Re-enacting Peace

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

July 24, 2011

Re-enacting Peace

Zechariah 9:10

He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
   and the warhorse from Jerusalem;
and the battle-bow shall be cut off,
   and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
   and from the River to the ends of the earth.

More than six hundred thousand dead.

Dead.

More than six hundred thousand.

“These hearts were woven of human joys and cares,
Washed marvelously with sorrow, swift to mirth.
The years had given them kindness.

Dawn was theirs,
and sunset, and the colors of the earth.
These had seen movement, and heard music;

known slumber and waking;

loved;

gone proudly friended;
Felt the quick stir of wonder;

sat alone;
Touched flowers and furs and cheeks.

All this is ended.”

         (Rupert Brooke, The Dead)

So wrote the poet Rupert Brooke

of those who died in another war,

but the words are fitting for those who died in any war,

including those who died in the Civil War.

Imagine if our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

had claimed the lives of

six million four hundred fifty thousand

of our young men and women

and you’ll understand the impact of

more than 600,000 dead in 1860s America.

Six million

four hundred fifty thousand…

dead.        

The Civil War,

the War Between the States,

the War of Northern Aggression:

the war that began with such a bloody confrontation

right here in our own backyard

one hundred fifty years ago.

Thirty thousand determined men from the North faced

more than twenty thousand equally determined men from the South,

the blues and the grays ready, even eager,

to confront one another.

No smart bombs and drones back then;

this was fighting that was up close and personal.

Spectators came to watch,

packing picnics as though they were off to a charity polo match.

They expected a quick rout of the rebels by the Union Army;

instead they witnessed all the horrors of war:

musket balls tearing through flesh,

legs and arms hacked off with swords,

cannon balls eviscerating tissue and bone. 

A Prussian named Carl Von Clausewitz wrote a book

entitled “On War”.

It was and still is definitive on the subject,

timeless, a classic.

There is no glory, no heroism in his book,

just reality,

grounded in his simple understatement,

“War is violence.”

How can anything with death and destruction as its consequences

be anything but?

Re-enactments of battles have their place;

they can bring to life elements of history.

But they cannot show us the bloodiness.

They cannot replicate the stench of death.

They cannot instill in viewers the terror

felt by soldiers in the thick of battle

as friends drop in front, behind,

to the left, to the right,

blood and bodies everywhere.

The book “All Quiet on the Western Front”

and the powerful movie of the book produced back in 1930,

teach us in no uncertain terms

that there is nothing glorious about war.

The story begins with young men filled with patriotic fervor

as they race to enlist to fight for their Fatherland,

singing their way through basic training.

But the ugly reality of war soon catches up with them,

as they struggle simply to survive each day.

We clergy always risk sounding at best naïve,

and at worst unpatriotic when we talk of war.

We are no more naïve than anyone else who lives in hope,

and we are just as patriotic as anyone else,

including those shouldering weapons.

                                   

We know the world can be a dangerous place;

We know police officers carry arms because they have to.

We’ve read enough history to know

that Adolf Hitler was neither the first nor the last psychopath

to envision world dominance through military power.                          

We know that Osama Bin Laden did not invent terrorism,

but was one in a long line stretching back before the birth of Christ,

those from virtually every culture, every faith

who have turned to the most appalling violence

to air their grievances and make their statements.  

Worldly wise, most of us,

and firmly if quietly patriotic,

still we are called to preach that our Lord Jesus Christ

teaches us to be “peacemakers.”

Not mere lovers of peace;

not mere fans of peace;

not mere dreamers of peace --

but peace-makers:

men and women who are called to work for peace…

actively.

We are called to preach the words of our Lord who said;

You have heard that it was said,

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.

But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek,

turn the other also.

(Matthew 5:38)

We are called to teach our Lord’s words:

You have heard that it was said,

You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, Love your enemies

and pray for those who persecute you,

so that you may be children of your Father in heaven;

for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good,

and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

For if you love those who love you,

what reward do you have?

(Matthew 5:43)

        

We are called to preach and teach those words we find

over and over and over again in both Old and New Testament

that teach us that God’s hope for us is peace, not conflict.

