5 Years of War

Tomorrow marks the 5th anniversary of the United States' invasion of Iraq. Still holding tenaciously to our belief that we are God's greatest gift to mankind (thank you, John Winthrop), we have set out on our holy jihad to reshape the world into our own image. More than this, much of the Christian community has rejected that radical cross-bearing, non-violent love of Jesus Christ and instead chosen to mimic the hallow rhetoric of our politicians. We have adopted a new language -- the language of war -- rather than remaining faithful to the language of the gospels.

Two of the voices that have cried out in the wilderness against this travesty, calling the church to repentance through a return to the cruci-centric faith of the early church, are John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas.

Today I will share some of my favorite quotations from Yoder's earth-shaking book The Politics of Jesus. Hauerwas quotes are on their way for tomorrow.

“It is the good news that my enemy and I are united, through no merit or work of our own, in a new humanity that forbids henceforth my ever taking his or her life into my hands.”

“Jesus was so faithful to the enemy-love of God that it cost him all his effectiveness; he gave up every handle on history.”

“Christ renounced the claim to govern history. The universal testimony of Scripture is that Christians are those who follow Christ at just this point.”

“The point is not that one can attain all of one’s legitimate ends without using violent means. It is rather that our readiness to renounce our legitimate ends whenever they cannot be attained by legitimate means itself constitutes our participation in the triumphant suffering of the Lamb.”

“A social style characterized by the creation of a new community and the rejection of violence of any kind is the theme of New Testament proclamation from beginning to end, from right to left. The cross of Christ is the model of Christian social efficacy, the power of God for those who believe.”

“Jesus was not just a moralist whose teachings had some political implications; he was not primarily a teacher of spirituality whose public ministry unfortunately was seen in a political light; he was not just a sacrificial lamb preparing for his immolation, or a God-Man whose divine status calls us to disregard his humanity. Jesus was, in his divinely mandated prophethood, priesthood, and kingship, the bearer of a new possibility of human, social, and therefore political relationships. His baptism is the inauguration and his cross the culmination of that new regime in which his disciples are called to share.”

Closing prayer: Oh God, forgive my nation for thinking it alone can dictate to other peoples the proper way to live... and this at the end of a sword. Forgive your church for silently watching as innocent lives are destroyed or, worse, for participating in the very engine which destroys those lives. Make us instead instruments of your peace. Give us the courage to suffer and die out of love for our enemies and to imitate your Son who refused to retaliate. Send your Holy Spirit upon your people and renew us with a vision for your peaceable kingdom in which the lion lays down with the lamb. And make us suffering witnesses who live and die believing this to be the ultimate reality. Amen.