Last weekend, there was roughly four million people who marched across the United States peacefully. We added to that number with over three hundred people marching in our small population here in Cook County. Over the past month, citizens of all political parties have been showing up in large numbers to meet with their elected officials to share with them their displeasure the directions that our current administration is moving our country towards. It has gotten so uncomfortable that our Republican representatives have basically stopped having public meetings because they are unable to defend the actions and the goals even against those who voted for them and our current President.
In the time when Jesus walked upon the earth with his disciples, Israel and all surrounding countries were occupied by the Roman government. Originally conquered by the Greeks some two hundred years earlier, they would be under this occupation for another six hundred years and then under various Muslim rulers and empires. The Middle East has always been portrayed as a place of conflict and lawlessness. However, it was mainly created by outside forces. For the most part, Muslims, Christians, and Jews were peaceful neighbors for most of their history in the Israel/Palestine area.
Today, we read that Jesus comes riding on a young donkey as a symbol of peaceful leadership. I do imagine that he would like to see Israel and all people free from foreign influence, much less occupation enforced by violence. Of course, many in the crowd and many of his followers expected him in the coming week to lead a revolt against the Romans and become Israel's king in the tradition of David and hopefully have that thousand year reign that is prophesied. As they were coming upon Passover, a time of remembrance when God, through Moses, freed them from slavery under Egyptians, it is more than likely that additional troops were marching into Jerusalem to suppress any type of unrest or revolt.
Right now, both Ukraine and Palestine are fighting for their freedoms and their independence. In Gaza, they are fighting for their very existence as Israel Defense Forces target hospitals, paramedics, and refuse to let in the basics for human living of food, water, and medicine, while in the West Bank they continue to kick Palestinians out of their homes and randomly detain Palestinians without due process and send them to camps to be tortured. In Russia, their leader seeks out the former glory of an empire while working to suppress its own people so he can illegally stay in power. All of this, all of this has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, too many of them children and women in Gaza. As our current President talks about expansion of our country by adding Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal, possibly inciting war and violence, we have time to show the way of peace. As another march is scheduled for this Saturday across the nation. We can voice our dissent, show up and be counted.
On Friday, we had seventeen people show up for our Compassionate Community Conversations, the group is growing as we work to create a better way working out our differences, listening to each other and responding with compassion. Everything we can do to remove fear pays dividends down the road to make us and them hesitate to commit violence against the other and against each other. This is the way of peace.
The way of peace is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. The way of peace is to love our neighbor as ourselves. As ourselves, we are created in very unique and special ways, each with our gifts, talents, and strengths to share with those around us. The way of peace is nations, cities, communities, and bodies of faith caring for the least of these, not blaming them, shaming them, or maiming them. The way of peace is art and creativity that is part of God's creation and design and invitation to join in and be a co-creator. The way of peace is to repent of our own sins, repair what has been broken, and reconcile our past with other people and nations so future generations don't have to carry the weight and baggage of past greed and violence.
The way of peace, in this day, is to be as public as we can to show that there is a different way of living and of governing that doesn't rely on violence and fear, that sees abundance and not scarcity. As the apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians, "those who had much did not have too much, and those who had little, didn't have too little." As Jesus marched with the people back then, feeding, healing, and sharing the gospel, may we continue that today. Amen.
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