SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 - FIGHTING FOR PEACE
Sunday, December 3
Deborah Laforet
Fighting for Peace
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
Peace. How do I preach on peace when I have had a week that has felt very far from it?
How do I talk about peace when I my body feels overwhelmed with emotion and I feel about
ready to go to war? I won’t share the grisly details with you, but sometimes good work is
blocked from happening and it can be frustrating and demoralizing. The block consumes energy
and makes one feel like giving up. It takes a lot of support from others and a will within oneself
to push back and fight. Is this the opposite of peace? Does fighting for what you believe or
standing up against what you feel is wrong or unjust go against God’s will for peace?
In 1958, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it
is the presence of justice.” The Hebrew word shalom, which is found more than 200 times in our
bible, is used both as a greeting and farewell, but it’s not just meant to wish a person a lack of
war or lack of struggle; rather, shalom goes deeper. Shalom might be called the peace of the Holy
One. It is completeness, soundness, wellbeing, and complete reconciliation.
It’s hard to feel complete, to have a good wellbeing and to feel reconciliation if you live
in fear, if you are traumatized, if you are worried about the safety and well-being of yourself or
your loved ones. When one feels afraid to live openly, to be safe in our outside their home,
peace is hard to find. Some of us fear the wrong leaders being elected because they might cause
a slump in the economy, higher taxes, or create false news, but some fear their very rights being
taken from them, the loss of their homes, the loss of social supports, or the continued oppression
of marginalized groups. For many, to live in peace is to have enough food, shelter, health care,
and the right to be treated with respect and care no matter your religion, colour, sexual
orientation, gender identity, age, or disability. As Canadians, we are privileged to live where we
can vote for our leaders, but even then, lack of engagement, untruths, and unfair laws can cause
unfair elections that lead to corrupt leadership.
Our story today was about a corrupt leader, appointed by the Holy Roman Emperor. In
our story, King Herod ordered the death of children. We have no idea how many. We just know
it was children under the age of two, in and around Bethlehem, put to death because King Herod
was afraid of a prophesy.
How many atrocities occur in our world because a person in power is afraid? How many
innocent people suffer, how many die because people with too much power use it in violent and
selfish ways?
In our bible, this killing of innocent children happens twice. In our bible, in the book of
Exodus, the Pharaoh in Egypt kills baby boys because the Hebrews, who were slaves in Egypt,
were becoming too numerous and quote, “too powerful.” Most scholars don’t believe King
Herod actually killed children looking for Jesus, and that the author’s purpose for this story was
to directly link Jesus to Moses, describing Jesus as the new Moses. King Herod, though, if
you’ve done any reading about him, was a violent and chaotic rule who killed many people, even
those close to him; so it’s not out of character for King Herod to have done such a thing.
In our story, God doesn’t seem to be able to prevent Herod from enacting such violence
upon innocent children. It seems the only way of intervening in this story is through dreams.
The Magi are given dreams to not go to Herod and tell him where to find this child. Joseph then
dreams of an angel telling him to, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and
remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
Maybe there were other dreams. Maybe others listened and fled. Maybe others scoffed
at the dreams. How many of us would wake up from a dream with a warning from an angel,
pack up our families, and flee, becoming refugees? Maybe, like in many stories we hear like
this, there were those courageous people who fought back, who hid children and their families,
who obscured facts to protect those in danger, or who died as they tried to protect these children.
Sometimes, my friends, you have to fight for peace, which sounds like an oxymoron, but
I don’t think peace means you don’t stand up for yourselves and for others who are facing
injustice. Can a community be defined as peaceful if not everyone in the community is
experiencing peace? If we have a trans person in our community that’s experiencing bullying
and feels excluded, what is our role? If have we someone in our community with a disability
who feels excluded because of inaccessibility or because people infantilize them, what is our
role? If someone from our community is losing their home because of unfair wages or rental
laws, what is our role? If someone is struggling with their mental health and can’t find the
support they need and needs a community to love and support them through their struggles, what
is our role? If we know people are in danger because of their race, their religion, their gender
identity, or their politics, what is our role?
In what ways do we need to fight for peace? How do we stop the Herods of our world
from causing pain and suffering?
Catherine is going to share a song with us during communion. We’ll be busy doing what
we do during communion, so I want you to hear these words so that they hit more deeply when
Catherine and Anna share them with us.
The earth cries out, nothing feels right.
The world cries out, no justice in sight.
Fires burning everywhere, too many, too hot, too bright.
The child cries out, “don’t turn out the light.”
Broken hearts cry out, no end of hurt in sight.
Greed and guns rule everywhere, too many, too strong to fight.
This part of the song is the lament, the cry we offer. The song then goes to intercession,
what we ask of this world:
Let us be a sign of hope; let us be your arms of love.
Let us be the ones that say, there is another way.
We are waiting for you. You are waiting for us too.
This earth, this world is crying out for peace. It’s up to us to fight for that peace. Jesus
did, and he didn’t have to fight with violence. Jesus was a non-violent resister, and we can learn
a lot from him and the many others before and since who have been fighting, resisting, and
finding ways of pushing back without physically pushing.
I’d like to finish by having you share in a prayer with me. This prayer is in our hymn
books. Carolyn pointed it out to me this week. It was written by Oscar A Romero, an archbishop
in El Salvador who spoke out against injustice and violence, and was later shot and killed for it.
It’s #683 in the Voices United, but it’s also here on the screen.
Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silence of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.
It is right and duty. Amen.
May it be so.
Matthew 2:2-3, 7-18
(Introduce yourself.)
For the first three weeks of Advent, we are reading stories of those who were not at
the manger with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, but who are a part of the Christmas story.
This is to prepare us for the pageant on Dec. 17. Today, I’m reading from the
second chapter of Matthew, a story of King Herod and his reign of terror, a story
we often don’t tell during the Christmas season. I am reading verses two and three,
and seven to eighteen.
2 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi
from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born
king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him
homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem
with him.
7 Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time
when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and
search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so
that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set
out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east, until it
stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had
stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the
child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then,
opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and
myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for
their own country by another road.
13 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and
said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there
until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 Then
Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt 15 and
remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken
by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and
he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old
or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. 17 Then what
had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
May the Spirit bring us understanding of our sacred text. Amen.