I'm certain that Jesus intended his church to be a peace church. That statement is obvious if one reads the gospel stories with an open mind and hasn't been overwhelmed by the propaganda from the leaders of the organized Christian church of the last 1700 years that one can, under certain circumstances, participate in the murder of another child of God and still be following Jesus.

Without a doubt, what was unique about Jesus was his ethic of love ? love of God, love of neighbor, love for oneself, love for the least of these, love for one's enemies. Without a doubt, Jesus rejected violence and killing in everything he said and did ? and he modeled that ethical stance clearly in the way he lived his life. And without a doubt, the early church understood Jesus' mission to be about practicing nonviolent love of friend and enemy, teaching us how to live in peace with one another, going about our daily lives with mercy rather than murder, compassion rather than cruelty, reconciliation rather than retaliation.

I have experienced only a small number of churches that I would call real peace churches in my life as a person of faith. The ones that come to mind include churches like St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, Walker Community Methodist Church and Reformation Lutheran Church, all in the Twin Cities. Others that I have experienced are scattered around the nation in my occasional travels as a member and organizer for Every Church A Peace Church.

Those churches somehow have found the courage to be radically prophetic, outspokenly anti-war, peacemaker churches in a culture that fears disturbing the patriotic status quo. Those churches seem to be about struggling to implement Jesus' ethical teachings in the Sermon on the Mount rather than modifying them to suit their nation's politics, economics or desire for earthly security. Those churches appear to be doing what the original followers of Jesus in the original form of Christianity did ? trying to imitate him by consistently performing, no matter the circumstances, nonviolent Christ-like deeds of love, living lives of mercy and forgiveness and vigorously refusing to participate in or remain silent about, the legalized killing in the war-zone. Living lives of Christ-like love somehow promotes the coming of the peaceable kingdom of the Lamb here on earth. What the world desperately needs are more churches like that.

I suspect that many middle of the road, Just War Theory Christian churches have clergy and lay leaders that would like to transform their churches into true peace churches, but may have come to the conclusion that the people in the pews aren't quite ready for something as radical as that ? and therefore the process is deemed too difficult for now and therefore effectively abandoned. Perhaps the pastor and lay leaders fear losing their pro-war members (and their financial contributions) if Jesus' nonviolence was preached vigorously. Maybe such churches fear being viewed with suspicion by the powerful, patriotic, pro-war people that constitute a majority in their communities.

Recall Matthew 25:31–46, the Last Judgment Passage. In that passage, Jesus says that we judge ourselves by what we did or did not do to ?the least of these? because what we did or did not do them was what we did or did not do to Jesus. According to that passage, Jesus is incarnated in the minds and bodies of those who are hungry, thirsty, in need of hospitality, naked, sickened, captive, homeless, discriminated against, powerless, victimized and in need of love and mercy. These least ones are to be cared for by the disciples of Jesus whether they are friends, neighbors or enemies; and it makes no difference if they appear to be deserving or not.

The rich man treated Lazarus as less than fully human, as an object of scorn, indifference and mercilessness, for which, in a moral universe, Jesus says there are serious consequences. The rich man condemns himself, because of his apathy in the face of relievable human suffering, to an eternity of separation from a relationship with a loving God, which many theologians have called hell.

The spiritual costs of war are too high. The pacifist Martin Luther King was ?right on the war question? (the statement that he wanted emphasized at his funeral). The pacifist Gandhi was right on the war question. The pacifist primitive Christian church was right on the war question ? and it flourished in spite of that stance. Violence and killing are deadly to the perpetrators, deadly to the souls and bodies of the victims, deadly to the souls of the mothers of those soldiers who participate in war, whether engaged in willingly or unwillingly.

So recall the simple poem. If we treat other people as if they were fully human, we will treat them with mercy and love; if we treat them as fully human, we will be incapable of killing, threatening or dominating, even if certain groups are fingered as enemies by our political or military leaders.

If we understand and accept the ethical teachings of Jesus, we will then begin to question the wisdom and morality of having half of our federal income taxes expropriated for past and present military spending in a world where there need be no mortal enemies. And in reordering our ethical, political and economic lives is such a moral way, we will somehow be certain to receive the blessings Jesus promised to the peacemakers. Amen.

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