The archbishop’s invitation to pray for the spiritual healing of the world sent this humble pilgrim to Isaiah, prophet of Advent, who wrote 700 years before Christ that nations would beat their swords into plowshares and would not lift up sword against one another nor learn war anymore. This was all to happen, Isaiah said, “in the days to come.” We are still waiting.
A spiritually healed world would comprise nations that heard God’s word of peace. Nations led by Christians would obey Christ’s two great commandments, which are to love and glorify God and love our neighbor as ourselves. Leaders don’t have to be Christians. All faiths at their best embody the same principles.
Faithful leaders in Russia would remember Christ’s commandments before attempting to conquer their neighbor Ukraine. Faithful leaders in Azerbaijan would have remembered them before oppressing a resident population of Armenians. Faithful leaders in Washington would remember them and devise a different way of battling drugs than blowing up young men on the high seas believed to be low-level couriers. Killing them without due process. Attacking even those floating helplessly in the water after our missiles didn’t kill them the first time.
Every person and every nation has a right to defend themselves. But we do not glorify God and love our neighbor if we attack and kill without warrant or provocation.
“Nations will not lift up swords against one another.” At least they won’t do so in acts of aggression. At least they won’t do so in acts of oppression. This is what the prophet promised. But we’ve been waiting thousands of years, gracious Father. When will the nations hear your words and be healed? When will they heed Christ’s great commandments and devote themselves to peace?
Some people don’t want to hear from the church when we proclaim principles and values that are important to Jesus Christ. Some insist on a separation of church and state, especially when they sense a separation between the preacher’s views and theirs. We don’t want to force our religious doctrines on government. We don’t want religious tests. That’s not how we do things in the United States.
Except to the following extent. Jesus’s two great commandments add up to the secret of life. We glorify God, and we put the interests of our neighbor ahead of ourselves. By the time we get to be as old as I, we realize that these are the only things that work. These are the only values that will get us through our day. And we are reaching the point in this violent world where we need to say to those in power that these principles need to be part of the decisions they make about war and peace.
Jesus didn’t say just Christians need to love God and love their neighbor. Jesus didn’t even know the word Christian. Jesus said all people need to love God and love their neighbor. When it comes to the divine law of love, we can no longer afford a separation of church and state. The alternative is a global descent into chaos, darkness, and death.
I’ll close with a prayer for peace from an Advent liturgy I heard this morning at Pilgrim Place in Claremont, home to many retired pastors. In their maturity, they give a lot of thought to what they have learned about God’s authority. These are not words for the church only. This isn’t just for believers. These are words of truth for the whole world. We will heed them or die.
“God’s judgment is not vengeance, an eye for an eye; God’s peace is not false, a veil for injustice; God comes to break the spear, to silence the guns, and still our warring souls. May the peace of Christ rule our world and heal our hearts.”
[My remarks and photo album from the 15th annual ecumenical prayer service hosted by Abp Hovnan Derderian at St. Leon Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Burbank]
