Sowing the Seeds of Peace

October 6, 2024 / reverendjoannwhite / 2 Comments

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Sowing the Seeds of Peace” Zech. 8:3-17

Since 1940, churches have observed a world-wide communion on this first Sunday of October. It’s a sign of our unity in Christ. As we gather at the table, we remember that we are made one in Christ. And as we go forth from worship, we resolve to take the unity, peace, and love of Christ with us, so that our actions in our families, communities, and beyond might anticipate and promote the unity that God longs to see for our world.

That first World Communion Sunday was a prophetic act, undertaken in a time that was descending into worldwide violence. In October 1940, France had fallen to Hitler’s invading army. The Vichy government had just proclaimed the end of Jewish status, denying their Jewish citizens the most essential of rights and freedoms. Concentration camps across German-occupied Europe were filled with men and women, conscripted into forced labor in inhuman conditions. Hitler was meeting with Mussolini at the Brenner Pass in the Alps, where they devised plans for world domination. Within days, the Blitz would rain bombs on the streets of London, Bristol, and Coventry, England.

World Communion this year coincides with the anniversary of the Hamas terror attack on southern Israel. On October 7, 2023, 1,195 Israeli civilians were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage. In response, the Israeli Defense Forces launched a war against Hamas in Gaza. 41,431 Palestinians have been killed, more than half of them women and children. 1,706 Israeli soldiers have died. About 120 journalists, reporting on the war, have lost their lives, as have 224 humanitarian aid workers and 179 United Nations Relief Workers (UNRWA). 60% of the people in Gaza have lost a family member this past year. This week, we held our breath while Israel took the fight to Lebanon, targeting Hamas and the anti-Israeli militant group Hezbollah, which is equipped by Iran. Predictably, the Iranian response launched 180 missiles into Israel’s airspace. It is estimated that 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon this week, fleeing the escalating violence.

We do not know what will happen in the coming year as Israel continues their offensive and Iran responds. We do not know what will happen as Vladimir Putin pursues his grievous war against the people of Ukraine. We do not know what will happen as Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch missiles at passing cargo ships. We do not know what the future holds for the civil war in famine-ridden Sudan. We do know that we need World Communion today every bit as much as we did when it was initiated in 1940.

Our reading from the Prophet Zechariah promises peace and abundant life for people in a time of struggle and wavering hope. Written in the year 522BCE, the Israelite people lived in a landscape that had been scarred by war. Some of the people were newly returned from years of exile in Babylon. Clans that had been separated by more than half a century of captivity were learning how to be family again. And they were seeking to do so amid trying circumstances. Fields and orchards had gone fallow. Trade routes were disrupted. The city of Jerusalem lay in ruins—its walls breached and the temple burned to the ground. When the Persian Empire defeated Babylon, the people had rejoiced as they were sent home to their Promised Land with resources and the blessing to rebuild. But where would they start? Who could do the work? Would the land ever again flow with milk and honey?

Into this trying time, God spoke a word of encouragement and hope through the Prophet Zechariah. God promised a rebuilt Jerusalem, where the streets would be filled with blessing: everyone would live to a ripe old age and the sounds of children laughing and playing would ring out. God would sow the seeds of peace, and there would be a harvest of abundance: grape vines heavy with ripe fruit, golden fields waving with ripe grain, rain falling to water the land, a people living as a blessing to the nations. Can we imagine how good those words sounded to the people who heard Zechariah speak?

The people would play their own part in bringing that peaceful abundance to pass. There would be the hard physical work of tending fields and flocks, raising up the walls, and rebuilding the Temple. And, according to Zechariah, there would be some demanding personal work. The people would need to sow their own seeds of peace. They would need to speak truth and ensure that justice was passed at the court of the city gate. They would need to turn from evil and work for the good of all their neighbors. They would need to put an end to the lies that divided communities and prevented justice in the land. God would plant seeds of peace, and so must God’s people, sowing peace and justice one household, one neighborhood, one city at a time. This was the Lord’s vision, God’s best hope for God’s people.

