May 25, 2003 - Eastertide 6
By Jack Price

Eastertide 6

Memorial Day is a national holiday, a day set aside to remember those who have died in our country's wars.  As citizens and human beings, we join in this time of remembrance.  Those who have given the full measure of devotion deserve to be remembered and appreciated. 

            We are people of faith, gathered to worship the sacred source of all life.  As citizens of a greater realm than any sovereign nation, we have loyalties far beyond those of patriotism.  So, we remember those who have died on behalf of ideals "liberty and justice" wherever these ideals have been threatened. 

I grew up in a military household.  My father a career army chaplain.  As a result, I gained an immense respect and appreciation for the ideal of military as an instrument of peace.  A helpful image for the use of military force is that of surgery.  It is to be used only when absolutely needed because it always leaves scars.  Even when done well, we recognize that surgery does not always bring hoped-for healing.  Potential use of force, in conjunction with diplomacy, can be an effective deterrent to war between nations. The same is true of the use of force within societies and within families.  The actual use of force, however, means all other options have failed.

            Military and civilian people alike remember and honor those who have given the possession most cherished.  They have given life itself in exchange for something of even greater worth -- the ideals of peace, justice, and freedom for all people.   As human beings, members of families and communities, we also honor the memory of our own "balcony people," those whose support, guidance, example, and love continue to encourage us on the journey of life.  On each day, as on this Memorial Day, we acknowledge that peace, justice, and freedom can be transient and the cost for their preservation is often high.  Each day, then, is a time for awareness.  Feeling thankful is a way of being mindful.

During the season of Easter, we have explored the idea of Christ Gifts, available to each of us through the living Christ.  There is the gift of transformed life in the Spirit, life in faith that truly is beyond belief.  There is also the gift of Shalom, God's peace, clarity, and connectedness as the goal of living.  Justice is a Christ Gift when it is  for all people, divine justice that restores what has been lost and brings people together.  Finally, there is the subversive and alternative Wisdom of Jesus that defies the conventional wisdoms of humanity.

            War and peace, at least in some sense, are Christ Gifts as well.  Let me illustrate this idea with a story, taken from a book of fables by Rabbi Ed Friedman.  There was once a Friendly Forest where lots of friendly animals lived.  In this forest, there also lived a lamb, a particularly "sheepish" creature.  Once day a tiger came and asked to live there, too.  The lamb objects, but the other animals are delighted to have a tiger in their forest, since many of forests already had tigers.  He could stay as long as he promised to respect the rules.  Inevitably, the tiger's presence begins to frighten lamb, not by anything specifically the tiger did, but just by his being around.  The lamb asks the other residents of the forest for help.  They don't see the problem and tell the lamb to be more patient.  Eventually they start to blame the lamb for being frightened, for being so "sheepish."  Finally, lamb decides to leave the forest.  All are sad and "ring their hands," questioning, "Isn't there anything we can do?"  Whereupon one nondescript and exceptionally blunt member of the forest is overheard to speak almost with the voice of wisdom itself - "If you want a lamb and a tiger to live together in the same forest, you have to cage the tiger!"

"Caging the tiger" is an act of force used to solve a conflict.  The Iraqi war has been an effort to cage a tiger.  It is to seek peace through force of arms, an effort to seek justice for the oppressed. 

War as metaphor is "Willfulness," - trying to get others to do what you want them to do when they don't want to.  When war erupts, illusions of peaceful intent evaporate.  Ironically, war as metaphor is a path to peace (Shalom)

            Peace as metaphor can be a denial of the hard realities of life, a posture of placing one's "head in sand," as in the case of the animals in The Friendly Forest.  Peace as Shalom means wholeness, connectedness.  It is God's gift to us.  It is God's goal for us.  Peace is mindfulness.  Peace results from "mindful" living, being in the present without willfulness.

War and Peace as Christ Gifts are a metaphor of life's journey.  Life is a tide between these two shores:  between war and peace, between thought and action, between conflict and insight, between traditional doctrine and new-age theology.  C. S. Lewis' provided an image of our learning to be more like God in terms of love that can be helpful at this point.  Our life's journey is like walking on a winding road through a mountain forest.  God is like the scenic village from which we departed and to which we will return.  Almost as soon as we begin, we lose sight of the village.  About half-way through our trek, we come to a scenic overlook and see the village in the valley below.  At that point, when we see the village most clearly, we are actually the farthest away from being there.  When it is hidden from our sight, back on the trail, we are closer to arrival.  At the point we are feeling and acting most like God, seeing and understanding God most clearly, we are actually the farthest from God's presence.  This is because we only find that presence by acknowledging how unlike God we are, how much we need God's forgiveness and God's grace.  So, when we are least like God, we may find we are closest to God.  War, even metaphorically speaking, dispels all our God-like illusions.

