Week six—Holding Faith in Divided Times: The Hard Task of Making Peace
Making Peace
As we met for our final session, just one week before the election, we focused our time on Matthew 5:9: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Jim Wallis writes: “In Matthew 5:9 Jesus never said, ‘Blessed are the peacelovers’... a preference for peace doesn’t just produce it... what is just in our heads and even in our hearts, is not enough….
“Jesus also never said, ‘Blessed are the peacekeepers.’ Sometimes peace is kept so the status quo may not be disturbed. But there is no nobility in maintaining peace in the midst of injustice and oppression. In that case, peacekeeping amounts to nothing more than silent complicity.
“Rather, Jesus told his disciples that God’s blessings are reserved for the peacemakers, those who work to overcome conflict. Jesus was not advocating passivity—he was calling his followers to an active pursuit of peace. Those who face conflict head on and bring healing in its stead, said Jesus, are the children of God.”
Wallis adds, “Peacemaking is never passive. It’s an active pursuit that requires courage, conviction, and sacrifice.” Let us lean into that challenge to make—to build, create, expand—peace.
Kenosis: Our picture of God
We return again to Greg Boyd’s insightful observation that the best predictor of the quality of your life is the picture you have of Jesus. In John 10:30 and 14:9 Jesus says when you see him, you see God. Jesus is the best picture we have of God.
A central theme we’ve seen throughout this workshop is the nature of power—how we define it, how we hold it, how we use it.
One of the most defining things we can see about Jesus throughout Gospels and the passages we’ve explored the last six weeks, is that Jesus is announcing a new world order, a new way of doing things—a new kingdom. It’s often called an Upside Down Kingdom because Jesus turns everything upside down.
In particular this Kingdom is defined by a new understanding of power in which the first shall be last, and the way to gain life is to lose it. By showing us this new Kingdom—this new way of looking at power—Jesus is also showing us a new way to understand Godself.
One of the clearest pictures of this Kingdom and Jesus’ radical, upside down power, is found in Philippians 2:5–11—an ancient hymn that celebrates the incarnation (Jesus as God in human flesh). It uses the Greek word kenosis to describe the ways that in the incarnation Jesus is emptied of divine power and privilege, sacrificially poured out.
What’s particularly interesting about the passage is the different ways scholars have translated vs. 6-7—which gets at why Jesus empties himself. There is a little conjunction in the verse which can be viably translated a number of ways, but which radically shifts how we understand the verse, the nature of power, and Godself.
The NRSV translation reads: "though (Jesus) was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself." That's the way we tend to think of the incarnation—as something Jesus does "even though he was God." That the incarnation—Jesus emptying of himself—is an interruption, a momentary exception, to Jesus' normal way of being God, which is then resumed in the second part of the hymn when Jesus is exalted and given the “name above every name.”
But notice how the NIV translates vs. 6-7: "being in very nature God...” Gerald Hawthorne in the Word commentary goes even further: “precisely because he is God (Jesus) did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.”
It's a subtle distinction, and either could be argued from the Greek text.
But what I find compelling about the NIV translation is the way it suggests that the incarnation—Jesus' emptying of power—was not an accident or temporary diversion. It was not an exception to divine sovereignty and might. Rather, the emptying, the giving up of power is the precise definition of divinity. It is the essence of Jesus' "God-ness.” It is God’s way of doing things.
Greg Boyd writes: "Jesus could easily have become a victorious Caesar rather than a crucified Savior. Jesus refused… because doing so would have violated the heart of the kingdom he came to establish…"
"The kingdom of God is not about coercive 'power over,' but influential 'power under.' Its essence is found in the power to transform lives from the inside out through love and service."
Early in the workshop we looked at another quote from Boyd closely tied to this: “Whenever Christians have gotten what so many American evangelicals today are trying to get—namely, the power to enforce their righteous will on others—it eventually harms the church as well as the culture. The lesson of history, a lesson the Devil has known all along, is this: The best way to defeat the kingdom of God is to empower the church to rule the kingdom of the world—for then it becomes the kingdom of the world! The best way to get people to lay down the cross is to hand them the sword!” (Greg Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation)
This counter-intuitive, counter-culture view of power found in Phil. 2 changes our view of Jesus, our view of God, and our view of power. This is not an esoteric, abstract theological dispute, but something that goes to the very heart of our faith. It goes to the very nature of the Church. What we are learning and exploring in this workshop is not only vital to our democracy, but also to the survival of the Church itself, as a counter-intuitive, counter-culture outpost of God’s Kingdom.
Reaching out to those on the other side
One of the most beautiful and healing aspects of this workshop for so many of us has been the experience of community, as we gathered together with a common purpose and perspective.