It’s a beautiful vision that God continues to hold out to faithful people all around the world this morning. Even now, God is sowing seeds of peace. God envisions a world where Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran will come to the table of peace. God sees a time when the people of Ukraine and Russia will beat their weapons of war into plowshares and pruning hooks. God dreams of the time when famine-stricken and civil-war-torn places like Yemen and Sudan will end their strife and the people will eat the bread of peace. The seeds of peace will grow and flourish in a world-wide harvest, the lion shall lie down with the lamb, and the people will know war no more. Lord, hasten the day!

We do not know what will happen this year in all those conflict-ridden, war-torn, frightening places, but this morning we do know that there is work for us to do. God’s people always have a role to play in bringing God’s hopeful sowing of the seeds of peace to an abundant harvest. Zechariah told us so. It starts here with our personal resolve to do the things that make for peace. Are we ready?

First, we are to speak truthfully to one another, not only expressing what is true, factual, and responsible but also listening to the truths of others. As truth is spoken and ears are opened. We find a way to move forward, past times of division and misunderstanding.

Next, we are to ensure justice for all people, whether it is the court of public opinion, our local town courts, or our broader legal system. In the words of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, jr., “No justice, no peace.” We all, especially those among us who are marginalized, impoverished, and at-risk, deserve our day in court and justice for all.

We also need to rethink our definition of neighbor. If we accord the honor and care of “neighbor” only to those who look like us, think like us, and act like us, then we are doomed to always live in the land of “us and them.” Can we instead dare to find common ground and work together for a world community where everyone is a neighbor and a beloved child of God?

Finally, we cannot honor lies as truth, or as Zechariah puts it, we cannot “love perjury.” That calls for personal vigilance that calls out old family stories that perpetuate division and misunderstanding. That calls for communities that refuse to scapegoat vulnerable people, like immigrants or minorities, blaming them for all our social, civic, and economic ills. That calls for doing our due diligence to ensure that we do not repeat stories that are not factual, whether we heard it on the street, saw it on social media, or watched it on television. As long as we accept lies as truth, we cannot live in peace. Can I get an amen?

This morning, the Prophet Zechariah reminds us that God has sown the seeds of peace. The Lord, through the Prophet Zechariah, has even given us a roadmap to the things that make for peace. It starts with us, my friends. The only question remaining on this World Communion Sunday is, “Will we do our part in bringing God’s generous sowing of peace to a full and abundant harvest that is a blessing to all?” Zechariah–and the Lord–hope that our answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

Resources:

PCUSA. “A Sowing of Peace” Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. Louisville: PCUSA, 2024.

David Petersen. Haggai and Zechariah 1-8. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1984.

Peter C. Craigie. Twelve Prophets, vol. 2. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985.

AP News. “What to know about fighting in Lebanon and Gaza” in The Associated Press, October 5, 2024. Accessed online at https://apnews.com/article/israel-lebanon-what-to-know-hezbollah-incursion-c44358cb4c70db69bdab4b254cb2ed76

–. “Casualties of the Israel–Hamas war” in Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, October 4, 2024. Accessed online at Casualties of the Israel–Hamas war – Wikipedia

Zechariah 8:3-17 (HCSB)

³The Lord says this: “I will return to Zion and live in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the Faithful City, the mountain of the Lord of Hosts, and the Holy Mountain.” ⁴The Lord of Hosts says this: “Old men and women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of advanced age. ⁵The streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in them.” ⁶The Lord of Hosts says this: “Though it may seem incredible to the remnant of this people in those days, should it also seem incredible to Me?”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. ⁷The Lord of Hosts says this: “I will save My people from the land of the east and the land of the west. ⁸I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem. They will be My people, and I will be their faithful and righteous God.” ⁹The Lord of Hosts says this: “Let your hands be strong, you who now hear these words that the prophets spoke when the foundations were laid for the rebuilding of the temple, the house of the Lord of Hosts. ¹⁰For prior to those days neither man nor beast had wages. There was no safety from the enemy for anyone who came or went, for I turned everyone against his neighbor. ¹¹But now, I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. ¹²“For they will sow in peace: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce, and the skies will yield their dew. I will give the remnant of this people all these things as an inheritance. ¹³As you have been a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Don’t be afraid; let your hands be strong.” ¹⁴For the Lord of Hosts says this: “As I resolved to treat you badly when your fathers provoked Me to anger, and I did not relent,” says the Lord of Hosts, ¹⁵“so I have resolved again in these days to do what is good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah. Don’t be afraid. ¹⁶These are the things you must do: Speak truth to one another; make true and sound decisions within your gates. ¹⁷Do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor, and do not love perjury, for I hate all this”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

Mercy, Me!

