half a trillion dollar price tag does not begin
to cover future costs. The Administration seeks $142 billion more in war
funding for the next fiscal year. Since the war is deficit-financed, interest
payments alone could rise to at least one hundred billion dollars.
Spending on veterans’ health care and disability payments
for the many severely wounded soldiers could also mount to hundreds of billions
of dollars)
Half a trillion dollars for now…
…but my little brain can’t quite
get its metaphorical fingers around something quite that large…
So let’s bring that home, too.
According to the National Priorities
project, if you take the amount the US has spent or will soon allocate for spending
on the war in Iraq… you take the
percentage of that money that represents the tax paying citizens of NC…
(These are March 2007 figures..
these are current…)
The taxpayer costs of the Iraq
War to North Carolina is 12.3 billion dollars.
If you took the half a trillion
and just brought it down,
percentage-wise, to one specific Congressional District… again, based on
the number of taxpayers there…
The Percentage Cost of the Iraq
War to One Congressional District… Let’s say the 4th Congressional
District of NC… the Triangle… the District of Representative David Price.
Here’s what the people of the 4th District could have done
with their appropriate slice of that war spending. By the way, their slice amounts to $1.29 billion
(that’s how much we’ve financed.)
-Number of children that could have been
provided with health care for the length of the Iraq
War 148,143
-Number of affordable housing
units that could have been built 12,192
-Number of elementary schools
that could have been built 142
Did this war have to be?
Does this war have to be?
But we continue to spend
·
$11 million per hour and;
·
$275 million per day.
Does what Jesus said matter?
Revolution: what does
it mean? To renovate, to create, to invent. War was invented long ago, and so
were weapons. There’s nothing revolutionary about violence.’
-Leonardo Jimenez
Medea Benjamin has published a book entitled: “Stop the Next
War Now.” It’s a collection of essays
from all sorts of wonderful women who are trying to change the way we do
things…
Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of CodePink… the feisty and
persistent mothers and grandmothers and young women who are irritating the
hawks of our country, persistently gnawing at the war makers… and they are
making a difference.
It’s not enough to speak truth to power so that eventually
we’ll be able to say, “I told you so.”
What about the next war? Dare we try to stop it now?
I
quoted earlier from Ken Sehested at Circle of Mercy…
That
congregation adopted a statement last month aimed at doing exactly that…
stopping the next war.
Let
me read excerpts from it now…
From
Ken Sehested and Circle of Mercy:
We Say NO
A Christian
statement in opposition to war with
Lent 2007
Despite assurances to the contrary from the U.S.
Administration, we believe our
nation’s leaders may be seriously calculating the benefits
and risks of attacking
Our reading of this moment in history, in light of our
commitments as citizens and our
convictions as followers of Jesus, impels us to oppose
such a move.
We fear that our political leadership—led by the
Administration with the
complicity of Congress—is pushing us to the brink of
moral, financial, ecological and
diplomatic bankruptcy.
… our government is setting its “national interests” above
international norms of justice,
usurping all authority to itself. With an escalating
military budget—already larger than
those of all other nations combined—we seem to have
established our own destructive
threat as the source of national glory and honor.
It is not our habit to engage in partisanship on any
political party’s agenda. We
believe in the separation of church and state. But not in
the separation of values from public policy.
…
some moments in history require the church to refuse
neutrality and abandon silence.
… Jesus’ insistence on loving enemies precludes the
willingness to kill them.
… we … pledge vigorous support for any leaders willing to consider
Another way is possible. Waging peace will require at
least as much
commitment - as much courage, pride, honor and ingenuity -
as the pursuit of war.
We say no to war against
and a defamation of national honor. We say yes to
the strategies of multilateral
diplomacy and other nonviolent initiatives. We invite
other Christians, other people of
faith, and other people of conscience to deliberate these
convictions and consider
similar commitments.
This
statement was unanimously approved by the congregation on Sunday, 25 February
2007.
Here is what Jesus said… and I’m going to frame it in its
context because that makes it even harder:
"You
have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone
who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who
is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. …
"You
have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I
tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”
Jesus prefaces the words about war with… “But I tell you that anyone who is angry
with his brother will be subject to judgment.”
That brings it even closer home… for me, anyway.
Now… Here is a confession:
If love and reconciliation, if negotiation and dialogue are
the answer….
I have failed this week.
…and it eats at me.
You see I was expressing a passionate opinion to a group of
persons, not in the church; this was an extracurricular ‘privilege’… I was
expressing my heart felt opinion (and I was right, I might add)…
But I lost my temper. …and my message was garbled by the
fire by which it was delivered.
I’m not suggesting that anger is always wrong… but I do know
that forcing and opinion, even if that opinion is that love is the answer,
forcing an opinion, or value, or decision, doesn’t work in the long-term.
…which leads me to something I read recently of Goethe. I
don’t read Goethe that often so don’t get all intimidated by that… but this
stuck… and I’m thinking of posting it on the inside of my corrective lenses
because it offers a corrective to the way we often view the world and each
other.
We Are the Decisive Element
I have come to the frightening
conclusion that I am the decisive element.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
Does what Jesus said matter?
"You
have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone
who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is
angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.
"You
have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I
tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
Does what Jesus said matter?
Not from the looks of things.
No.
Unless… we actually listen.
Amen.
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