Peace, love and understanding on a frigid evening...

Tonight - when it is -11F with a windchill of -25F - 12 hearty Berkshire souls came our for the winter semester of our Monday night study. Incredible! We are reading a volume Susan Thistlethwaite edited back in 1986 called: A Just Peace Church. And it couldn't be more timely. The original context was the Nuclear Freeze Campaign to end the arms race between the US and the USSR. During the 90s, however, the Just Peace conversation went into semi-hybernation. But given the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - and the rise of international terrorism and religious fundamentalism - the notion of reclaiming the humble mantle of justice and peace as a core Christian identity seems essential.

We know, of course, that our small congregation will not change international relations. We are equally clear that remaining silent is not an option either in times like these. So we began a conversation about how God may be calling us to take another step towards reconciliation in the world while also working on our own inner sense of peace and forgiveness, too. It is a both/and journey that does not separate the sacred from the secular nor the inward from the outward.

At the core of a Just Peace commitment is living into the sacred commitment best articulated by the ancient prophet of Israel who puts it like this in Micah 6:8: What does the Lord require but to do justice, love compassion and walk humbly with your God. Once, while wandering through the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London, we came upon a small monument to Gandhi with these words on the sculpture's base:

If there is Light in the soul,

There is beauty in the person.

If there is Beauty in the person,

There will be harmony in the home.

If there is Harmony inthe home,

There will be order in the nation.

If there is Order in the nation,

There will be peace in the world.

Couldn't help but think of Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello...