When Jesus tells his followers that the dawn of God’s New Age will be accompanied by upheaval and cataclysm, he includes armed conflict among the signs to look for: “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…”
Conflict seems to be a fact of life, or at least intrinsic to human nature. Almost as soon as there were two humans they began to disagree. As people developed the capacity to make weapons, conflicts became armed ones. As people developed the capacity to enslave or conscript one another, armed conflicts became a business with armies and navies, and eventually even the skies became a battlefield. And as people developed the capacity to philosophize and rationalize, armed conflict was often framed as noble and good, a necessary evil to achieve freedom and prosperity. The human cost of that freedom and prosperity was conveniently omitted from the narrative.
Is it churlish to raise such issues on Veterans Day, a day we set apart to honor and celebrate the sacrifices and courage of those women and men who serve on our behalf? I hope not. I am deeply grateful for those who serve and have served, and to those who paid the ultimate price in death or dismemberment. I ache for the many veterans in our midst who remain haunted by the trauma they’ve experienced and sometimes have perpetrated, and am deeply concerned about the paucity of mental health support being given them. I honor our veterans even as I look for a day when we won’t have any, because the human race has figured out better ways to work out conflict.
That seems about the most ridiculous sentence I’ve ever written. Not even Jesus seemed to foresee such a day this side of the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom. As long as “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…” we will need armed forces to defend us and sometimes the defenseless in other lands. And as long as we have armed forces, we will have veterans to be honored and supported.
Yet it doesn’t have to be either/or. God’s realm is a both/ and place, and that same Jesus who predicted conflict was also called the Prince of Peace. We can support our veterans while putting our energies into expanding the many effective peacebuilding and conflict-resolution initiatives in our world. We can champion restorative justice initiatives which seek to break cycles of vengeance that fuel so many conflicts. We can teach our children better ways to achieve their goals. We can honor our active duty service members while calling out bad actors who prey on the vulnerable, both within their ranks and in the populations in which they serve.
And we can proclaim the Good News we will one day know in full, that Life of God in which all are housed, all are fed, no one is in want or need, and therefore no one needs to be in conflict. The prophet Micah painted that dream:
God 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; but they shall all 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.
Jesus suggested that nations rising up against each other are part of the birthpangs to realizing that vision of peace. Perhaps they are. But they’re not the only ones. We can show other signs of God’s in-breaking realm of peace by living as though it were already fully here.
Jesus suggested that nations rising up against each other are part of the birthpangs to realizing that vision of peace. Perhaps they are. But they’re not the only ones. We can show other signs of God’s in-breaking realm of peace by living as though it were already fully here.
No comments:
Post a Comment