If you were to ever read a note from me or read an article I have written, if you receive an email from me, you would notice that I sign everything with the word peace. If you were to walk into my office, immediately, straight ahead of you, you would see items that have been gifted to me or I have gifted to myself. Signs, artwork, a single word…Peace. If you turned and looked left you would see a very large metal peace sign, lit up with Christmas lights. My amazing wife, Anne, gave that to me and is one of my prized possessions. Just behind my desk, I have more peace stuff…one a piece of artwork created by a young woman named Peace, an African immigrant who attended the school I was teaching at. She may have just been creating something about her name, but it means a great deal more. There is also a tie-dye looking piece of art that my niece made for me when she was 14 years old. It has a peace sign on it and some words. Peace. Love. And, Stop the War.
My desire for peace comes from my religious perspective. As I understand it, although I am no scholar of world religions, all world religions have at the heart of their teachings a desire for peace. Please understand, that I do not think you need to have my particular religious perspective, or any religious perspective. This is just who I am. The one who is the center of my faith proclaims that the most important thing in the world is to love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. The one who is the center of my faith says we are to love neighbor as much as we love ourselves. The one who is the center of my faith—when being arrested by institutional soldiers—told his followers not to react violently because those who live by the sword, die by the sword. We cannot show love if we are pointing guns and machetes at others. We cannot live in love if we are threatening others with bombs and missiles and violence. We cannot have peace without a larger capacity to love others no matter their nationalities, skin color, religion or choice to not be religious. We cannot have peace if we do not show love to queer persons as well as those who identify as straight. We cannot have peace if we do not begin to look beyond the political terms by which we call ourselves and see the humanness which connects us, all of us, one to another. We must be peacemakers before expecting anyone else to also be peacemakers.
John Pavlovitz has a book called 'Hope and Other Superpowers' that has much to say about how to bring kindness and peace and love and hope into the world. He suggests we all have the ability to be a hero in this world, and says the time for heroism is now. Maybe being together today, clamoring for peace instead of war matches the type of heroism Pavlovitz invites us to. He has a chapter on Kindness that begins by quoting Wonder Woman who says “Only love can truly save the world.” Pavlovitz says, a kinder world begins with kinder people. When he says kind, I read peace…A more peaceful world begins with more peaceful people. He offers these thoughts to create such a world: Speak love. Smile at people. Exercise simple decency. Anticipate a need and fill it. If we were to take Pavlovitz seriously, the world would indeed be more peaceful.
Friends, peace supersedes political party. Peace supersedes governments and their war-mongering ways. Peace is a way of living, a deeply, individual way of living. May we be peacemakers. We must be peacemakers.
I will close with a Universal Prayer for Peace from the Iona Community: Lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth, Lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead us from hate to love, from war to peace; Let peace fill our lives, our world, our universe. Peace. Peace. Peace.
Peace, friends.
Kelly Ingersoll, Minister
Kelly Ingersoll is the Pastor of First Christian Church of Macomb and resides in Macomb with his wife Anne.