But, as much as there is strength in our identity and commonality, we can’t remain isolated and apart. As we have seen, proximity to those who are different from us is vital to the true, deeper unity and healing that is so desperately needed in our churches, in our nation, in our communities.
In ch. 6 of Wallis’ book he draws on the work of Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow in Carnegie's Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, which focused on methods of recruitment for white Christian nationalists. She identified two steps in particular which historically have been part of the propaganda that leads to political violence. The first is dehumanizing other people—using terms like “insects” or “vermin.” Article 1 of the US Constitution even counted slaves as “three-fifths human.”
This dehumanizing was foundational in leading to genocides in Nazi Germany, Rwanda and elsewhere. Our natural, God-given resistance to taking a human life is broken down when we are trained to think of the “other” as less than human. One of the most alarming aspects of this election has been the use of this sort of dehumanizing language to describe immigrants, LGBTQIA+, and people of color.
A related step in this process is to portray these others as threats to our society, because people are much more willing to commit violence to defend their families and communities. Again, it is a way to break down our natural resistance and make us more likely to commit political violence.
Kleinfeld notes that white Christian nationalists seek out and prey on young unmarried men. She found that a foundational issue underneath political violence is the lack of a sense of meaning and belonging. Hate groups offer a sense of identity and purpose. We explored this earlier when we discussed the appeal of tribalism: the way dividing the world into “us/them” causes us to feel more united as it reinforces in-group identity.
Wallis reminds us that there is an opportunity here for us to help people find a new and better sense of identity and belonging. To do this we must find the things we have in common—personal and faith values, shared commitments to our children. To remind ourselves and our neighbors that diversity is a gift and not a threat.
In a beautiful but challenging passage, Wallis asks: “What if our peacemaking were to be extended to the churches that have been caught up in white Christian nationalism, whether they know the term or not? Instead of just critiquing and attacking, could we find some way to reach out to them? Jesus calls us to peacemaking. White Christian nationalism calls us to conflict making. And that is the choice that we must offer to those who want to follow Jesus.”
Next steps
In this final week before the election, we will read ch. 7 and 8 of Wallis’ The False White Gospel. In these chapters, Wallis will remind us that “A remnant church must not only be known for what it is against, but what it is for and starting to build.” He quotes Eddie Glaude’s insightful comment: “We’re at that moment where everything is about to collapse and everything is possible, all at once... everything about the last 40 years, all the problems we’ve experienced over the last few generations in this country are all on view. We know that this place is broken and there’s a desire for something different.”
And so Wallis says: “This book is a call to action, a manifesto for a moment of crisis and opportunity. There is much ahead that we cannot either predict or control. We will face great challenges and many dangers... Our optimism will go up and down, but hope must remain our choice.” Let that be our guiding hope in this final, fraught week leading up to the election.
We are reminded again of our weekly challenge to find one healing and peacemaking step we can take. It need not be large, just something that moves us forward.
Some next steps we can all lean into, not just this week, but moving forward regardless of the results of Tuesday’s election:
1. Find diverse news sources to read regularly to expand your awareness/empathy
2. Find a friend with a different perspective to be in regular dialogue. Spend the first few meetings just listening to find common ground
3. Get involved in local politics—board of education, townhalls, council meetings
4. Look for ways to build community, especially among those who are adrift or marginalized
5. Vote!
6. Sign up for our next workshop
Let the last word be love:
This final week we will meditate and pray on Galatians 3:28: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
Wallis notes that many scholars believe this was an early creed, a baptismal formula—recited by early converts to Christianity. “Essentially, these earliest Christians were drawing a line in the sand and saying, ‘If you don’t want to be a part of the kind of community that breaks down these divisions, we’re not the right place for you... the early church’s basis of exclusivity was its commitment to radical inclusivity.”
In that hope, we closed by leaning into the loving kindness meditation (Sharon Salzberg). It begins by bringing to mind the image of a person who you know, or have known, to be loving and kind. Someone who easily evokes feelings of warmth and love– a spouse or partner, family member or friend. Imagine saying to them:
May you be happy, healthy, and whole,
May you have love from others and for others
May you be protected from harm and free from fear,
May you live in peace….
Now bring to mind the image of an acquaintance– someone you know of but don’t have a personal relationship with, people you see around town or at work but don’t have strong feelings toward: neighbors, the checker at the grocery store. Imagine repeating this same meditation to them.
Next think of someone who’s difficult for you right now, not necessarily the most challenging person in your life, but someone for whom there’s been some conflict or frustration. Imagine saying the loving kindness meditation to them.
Finally bring yourself to mind. Wrap your arms around yourself and say these words of blessing to your own being:
May you be happy, healthy, and whole,
May you have love from others and for others
May you be protected from harm and free from fear,
May you live in peace… Amen.