Posts Tagged ‘Department of Peace’

“1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born…”

-Matthew 2v1-4 TNIV

I had been reflecting on this verse in light of Charlie’s and my conversation about Obama’s possible Department of Peace and Non-Violence. I took one side of the argument, that is, don’t trust the D of P & N but trust Jesus, the author of true peace. I still agree with this, and I think Charlie does, too (?).

I would also like to add another point to the conversation, that is, there have been times in the history of God’s people that the “outsiders” had to remind the “insiders” what they are looking for. During Advent, we are looking forward to celebrating Jesus’ first coming and his second. Perhaps, much like the Magi, who reminded the Jews that they should’ve been looking for the true King of the Jews (where they had trusted other things to save them), we, as Christians, could be reminded that we too should’ve been working for Peace and Non-Violence.

You can almost see the look on the face of the people in Matthew chapter 2. They were disturbed (!) by what they heard. “Uhh…where was that Messiah guy supposed to be born? Oh yes! That’s right - Bethlehem. We forgot.” Perhaps, they were troubled because they forgot? Perhaps, they were troubled because it took these pagan magi to remind them?

Either way, we could learn from them - sometimes it takes our “Gentile magi” (in this case, those proposing the DP&N?) to remind Christians that we should’ve been working for peace and non-violence, but instead, we were too busy looking and placing our trust elsewhere.

As I stated the other day, this could really happen, and Charlie posts about this on his blog.

I am all for peace and non-violence, but I’m not necessarily sure that such a thing could be achieved outside of the community of faith in Jesus the Christ. The world’s way to peace tends to be through violence. We see much of this in Jesus’ day with the Romans (I don’t mean to give you a history lesson but hold on). The Romans claimed to give the earth “peace;” as you may have heard of Pax Romana. The way Rome did it was through violence. Whenever anyone stood up to create a “disturbance,” Rome sent its legions to bring about “peace” by bringing them to “justice” by massacring the rebellious because, as one person put it, dead people are a lot quieter.

However, Jesus, the Prince of Peace, brings about peace through justice, but justice of turning the other cheek, loving your neighbor as much as you love yourself, and carrying a soldier’s belongings an additional mile.

I’m not really sure that I would trust America or any legislative body to enact peace and non-violence. I fear that it still may be peace through violence rather than peace through justice.

All I’m saying is, if a Department of Peace and Non-Violence is created, Christians should not put their hope in such a department but remain hopeful in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we are back in the same place we were supporting certain politicians (e.g., Emperor Constantine among others), and it coming back to bite us. Please be cautious my Christian brothers and sisters.

Yes, it could happen. Check out Charlie’s post about it.

[I think it is a good idea for the government. I say this in the same way, as middle school boys we used to say to my friend's sister when she would throw a football, "That's a good throw for a girl." But I hope to write more about this later since I take more of an Anabaptist stance on this. I just wanted to point you to Charlie's post first]