Reflections from the Denominational Minister

"Humans as just another weapon of war."

Henry Paetkau

The headline caught my attention. It ran over an opinion piece by Ellen Goodman, whose byline indicated that she lives and writes out of Boston, MA. She was commenting on the escalating campaign of terror and death in the Middle East, and specifically the almost daily reports of "suicide bombers." Goodman argues that any culture that takes pride in having the next generation as a ready supply of cheap weapons has already lost its future. Human sacrifice, she calls it. "When," she demands to know, "did human weapons become a normal entry in the military arsenal?"

"Where have you been all your life, Ellen?!" I wanted to shout. "When weren't humans the primary weapons in a military arsenal? Have you forgotten other wars, before Afghanistan and Iraq, before technology permitted airborne warriors to drop immense bombs from great heights so that there would be no human casualties? (At least not on 'our' side. The enemy is, apparently, not 'human'. At least not the soldiers. Civilians, maybe, although they sometimes get in the way and become 'collateral damage.') Have you forgotten the millions of men (and some women) who have been sent into combat through the centuries? Were they not also trained killers, 'human weapons', 'human sacrifice'?"

Goodman is not alone in her forgetfulness. Around the world, governments are resorting to violence in an attempt to "root out terror." Jesus noted that tendency long ago. To the disciple who reached for a sword in order to protect his Lord from arrest, Jesus said, "Put your sword back into place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Mt. 26:52) "Blessed are the peacemakers," Jesus promised elsewhere, "for they will be called the children of God." (Mt. 5:9) Menno Simons put it most starkly: "The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in strife. They are the children of peace who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and know of no war…Since we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, how can we then fight our enemies with the sword?...Spears and swords of iron we leave to those who, alas, consider human blood and swine's blood of well-nigh equal value…."

Jesus lived, and died, using the most powerful weapon in his arsenal - love. "Love your enemies," he commanded, "and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven." (Mt. 5:44,45) Love, and prayer. The primary weapons of a peacemaker, a child of God.

Henri Nouwen had this to say about prayer and peacemaking: "Prayer is the basis of all peacemaking precisely because in prayer we come to the realization that we do not belong to the world in which conflicts and wars take place, but to Jesus who offers us his peace. The paradox of peacemaking is indeed that we can only speak of peace in this world when our sense of who we are is not anchored in the world. We can only say, 'We are for peace,' when those who are fighting have no power over us."

An apocryphal story tells of a time when Jesus went for a walk and was insulted by some townsfolk. Jesus responded by including them in his prayers. "Why didn't you answer their insults?" a disciple asked. Jesus replied, "I can only pay people back with the coins I have in my purse."

What are the coins in your purse, the weapons in your peacemaking arsenal?

-Henry Paetkau, denominational minister