OUR PRESENT-DAY PRAYERS for peace often come against a backdrop of violent protests that are occurring in increasing numbers in many of the large cities in various countries of our world. The cries of the oppressed and dispossessed rise in rage and in a wealth of self-proclaimed righteousness. Each faction has their truth, and in each, there is some truth. Solomon’s lament comes to mind: “Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1 Chron. 1:10) God granted his prayer. We need a similar revelation from God to enable us in how to pray in the midst of so many competing truths. So we turn to our Father, and ask for his wisdom to instruct the thoughts of our minds and motivations of our hearts, and to purify and refine them in order to accomplish his will. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5)
There is within Jesus’ teachings the genesis of the seed of passive resistance that we have seen at work in our times. He says “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:27-28, 31) These principles, which were put into practice as forces of change against the egregious oppressive policies of authoritarian governments, have born significant fruit in the sight of our generation and the one previous in nations around the world. Mahatma Gandhi in India, Martin Luther King in America, and Nelson Mandela in Africa were the faces of leadership in their respective protest movements, all of which had righteous cause at the root, and both of which brought forth radical positive cultural and governmental change as fruit.
However, the forces of change present in the protests sweeping the twenty-first century world are not operating in the realm of passive resistance. Instead, there are powerful groups whose active resistance utilizes the tactics of guerrilla warfare, and is employed in the context of ends justifying means. There may be some righteousness in their cause, but it is permeated with and corrupted by base and venal self-interests. There is a veneer of a cry for justice on the face of their cause, but its means of call to action is violent and destructive. Their enemy is not simply an ‘oppressive government,’ but everyone who opposes them as well as anyone that does not actively support them.
The historical outcomes of active resistance have always included bloodshed and death, oftentimes ending such movements—but sometimes toppling nations. Mobs with pitchforks upended kingdoms in medieval times; today’s mobs use other weapons, beginning with weaponized words, but not ending there; they have not and will not limit themselves to rhetoric. Cities have burned, all aspects of life are hacked, and disinformation has displaced the rational dialogue of free speech.
Oppressors have historically been slow to perceive the threats that have the power to overthrow them. There is always a turbulence of unrest in government and culture, and so there is a perceived normalcy to the appearance of yet another issue. Scaling up response to issues of great magnitude have to overcome the lag-time inherent in the monolithic mechanisms of maintenance that are systemic in any organization’s day-to-day operations. History is littered with the remains of governments—in fact of entire civilizations—which were too slow in response to the challenge. Today’s governmental and cultural leaders have ominously been labeled as ‘tone-deaf.’
Neither ‘side’ in these issues, though that far too simplistically defines the oppressed and the oppressors of this rising conflict, has yet produced a leader who can begin to change the current trajectory toward violence. One of Gandhi’s most well-known quotes, appropriate here, is “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” King, similarly, said “If we do an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we will be a blind and toothless nation.” Mandela said it this way, “A blind pursuit of cheap popularity has nothing to do with revolution.” All three of these men led movements that changed governments without destroying the culture and the people who lived under the protection of its policies.
Jesus’ teachings are cautionary and pointed in such matters, saying, “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” (Luke 6:39) He offers a solution that is not a third way, nor an alternative; he offers himself. His kingdom is not of this world, and for those of his kingdom, he invites further away, “But I tell you who are listening…” (Luke 6:27a) If we are paying attention to other hot and angry voices during times of trial, we will be dragged into the wars of the world, and there we will have to pay the price of loss of peace inherent in that world. Instead, Jesus tells us, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Give to anyone who asks. Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:27-28, 31)
The world has used these words to develop a social consciousness that employs passive resistance to bring about temporal change. They miss the point; Jesus advocates active resistance, but his words are not marshaled as weapons in the earthly sense. Jesus’ form of resistance is not warfare as the world knows it, but spiritual warfare in the way that Paul expresses: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph. 6:12)
We want to believe that all mature Christian understand this. But far too many of us have let our guard down, and allowed ourselves to be dragged down into the earthly arguments, where peace is impossible. Paul says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col. 3:1-2)
Preserve your peace; let your active resistance be prayer. “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:3-5)
Q. Am I praying that peace can start with me?
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