September 11, 2022 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Mercy, Me!” 1 Tim. 1:12-17

Oren Kalisman grew up with Muslim neighbors he never met. In fact, as a Jewish child growing up in the Galilee, Oren’s only childhood memory of interacting with a Muslim neighbor was when his mother stopped to give a ride to an old man, hitchhiking on the road to the next village. At eighteen, Oren, like his parents before him, began compulsory military service with the Israeli Defense Forces. He was selected for an elite squad of paratroopers with twenty soldiers under his command.

When the second intifada began in 2000, Oren and his unit were deployed outside a refugee camp. There they used snipers to pick off alarmed Palestinians who emerged to defend their homes with rocks and Molotov cocktails. In 2002, a solo Palestinian attack at an Israeli checkpoint killed six Jewish soldiers. Orders came from Oren’s commanding officers: the Muslim policemen manning Palestinian check points in the West Bank were to be killed in retaliation. Fifteen officers were executed.

Oren justified the violence that he and his men perpetrated. If someone was throwing a Molotov cocktail at you, they should be killed. Likewise, someone had to pay for the murder of six Israeli soldiers, even if those killed had nothing to do with the attack. Oren was just doing his job. He was following orders.

In our reading from 1 Timothy, the Apostle Paul alludes to his track record as a man of violence and a persecutor of Christians. As a devout youth, Paul had studied with the esteemed rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem and become an expert in the Torah. Paul practiced Pharisaic teachings, which touted an extreme piety and devotion as the best way to please God. In his zeal as a young Pharisee, Paul had endorsed the stoning of the deacon Stephen, the first martyr among Jesus’ followers. Paul had also harassed the church in Jerusalem, and when many fled to Syria, Paul sought special permission to take his violence on the road, to arrest and return to Jerusalem for punishment all who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Paul justified his violent behavior, believing that he was rooting out a dangerous sect that defiled Judaism with the news of a false Messiah.

We may not be members of the Israeli Defense Forces or Pharisees censuring blasphemers, but we know how it feels to be troubled by our pasts, even when we believed that what we were doing was true and righteous. In fact, our past may continue to haunt our present and trouble our thoughts about the future.

Before coming to Saranac Lake, I enjoyed being a youth pastor in Morton Grove, Illinois. I like to think that I did some good ministry among the young people of the church, but I think some of my best service was in providing caring presence and compassionate listening for some of the church’s oldest members, our World War II veterans. They were troubled by remembrance of the friends they left behind on the beaches of Normandy. They were disturbed by memories of the hate and violence they had directed toward Japanese enemies in the South Pacific. They realized that they had brought the war home with them after it was over. They kept secrets from their wives. They had been emotionally distant with their children. As Morton Grove welcomed an increasing number of Asian immigrants, they struggled to let go of their painful memories and love their new neighbors. There were any number of ways that they could reasonably justify their past actions, but their violent pasts still troubled them.

In my twenty-two years of serving churches, I have learned that we can all be troubled by our pasts, whether we have embraced violence and persecution or we have simply engaged in practices that wound the spirit or brought injury to others. We regret the harm we have caused our families: our impatience and harshness with our children, our failures to care for aging parents, or the too little love that we have shown to our spouse. We regret the harm we have worked against the human family: our gender bias, our racial hate, our prejudice toward those whose ethnicity, social class, or political views are unlike our own. We can be adept at justifying our actions and rationalizing our bad behavior, but when we are truly and deeply honest, we know our need for grace. We know the late-night hours when we pray, “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.”

Paul’s past caught up with him as he hurried down the Damascus Road, intent on arresting those who knew Christ as Lord. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul was stopped dead, blinded by a heavenly light, and accused by the aggrieved Jesus, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Struck blind and powerless, the incapacitated Paul was taken to Damascus, where he spent three days without sight, neither eating nor drinking, pondering how he had gotten things so wrong.

