But if I asked, "Do you believe that peace is possible and that war can be abolished?" many of us would be inclined to say "no," and we could certainly be excused for having our doubts.
Someone has calculated that between 1500 B.C. and 1860 A.D., a period of roughly 3,300 years, more than eight thousand peace treaties have been signed. Eight thousand treaties designed to put an end to war! They lasted an average of two years each.
One of those treaties, you may remember, was the conference at Bretton-Woods, where the nations of Europe solemnly pledged not to start any more wars. World War I followed soon thereafter, which itself was called "the war to end all wars." As you look back on the history of more recent treaties, you might be excused for having your doubts about the possibility of peace on earth.
You might look back on the history of weapons technology and remember that every new advance in firepower was supposed to deter war. Every new weapon since the dawn of time was supposed to be so terrible and so destructive that war would become "unthinkable" and obsolete. You can look back on the whole history of trusting in technology to end war and you might be excused for having your doubts about the possibility of peace.
You might also consider that in every country, there are powerful interests in favor of preserving the status quo. In our own country, for example, we have thousands of bureaucrats, both military and civilian, who would lose their jobs and influence if war were really abolished. We have weapons companies in every Congressional district who would lose enormous profits. We have media commentators and other "opinion leaders" who seem genuinely alarmed at the possibility that the Cold War might be ending.
Of course, there is nothing uniquely evil about this: all of these people have their counterparts in the Soviet Union and most other nations on earth. When you consider all the powerful interests around the world who are wedded to war, you may be excused for having your doubts about the possibility of peace.
Your doubts about peace might deepen even further if I made it clear that I'm talking about genuine peace this morning ... not mere cease-fire agreements or thaws in Cold Wars, such as we have in the world today. Martin Luther King, Jr., defined it well when he said that real peace is not just the absence of hostilities or tension: real peace is the presence of justice. Real peace is the removal of those underlying conditions of injustice and exploitation which fan the flames of resentment and which finally lead to war.
You can think about it in terms of our homes and families. Parents and children or husbands and wives can stop the yelling and screaming in their house by maintaining a facade of pleasantness, or they can give each other the "cold shoulder," speaking only when absolutely necessary and never talking about the underlying issues which divide them. Some families can go on like this for months, even years. You might say they are observing a "truce" in that they aren't fighting any more, but in no way could you say that peace has come to those troubled homes.
It's the same with nations. In Lebanon and the West Bank in Israel rebellions are followed by ceasefires, but there is never any peace in the Middle East because fundamental issues of land and justice remain unresolved. There is no peace between the East and West even as alliances change and world tensions ebb and flow. If I said that what we are talking about this morning is not just the absence of open conflict, but the presence of love and understanding between enemies so that the causes of war are themselves removed, you might be especially excused for having your doubts about the possibility of peace.
In the face of all this evidence and these reasons for doubt, our text this morning makes a startling claim. Our text says that we already have peace. Jesus Christ is our peace. He has already broken down the dividing wall of hostility between us and reconciled us to one another, making us one.
Scripture makes peace a consistent theme throughout Jesus' life. When He was born in Bethlehem, the angels call Him the Prince of Peace. We are told that during His lifetime, He preached peace to us here and to our enemies far away. And now that He is risen from the dead, He is our peace - He is peace itself - giving to us what we could never gain on our own.
Do you believe in peace? Think about it just in terms of peace between two people for a moment. Imagine a longstanding hostility which might exist in a marriage or a family, with someone down the street or someone at work. Imagine that kind of continuing conflict between people and how it might be settled.
According to the wisdom of this world, we might first try a "Peace Through Strength" approach. One person can threaten the other with physical abuse or emotional abuse, or financial ruin, or whatever weapon he or she has to use and thoroughly cow the other person into submission. The other person doesn't dare continue the argument for fear of the consequences.
But "Peace Through Strength" isn't really peace, is it. It isn't peace between nations and it isn't peace between people. When one party uses overwhelming power to win a "victory" like this, the result breeds anger or retaliation, but never peace.
We could try another of the world's wisdoms, the path of Peace Through Compromise. Two people try to settle their quarrel through a process of give and take: "I'll agree to this if you'll agree to that. I'll stop doing this if you'll stop doing that."