That God’s hope for us is the day

when we beat swords into plowshares,

and spears into pruning-hooks,
when nation no longer lifts up sword against another nation,
when no one learns war any more.
(Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3)

Listen again to the words of the prophet Zechariah:

He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

and the warhorse from Jerusalem;
and the battle-bow shall be cut off,

and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,

and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Not long before The Battle of Bull Run

the Reverend Theodore Parker,

a prominent preacher in Boston,

spoke confidently, assuredly,

even boldly from his pulpit, saying,

“War is an utter violation of Christianity...

War is a sin.

Whenever it occurs, the very fact of its occurrence

convicts the rulers of the nation either of

entire incapacity as statesmen,

or else the worst form of treason:

treason to the people, [treason] to mankind,

and [treason] to God!”

These are not the words of a naïve man,

nor are they the words of an unpatriotic man.

Rather, they are the words of a devout man,

a man who was a disciple of Jesus Christ,

a man who knew the Word of the Lord.

Parker’s words may sound strong,

almost too strong for us,

especially living as we do an area

where so many work in defense-related vocations.

Some 1600 years ago the theologian Augustine

tried to devise a yardstick to help us as Christians

wrestle with the idea of war,

when, if ever, we could justify engaging in war.

Even back then Augustine was well aware of

the sad inevitability of war.

We call Augustine’s yardstick the “Just War” theory

and while it is not perfect, it is helpful,

because it forces us to look at war through the lens

of our faith,

it forces us to look at war first and foremost

as disciples of Jesus Christ.

The theory helps us to understand that Parker is right:
that going to war is failure,

that it should be the option chosen

only when every other conceivable option has been exhausted.

War goes against everything Jesus teaches us;

it goes against what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Now we certainly cannot call Jesus naïve;

if ever there was a realist, he was it.

He knew that a life as peacemaker would not be easy.

But life as a disciple of Jesus Christ,

the holy life to which we are to aspire and commit ourselves

isn’t easy.

What is easy is rationalizing our away around

how Jesus calls us to live.

Among the activities that have taken place

as part of this weekend’s commemoration of the Battle of Manassas

was a re-enactment on Thursday of the Jubilee of Peace

which happened here one hundred years ago,        

on the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle.

According to the County’s website,

and the marker that is in Old Towne,

at the intersection, fittingly, of Grant and Lee,

it was a veteran of the Confederate army who first suggested the idea:
The Union and Confederate veterans would fall into opposing lines

on the battlefield by Henry House Hill,

where fifty years before they had clashed in mortal combat.

Then on a signal, rather than re-creating the battle,

the two sides would approach each other,

to clasp hands in friendship and reconciliation.

What a wonderful thing to do:

to have a “peace re-enactment”!

Why don’t we have more peace re-enactments?

Who doesn’t recall the significance of December 7,

that date that Franklin Roosevelt said would,

“live in infamy”?

But who remembers May 7 –

the day peace came to Europe at the end of World War II;

or August 15,

when World War II came to an end in Asia?

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day

of the eleventh month in the year 1918

marked the Armistice that ended the hostilities of World War I.

For many years we remembered that day as Armistice Day

the day peace returned to the world.

In 1954 the name of the day was changed to Veterans Day,

a day to honor veterans of all wars.

Now, we should honor those who have served our country;

all veterans – there’s no question.

But perhaps what we need are two different days:

a day to honor veterans,

and a day to honor a moment in time

when combatants put down their weapons,

and clasped hands in reconciliation,

a day to honor peace.

It could be a different day each year for us,

a day for us to remember how many times

people we called “The Enemy”

became people we called “Friend”:

the British,

Mexicans,

Spaniards,

Germans,

Japanese,

Italians…

and on goes the list.

It would be a day for us to remember

that even as Augustine provided us

with a rationale for how we as Christians

might justify going to war

he concluded:

“It is a higher glory still

to stay war itself with a word,

than to slay men with the sword,

and to procure or maintain peace by peace,

and not by war......”

(Letters 229:2)

Enacting peace,

re-enacting peace:

this is the life we are called to.

It is a life that is neither naïve nor foolish,

neither cowardly nor unpatriotic.

For it is a life that is simply faithful,

even holy.

For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in blood

shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

For a child has been born for us,

a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;

and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His authority shall grow continually,

and there shall be endless peace.

                  (Isaiah 9:5)

This is the Word of the Lord.

AMEN