COMMENTARY: The Elusiveness of Peace

c. 2003 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C.) (UNDATED) My golfing partner and I are tied coming to the final hole. Our play is better than yesterday, but short of adequate. Still, it is a gorgeous day. I […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C.)

(UNDATED) My golfing partner and I are tied coming to the final hole. Our play is better than yesterday, but short of adequate. Still, it is a gorgeous day. I am overwhelmed by a feeling of peace.


Alas, peace is fleeting. Soon I am gnashing my teeth after depositing a shot in a lake. Peace is far from universal. While we golf, bloodshed continues in Iraq and down the street. Mayhem and meanness dominate many lives.

Why, after all this time, does warfare still rule human affairs? Long ago, John the Baptist heralded return from exile and said that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Mary told of the night her son was born and angels sang of “peace on Earth.” Jesus promised peace to his followers. And yet peace remains elusive, even among those who claim the Prince of Peace.

Of all the questions that readers have asked me, peace has been the most common topic. One reader asked: “I find it increasingly difficult to believe in a compassionate God when there seems to be no reachable peace on Earth. I would ask God why He doesn’t work on people’s hearts so that they can love instead of hate, seek peace instead of war.”

One wrote of political leaders too “spineless” to resist warfare and churches too caught up in “religiosity and bureaucracy” to make a difference. A reader being brutalized by a greedy congregation asked, “Why are humans so awful to each other?” A reader whose denomination is fracturing asked, “Can you teach us how to live in harmony?” Several readers yearned for what one called “the peace, contentment and joy of living I had as a child.”

These are more than “woe is me” questions, more than partisanship wondering whom to blame. They cut to the heart of faith. Why does God seem so helpless? So distant, so removed? Why does God not deliver on Christmas promises? If we sing of peace but return to war, what does that say about the rest of our hymns and prayers? Are they equally futile?

When you cut through the partisan slants on this or that war, the same question tends to emerge: Why doesn’t God fix things?

One answer has to do with freedom. God has left us free to choose life or death, blessing or curse. The only lasting peace occurs when we rise above hubris, find better ways to express fear, master our bloodlust, and give up our triumphal claims _ in other words, repent, not repeat, our sins.


But the question remains: What is God doing to help us make better choices?

One clue lies in the way Luke recounted the appearance of John the Baptist. He grounded it in historical time _ the era of Emperor Tiberius _ and named the rulers whose decisions dispatched armies. Similarly, Luke grounded the birth of Jesus in the time of Augustus and Quirinius. But then Luke shooed them all off the stage. Rulers were merely a backdrop to the real story.

Whatever God intended through John and Jesus had nothing to do with changing the hearts of those named by Luke as dominating the public stage. Even though emperors, kings and presidents routinely try to co-opt religion in order to wage their wars, the making of peace happens elsewhere, far from that brightly lighted stage where affairs of state are determined.

Even though prelates and famous preachers cozy up to heads of state, they discover that the realm of worldly power is inevitably corrupt, a venue of hubris and greed, where the powerful think they need not listen, respect or show reverence.

God, it seems, works a different venue, closer to home, closer to life as we actually live it. It was no accident that Messiah and his herald came to common folk, not to the grand. God’s working for peace happens far from the throne of worldly power.

God’s peace isn’t the absence of war headlines from Baghdad. God’s peace is one soul choosing humility over pride, love over hate, sacrifice over self-serving, giving over taking.

That peace won’t appear on the nightly news. God’s peace must be searched out and celebrated.


DEA END EHRICH

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!