possible peace?

a week ago now, president obama gave his acceptance speech for the nobel peace prize. (i'd suggest reading it - the link is above). i do appreciate having a president who is eloquent and who has clearly been wrestling with the irony of receiving a prize for peace while being the president of a country in the midst of two wars, one of which he's just escalated.

some of obama's speech was beautiful - "only a just peace based on the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can be truly lasting." word, obama, word. i like that he includes the need for economic justice and human rights in the pursuit of peace. and he speaks of needing diplomacy so that repressive regimes can move down a new path with "the choice of an open door." the opportunity for redemption, not just condemnation - this is true and humbly acknowledges that america alone cannot solve the problems of the world. towards the end of speech, he states "we do not have to think the human nature is perfect for us to still believe that the human condition can be perfected. we do not have to live in an ideal world to still reach for those ideals that will make it a better place." this, to me, relates to living into the kingdom of God as we wait for it to come in all its fullness. this is why i'm doing what i'm doing what i'm doing - today as i walked through my field placement, one of the large homeless shelters in the city for men, i had this sick-to-my-stomach feeling that this should not be, that this is not right, that men and women should not be homeless, crammed into a shelter. this is why i'm doing social work, this is why i desire to pursue social justice - because i believe that God calls us to be a part of bringing the kingdom in more and more fullness. i love this quote from dr. king that obama uses: "i refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. i refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present condition makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him." he neglects, however, dr. king's frequent admonition that our means and our ends must be consistent - that the only way to true peace is through non-violence.

several times in his speech obama acknowledged dr. king and gandhi's lives and non-violent action, and he acknowledged that there is nothing "weak, passive, naiive" about their lives - and then comes the big word... "BUT..."

BUT, he says, he cannot follow this path. he is a world leader that must look at what is "practical," what is "possible," and this means the domination system, the idea that there is such a thing as redemptive violence, and that the violence of war is necessary to create peace.

i voted proudly for obama and have been excited about the energy and possibility that has surrounded his presidency in the past year, especially being here in d.c. this speech reminded me, however, that obama himself is still stuck in the midst of a system that buys into the myth of redemptive violence, that his position as president is tangled in a web of power that says that domination, power over the other, is the only way to be safe, that security means military strength. when looked at it this way, i suppose, can i really blame the president for his attempt to justify war in promoting peace?

is this what Jesus taught us, though? did he, with his life, death, and resurrection, confront power with violence, or with love, creative resistance, non-violence, peace?

we, as the church, do not need to be held back by the powers of domination. we have the freedom to stand up, to speak truth to those powers, to say, "we believe in a God who came to this earth and showed us that actually, violence cannot achieve ultimate victory. it is only when we face violence with justice, love, and non-violence that we can overcome it. this is the message of the cross and even more so of the resurrection - love is most powerful. non-violence is the way to life. and even if we have to absorb the violence into ourselves to expose its power as false, like Jesus did, we will. just like dr. ing, like gandhi, like others who have risked their lives to stand against violence and oppression with non-violence and love, we will follow the way of Jesus." and thanks be to God for advent, for the hope that Christ has come and is coming in fullness, that the way of Jesus will prevail.

give us the strength to trust in that Hope.

advent.

i always love advent. i always have loved it - growing up, it was the time of putting electric candles in the window, decorating the house, playing the same cds each year, having the christmas pageant at church (the highlight of which was the year i played joseph! :-) on a more serious, theological note, however, i love how advent is a time of waiting for what has already come to come in all fullness.

the season of advent so captures the reality that we live in each day of the year. in advent, we know that Jesus is already born, but we anticipate his birth all the while. it's the already but not yet fully time. same with the kingdom of God. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is at hand, yet it is still to be fully fulfilled. this in-between waiting time can be hard to navigate - how do we live as if the kingdom is fully here, while it is not yet completely present? how do we live as if Jesus is here while we proclaim waiting for him to come again?

i don't have the answers. i'll probably have some more thoughts as the year progresses, especially as i'm being especially inspired right now by a book called "the powers that be" by walter wink and the power of non-violence. and because you all know how much i love having thoughts on things. :-) for now, though, i think these next few weeks leading up to Christmas are a perfect time to think about living more deeply into this tension. how do we live into the kingdom of God which is present and still coming?

here are two kingdom ideas that relate particularly to this time of year that i've appreciated seeing in the last week. no, this time of year has absolutely nothing to do with buying buying buying, contrary to popular belief. i would say it has to do with the opposite - giving giving giving. and not just more of what we already have and don't really need. Jesus came to bring freedom to the oppressed - are we oppressed, are we bound to a view of Christmas that undermines it's true meaning?

does our spending on one more t-shirt perpetuate the oppression of children laboring unfairly in sweat shops? does our consumerism feed bondage, or further liberation? here are some fair trade christmas lists and links.

and what if we gave presence instead of presents? what if we spent a small bit of the billions we spend on gifts to help provide clean drinking water to the world? check out what some churches are doing in response: they call it the advent conspiracy (i love their sub-heading - "christmas can [still] change the world")

i see the ways that i am bound to another kingdom, to a worldly kingdom, to money, to things, instead of living into the liberation that Jesus brought and continues to bring to me and to the world. Lord, have mercy. deliver us from evil. come, o come, emmanuel, God with us. be with us as we strive to live in Your kingdom. forgive us when we fail. forgive us when we celebrate your liberation with bondage. and continue to bring Your kingdom, in spite of us.