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Speech by Rev Ray Williamson, Palm Sunday 2007In a small book, The Gospel according to Peanuts, in one of cartoons, Linus is explaining to Lucy, “Charlie Brown says that brothers and sisters can learn to get along … He says they can get along the same way as mature adults get along … And he says that adults can get along the same way as nations get along … At this point the analogy breaks down”.
Sadly, far too often nations fail to get along, just like supposedly mature adults fail to get along, just like children fail to get along. Sadly, far too often, nations, like individuals, just want to compete, sometimes aggressively, with one another - to get the upper hand, to ensure that their own interests are served best, even at the expense, or to the detriment of someone else. Sadly, far too often, nations resort to the brutality - the madness - of war. Since the setting aside of core assumptions that have governed international relations and their replacement with the notion of 'pre-emptive warfare', we see the horrifying, tragic consequences - the madness - of that brutality almost every day. Now, more than four years since the invasion of Iraq - since the invading forces arrived, riding in tanks - the evening news just two days ago told of one of the bloodiest days: over 100 people killed, many injured. The madness of warfare - the use of aggression, the desire for revenge and retaliation, the grab for power through military might. But for us, today is shaped by a different image. Those who would rule with force and power do not enter cities on donkeys. Jesus' decision to ride on a colt removed all threat of force, of power through violence. Jesus radically re-defines the meaning of power. In him, we see the foolishness of God. It is divine weakness and not military power that is the spiritual path by which God makes peace in Christ. The paradox of Christian faith - exemplified in Jesus himself and in the events we re-live this week from Palm Sunday to Easter Day - is that "when I am weak, then am I strong". If the United States and Britain are serious in their desire to persuade other nations to give up weapons of mass destruction, the best way to achieve it - instead of coercive threats of war - would be to forswear replacing their own nuclear arsenals, and to end their own large-scale production of weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately, the government does not have the courage or the wisdom or the truth to do so. But it must be different for all who profess to be disciples of the one who entered Jerusalem on a donkey. In no way should we allow the name of the Prince of Peace to be associated with violence and injustice. War is contrary to God's good purposes for humanity. It is a manifestation and a consequence of human evil, for which we all bear responsibility. We need honestly to recognise, of course, that in the course of the centuries, Christian churches have displayed those consequences and have exerted much violence. But it must also be proclaimed that in the so-called 'foolishness' of Christ, his followers are to be peace-makers - not warriors. Churches in the UK e.g. have been strong in their opposition to their government's plan to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system. But nuclear affairs are global affairs, and we all have to be vigilant. The continued existence of nuclear weapons anywhere remains a challenge for us all. On this day, as we are about to join with others in our own Palm Sunday procession for peace, we remember another procession into another city centuries ago - a man from Nazareth entering Jerusalem on a lowly donkey. It was an intentional action, expressly anti-military in tone. It is as if he intended it to be a satire on all military liberators. It was the 'foolishness' of the way of God seen in Jesus. Our witness on this day is to walk in that way of 'foolishness', praying that all war, and the ways of war, may end and that peace with justice and dignity may prevail. |
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© Walk Against the War Coalition 2003. |
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