The Great War of Armageddon is that cosmic conflict to end this age, as revealed in the apocalyptic literature of the Bible.  This is probably one of the few sermons you ever hear me preach on this theme.  Armageddon is metaphor representing a struggle of the soul.  It is the challenge to each of us to choose our "road," either wide or narrow.  The stakes are incredibly high.  There are no illusions.

Today, as it is each day, the cosmic struggle for your soul takes place, not against a beast with ten heads or a personified devil with horns.  This struggle is not even some vilified personification of evil outside ourselves:  a Sadaam Hussein, the Religious Right, or the Religious Left.  It is the cosmic struggle for life choices within the daily lives of each of us, life choices for or against Alternative Wisdom, Biblical Justice, and Deep Peace. 

There is a cosmic struggle for meaning in belief, a struggle between traditional religious doctrine and New-age postmodern theology, between competing gods for meaning.  It is a spiritual warfare.  What's at stake is more than land or ideology.  It is more than influence or wealth.  What's at stake is the direction of the precious life entrusted to us.  Direction, in this case, is not that of going to places called heaven or hell as reward and punishment.  It is not to be understood in terms of pleasing or defying personified called God and Satan.  It is a struggle for understanding as we question the Bible's meaning for us in light of modern understandings.  For many people, seeking lives of trust and faith, the Bible is no longer authoritative historically or scientifically.  Many traditional interpretations of doctrine are discredited as a result of religious-based war and persecution by the church.

            What can the Bible teach us today?  What can this sacred scripture that comes to us from the mists of antiquity mean to us today.  From the testimony of the Bible, we can know who we are.  We are God's - born of God, knowing God, being God's.  We can know the purpose of life; that it is a process of becoming who we can be - of growing in trust and growing in faith.  We can trust that the "Sacred at the center of existence" (God) is ultimate truth.  We can trust that "God," whatever our understanding, is knowable relationally, in the 2^nd person.  God is knowable in intimate experience.  God may not be knowable objectively, in the 3^rd person, theologically, but in process of knowing God, we find that we are discovering meaning and quality of life.  In traditional religious language, this is a personal relationship with God thru Christ.

            Spiritual conflict moves to Shalom (divine peace) through genuine encounter with the sacred mystery around us and within us.  We can ask ourselves, "What is valuable today?  What is worth paying the ultimate price.  Today's scripture lesson from 1 John says, "Whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith."  Spiritual warfare leads to peace, not in avoiding our search for understanding and belief, but in trusting the Creator of life is, and is something like the hero of this story:

There once was a rich and powerful king who possessed an usual and priceless ruby.  It was a source of great pride to him.  One day, to his horror, he found a scratch on the stone.  Desperately, he sought jewelers who could fix the scratch, but none could be found.  He then sought magicians and sorcerers, but nothing could be done.  Finally, he heard of an old retired jeweler from another town and sent for him.  Upon examining the ruby, this old jeweler said, "I cannot fix it, but I can make it more beautiful than before."  So he took the stone and for many weeks the king awaiting its returning with growing impatient.  At last, the ruby arrived.  The king examined it anxiously and discovered the old jeweler was as good as his word.  Where the flaw had been, at one end of the scratch, a beautiful, tiny rose had been carved.

True peace is won when our world is conquered by the love of God - not by subduing a foe, but by transforming and redeeming people.  We experience deep joy that is not dependent on good things happening.  Peace begins in the soul of each human being when truth and trust embrace.  We trust at whatever depth or stage we are able.  We are open to truth as much as our courage and imagination allow.  In much the same way as the jeweler carved a rose that transformed the ruby's fault, true peace comes to you and me.

"Eternal God, Sacred Mystery, Source and Meaning of life -- thank you for the memories of people whose scars you have transformed into shining lights for our benefit; and for how you are transforming our lives, scars and all, into something beautiful.  We seek your beauty and find it in all things.  Help us see the beauty you are carving in us and in each other.  Amen."