Bad Theology Kills
They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4)
Oh my dear ones, what a tremendously troublesome week.
I do not relish in the exhausting pattern of daily response to the perils of our world (my goodness, our nervous systems need a break!) but when our faith is represented with terribly harmful theology, we have a responsibility to name what we hold true.
Our beloved country continues to engage in violence, and a faith that others call ‘Christian’ is invoked to justify it. Those leading the violence claim an allegiance to God, but what we can see clearly is an allegiance only to power.
I don’t have a lengthy discourse for you today about the evils of war or the preciousness of peace. Many, many words have already been written by many others. What I can offer today is the certainty that the United Methodist faith is not represented by a Christian Nationalist doctrine (or any other) that touts any war as part of “God’s divine plan” or any person or country as anointed by God to carry out any violence.
God’s will is never war. In a situation of impossible choices, the choice must never be war.
Today, there are beloved ones in Iran and the countries surrounding it who are now embroiled with us in a desperately complicated and deadly war. Even as we want to rejoice with those who now see the hope of freedom, the mechanism by which this has happened – and the likelihood of increased violence as a result – overshadow the good that may have been hoped for.
It can be so very tempting to use strength and power to garner the closest thing to peace that we think we may find, but that is not the way of our faith. Any attempt at ‘peace’ that comes through violence is just as the peace of Rome; it bears no resemblance to the peace of Christ.
As our colleague Rev. Benjamin Cremer reminds us:
We want to take up swords. Jesus takes up a cross. We want the roaring lion. God comes as a slaughtered lamb. We keep trying to arm God. God keeps trying to disarm us.
If you are grieving or fearful or despairing today because of the violence we are inflicting, it is a sign that you have not forgotten Jesus’ way of peace or God’s commandments of love. It is a marker of hope for all of us to know with certainty that this is not the world we intend to build.
We grieve much because we love much; it is that love of God and neighbor that will carry us through, even now.
In tremendously troublesome weeks such as this one, keep sharing the Christian faith that you know: the one that celebrates queer folks and God’s gracious diversity, the one that is called to care for all of creation, the one that dreams of peace with justice, the one in which love casts out all fear. For all must know: there is another way.
In the peace of Christ,
Pastor Karyn