Category: Posts

Recently I was sent a video about some children and what they wanted for Christmas. They were asked to write one letter to the Three Kings (the Spanish version of Santa) saying what they wanted for Christmas. The letters referred to the usual toys, video games, etc. Then the children were asked to write another letter, this one to their parents, saying what they wanted from their parents for Christmas. These letters asked for nonmaterial things like spending time together reading or playing soccer. Then the children were asked if they could only send one of the letters, which one would they send? Yes, all the children chose the letter to the parents.

Here’s the link to see more about the experiment:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/24/spanish-ikea-ad_n_6377434.html

Raising children takes lots of time, effort, and attention. This can be difficult to deliver when parents are working, working, working to provide for their children and when the demands of every day life are so draining in our complex consumerist society. Kids need parents to talk with them, play with them, learn about things together, have experiences together, share feelings, read together and talk about the stories. That all takes energy and time. And most parents probably feel they have more of a deficit of time and energy than of money.

Peace is like this. Peace takes time. Peace involves relationships, getting to know people, learning to trust others, listening and understanding. Whether the situation is between two people, two groups, or two countries, peace is often a time and energy consuming process. It requires commitment and creativity. We can see how it can appear to be easier to just sever a relationship rather than work for reconciliation and peace. We can see how it can be easier to lash out and make demands rather than go through a painstaking, difficult, tiresome, drawn out process of negotiation and compromise.

But children who have their material needs met but not their emotional and spiritual needs are less happy and have more problems. Kids that don’t get needed attention and energy and time from their parents have a harder time. Peace is like that. We may seek the quick fix, but it may not be lasting. It may not be as good for all those involved. It may not have the long term positive effects that peace can have, when the time and energy is put into seeking peace. Peace may be a more difficult path but it is also more rewarding and better for all those involved.

Can you think of a time that you invested yourself in working for peace? Think of the effort that was put into the process and the result.

Prayer: So often we want immediate results. We want to see a positive outcome right away. May we remember that peace is very precious and can take a long time to create and to maintain. May we think about our faith and the stories we have of God’s efforts to be at peace with humanity. May we summon that same kind of commitment and patience in our efforts for peace with ourselves, with one another, with creation, and with God. Amen.

Our daughter called the other day. She’s the pastor of the UCC church in Burlington, MA. We were discussing preaching themes for the Advent/Christmas season. She was sharing conceptual ideas and I was chiming in with some concrete illustrations and stories that went with the themes she was sharing. After a couple of my comments and ideas, she said, rather exasperated, “Mom, that’s science again. You’re always getting into science.”  Well, she might have intended her comment as a criticism but I took it as a compliment.

Science and religion work well together. In fact, they are better together. Religion can offer an ethical and values based grounding for science. And science again and again illuminates spiritual insights. Good science and good religion can form a very strong partnership. I think of science and religion not as antagonists but as allies.

When it comes to peace, yes, we need practical solutions, and that’s where hard science and social science have contributions to make. Facts. Figures. Strategies. Trade offs. Background and history. But religion fosters the desire for peace and the will to work for peace. Religion encourages the commitment to seek solutions and can change hearts. So, in thinking about Wonder-Full peace, religion and science make a great team for the pursuit of peace at many levels and in many situations. This Advent season, we can also think about making peace between science and religion and putting to rest the false notions around the incompatibility of the two.

Think of a time when science just left you in awe. How wonderful to celebrate the intellect put to use. Some would call that God at work.

Prayer: It is amazing all the things that we can learn from science about the world, about nature, about space, about our bodies, about life. May we be so awed by science that we praise the God of creation. And may we love this world as God does and so go to any lengths to create peace. Amen.

Today I received an email asking me to sign on to a letter of support to the Muslim community from the Auburn Senior Fellows via Groundswell. You know this kind of thing – sign a letter, sign a petition, send a message to someone in authority about an issue.  The letter I got today is a statement that affirms the presence of Muslims in America and condemns the rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment in America. What I like about the letter is that is does more than condemn the actions of others, affirm a different perspective, and ask others to change.   It also asks the signers to promise to take action in support and protection of Muslims. One part of the letter declares:

America is not America without Muslims. As people of faith and moral conscience, we promise to defend our Muslim brothers and sisters from attack, to speak up when they are maligned, and to support them with our voices, our actions, and our bodies.

I like the commitment of this statement. It is easy to add my name to something on line and hope that I am counted. Hope that someone is paying attention to the number of signers. Or tell someone else to change.  But this letter asks me to do something in my day to day life beyond just typing my name in a box on a screen.

We are fortunate in St. Petersburg that there is an active Interfaith Association cultivating positive relationships among people of differing faiths. Because of this group and other community initiatives, I know several Muslim people.  These are people I can call on the phone or email.  People I feel I know well enough to have honest conversations about what is really going on.

Having signed the letter in support of Muslims in America, with the commitment to be personally involved in supporting Muslims, I am planning to ask my Muslim friends directly about how they are being treated day in and day out here in St. Petersburg. I look forward to getting a frank report. Then I will know how I can be helpful right here in our backyard.

This is part of what peace is about. Lofty ideals, yes, but also taking action in our every day lives close to home.

Maybe you can think of a time that you were able to help someone that was being targeted in some way – being bullied, harassed, taken advantage of. What did it feel like to take action on your principles?

Prayer: It’s easy to wish and hope and pray for things. Our faith also compels us to take action. That is harder. It can be inconvenient. It can be risky. We may be afraid of doing the wrong thing and so do nothing. Jesus is a great model for us of someone who lived out his longings each and every day. As we try to follow him, we increase the peace in the world and in ourselves. Amen.

This past Sunday in church one of the prayer requests was for an inmate on death row in Florida. It was a reminder for all of us that our state and our country continue to implement the death penalty even though mistakes are made and innocent people are killed; it does not act as a deterrent; and it is exorbitantly expensive for the tax payers. As Christians, we also believe that the death penalty is immoral and against the dictates of our faith.

LUCC has recently become involved in advocating against the death penalty. At a meeting of people of faith gathered to discuss what we can do about this heinous immorality, an important point was mentioned. To stop the use of the death penalty in Florida we don’t have to turn to Congress in Washington. We don’t have to depend on the Florida legislature. No laws need to be changed. One person has the power to stop the use of the death penalty in Florida. One person. The governor. Rick Scott.

This was an important reminder about the power that just one person can have. Maybe sometimes we don’t take action in a situation because we think we are powerless to have an impact. Good luck trying to get a law passed or changed these days! But we should remember that one person can make a difference. One person matters.

Again we see the importance of this idea relative to the death penalty. Maybe we can’t get the law changed right away, maybe we can’t get everyone off death row, but maybe we can save one life. Or two. Or more. Just by influencing one person – Rick Scott.

I know that when I heard the person at the death penalty meeting say we just had to change the mind of one person, I was encouraged by the impact we could potentially have. Up until then, the idea of making a difference on this issue seemed out of reach. But influencing one person, that seems more within the realm of possibility. We can work for peace. One issue at a time. One policy at a time. One person at a time. One life saved at a time. And we can make a difference. This perspective can help us to resist becoming apathetic or overwhelmed.

Can you think of a time that you feel you influenced one person’s view of something? Can you think of an instance in which you changed your mind about an issue? Peace is that close!

Prayer: We pray that our hearts would not become hardened. It’s so easy to become insulated, numbed, distracted, or apathetic. When we don’t care, we lose our humanity. We deny the image of God within us. May we open our hearts and let ourselves be influenced by the pain of the world. May we be motivated by the suffering around us. May we have the heart to take action and to be transformed as we work for peace in the world. Amen.