Compromise is eminently reasonable and maybe even fair, but it doesn't usually lead to peace because neither party has gotten what it wants. They both had to give up something in order to reach a compromise, so neither side is completely happy with the result. Real peace is permanent; compromise is usually temporary because the issues which led to the conflict are still not solved.
Paul suggests another way in our text - a specifically Christian strategy, a Christ-like method for achieving peace. We are promised it will work, if only we have the faith to try it.
Person A and Person B have been quarreling for years. They just can't see eye to eye, and in fact, it seems that Person A and Person B can never be reconciled to one another.
What is the answer? What is the only way out? "For He is our peace, who has made us both one, that He might create in Himself one new person in place of the two thereby making peace."
In other words, we already know that Person A and Person B will never get along; they've already proven that over the years. The only answer, then, is for both of them to become a new person: Person C. They will make peace with one another by making peace with Christ. They will be united together when they live in Christ and He in them. Love, compassion, grace and forgiveness will be second nature as they both strive for the same thing: to be like Christ for one another. "If anyone is in Christ, [they are] a new creation," says Paul (2 Corinthians 5:17). The old persons could never get along; the new ones can live as one in peace.
As it is with persons, so can it be with nations. There is a specifically Christian, a Christ-like path to world peace, but it has never been tried. Our Lord requires a radical change and a leap of faith which so far, no nation has been willing to take.
It's as if the nations of the earth are like a neighborhood bully who decides to try and change his ways. "I've learned a better way to settle arguments," he tells his friend. "I used to settle them with my fists, but now I use this," he says, pointing to his head. "Oh," says his friend, "you mean you use your brain?" "No," the bully says, "I butt them with my head."
There is the problem of peace in a nutshell. Nations have tried for thousands of years to win peace through the use of force, violence, intimidation and even compromise, but it has never worked. Peace eludes us as we keep butting our heads. We've never had the imagination, the courage or the faith to try another way, Jesus' Way, the One who is our peace; the Way, the Truth and the Life.
With Christ as their peace, spiritually-transformed nations would be less concerned with might and more concerned with right; less concerned with missiles and more concerned with mercy; less concerned with their own advantage and more concerned with the disadvantaged. Nations would overcome the threat of an enemy by making that enemy a friend. They would take seriously the ethics of Jesus and make them social, showing a desperate world that peace and goodwill are the gifts Christ brings, to people and nations alike.
Preachers are always called naive and simple-minded when they talk like this, so maybe it would help to hear a "hard headed" military man with the same message. General Omar Bradley was one of the most honored and decorated soldiers in American history, and this is what he had to say about the problems of peace:
With the monstrous weapons man [sic] already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescence. Our knowledge of science has clearly outstripped our capacity to control it. We have too many men of science and too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through spiritual darkness while toying with precarious secrets of life and death.
The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace; more about killing than we know about living. (Armistice Day Address, Boston, 1948)
There is no hope without God in the world. So says our text this morning and so says all of human experience and history. Our hope must rest in God, who is present in the world even now, through the Spirit of his Son, Jesus, the One who is our peace.
Do you believe in peace? That's the Memorial Day question God is asking us today.
If we would honor the soldiers who have died in all our wars, we will say, "Yes, we believe in peace. They did not die in vain."
If we would honor the future of our children and our children's children, who depend on us for the world we will give them, we will say, "Yes, we believe in peace. We will not rob our children of their inheritance by senseless wars and violence."
And if we would love God, serving Him faithfully in Spirit and truth, we would surely say, "Yes, we believe in peace, because we believe in Him. In fact, we believe that peace is more than a possibility - it is already real through Him who loved us, Him who died for us and rose again, the One who is our peace, even Jesus Christ, our Lord." Amen
Pastoral Prayer
Most Holy and Righteous God, before whose judgment throne all nations must stand and speak of what was done, hear our prayers today for all soldiers in the world, past and present, and especially for those who have died in answer to their nation's call to arms. Keep them in their eternal rest. Let their great sacrifice be long remembered and let their survivors find solace in their courage, in their selfless dedication to honor and duty.
More than that, dear Lord, teach the nations to glorify their dead not in the lust for war, but in the pursuit of peace. Stir the consciences of leaders around the world, that they may never again send the young into battle to settle the arguments of the old. Shame all who bring the cry to their lips and make the day speedily come when the only sound heard in the world is the sweet, sweet song of peace. In Jesus' name we pray, who is our peace and our salvation. Amen