Oren Kalisman’s turn around came during the Passover in April 2002. In response to a terror attack in Netanya, Oren and his men were sent into the West Bank with orders to occupy Nablus, using whatever means were necessary. From the second floor of a home that they had occupied, Oren heard gunfire from the room next door. There, one of his men, a sniper, was firing at an unarmed old man who was seeking to recover the body of a boy, dead in the street below. When Oren ordered his soldier to stop firing, he learned of orders from their commanding officer to kill with impunity. Shocked at the inhumanity they had resorted to, Oren realized the moral quandary he was in. Remembering that moment, the Israeli says, “We were surrounded by Palestinians who were fighting very bravely and who I realized, like ourselves sixty years ago, were fighting out of desperation for their very homes.” At the end of the operation, Oren voiced his moral concerns and asked to be replaced.

We all have our Damascus Road moments when we are convicted of the harsh truth of sin. Sin confronts us in the dysfunction that we instill in our families. Sin shouts at us from the evening news as the murder of George Floyd, the shooting of Breonna Taylor, or the lead in Jackson, MI drinking water remind us of that racism is part of the fabric of our society. If we are at all self-aware, we will admit the sin of writing off relationships, doing the wrong thing because it is the easy thing, and allowing ourselves to hate others because their political views are unlike our own. When we sin against our neighbors, we sin against God. We sin against Jesus, who asks why we are persecuting him. Lord, have mercy upon us.

Paul tells us good news. Although we act in ignorance and unbelief, the grace of God overflows for us. Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom Paul deemed himself to be foremost. We are loved and forgiven. And in the greatness of Christ’s mercy for us, we find a new purpose in service to God and neighbor. Jesus would use Paul’s zeal to serve God’s Kingdom. The former persecutor and newly Christened apostle would make multiple missionary journeys, plant countless churches, and touch many lives with the good news of God’s amazing grace that seeks and saves us when we are lost.

Oren Kalisman has found a new purpose. He has established a chapter of Combatants for Peace in the West Bank community of Nablus where he once was an occupier. Combatants for Peace brings together former members of the Israeli Defense Forces and former Palestinian combatants. They share their stories, build relationships, and learn principles of non-violent conflict resolution. Their goal is nothing less than building a foundation for Israelis and Palestinians that will bring lasting peace to the land.

My wise World War II friends knew that the only way forward from a war to end all wars was through the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ. They trusted that, even though they might always be troubled by their war experiences, the grace of God overflowed for them. They poured out their lives in God’s service in simple heartfelt ways. They attended church every Sunday. They shared their skills and abilities for God’s glory: founding a church, building a manse, tending the church gardens, serving on session. They kept God at the heart of their families with Sunday School and table graces, mission trips and church potlucks. They knew their weakness and trusted that the Lord could do what they could not. In the eighteen years since I served as one of their pastors, those men have all died. I have no doubts that grace led each of them home.

The grace of Jesus Christ overflows for us this morning. We are loved and God is faithful, even if we are, like Paul, the foremost of sinners. Our immortal, invisible, only-wise God redeems us with a love that is stronger than the persecution of Pharisees or the intractable violence between Israelis and Palestinians. God’s mercy for us is bigger than the legacy of war or all the ways that we can get things so wrong in our families and the human family. The mercy of God abounds for us and claims us for God’s purpose. Lord, have mercy!

Resources:

The story of Oren Kalisman was recorded for The Forgiveness Project and may be read at https://www.theforgivenessproject.com/stories-library/oren-kalisman/

If you would like to learn more about Combatants for Peace, you can at this link: https://cfpeace.org/

Eric Barreto. “Commentary on 1 Tim. 1:12-17” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 11, 2016. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org

Benjamin Fiore. “Commentary on 1 Tim. 1:12-17” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 15, 2019. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org

Christian Eberhart. “Commentary on 1 Tim. 1:12-17” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 15, 2013. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org

A.K.M. Adam. “Commentary on 1 Tim. 1:12-17” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 12, 2010. Accessed online at workingpreacher.org

1 Timothy 1:12-17

¹²I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful and appointed me to his service, ¹³even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. ¹⁶But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience as an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Joann White

writer, pastor, spiritual director, and enthusiast of wild places

World War II