Living in the Light of God: Peace Through Non-violence

“This is a vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all; the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from many nations will come and say, ‘come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There He will teach us His ways and we will walk in His paths.’ For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; His Word will go out from Jerusalem. The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” (Isaiah 2:1-5) (Also read Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44) World peace is a worthy desire and necessary aim, but it requires more than wishful dreaming. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Many people cry Peace! Peace! But they refuse to do the things that make for peace.”

World peace requires that we all learn the ways that make for peace. We have to find a way to make the word “peace”as important as the word “freedom”. 1 Isaiah invites us all to take those first steps toward peace by taking a pilgrimage to “the mountain of Adonai’s house,” Yerushalayim. The peace of Yerushalayim is the passionate concern of Psalm 122. The name “Yerushalayim” is built on the Hebrew word for peace, “Shalom”. Ironically, the city sacred to all three of the world’s monotheistic religions, whose name symbolizes peace, has proven throughout history to be one of the most fought-over cities in the world. This psalm calls us to pray for the peace of Yerushalayim. We pray for the peace of Yerushalayim even today, not because of some crazy end-time scenario, but as the holy land that it is, the beloved centre of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And I wonder, if a significant part of our pilgrimage of peace would be a spiritual journey back to the centre of the religious world as a place of meaning, back to the place where the Prince of Peace walked the earth, the place where we will bow our hearts before the manger.

I.) Today, the first lesson along the pilgrimage is Peace Through Non-violence. Isaiah’s vision is one of peace for all people. It is the same peace on earth announced by the angels to the shepherds at Yeshua’s birth, an announcement we are preparing ourselves to hear about HaMashiach’s birth. Isaiah’s vision is that one day YAHVEH will settle things fairly and make things right between peoples and nations and we won’t learn or practice war anymore. But Elohim’s will is that non-violence and justice rule in the here and now, not just in the sweet by and by. And that requires our partnership with YAHVEH. When you read Isaiah carefully you see that he says YAHVEHwill settle things fairly, but wemust turn our swords into shovels and our spears into farming equipment. YAHVEHwill teach us, but wemust act, wemust turn the purpose of fighter jets from bomb drops to food drops and wemust transform the barrels of our guns into pipes for fresh water. Nations, not YAHVEH, destroys the weapons of war. It may be in the brokenness and evil of our world that sometimes the violence of others must be stopped by force. But rarely is that the true reason for war. Money, oil, control, our idolized way of life; this is what we are after. And it’s all because we are so afraid. We classify our foes as enemies of peace and freedom. But the poet offers a cutting question when he asks: “Did you finish killing/everybody who was against peace?” Henri Nouwen says the way to peace is learned through prayer, resistance and community.

II.) On YAHVEH’s mountain we learn the way of peace as we pray. Praying can sound so passive. It is often considered the opposite of action, but that is not the case. Prayer is the beginning, the source, the core and the basis of all peacemaking. Prayer is living in the presence of YAHVEH with an open heart ready to be shaped in the ways of our Elohim and illumined by the light of YAHVEH. Nouwen says that when we want to make peace, we first of all have to move away (spiritually speaking) from the dwelling places of those who hate peace. To pray is to leave the house of fear and journey toward the house of love and peace. This entering into a new dwelling place is what prayer is all about. Prayer is a “radical interruption” of those dependencies that lead to violence and war and an entering into an entirely new dwelling place. It’s what happens when we go up to the mountain of Adonai’s house. In a world as dangerous as ours, prayer doesn’t mean much if it is seen only as an attempt to influence YAHVEH or as a search for a spiritual fallout shelter or as a source of consolation. In the face of the destruction we are capable of, prayer makes sense only when it is an act of stripping oneself of everything, even our own lives, so as to be totally free to belong to YAHVEH and YAHVEH alone.

III.) Prayer leads us right into the world where we must take action and resist the violence and evil around us. Without returning evil for evil, we engage in what Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. practiced: non-violent resistance. Gandhi brought democracy to India through peaceful non-violence over the British occupiers, teaching us along the way that an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. King and his followers brought civil rights for African Americans through non-violent resistance. It cost both Gandhi and King their lives. Non-violent peacemakers expose the violence of the violent who know only violence, so the violent silence the peacemakers. King said that the principle of non-violent resistance seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites; acquiescence and violence; while avoiding the extremes and immoralities of both. The non-violent resister agrees with the person who acquiesces that one should not be physically aggressive toward one’s opponent. The non-violent resister agrees with the person of violence that evil must be resisted. With non-violent resistance, no individual or group needs either to submit to any wrong or to resort to violence in order to right a wrong. Peacemakers are those whose hearts are so anchored in YAHVEH that they do not need to evaluate, criticize or judge others. They can see their neighbours; whether they are American, Iraqi, French, African, Asian or Vietnamese; as fellow human beings, fellows sinners, fellow saints, men and women who need to be listened to, looked at and cared for with the love of YAHVEH. And we need to recognize that we belong to the same human family.

IV.) Nouwen says there is a “no” of resistance, resisting the forces of death all around us. But the “no” of resistance is only meaningful if we embrace the “yes” of resistance, affirming life. The desert fathers of the fourth century advised their disciples to focus on YAHVEH’s light instead of paying so much attention to the world’s darkness. Have you ever noticed how there seems to be so little peace in the hearts of some who are called peacemakers? Peacemakers are sometimes seen as fearful, angry people trying to convince others of the urgency of their protest. They have embraced the “no” of resistance but have not found the “yes” of affirming life and pointing others to YAHVEH’s light. Part of what Paul was saying to the Romans is that we need to recognize that HaMashiach’s coming has already begun to make a difference in this conflict between light and darkness. Things may be dark, but not as dark as they might have been otherwise. The light of HaMashiach is already giving forth significant illumination and we are called to live in that light. Let us continue the pilgrimage to YAHVEH’s mountain where YAHVEH will teach us to live in His light. We don’t have to live in valleys of darkness where we hate and kill and act in cruelty. There’s a high mountain of truth thrusting itself into the sun, solid and splendid in the light. We have been summoned to the mountain to come with a teachable heart, to listen with eager ears and to live out what we learn there.