Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 20 September 2020, Sunday for Peace, by Bruce Van Voorhis. The scripture readings that day were Isaiah 58:1–11, Psalm 119 1–12, Colossians 3:5–14, Matthew 5:1–12.

In our world without peace, may this meditation today be acceptable and pleasing to you, Lord, and bring your people a peace that the world is not providing us. In your Son’s name, we offer this prayer. Amen.

Tomorrow is the International Day of Peace, and thus, the theme of my message and our service today focuses on this topic on this Sunday for Peace. (Ironically, as a quick aside, tomorrow is also the 48th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines by Ferdinand Marcos.) When I hear the word peace and a day devoted to promoting it, I immediately think of it as a reaction to war and an attempt to end violent conflicts, and indeed, this aim was the intent of the U.N. General Assembly when it passed a resolution in 1981 creating this special day and annual observance.

As we all know though, there have been many, many wars since 1981, and many wars still rage throughout the world today. We also know that the absence of peace today is not just confined to wars and violent conflicts. In the midst of our COVID-19 world, there is a lack of peace in our hearts as we worry that we may become infected and perhaps possibly die. In our city, we have witnessed violence on our streets since June of last year in the clashes between the police and protesters that took place even outside our church doors. Now we also live with the uncertainty and anxiety produced by the national security law. What can we say or what can we do without being arrested under this new law? Where are the red lines and land mines of free speech? The law has created fear; and where there is fear, peace cannot be found.

Meanwhile, for a person who has lost their job, there is no peace; for a homeless and hungry person, there is no peace; for a woman battered by her husband, there is no peace; for a person with asthma breathing polluted air every day, there is no peace; for a person being tortured, there is definitely no peace. These are sadly the realities of people in our city and in our world in these times of unpeace.

This deficit of peace is naturally not confined to these external events. We may also be feeling a lack of peace in our lives because of various issues in our school or workplace or family.

In short, we find today an abundance of conflict and too little peace, an abundance of division and too little respect for others, an abundance of hate and too little love. 

We may ask, Where is God in this world without peace?

God, on the other hand, may ask, Why have my children created such a violent and hateful world?

If we look at the problems of violence we have raised this morning—

war, domestic violence, environmental degradation, human rights violations, homelessness and hunger, unemployment and so forth—many of us know that this lack of peace in our city and in our world are because of broken relationships with other people, with other nations, races and cultures and with brokenness within our societies. A broken relationship with ourself may also be at the root of our feelings of disharmony and unpeace, and these problems certainly indicate a brokenness of humanity with God as we seek every day to push God to the side because of greed, a desire for power, the supremacy of our ego, maybe apathy, etc.

Many of us also know that there can be no peace without justice, or justpeace. There may be winners in wars, but they are only planting the seeds of future wars if they do not justly address the grievances of the losers that sparked the conflict. We may recall that the Treaty of Versailles that concluded World War I, for instance, only laid the foundation for the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

In our own community, the Hong Kong and Chinese governments would like there to be peace in our city, or social harmony as they label it, so that they would not be confronted with criticism, protests, disagreement with their policies. In reality, what the authorities want is obedience, to be in charge, the power to decide. If only the people would shut up and not cause trouble, there would be “peace” in their eyes; there would be harmony. But would there really be peace in the city amid this silence of discontent? Would people still not yearn for genuine democracy and the freedom to express themselves? We can all answer these questions for ourselves.

What then are we to do?

As people of faith, the Scriptures provide a guide for us. In our Old Testament reading this morning, the prophet Isaiah, first of all, admonishes those who fast and pretend to be holy and devoted followers of their faith but then exploit their workers. The worship that pleases God, according to Isaiah, is to work for justice, to share our bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless into our homes, to provide clothes for those who need them. If we address these needs of the poor, then Isaiah says God will guide us and provide us with the resources we don’t think we possess—maybe money, maybe skills and knowledge, maybe the inability to step outside our comfort zone, etc. Would not the poor have more peace if they were not hungry, had a place to sleep and adequate clothes? Our true worship then takes place outside the walls of the church out in the world. As the Rev. Martin Adhikary, a theologian and church leader in Bangladesh, says, “Religion without justice has no value.”

Our understanding of what is required of us to work for justice and peace is further enhanced by Psalm 119. In this psalm, the psalmist has a burning desire to know and to follow the statutes or commandments of God, which are not revealed or indicated specifically in any of the 176 verses of this psalm—the longest chapter of the Bible of which we obviously only read a small portion today. However, Paul in his letter to the Galatians in verse 14 of chapter 5 says that the whole law is defined in these familiar words: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Would the world again not be more just and peaceful if we could just live out these words?

Other insights are provided by our epistle reading today in which Paul instructs the Colossians not to lie or slander others, to curb their anger, to let go of their evil desires and greed. He further instructs the people to embrace compassion and kindness, to live with humility and patience and to forgive others who they feel wrong them—a topic that Maggie discussed with us last week. Above all, they are to “put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

Lastly, our Gospel reading this morning underlines the message that God blesses peacemakers and those who seek righteousness, or justice, in the Beatitudes in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We do not need to be diplomats or people in positions of power to be peacemakers and work for justice. Every day has the potential for us to be a peacemaker by seeking to resolve conflicts justly in our homes, schools and workplaces. Moreover, as we noted earlier, by caring for someone who is sick, by listening to another person’s problems, by attempting to address the needs of the poor, we may bring peace to others.

Our motivation to be peacemakers flows not from a desire to be blessed by God but rather from our love for others, a love that is rooted in God’s love for us. We may tap into this love of God through Christian meditation that I’ve discussed in previous sermons. In the divine silence of meditation, we provide ourselves with the opportunity to discover this energy within us that flows like a river that is hidden from us by the desire of our egos to be in control.

Our motivation to be peacemakers also springs from our desire to be in a right relationship with God, with ourselves and with others. The Rev. Adhikary that I cited earlier explains that “peace is not just [the] absence of war, of quarrel[s] or fights.” He adds that the familiar Hebrew word for peace—shalom—“refers to completeness or wholeness where the relationships between God and man, man and man, man and nature are harmonious.”

Thus, our efforts to be peacemakers include much more than dealing with external events in our lives but rather begin with the internal transformation of ourselves to align ourselves and our relationships with the love and Spirit of God. From this wholeness, or shalom, we are better equipped to respond to the external events of unpeace in our lives and in our world.

As the Rev. Adhikary says, “We know [the] God of peace and [the] peace of God from the Bible,” but this knowledge does not make the task of being peacemakers any easier. I find that the messages of the Bible today seem clear and straightforward, but this clarity does not mean that the messages are easy to live out. It is because of this difficulty or unwillingness of humanity to align ourselves with the love of God that we have the world that we have today.

As you know, we will shortly pass the peace today. During this time, let us wish shalom for each other, for ourselves, for our city and for our world in this historic and unpeaceful era in which we find ourselves.

I will end with a proverb from Burma that encapsulates the goal for us today and every day: “Where there is love, there is peace.” Amen.