October 22, 2006: WHEN THERE IS PEACE IN THE NATION
Mark 10:35-45; Hebrews 5:1-10; Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
Eileen Parfrey - Springwater Presbyterian Church

Rick's and my recent vacation gave us two weeks of exclusive Canadian news coverage. The result was that upon re-experiencing U.S. news reports we suffered from culture shock. We felt overwhelmed by the violence of the news reported as well as the way in which it was reported and analyzed. A couple of hours of channel surfing made me realize that even what we think is "entertainment" is violent-physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Even our taxes go toward violence and its consequences-crime and punishment, law enforcement, military defense. A comparatively minuscule portion of our taxes goes toward education, health, feeding hungry people, art, developing alternative energy, and infrastructure. As I pondered this, I remembered the words of Ann Richards' sermon for October 1. She said that it's not easy to be a peacemaker. In fact, peacemaking isn't for sissies. Look at the disciples. They've spent three years with the Prince of Peace, and they still have the gall to make that power grab. "Give us the place of power," James and John ask, and when the others hear about it, they're furious because James and John got there first. Jesus knows a teaching moment when he sees one, and he tells his disciples about Servant Leadership.

Oregon's ballots were mailed last week. By this point in election season, how many candidates are positioning themselves as the last in line, the least important, the one at the service of everyone else? The discipleship of the cross is radically different from the world of popularity polls, focus groups, and solidifying a power base. Discipleship of the cross is incompatible with election by popularity, because its notion of leadership is not about power. The archetype of leadership, portrayed by Jesus in Mark and Hebrews today, is God taking our place, showing us what is truly "human." And that portrayal of "humanity" doesn't just include suffering, it embraces it.

The Amish community in Pennsylvania shows us peacemaking that embraces suffering. Their outreach to the family of the killer of their little girls is deeply embedded in their culture of non-violence. The love with which they responded is not simple. It's a genuine love and forgiveness based on the notion that, "We're all in this together." That statement shocks and interrupts our culture of violence. Our culture is more likely to respond in the manner of the survivors of the Columbine tragedy. When memorial trees were planted at the school for both the victims and the killers, survivors and families cut down the killers' trees. And yet, because of the witness of the immediate Amish community, we are shocked enough to respond with love and support. Who started it? Where did this sacrificial and counter-cultural stance come from? And is it contagious?

The story is told of an American company, doing business in Columbia, who hired an engineer to work there. Columbia's international business community assumes a certain level of kidnap-for-ransom as part of the cost of doing business, and the engineer apparently expressed some justified reservations about working there. The CEO reassured the engineer he would be safe. When the engineer was kidnapped for ransom, the CEO chose not to employ the normal ransom negotiation consultants (!) to rescue his employee. The CEO chose, instead, to outfit himself, to walk into the jungle, and to spend four months searching for the captors, negotiating his employee's release. When the captors met him with his employee at the rendezvous, the CEO shook the engineer's hand and said, "You can go home now; your shift is over." And then he became the kidnap victim. Is that what Jesus meant by leadership?

I've been listening to a wonderful book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder, about American doctor Paul Farmer, working in both Haiti and Harvard to fight TB and HIV/AIDS. Farmer's fight has taken on a global scope, but he is a doctor first, treating patients one by one, in the worst imaginable poverty. Everything Farmer earns teaching 4 months a year at Harvard Medical School goes to his international Partners in Health organization. The donors to PIH are mostly $25 and $100 types, but one Boston millionaire, Tom White, was an early donor, consistently giving Farmer what he needed to buy medicines and equipment, to build clinics, to train local doctors, to transport desperately sick patients. Early on in their relationship, White visited Farmer in Haiti, as he practiced medicine in conditions of unbelievable poverty for 20 hours a day, visiting patients and families, diagnosing, treating, and just plain loving the people. White was so moved by Farmer's witness to God's preferential option for the poor that he wanted to give up everything in America and join Farmer in Haiti. Farmer thought a moment and said, "In your case, that would be a sin." Both Farmer and White engage in peacemaking as servants, because they do what they can, with what they've got, where they're at.

Henri Nouwen says that Jesus didn't send us out to be peacemakers as the Lone Ranger. We are peacemakers, embedded in community, sent by the power of Holy Spirit, bound as one Body with each other and with those we help. We will always tend toward violence and power grabs and political manipulation unless we are part of a community which itself is part of the living Christ. During this Peacemaking Month of October, we have been making concrete the implications of the scripture lessons in small groups at the end of the sermon. Today we will practice peacemaking in collaborative work effort.

THIS IS THE PROCESS WORKSHEET WE USED (in groups of six):
Peacemaking Month Activity: October 22, 2006
When there is peace in the nation . . .

"Twenty centuries ago, 'in the fullness of time,' God sent Jesus the Christ. Now there is a special time in history-a season (kairos)-summoning the faith and obedience of God's people. For Christ has gathered and deployed his people around the earth, across political and economic lines, in places of powerfully protected affluence, and among the poorest of the poor. The Body of Christ responds to the world's pain with empathy and anguish, one part for another, in our time. . . . we believe that these times, so full of peril and tragedy for the human family, present a special call for obedience to our Lord, the Prince of Peace. The Spirit is calling us to life out of death." (Peacemaking: The Believers' Calling)

What issues, what causes, what suffering in our nation has called out to our Springwater community? How will we respond?

Everyone has a role in this collaborative effort. Be sure everyone has a chance to participate.
Roles: recorder (1), resource person (2), facilitator (3), time-keeper (4), summarizer (5), reporter (6)

Choose the problem (examples: hunger, homelessness, unemployment, global warming)

Define the problem more narrowly (example: unemployment refined as workforce not prepared for the job, either because of language or physical barriers or lack of education)

What information do you need to address the problem (is there research on the subject, do you need to take a survey or census, what don't you understand)

How will you educate yourselves (library, internet, experts?)

What resources will you need to address the problem? (doctors, farmers, teachers, researchers, buildings)

How will you recruit people to help?
What is your hoped-for outcome? Be sure this is measurable, has a beginning and an ending time.